How disappointing is it...

Stansgran I wasn't commenting on whether people drink at lunchtime or not ( I can't either), but about the mean attitude of those eating a loss leading lunch and not buying a drink, they don't go there on the other Sundays when the lunch is its usual fair price of £12. It was the meanness rather than the alcohol consumption that I was criticising.

Well I had a nice surprise today. We often do a round walk from our house through the Moss Valley in Sheffield and there is a pub half way round which used to do very good food, so we would often stop there for lunch. Then it was taken over by a couple who obviously were totally out of their depth trying to run a kitchen and it rapidly went down hill, so we stopped eating there and just called in for a drink. Today, we found it had changed hands again and is now being run by a couple who have revamped the menu which now looks imaginative and inviting. The place was busy, as it used to be and everything seemed to be running like clockwork. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for anything more than a bowl of soup (which was delicious) but are looking forward to going back for a proper lunch, or dinner. Result! I started this thread complaining about our carvery closing. It is to reopen next month as an "upmarket steak house" ! A case of watch this space.....

I'm one of those who has tap water. I wouldn't go for a meal at £4 but on the other hand there is no way I can drink in the day. I fall asleep in the car on the way back and waste the whole afternoon. I have a gin or wine at dinner time and go to bed pretty soon afterwards. I think we have really good drinking water in the NE and hate poncy bottled water. Obviously yes bottled abroad. I have a very good sense of taste and smell and very few bottled waters to me taste worth it. We had a very nice meal in a French restaurant in Richmond at the weekend and I had tap water. No one seemed to care. I noticed two women having a bottle of red and a bottle of white and hoped they were being taken home. They probably made up for me.theres only one restaurant worth going to in Durham.

It is almost impossible to make a decent living running a restaurant, and I do think that some people have little idea of the costs involved. One of the pubs where I live is run by a very hard working family who try very hard and put on lots of events, BBQ nights, Burns Supper etc., but sadly some people abuse it to my mind. Every month they do a special Sunday lunch for £4 per head, it is obviously a loss leader to get people in there to eat and BUY A DRINK. Some of the more mean residents, go in, order the £4 Sunday lunch and ask for tap water. Really not fair, especially as the place is packed, and other people who would possibly buy a drink can't get a table.

to one 'side'.

Two good, honest pubs not far from us have turned into restaurants. Both charge sky high prices for food served on slates ( isn't that very last year?) and tiny bits of meat and fish served with dots of 'jus' and smeared pureed vegetables to one rise. It's a complete rip off. I suspect the chefs are straight out of catering college and they've overdosed on TV cookery competitions like Masterchef. It's all very pretentious. We've eaten in both, but won't go back.

It's such a shame. Even the drinks are overpriced.

I agree about portion sizes, but there doesn't seem to be a happy medium. Our chippie serves a large fish which overhangs the edges of the plate. On the rare occasions we have fish and chips, we have one between us but my SiL will eat a whole one! I recently ordered a roast chicken dinner in a restaurant to be served, as Auntieflo was, half a chicken and there was no way I could eat it all. Then there are restaurants where you look at your portion, tastefully and artistically arranged on the plate and think "is that all I'm getting?" I know, not easily satisfied, me!

I agree there are some dire restaurants, cafes about.

We are very lucky, in our village there are two excellent restaurants, one mainly fish and the other Italian, both are owned by the same family and have been there years. Also a gastro pub, serving exceptional food and two other traditional pubs.

In the surrounding area a couple of garden centres and a farm shop, have really upped their games and have outsourced their cafes, to the point of them being full, even on the coldest days. This of course means that you have to have transport to get to them.

Elrel Well at least they weren't serving left-overs as soup then! They do give large portions though, but then people expect it these days. Some people take left-overs home for their pets.

I had lovely chicken with family at Tramshed and was cheerfully provided with a doggy bag. Plenty for next day's lunch!

Interesting about the portion sizes. Last Monday, we had lunch at The Verdi restaurant, as part of a behind the scenes at the Royal Albert Hall. Our group had mostly ordered chicken. When it was served, there was half a chicken on each plate! The portion sizes were huge, and there was so much waste, it was more than upsetting.

Hello Glammanana, are you talking about New Brighton ? I agree , they are all the same, pizza, burgers, Texmex, you have to go to theQueens for "ordinary "food ,

They were saying recently that portions of fish from the chippy are two or three times the size they were back in the 70s.

I am interested to see that no one has mentioned portion sizes. The English pub these days seems to feel obliged to use huge plates and offer enough food on them to keep me for a week! I like to enjoy two courses, but my only hope of that is to order a starter instead of a main, and share a dessert with someone else. No wonder there is an epidemic of obesity...

I think it is all down to customers, tax, food price rises for ingredients and trends. Shame to see these places going to the wall to be replaced with things that mostly youngsters frequent. What about the older generation?

The same could be said for tv programmes and news broadcasts. I just hate these breakfast magazine type shows. Also clothes and fashion too. Maybe we are getting old, but why should we not be considered as well?

We rarely eat out locally partly because we are often not that impressed But have had excellent meals recently in lots of small provincial towns -Llandudno being one
DD lives in SE London and within walking distance of her flat are established and excellent Indian ,Italian and Turkish restaurants and a lovely French cafe .And at least two coffee shops Its not a posh area either .

I suspect some of these large chains are not paying their full tax bill making it hard for small independents to compete. Myself I am constantly amazed at the popularity of the pizza places especially given how much they charge!

Some of the best places to eat in France are the Les Routiers. They cater to workmen and truck drivers and are full of blue overalled workmen at lunch time.
There is usually a lively buzz and the food is invariably good and sometimes excellent and cooked on the premises.
When travelling back and forth between the UK and France I look out for them and sometimes we will make a special trip to a particularly good one.

In the last couple of years we have had four teashops open in our town, three have survived offering homemade cake, light lunches and various teas and coffees, they have certainly given the coffee chain shops a run for their money and are full of pensioners and young mums.

cloverpark sounds like you were expecting "Afternoon Tea" which is sandwiches & cakes, usually dainty portions & if you're lucky "posh china". High Tea is always a cooked meal - not often seen these days but when I worked as a waitress in the early 1970s, the restaurant I worked in served both on a Sunday afternoon.

I am quite fortunate where I live in Devon as most pubs & cafes serve very good meals using local produce, the exceptions are the large chain "carverys" which can vary in quality from day to day, I prefer to pay a bit more for a better meal. It is sad to see many pubs & cafes being taken over & offering overpriced, bought in food

I hope he told the trading standards people about the dangerous working conditions - they would be onto them like a ton of bricks. If he just left without mentioning it, it would be the same for the next employee.

Hi all the probelm is, its the sign if these very awful enomical times .In every high street around the country your see the same shops now.
Mostly charity shops, Pizza places, the odd cafe and cost cutters, cheap mini markets.Or asian run news agents.All the post offices are suddenly a grocery shop now and all.
Its because these are the sort of shops thst can survive as the demand for them is high VIS A VIV resteraunts.My eldest ds is a head chef of many years standing, and most of these little places, however well they seem to the customer, wont or cant afford to equipe the kitchen or chef to a proper standard .Ie ive lost count of the times my chef ds has told me abt how places he works in wont replace old broken or worn out equitment , putting him and his staff in danger and making his job impossible.
He has suffered electric shocks, terrble burns etc.So he leaves , and goes to a chain, as they can afford to be a bit better.But even chains can be the same. So like most chefs, he has to move jobs every few months.
In one place he worked in, unbenown to him, at the time a load of gansters were running it, to launder money!
.Most tanning salons and nail bars are opened, just for this purpose , and the general public hasnt got a clue.

I really wish we could get a major chain restaurant in this town to offer some competition the food standard in the pubs and coffee bars is not good but then I live in Pork Pie Town the height of gastronomic excellence - NOT!!!

We have suffered the same in our (very prosperous) area of Buckinghamshire and there is little choice of restaurant or cafe except for chains or horrendously expensive one-offs.

Our solution at the weekend is to buy a bottle of cheap Champagne, a nice bottle of red and to cook and/or mix and match with high end supermarket food. No taxi fares, no service charges and tips but a lovely experience. We dress for dinner and lay the table beautifully. Top dinner!

(We don't drink a bottle of wine each, however, as my DH has vacuum wine keeper stoppers which work perfectly.)

It's incredibly hard to run and sustain a food business for years. It's the norm to work 12-14 hour days, 6-7 days a week and that's just to get the food out there and keep the business ticking over. There's a whole fifth circle of hell awaiting when the doors close with stock ordering, staff rotas, deep cleans and hardest of all keeping up with VAT, business rates, enviromental health documentation and changing legislation etc etc.Personally speaking, i physically and mentally burnt out because it was just too much even though my place was really popular and always busy. It is an awful shame that great independent places don't last but it seems that it's the chains with large organisations behind them which can sustain and make a profit from food.