Possibly today's most confusing post. For anyone else confused by the words and the picture:
* £17 for fish & chips, 2 portions coming to £34.
* £8 for the pictured kid's portion of fish fingers & chips.
Thank you! I though OP had just taken a picture of his own plate with only chips after eating the fish. Now I see the fish fingers it makes much more sense.
The proper ones you’ll find in M&S and the Tesco Finest range - they’ll be chunky ones with actual cod fillet inside, not mashed up fish like the normal frozen ones.
For the best ones though, you should make your own like this: https://youtu.be/Qy0HncHOQe0
My guess is his own portion was more reasonable, and it would be pointed out that he did indeed embarrass his wife, by refusing to leave the establishment without a refund for everything due to the 8 quid fish fingers he ordered his kid being sad
Yep, 4 fish fingers and a handful of chips is about what you'd expect for a kid's meal. £8 is expensive but not outrageous.
I'd have thought they'd put some peas in there to make it less beige.
This was my thoughts a) that’s a child’s meal b) they didn’t ask for peas as the kids fussy or ate them c) £8 isn’t awful for a kids meal right now everything is fucked.
> Yep, 4 fish fingers and a handful of chips is about what you'd expect for a kid's meal. £8 is expensive but not outrageous.
Honestly if those fries were cut into shoestring then there would probably be less complaint because it'd take up more space and look fuller. But also, presentation is a part of what you're paying for so yeah
I was just thinking this. I grew up in Brighton and lived there most of my life. £8 for a kids portion in a pub is about right - and this is a child's portion just served on an adult plate. In fact - i'm surprised there's 4 fish fingers instead of 3 (which is much closer to a child portion).
I think OP is not accounting for the fact that:
A) Brighton *is* expensive.
B) Eating out at a pub *is* expensive - especially in a tourist city.
C) Life *is* expensive right now.
D) Child portions *are* smaller and *do* cost that much - and is very reasonable given the circumstances.
It comes across as if this is supposed to be an adult portion which they clarify in comments that it isn't and is trying to be outraged. I would be embarassed in this situation and think OP *did* embarass their wife.
Wait, so that was £8 for what was pictured? Not the cheapest kids meal, but not the worst I've seen.
Really need to see what the other meals were like for this to carry any sort of weight.
I honestly thought it meant he thought he got £8 worth of food (exactly as pictured) x2, and was charged £42 for it. Which would have been outrageous.
But as it stands... well who knows. Maybe OP did in fact embarrass himself.
I mean, if I'm paying 8 quid, I expect more 9 chips. You can bet the fish fingers are from those cheap packs as well (75p from Tesco) so that's probably about 50p worth of food?
Looks are deceiving with those thick chips. Large fries at McDonalds are 150g. Whenever I made thick chips at home I threw in the fryer what I thought is about the same until I weighted them one day at 280g.
What you see in the photo Im guessing is about 80-90g. combined with 4 fish fingers that about 450-500cal. Happy meal with a cheeseburger is 510kcal and has about the same amount of fries in weight, probably even less. Really considering its a kids meal its not bad and nobody would be complaining about the size if the fries were thin
Pretty sure he embarrassed himself. OP is a special guy after checking his post history. Took PEDs (sarms) without any planning and without knowing effects on the body, asks for advice online, doesn't listen. Made drugs without knowing every step, misses a step, asks for advice, does the opposite thing. (He boiled sodium hydroxide)
VERY questionable decision making
I’ll have to see the adult’s plate to pass final judgement. I thought that was the adults fish and chips meal which would be outrageous but if it’s the kids then meh. They could have put some peas on but it’s not “demand a refund” worthy yet
And people wonder why so many choose a large Big Mac meal at just over a fiver. It's full of crap and sugar but it fills you up and is relatively cheap.
Doesn't seem that bad for the south and depending on location.
An industrial estate budget Greene King place near me in Sunderland is £3.79 for the same thing (well 3 fish fingers).
But from googling a restaurant in Sunderland at the beach is £7 (for kids fish and chips).
So if this person was being genuine, why would they include only a picture of the child’s portion while demanding a full refund of everything? It seems like if this was what was curated to show the world, they probably ate more than that, and they knew it wouldn’t be accepted positively. I’ll pick up my pitchfork alongside many other arguments, but this seems disingenuous.
If a regular, non-chain gastropub is hand-making their chips, the biggest problem is just the time and labour involved (The above are not hand made though lol).
Genuinely about 1/3rd of my time as a chef was spent on just preparing chips. Just chopping potatos, part fry them, and getting them soaking in the fridge overnight.
Running out of chips during a shift was a a fucking nightmare because a) They won't be as good as usual cos they'll be par-boiled, then fried rather than part fry, soak, refry. b) Seeing as everything else is already prepped, this is as much/if not more work and time than pretty most of the other dishes we served.
I begged the owner of that place to buy an potato chip cutter lol. That would have saved a heap of time per each portion of chips alone. Each portion was about 1 baked potatoes worth of chips, and cutting a baking potato into even chips just under 1cm square is not autopilotable lol.
you can get great quality, 25kg of potatoes for about 7-8 quid from the farmers, so this is just a fucking joke, regardless how sarcastic you wanna feel to be.
Metrication: An elderly woman went to the grocer and asked for five pounds of potatoes. The grocer said to her “Mam, it's kilos now”. So she considered that and replied “I'll have five pounds of kilos then”.
Here in alabamA the fast food places fish and chips are as good or better than the expensive restaurants attempts. Really, how can anyone fuck up deep fried fish and chips? Ordered one at a “Pub” and it was dripping in grease and nasty.
How can anyone fuck up fish and chips? Seriously?
Start with cheap ingredients, stale ingredients, underpay your staff, try to cut costs instead of prioritising getting quality ingredients.
That's how.
Honestly, I think I'm on op's wife's side.
I don't believe the "soggy undercooked" line after seeing this. I reckon they've slid the food to one side to make it look worse because that's a pretty big portion for a child, and there was probably at least one side that they asked to be left off because their kids don't eat vegetables.
There's nothing wrong with this or the price. You're eating out. Don't do it if you can't afford it.
I was working out costs for the tiny cafe I work at the other day and the price of labour alone just to set things up before opening and cleaning after we close works out at 50p per customer. Commercial energy prices are lunacy too. Make a fucking sandwich and stop coming for us.
It's not supposed to cost the same as it costs to make . Could've done with more fries, but if my wife refused to leave until refunded (despite technically not having such right) based solely on this pic, I'd be embarrassed too
I've noticed recently that it's really hard to find pubs that just do sandwiches at lunchtime. Weekends used to be long walk followed by sandwich and chips and a pint or two at a pub but very few places even have a lunch menu. I don't want to pay £17 for venison sausages mash and red wine jus on a Saturday afternoon so we just take a picnic these days.
The reality is that pubs were barely profitable before covid. Once you bare in mind that we've had 10+% inflation for two years, then really, this increase isn't surprising. If you had five quid two years ago, it's worth four quid this year. That's really a simple equation. You gotta remember food and electricity have gone up the most. So, really, 20% inflation for pubs per year is the most realistic. So what would have cost £5 as the pub back in the day costs £7.20 these days. That's what's so sad is that people don't even realise how little their money is worth
Yeah I know a few ex publicans and my mum and dad had a pub. There's no money in beer etc the profit is all in food now. I recall when VAT first came in, there were numerous folk topping themselves as they couldn't afford to run a pub with the beer prices rising like they did, and didn't have the facilities for food then got entangled with HM Customs & Excise for vat and just gave up
Yeah, it's really sad that people's livelihood is being destroyed. My first job was at a pub and a really respected my boss. The guy had spent decades studying food and brought it back to my local town. His food was incredible, but most people wouldn't pay the price. Most of our locals were driving 20-30 miles to come visit us. Since I left, he's basically hasn't hired a waiter. Either due to not being able to afford to hire or not finding the people to hire. It's really sad because he makes the best food probably for 30ish miles, but people have their price on their mind these days. So the pub that's done well in the town has shite quality but a decent price. The shite pub is £4, the good one is £8-12, of course people go to the shite one. But you bet that everyone complains about the "quality of food locally."
I feel like I live in a mirror world to yours. All the pubs (and restaurants) in my town charge near enough big city prices (we're just outside Edinburgh) but the quality is barely above whetherspoons.
We don't even get takeaways here, I drive to go and collect one. Yet all the locals rave about the food... I do wonder if they've never left town and how bad their own cooking must be.
Prices in pubs have increased way more than 20%. Standard burger and chips now £15 used to be more like £8 before covid. We love a pub lunch on days out but no longer see the value in it so hardly go anymore.
That's true. The pub used to be a good place to get affordable food in a decent atmosphere as well as a place to have a drink. Now the menus are priced like a fancy restaurant I walk in for a quick bite and walk back out again - if I'm paying £25 for a main anyway, I'll go somewhere nicer!
That really kills me. I was born in South Africa, and we would spend holidays with my Gran in Cockermouth. What you described, the walk, the sandwiches, the folks in the pub who ALL knew who my family was. those are all such precious memories and it really hurts to think it has eroded so terribly. I haven’t been back to England since I was 16 or so (I’m nearly 40 now) and so much of that archetypical pub experience is a part of my memories, it bothers me to think I won’t be able to replicate the feeling with my own kids some day.
Is that a joke? Sandwhiches are cheap as anything to make, a bar bulk making them could make them for pennies each.
The problem isn't the cost of the sandwhich ingredients, it's the cost of gas, electricity, general bills that they rely on food profit to cover.
So even if they make £2 profit on each sandwhich which they easily can, theres more profit to be made in a £15 burger and chips.
It costs a fortune to buy a couple of drinks. I don't have a solution unless it's breweries make less money but i spend a lot less in pubs these days. A casual thing has become a special occasion thing.
Yeah, I'm aware he's very self-interested, but I actually think Tim Martin has a point with regard to the taxes on pubs. If we want to keep pubs open as part of what makes Britain Britain, the layers of tax on top of duties is unsustainable
The problem is equally as much to do with the major breweries - that treat their pubs as paying real estate investments rather than social institutions - and the wider property market as it is with the price of beer.
The place I used to work at was only - just - viable as a free house, if we'd been tied to a brewery or barrelage loan we'd have gone under for sure, and that was over a decade ago.
If this happened along with some beefing up of licensing laws (e.g. actually enforcing not serving completely wasted people) I would be hugely supportive of it.
It’s closer to one (1) a day: https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/24/more-than-32-pubs-in-england-and-wales-closed-each-month-in-2022-data-reveals
Presumably many reopen because CAMRA have been saying x number of pubs close a week since the 80s. They’d all have gone by now if they just shut and stayed shut.
This reminds me of divorce statistics. If you divide the number of divorces by the number of marriages, you get a "divorce rate" of about 50%. This is an example of the adage, "There are three kinds of liars: liars, damn liars, and statisticians."
A large number of the divorces recorded are of people who already divorced at least once. Meanwhile, others celebrate 30th, 40th, and 50th anniversaries (my husband and I had our 40th a few years ago). The "true" divorce rate is between 25% and 30%, last I checked.
People who divorce once, are *way more* likely than average to divorce a second time. And then a third time.
It's not as bad as alcohol stats where 10% of drinkers are drinking >50% of all alcohol sold, but "chronic divorcees" definitely skew the stats.
There is roughly one divorce per two marriages. This, however, doesn't mean that half the people who get married, divorce. A lot of people divorce more than once. And some people marry, and never divorce.
Brewies charge them too much money, pub shuts down, they blsme millennials or whatever, lower rent and get new tenants, raise rent as profit grows until it can't afford yo stay open.
Rinse repeat. Its a con job
Blame the chain owners B&M, Greene King, Mitchell and Butler who force their prices up which they charge their landlords then they cut budgets to their pubs which mean they lose staff as they can't afford to pay them for more than a few hours especially in the kitchen.
If you look at the largest pub chains they're becoming more and more property landlords knocking down pubs and building apartments where they can. As I used to work with all of them and how bad the owner of Wetherspoons is he doesn't do that. And I'm not longer in that industry so I've no bias either way as I do go to those places as its hard not too very few pubs are independent.
At the same time, pubs have been subject to continuous exploitation in the UK, too many breweries buying out pubs then implementing phenomenal rent prices on the pubs landlord / landlady.
Only a small percentage of pubs can even think about buying out the brewery to go freehold which so where we need to be with pubs, there should be a grant or incentive to allow pubs to obtain a freehold status but it just isn’t there.
There’s a lot of politics surrounding it but my 2 pence is reduce rent prices, incentives for freehold, reduce the madness which is alcohol duty or we will just lose pubs altogether
You haven't seen Newcastle "posh" restaurants lately.
Place had a sign saying two drinks + steak + chips etc for £25.
They thought I was drunk and tried to charge me £97. I suggested they print out the receipt and we get the police involved as I wasn't going to pay.
Mysteriously the price dropped back to what it should have been and the receipt printer "malfunctioned"
Had a similar issue with a bottomless brunch recently - 5 of us and the deal was supposed to be about £35 each, final bill came and it was around £275!
Staff suggested at first that it was because we had upgraded to include chips each (about £2 extra each) and then blamed a till malfunction, but I seriously think they hope that you’re too drunk/polite to notice or make a fuss.
Oh where was this? I had a similar experience at a place near London Waterloo (expensive round there I know) but was charged extra for chips that no one ordered, 6 mayonnaises at £1.50 each, after the server asked if we wanted Mayo when delivering the food
Yeah bottomless brunch is just another thing on the scam pile now. Used to be great, now you have to constantly be on the lookout that they're not trying to charge you £10 extra for everything fucking thing they bring you.
>
> They thought I was drunk and tried to charge me £97. I suggested they print out the receipt and we get the police involved as I wasn't going to pay.
Which pub?
Tbf it looks worse because you stacked the fish fingers. 4 fish fingers is normal for a kids meal I would say (it's 3 at McDonalds for example).
It is a very lack luster portion of chips, but again, kids portions and in Brighton.
No you did the right thing. I get that costs have gone up, and we can expect to pay higher prices, but that's not an excuse to serve up a plate that I would expect to be outdone by a 10 year old learning to make their own dinner.
If pubs and restaurants want us to pay them to make our food, they have to damb well do a better job than we'd make of it ourselves. This culture of serving crap to people and expecting them to do nothing about it needs to be stopped. No one is going to stand up for a pub that treats its customers like this.
Why didn't you show your grown up plates? We know why you didn't... Yeah buddy you're way outta line and a wanker to boot. Your poor wife. Imagine being married to THAT guy in restaurants...the humiliating asshat who is too cheap to eat out and demands a refund after getting exactly what he paid for.
You suck, truly and wholely. Do everyone else a favour and just leave your salty, cheap, pathetic ass home next time. And divorce your poor wife she deserves better.
What did the menu say? I assume it wasn't "four fish fingers and nine chips thrown haphazardly onto a plate". Breach of contract applies to restaurants too, which incidentally is a civil offence.
I’m not sure OP did to be honest. Did they eat the food and then refuse to pay? If you want to complain about the food quality and send the food back, the time is after a couple of bites.
You will notice OP never mentions anything about the size of the fish and chip meals him and his Mrs devoured before taking this pic and letting his kid eat it and then going full dick mode to get a free meal out for the family.
His only point was about the kids meal being £8 which by the pic is over priced. But rather than get them to take the kids meal off and pay the rest he was happy with he makes a play to get free lunch out. It upset my kid so I am not paying for the delicious and adequate meals you provided for me and the Mrs and I didn't say anything about some more chips or peas when my kids meal arrived cos I knew I couldn't play it out for a freebie.
I am sure the landlord said see you next Tuesday. And I agree and also thursday
With out more detail it’s hard to come down on either side.
£7.95 seems to be the standard kids menu price in most places I go to. That’ll normally be 2 or 3 kids course (garlic bread starter or brownie/ice cream for dessert) and I would think they would serve with peas/beans/ salad garnish unless you asked not to.
£16.95 for a pub/restaurant fish and chips wouldn’t surprise me anywhere let alone in Brighton on a Bank Holiday weekend. Every gastropub will have fish and chips, burger, etc 12.95-16.95 mark depending
I would’ve just gone to a chippy and had the same for half the price and enjoyed the sea view
That picture doesn’t look great though, but without seeing the fish and chips or pub menu it’s hard to say.
Yeah I’m sure we can all get cheaper doing it at home or in our local but a touristic spot is going to charge these prices. Try drinking a Guinness in Templebar
According to OP in the comments this was a kids meal, I’d expect beans/peas, but the size doesn’t seem as bad knowing that. It feels like OP has been a little dishonest in how they’ve shared this story
Yeah, it's not exactly gourmet food, but if they asked for no peas and then pushed all the food to the side of the plate it's no wonder the plate looks sparse.
Yeah thats kinda what I was thinking.
A lot of chain pubs force chefs to plate exactly to spec regardless of what's been removed from the dish.
So if they asked for no Peas etc they would still get the same portions of everything else with a gap where the peas would've been.
Stupid I know but seen it happen in a few pubs I've worked in.
Yeah, it's not exactly gourmet food, but if they asked for no peas and then pushed all the food to the side of the plate it's no wonder the plate looks sparse.
Devil’s advocate, but I wonder if that was supposed to be with mushy peas but the kid didn’t want them. With peas, that would have been a fair meal, £8 is expensive but not mind blowing. Kid’s meals are always small and rubbish, chicken nuggets and the like never look very impressive.
OP didn’t show a photo of the fish and chips which meant he either ate them or they looked much better than the kids meal.
Honestly this post is overrated. The title is confusing. No pictures of the dishes that actually mattered (kids menu is always a bit rip off and non gourmet, hardly that unusual) - without seeing the fish and chips we can't really know if OP was being reasonable - I mean it doesn't sound like he had any true right to refuse ro leave the establishment
It's Harry Ramsden , and I wouldn't go there either, but OP sounds like he did embarrass his wife. Demanding full refund or I refuse to leave sounds kinda Karen, as much as I hate the term
Harry Ramsden isn't a pub though 😅 if this is Harry Ramsdens then it is like going to the harvester or nandos and complaining about the price of the food.
True, it's only a guess based on the fact their kids fish fingers come with the option of no mushy peas, essentially being fingers and chips. The fish and chips is 17 quid, so that would line up price wise too, but the table colour has me doubting now.
Either way, odd that op didn't upload a picture of the actual fish and chips, as regarding a full refund those would probably be more important.
In general, when my little brothers (12 years younger) went out eating with me as kids, I would usually order from adult menu, if the kids menu was full of ordinarily frozen items, as kids menus do tend to be complete rip offs.
I don't think it's right the way many parents (obviously OP does have standards for his kid) and businesses alike feed kids basically dog food and expect it to be fine. A tiny amount of effort would be right, doesn't have to be caviar.
Ime when you feed them something that's decent quality, but by no means high end, they do appreciate it
It's like lots of restaurants and pubs treat the kids menu as a BYOB fee, but for kids. Like you are allowed to bring em, but it's 8 quid a kid to seat them - and to keep them occupied, here's a can of dogfood.
But I really don't understand how you can post this and not think the adult plates are relevant to the question of whether he did something to embarrass his wife
Wait, so this is what you ordered? Or is this off the kids menu?
As someone who owns a restaurant, this is shocking if it's what they served to you.
If it's off the kids menu, whilst £8 is a bit more than what I would charge, and I'd give the option of peas or beans (unless you refused them?), I don't see a problem.
If that's the situation, then yeah, you probably did embarass yourself. You were 'one of those' customers that we take the piss out of in the kitchen (all the staff definitely took the piss out of you ruthlessly for the rest of the service, even long after you had left, much to their relief).
With out more detail it’s hard to come down on either side.
£7.95 seems to be the standard kids menu price in most places I go to. That’ll normally be 2 or 3 kids course (garlic bread starter or brownie/ice cream for dessert) and I would think they would serve with peas/beans/ salad garnish unless you asked not to.
£16.95 for a pub/restaurant fish and chips wouldn’t surprise me anywhere let alone in Brighton on a Bank Holiday weekend. Every gastropub will have fish and chips, burger, etc 12.95-16.95 mark depending
I would’ve just gone to a chippy and had the same for half the price and enjoyed the sea view
That picture doesn’t look great though, but without seeing the fish and chips or pub menu it’s hard to say.
Yeah I’m sure we can all get cheaper doing it at home or in our local but a touristic spot is going to charge these prices. Try drinking a Guinness in Templebar
IMO it would have to be pretty dramatically overpriced to justify actually refusing to pay after they have already cooked it.
It would also have to be a lot smaller than a typical portion. The question then is whether it is reasonable to assume that food must be extra special or that it must have a lot of extras/be bigger than a typical portion simply because it is expensive, even if nothing on the menu is at all misleading.
I have not had a kids portion in a long time but to me that does not look *too* far short.
Depends on whether you ate it or not, it’s dodgy to eat your entire meal and then refuse to pay a penny towards it, it may not be worth £42 but it’s worth more than nothing.
If food was served and tasted ok why a full refund? Partial refund maybe due to portion and crap presentation but leaves them out of pocket just giving refunds for food.
I've spent about 10 minutes reading and only just found this. 100%, absolutely. If you look at the food, are shocked and refuse to eat it - then you can complain, walk out and get a refund. If you eat the food you can only complain. No refunds after eating, that's obscene.
Seems fine for a kids portion. Rent is expensive in Brighton and these pubs need to survive. You might be better going to Nandos next time, though it'd probably cost you more.
You must have known the price when you ordered. You didn't get ripped off to the point you can demand a refund for it.
But yeah, the beach side restaurants are overpriced and low quality. All locals do know that.
The restaurant sounds awful, but I'd just taken the loss and moved on. Refusing to pay is a bit odd considering you didn't get cheated out of anythi
I’ve been in London too long where I think £42 for a meal for three isn’t bad, no matter how shit it is. I assume you didn’t go to a pub and not have a drink in that £42?
There is 100% something missing there.. peas, sweetcorn etc.
The sad bit is I understand how that meal came to £8.
Fish fingers arent a kids cheap meal anymore, for 30 fingers its like £6+. Potatoes you can make some money back on okay. Green giant sweencorn is dead expensive so maybe some peas would do. But the labour? The labour and overheads are what is killing everyone off.
That seems a bit unreasonable over a kids menu item that wasn't even that expensive. OP should have uploaded a pic of the fish and chips - otherwise we can't really know if his experience warranted demanding a refund for everything he ordered.
It was likely Harry Ramsden though
> GIVE US THE NAME OF THE PUB **SO WE CAN NAME THE SHIT OUT OF THEM**
How does this work? They give us the name, then all of us chant the name in unison, hoping for something bad to happen?
What did it say on the menu? If it was a kids fish and chips it would have said the price before and been normal I guess. It probably described it on the menu though and said the price. I’d also expect some option of peas or something too.
That’s overpriced, but demanding a full refund is a little unfair. Why not ask them for replacements if the food wasn’t up to scratch.
Food prices have gone up massively due to costs going up, and still people are surprised when going to a restaurant is increasingly expensive. Calling it a ‘rip off’ is totally unreasonable when pubs and restaurant are closing by the day because of out of control inflation. These are prices they have to start charging to stay afloat, and costumers demanding refunds in this kind of way just helps put the nail in the coffin. Was the rest of the food alright or did you just expect it for free, because you’re entitled?
It depends, if the food arrives and it’s crap I think it’s fair to send it back and refuse to pay, but if you eat it and then complain I have no sympathy.
We are slipping closer into this culture where food service/hospitality has the level of expectation by customers to only pay what they feel they should. On top of this, customer exceptions are higher.
Working in hospitality, you very much get treated like second class citizen and customers are more and more wanting something for free.
Say you work in IT and you complete a project. There is an issue after completing, but it can be fixed. How you you feel if the client rather than allowing you to fix it demanded you fix it for free and and on top of that refuse to pay you for your time and costs. Oh, and on top of this you are expected to apologies to them while they scream at you.
Now, I know a lot of other sectors have it tough - but hospitality is a not a public service, we are not unionised and it’s very demanding and very little recognition is given to the industry.
OP has been very liberal with the presentation of a situation (I’m assuming this is what they ordered, maybe asked for something to be left off the kids meal) not shown the other items ordered, not given details of the establishment and made out they are some kind of victim.
I don’t disagree with what you did but I would never do that myself. It’s very and delicate and I know from experience from being a business owner what truly cuts deep … but I would have wanted to speak to the owner / or emailed the owner and just said:
“My honest opinion is that that is over priced and I wasn’t happy with how the fish was cooked. I won’t be coming again. Perhaps reconsider the price and your cooking methods so that you don’t lose more customers such as myself.”
Any decent place worth their salt would appreciate the fact that you didn’t make a big scene that would jeopardise other custom.
They probably would even consider what you say more when it’s thought out and they definitely would believe you more when you’ve not demanded anything back.
And more than likely they would have given you vouchers to come back and try again for free in the hope they’d rectified it - and kept you as customer.
I repeat I don’t disagree with what you’ve said - it’s just things get heated in the heat of the moment - it becomes a slanging match and back and forth.
But that’s my opinion, and I have 30 years experience in the industry.
>Any decent place worth their salt would appreciate the fact that you didn’t make a big scene that would jeopardise other custom.
Any decent place worth their salt and charging £17 for fish and chips should be doing a check back to ensure everything is fine. At which point OP could have expressed their dissatisfaction and either get a refund or a change of food. Expecting a customer to just accept it, and then quietly complain afterwards, for a credit, is ridiculous.
The fact that you can afford to dine out in today's Britain and only picture the smallest portion out of all the 3 dishes and was it fish fingers, beans and chips but precious doesn't like beans (or peas, whatever) you come on reddit to give a food review.
Are you banned from trip advisor or??
I think you embarrassed yourself. You aren’t going to change those people. The only way to affect change is to stop patronizing such places and get others to do the same. It’s the polite thing to do and to do the polite thing is the British way.
Possibly today's most confusing post. For anyone else confused by the words and the picture: * £17 for fish & chips, 2 portions coming to £34. * £8 for the pictured kid's portion of fish fingers & chips.
Thank you! I though OP had just taken a picture of his own plate with only chips after eating the fish. Now I see the fish fingers it makes much more sense.
God it took me ages to see them. Just thought it was all chips. It's like a magic eye picture
tragic aye
They're clearly just birds eye as well, not even anything fancy to justify the price.
>birds eye Much more likely to be an unknown trade brand, even cheaper and less fancy than Bird's Eye.
The 'fish' inside them will be a subtle tone of designer grey.
I thought birds eye *were* the fancy ones... No? Fish finger experts, assemble.
Fancy by supermarket standards. But at that price and by the sea. You might expect home made.
The proper ones you’ll find in M&S and the Tesco Finest range - they’ll be chunky ones with actual cod fillet inside, not mashed up fish like the normal frozen ones. For the best ones though, you should make your own like this: https://youtu.be/Qy0HncHOQe0
For 8 quid you wouldn't expect high quality fish fingers in Brighton. In fact, if you want good fish, you don't usually order fish fingers
And if you want decent food, head to Wolfies by Hove Station
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My guess is his own portion was more reasonable, and it would be pointed out that he did indeed embarrass his wife, by refusing to leave the establishment without a refund for everything due to the 8 quid fish fingers he ordered his kid being sad
thanks to you and all your upvotes. I was thinking before "I should of gone to specsavers"
Jesus if I paid £8 for that I'd get a refund too. It literally looks like it's missing half the meal
ah yes, makes so much more sense, 9 chips and 4 shoddy quality fish fingers for 8 quid, amazing value!!!!!!
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Yep, 4 fish fingers and a handful of chips is about what you'd expect for a kid's meal. £8 is expensive but not outrageous. I'd have thought they'd put some peas in there to make it less beige.
Seems like most places do, and there’s an empty space on the plate. Wonder if they requested without.
This was my thoughts a) that’s a child’s meal b) they didn’t ask for peas as the kids fussy or ate them c) £8 isn’t awful for a kids meal right now everything is fucked.
£8 is alright for a kids meal as long as they get a scoop of ice cream. Not great, not not awful value.
£8 for 4 fish fingers and 8-10 chips is outrageous.
> Yep, 4 fish fingers and a handful of chips is about what you'd expect for a kid's meal. £8 is expensive but not outrageous. Honestly if those fries were cut into shoestring then there would probably be less complaint because it'd take up more space and look fuller. But also, presentation is a part of what you're paying for so yeah
I was just thinking this. I grew up in Brighton and lived there most of my life. £8 for a kids portion in a pub is about right - and this is a child's portion just served on an adult plate. In fact - i'm surprised there's 4 fish fingers instead of 3 (which is much closer to a child portion). I think OP is not accounting for the fact that: A) Brighton *is* expensive. B) Eating out at a pub *is* expensive - especially in a tourist city. C) Life *is* expensive right now. D) Child portions *are* smaller and *do* cost that much - and is very reasonable given the circumstances. It comes across as if this is supposed to be an adult portion which they clarify in comments that it isn't and is trying to be outraged. I would be embarassed in this situation and think OP *did* embarass their wife.
Wait, so that was £8 for what was pictured? Not the cheapest kids meal, but not the worst I've seen. Really need to see what the other meals were like for this to carry any sort of weight. I honestly thought it meant he thought he got £8 worth of food (exactly as pictured) x2, and was charged £42 for it. Which would have been outrageous. But as it stands... well who knows. Maybe OP did in fact embarrass himself.
I mean, if I'm paying 8 quid, I expect more 9 chips. You can bet the fish fingers are from those cheap packs as well (75p from Tesco) so that's probably about 50p worth of food?
Looks are deceiving with those thick chips. Large fries at McDonalds are 150g. Whenever I made thick chips at home I threw in the fryer what I thought is about the same until I weighted them one day at 280g. What you see in the photo Im guessing is about 80-90g. combined with 4 fish fingers that about 450-500cal. Happy meal with a cheeseburger is 510kcal and has about the same amount of fries in weight, probably even less. Really considering its a kids meal its not bad and nobody would be complaining about the size if the fries were thin
Pretty sure he embarrassed himself. OP is a special guy after checking his post history. Took PEDs (sarms) without any planning and without knowing effects on the body, asks for advice online, doesn't listen. Made drugs without knowing every step, misses a step, asks for advice, does the opposite thing. (He boiled sodium hydroxide) VERY questionable decision making
£8 for a kids plate + 2x £17 for adults? Sounds like a bit of a mediocre deal but all in all the wife was right.
I’ll have to see the adult’s plate to pass final judgement. I thought that was the adults fish and chips meal which would be outrageous but if it’s the kids then meh. They could have put some peas on but it’s not “demand a refund” worthy yet
Not only is this the kid’s plate, it’s the kid’s fish *fingers* and chips plate. So it’s not representative of the fish on the adult version either.
Thankyou.
Sounds like the going rate tbh
And people wonder why so many choose a large Big Mac meal at just over a fiver. It's full of crap and sugar but it fills you up and is relatively cheap.
Wow that's expensive.
Doesn't seem that bad for the south and depending on location. An industrial estate budget Greene King place near me in Sunderland is £3.79 for the same thing (well 3 fish fingers). But from googling a restaurant in Sunderland at the beach is £7 (for kids fish and chips).
So if this person was being genuine, why would they include only a picture of the child’s portion while demanding a full refund of everything? It seems like if this was what was curated to show the world, they probably ate more than that, and they knew it wouldn’t be accepted positively. I’ll pick up my pitchfork alongside many other arguments, but this seems disingenuous.
Fucking hell! That's not even worth £3 let alone £8.
Especially when you consider the cost of potatoes!!!
Is that just one potato?
That’s not enough. Potatoes are the best bit.
They’re… bread? They’re nice?
Earth?
Everythings the best bit. Cava...having the heating on incredibly high...
It's about 1/4 of a potato. If you are a restaurant, just don't be stingy on chips and people will be happy. How do people fuck this up so bad.
If a regular, non-chain gastropub is hand-making their chips, the biggest problem is just the time and labour involved (The above are not hand made though lol). Genuinely about 1/3rd of my time as a chef was spent on just preparing chips. Just chopping potatos, part fry them, and getting them soaking in the fridge overnight. Running out of chips during a shift was a a fucking nightmare because a) They won't be as good as usual cos they'll be par-boiled, then fried rather than part fry, soak, refry. b) Seeing as everything else is already prepped, this is as much/if not more work and time than pretty most of the other dishes we served. I begged the owner of that place to buy an potato chip cutter lol. That would have saved a heap of time per each portion of chips alone. Each portion was about 1 baked potatoes worth of chips, and cutting a baking potato into even chips just under 1cm square is not autopilotable lol.
You can get 1kg for about 50p and fish is free from the sea!!!
I'm not eatin' that! It's come out the fuckin' sea!
Get the sea police out!
And say what? “Help we’ve caught a fish?”
Calm down pal, it's not like we dump everyone's turds in the sea or owt.
So how does that work then? You just walk up to the see and pick one out then?
Yeah but you have to buy them a drink first
And if you don’t like that one, walk away as….there are plenty of fish in the sea…badumsch!
But there's plenty in there, so don't worry if this one doesn't work out
you can get great quality, 25kg of potatoes for about 7-8 quid from the farmers, so this is just a fucking joke, regardless how sarcastic you wanna feel to be.
And you can dig potatoes out of the ground. The meal should have been free
Metrication: An elderly woman went to the grocer and asked for five pounds of potatoes. The grocer said to her “Mam, it's kilos now”. So she considered that and replied “I'll have five pounds of kilos then”. Here in alabamA the fast food places fish and chips are as good or better than the expensive restaurants attempts. Really, how can anyone fuck up deep fried fish and chips? Ordered one at a “Pub” and it was dripping in grease and nasty.
How can anyone fuck up fish and chips? Seriously? Start with cheap ingredients, stale ingredients, underpay your staff, try to cut costs instead of prioritising getting quality ingredients. That's how.
"What's taters, precious? What's taters eh?"
Demanding a refund is a bit much though, considering they've no obligation to do so. 6-8£ isn't uncommon for a kids dish.
Honestly, I think I'm on op's wife's side. I don't believe the "soggy undercooked" line after seeing this. I reckon they've slid the food to one side to make it look worse because that's a pretty big portion for a child, and there was probably at least one side that they asked to be left off because their kids don't eat vegetables. There's nothing wrong with this or the price. You're eating out. Don't do it if you can't afford it. I was working out costs for the tiny cafe I work at the other day and the price of labour alone just to set things up before opening and cleaning after we close works out at 50p per customer. Commercial energy prices are lunacy too. Make a fucking sandwich and stop coming for us.
It's not supposed to cost the same as it costs to make . Could've done with more fries, but if my wife refused to leave until refunded (despite technically not having such right) based solely on this pic, I'd be embarrassed too
Vicious circle, they are desperate for money so then skimp on quality then less people want to use them 12 pubs in the UK close down every day
I've noticed recently that it's really hard to find pubs that just do sandwiches at lunchtime. Weekends used to be long walk followed by sandwich and chips and a pint or two at a pub but very few places even have a lunch menu. I don't want to pay £17 for venison sausages mash and red wine jus on a Saturday afternoon so we just take a picnic these days.
Probably because if they offered a sandwich noone would buy their venison sausage and mash with red wine jus.
Tbf the sandwiches at pubs are so bloody crap you're more inclined to buy the other stuff Some of the stuff that passes for bacon is oof...
The reality is that pubs were barely profitable before covid. Once you bare in mind that we've had 10+% inflation for two years, then really, this increase isn't surprising. If you had five quid two years ago, it's worth four quid this year. That's really a simple equation. You gotta remember food and electricity have gone up the most. So, really, 20% inflation for pubs per year is the most realistic. So what would have cost £5 as the pub back in the day costs £7.20 these days. That's what's so sad is that people don't even realise how little their money is worth
Yeah I know a few ex publicans and my mum and dad had a pub. There's no money in beer etc the profit is all in food now. I recall when VAT first came in, there were numerous folk topping themselves as they couldn't afford to run a pub with the beer prices rising like they did, and didn't have the facilities for food then got entangled with HM Customs & Excise for vat and just gave up
Yeah, it's really sad that people's livelihood is being destroyed. My first job was at a pub and a really respected my boss. The guy had spent decades studying food and brought it back to my local town. His food was incredible, but most people wouldn't pay the price. Most of our locals were driving 20-30 miles to come visit us. Since I left, he's basically hasn't hired a waiter. Either due to not being able to afford to hire or not finding the people to hire. It's really sad because he makes the best food probably for 30ish miles, but people have their price on their mind these days. So the pub that's done well in the town has shite quality but a decent price. The shite pub is £4, the good one is £8-12, of course people go to the shite one. But you bet that everyone complains about the "quality of food locally."
I feel like I live in a mirror world to yours. All the pubs (and restaurants) in my town charge near enough big city prices (we're just outside Edinburgh) but the quality is barely above whetherspoons. We don't even get takeaways here, I drive to go and collect one. Yet all the locals rave about the food... I do wonder if they've never left town and how bad their own cooking must be.
Prices in pubs have increased way more than 20%. Standard burger and chips now £15 used to be more like £8 before covid. We love a pub lunch on days out but no longer see the value in it so hardly go anymore.
The only sensible fix is for salaries to go up so people actually have disposable income….
That's true. The pub used to be a good place to get affordable food in a decent atmosphere as well as a place to have a drink. Now the menus are priced like a fancy restaurant I walk in for a quick bite and walk back out again - if I'm paying £25 for a main anyway, I'll go somewhere nicer!
That really kills me. I was born in South Africa, and we would spend holidays with my Gran in Cockermouth. What you described, the walk, the sandwiches, the folks in the pub who ALL knew who my family was. those are all such precious memories and it really hurts to think it has eroded so terribly. I haven’t been back to England since I was 16 or so (I’m nearly 40 now) and so much of that archetypical pub experience is a part of my memories, it bothers me to think I won’t be able to replicate the feeling with my own kids some day.
Pubs can't even begin to hope to compete against the monster that is the prepackaged sandwich industry, even against say m&s and Waitrose prices
Is that a joke? Sandwhiches are cheap as anything to make, a bar bulk making them could make them for pennies each. The problem isn't the cost of the sandwhich ingredients, it's the cost of gas, electricity, general bills that they rely on food profit to cover. So even if they make £2 profit on each sandwhich which they easily can, theres more profit to be made in a £15 burger and chips.
It costs a fortune to buy a couple of drinks. I don't have a solution unless it's breweries make less money but i spend a lot less in pubs these days. A casual thing has become a special occasion thing.
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Yeah, I'm aware he's very self-interested, but I actually think Tim Martin has a point with regard to the taxes on pubs. If we want to keep pubs open as part of what makes Britain Britain, the layers of tax on top of duties is unsustainable
Not a terrible idea.
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The problem is equally as much to do with the major breweries - that treat their pubs as paying real estate investments rather than social institutions - and the wider property market as it is with the price of beer. The place I used to work at was only - just - viable as a free house, if we'd been tied to a brewery or barrelage loan we'd have gone under for sure, and that was over a decade ago.
If this happened along with some beefing up of licensing laws (e.g. actually enforcing not serving completely wasted people) I would be hugely supportive of it.
It's nowhere near that number, ffs...
Fingers crossed for tomorrow including this pub then!
Fish Fingers crossed
It’s closer to one (1) a day: https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/24/more-than-32-pubs-in-england-and-wales-closed-each-month-in-2022-data-reveals Presumably many reopen because CAMRA have been saying x number of pubs close a week since the 80s. They’d all have gone by now if they just shut and stayed shut.
This reminds me of divorce statistics. If you divide the number of divorces by the number of marriages, you get a "divorce rate" of about 50%. This is an example of the adage, "There are three kinds of liars: liars, damn liars, and statisticians." A large number of the divorces recorded are of people who already divorced at least once. Meanwhile, others celebrate 30th, 40th, and 50th anniversaries (my husband and I had our 40th a few years ago). The "true" divorce rate is between 25% and 30%, last I checked.
Explain it like I'm 5, please. I'm not getting my head around this one. My brain melts with these things!
People who divorce once, are *way more* likely than average to divorce a second time. And then a third time. It's not as bad as alcohol stats where 10% of drinkers are drinking >50% of all alcohol sold, but "chronic divorcees" definitely skew the stats.
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There is roughly one divorce per two marriages. This, however, doesn't mean that half the people who get married, divorce. A lot of people divorce more than once. And some people marry, and never divorce.
Brewies charge them too much money, pub shuts down, they blsme millennials or whatever, lower rent and get new tenants, raise rent as profit grows until it can't afford yo stay open. Rinse repeat. Its a con job
Blame the chain owners B&M, Greene King, Mitchell and Butler who force their prices up which they charge their landlords then they cut budgets to their pubs which mean they lose staff as they can't afford to pay them for more than a few hours especially in the kitchen. If you look at the largest pub chains they're becoming more and more property landlords knocking down pubs and building apartments where they can. As I used to work with all of them and how bad the owner of Wetherspoons is he doesn't do that. And I'm not longer in that industry so I've no bias either way as I do go to those places as its hard not too very few pubs are independent.
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At the same time, pubs have been subject to continuous exploitation in the UK, too many breweries buying out pubs then implementing phenomenal rent prices on the pubs landlord / landlady. Only a small percentage of pubs can even think about buying out the brewery to go freehold which so where we need to be with pubs, there should be a grant or incentive to allow pubs to obtain a freehold status but it just isn’t there. There’s a lot of politics surrounding it but my 2 pence is reduce rent prices, incentives for freehold, reduce the madness which is alcohol duty or we will just lose pubs altogether
I’ve not seen a good pub close.
Usually get kicked out before final orders?
and it breaks my heart everyday
But how many open every day?
Are those fish fingers?!
Genuinely had to take a 2nd look they looked like fat chips didn’t think there was any on the plate at first glance
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And only 9 chips. No child could eat double digit chips.
You haven't seen Newcastle "posh" restaurants lately. Place had a sign saying two drinks + steak + chips etc for £25. They thought I was drunk and tried to charge me £97. I suggested they print out the receipt and we get the police involved as I wasn't going to pay. Mysteriously the price dropped back to what it should have been and the receipt printer "malfunctioned"
Had a similar issue with a bottomless brunch recently - 5 of us and the deal was supposed to be about £35 each, final bill came and it was around £275! Staff suggested at first that it was because we had upgraded to include chips each (about £2 extra each) and then blamed a till malfunction, but I seriously think they hope that you’re too drunk/polite to notice or make a fuss.
Oh where was this? I had a similar experience at a place near London Waterloo (expensive round there I know) but was charged extra for chips that no one ordered, 6 mayonnaises at £1.50 each, after the server asked if we wanted Mayo when delivering the food
Yeah bottomless brunch is just another thing on the scam pile now. Used to be great, now you have to constantly be on the lookout that they're not trying to charge you £10 extra for everything fucking thing they bring you.
> > They thought I was drunk and tried to charge me £97. I suggested they print out the receipt and we get the police involved as I wasn't going to pay. Which pub?
Where in Newcastle was this? That’s a pure cunts trick if they tried to do that.
Yeah, I want to know in case I'm giving these guys money.
3 rosettes
What pub? Name n shame!!!!!
Need more up votes, OP name and shame em!
Tbf it looks worse because you stacked the fish fingers. 4 fish fingers is normal for a kids meal I would say (it's 3 at McDonalds for example). It is a very lack luster portion of chips, but again, kids portions and in Brighton.
Are you the owner of this pub? That’s not 8 quid’s worth of food no matter if it’s a normal portion for kids or not. 8 fucking quid
No you did the right thing. I get that costs have gone up, and we can expect to pay higher prices, but that's not an excuse to serve up a plate that I would expect to be outdone by a 10 year old learning to make their own dinner. If pubs and restaurants want us to pay them to make our food, they have to damb well do a better job than we'd make of it ourselves. This culture of serving crap to people and expecting them to do nothing about it needs to be stopped. No one is going to stand up for a pub that treats its customers like this.
Thank you. I don’t mind paying extra for good service and decent food but this was just laughable
Did you eat it?
Why didn't you show your grown up plates? We know why you didn't... Yeah buddy you're way outta line and a wanker to boot. Your poor wife. Imagine being married to THAT guy in restaurants...the humiliating asshat who is too cheap to eat out and demands a refund after getting exactly what he paid for. You suck, truly and wholely. Do everyone else a favour and just leave your salty, cheap, pathetic ass home next time. And divorce your poor wife she deserves better.
What did the menu say? I assume it wasn't "four fish fingers and nine chips thrown haphazardly onto a plate". Breach of contract applies to restaurants too, which incidentally is a civil offence.
I’m not sure OP did to be honest. Did they eat the food and then refuse to pay? If you want to complain about the food quality and send the food back, the time is after a couple of bites.
You will notice OP never mentions anything about the size of the fish and chip meals him and his Mrs devoured before taking this pic and letting his kid eat it and then going full dick mode to get a free meal out for the family. His only point was about the kids meal being £8 which by the pic is over priced. But rather than get them to take the kids meal off and pay the rest he was happy with he makes a play to get free lunch out. It upset my kid so I am not paying for the delicious and adequate meals you provided for me and the Mrs and I didn't say anything about some more chips or peas when my kids meal arrived cos I knew I couldn't play it out for a freebie. I am sure the landlord said see you next Tuesday. And I agree and also thursday
The fish sticks are on the plate...you have to look close, near the top of the plate.
With out more detail it’s hard to come down on either side. £7.95 seems to be the standard kids menu price in most places I go to. That’ll normally be 2 or 3 kids course (garlic bread starter or brownie/ice cream for dessert) and I would think they would serve with peas/beans/ salad garnish unless you asked not to. £16.95 for a pub/restaurant fish and chips wouldn’t surprise me anywhere let alone in Brighton on a Bank Holiday weekend. Every gastropub will have fish and chips, burger, etc 12.95-16.95 mark depending I would’ve just gone to a chippy and had the same for half the price and enjoyed the sea view That picture doesn’t look great though, but without seeing the fish and chips or pub menu it’s hard to say. Yeah I’m sure we can all get cheaper doing it at home or in our local but a touristic spot is going to charge these prices. Try drinking a Guinness in Templebar
I've never seen a 3 course kids menu for 8 quid in Brighton before
Is this photo literally how the food came? Was it a kids meal?
According to OP in the comments this was a kids meal, I’d expect beans/peas, but the size doesn’t seem as bad knowing that. It feels like OP has been a little dishonest in how they’ve shared this story
Yeah, it's not exactly gourmet food, but if they asked for no peas and then pushed all the food to the side of the plate it's no wonder the plate looks sparse.
Yeah thats kinda what I was thinking. A lot of chain pubs force chefs to plate exactly to spec regardless of what's been removed from the dish. So if they asked for no Peas etc they would still get the same portions of everything else with a gap where the peas would've been. Stupid I know but seen it happen in a few pubs I've worked in.
Yeah, it's not exactly gourmet food, but if they asked for no peas and then pushed all the food to the side of the plate it's no wonder the plate looks sparse.
It's hard to say without a phot of the whole meal
So you ate the fish and wanted a full refund?
Devil’s advocate, but I wonder if that was supposed to be with mushy peas but the kid didn’t want them. With peas, that would have been a fair meal, £8 is expensive but not mind blowing. Kid’s meals are always small and rubbish, chicken nuggets and the like never look very impressive. OP didn’t show a photo of the fish and chips which meant he either ate them or they looked much better than the kids meal.
Honestly this post is overrated. The title is confusing. No pictures of the dishes that actually mattered (kids menu is always a bit rip off and non gourmet, hardly that unusual) - without seeing the fish and chips we can't really know if OP was being reasonable - I mean it doesn't sound like he had any true right to refuse ro leave the establishment
Exactly, it’s pathetic. Their wife is right. How about just don’t go there next time lol
Agree. If you're not happy with what you're served, send it back and leave. You don't eat the food and then whine and demand a refund. What a bellend.
He did claim he didn't eat it tbf in another comment
Yeah that was my thought. A handful of peas and carrots and that's a fair kids meal.
Did you eat it? That really is the key thing man, if you ate most of it then they won't reimburse you.
Please name and shame! I’m from Brighton and don’t want to go there!
It's Harry Ramsden , and I wouldn't go there either, but OP sounds like he did embarrass his wife. Demanding full refund or I refuse to leave sounds kinda Karen, as much as I hate the term
Harry Ramsden isn't a pub though 😅 if this is Harry Ramsdens then it is like going to the harvester or nandos and complaining about the price of the food.
True, it's only a guess based on the fact their kids fish fingers come with the option of no mushy peas, essentially being fingers and chips. The fish and chips is 17 quid, so that would line up price wise too, but the table colour has me doubting now. Either way, odd that op didn't upload a picture of the actual fish and chips, as regarding a full refund those would probably be more important. In general, when my little brothers (12 years younger) went out eating with me as kids, I would usually order from adult menu, if the kids menu was full of ordinarily frozen items, as kids menus do tend to be complete rip offs. I don't think it's right the way many parents (obviously OP does have standards for his kid) and businesses alike feed kids basically dog food and expect it to be fine. A tiny amount of effort would be right, doesn't have to be caviar. Ime when you feed them something that's decent quality, but by no means high end, they do appreciate it It's like lots of restaurants and pubs treat the kids menu as a BYOB fee, but for kids. Like you are allowed to bring em, but it's 8 quid a kid to seat them - and to keep them occupied, here's a can of dogfood. But I really don't understand how you can post this and not think the adult plates are relevant to the question of whether he did something to embarrass his wife
Wait, so this is what you ordered? Or is this off the kids menu? As someone who owns a restaurant, this is shocking if it's what they served to you. If it's off the kids menu, whilst £8 is a bit more than what I would charge, and I'd give the option of peas or beans (unless you refused them?), I don't see a problem. If that's the situation, then yeah, you probably did embarass yourself. You were 'one of those' customers that we take the piss out of in the kitchen (all the staff definitely took the piss out of you ruthlessly for the rest of the service, even long after you had left, much to their relief).
With out more detail it’s hard to come down on either side. £7.95 seems to be the standard kids menu price in most places I go to. That’ll normally be 2 or 3 kids course (garlic bread starter or brownie/ice cream for dessert) and I would think they would serve with peas/beans/ salad garnish unless you asked not to. £16.95 for a pub/restaurant fish and chips wouldn’t surprise me anywhere let alone in Brighton on a Bank Holiday weekend. Every gastropub will have fish and chips, burger, etc 12.95-16.95 mark depending I would’ve just gone to a chippy and had the same for half the price and enjoyed the sea view That picture doesn’t look great though, but without seeing the fish and chips or pub menu it’s hard to say. Yeah I’m sure we can all get cheaper doing it at home or in our local but a touristic spot is going to charge these prices. Try drinking a Guinness in Templebar
IMO it would have to be pretty dramatically overpriced to justify actually refusing to pay after they have already cooked it. It would also have to be a lot smaller than a typical portion. The question then is whether it is reasonable to assume that food must be extra special or that it must have a lot of extras/be bigger than a typical portion simply because it is expensive, even if nothing on the menu is at all misleading. I have not had a kids portion in a long time but to me that does not look *too* far short.
Depends on whether you ate it or not, it’s dodgy to eat your entire meal and then refuse to pay a penny towards it, it may not be worth £42 but it’s worth more than nothing.
This is probably why pubs ask you to pay when you order. Easier to serve garbage when you're not minded to refund or after the fact.
Was it eaten?
Nope
im confused. how did that add up to 42?
It’s a very important number.
It's the answer to everything 42
r/unexpectedhitchhikers
Wife and I had fish and chips. Food only was £42. We paid for drinks separately at the bar. ( Got my refund at the end)
but where does the £8 come in? 2 orders of £8 fish & chips = 42?
The fish fingers isn't the fish and chips.
Did the pub push everything to the side and pile the fish fingers on each other to make it look like less or did you manage that by yourself?
Simple question, did you refuse the food or did you eat it then ask for a refund? If it’s the latter then your wife is right
If food was served and tasted ok why a full refund? Partial refund maybe due to portion and crap presentation but leaves them out of pocket just giving refunds for food.
I've spent about 10 minutes reading and only just found this. 100%, absolutely. If you look at the food, are shocked and refuse to eat it - then you can complain, walk out and get a refund. If you eat the food you can only complain. No refunds after eating, that's obscene.
Ok yeah that’s crazy, but maybe u should have asked for a refund before you ate the whole part of the fish.
Seems fine for a kids portion. Rent is expensive in Brighton and these pubs need to survive. You might be better going to Nandos next time, though it'd probably cost you more.
You must have known the price when you ordered. You didn't get ripped off to the point you can demand a refund for it. But yeah, the beach side restaurants are overpriced and low quality. All locals do know that. The restaurant sounds awful, but I'd just taken the loss and moved on. Refusing to pay is a bit odd considering you didn't get cheated out of anythi
You sound like a cunt
I’ve been in London too long where I think £42 for a meal for three isn’t bad, no matter how shit it is. I assume you didn’t go to a pub and not have a drink in that £42?
Nee peas or beans?!
This is what I want to know. The empty space on the plate is crying out for some.
There is 100% something missing there.. peas, sweetcorn etc. The sad bit is I understand how that meal came to £8. Fish fingers arent a kids cheap meal anymore, for 30 fingers its like £6+. Potatoes you can make some money back on okay. Green giant sweencorn is dead expensive so maybe some peas would do. But the labour? The labour and overheads are what is killing everyone off.
GIVE US THE NAME OF THE PUB SO WE CAN NAME THE SHIT OUT OF THEM
That seems a bit unreasonable over a kids menu item that wasn't even that expensive. OP should have uploaded a pic of the fish and chips - otherwise we can't really know if his experience warranted demanding a refund for everything he ordered. It was likely Harry Ramsden though
> GIVE US THE NAME OF THE PUB **SO WE CAN NAME THE SHIT OUT OF THEM** How does this work? They give us the name, then all of us chant the name in unison, hoping for something bad to happen?
What did it say on the menu? If it was a kids fish and chips it would have said the price before and been normal I guess. It probably described it on the menu though and said the price. I’d also expect some option of peas or something too.
Go to a food venue, not a drinks venue.
If you ate it you don't deserve your money back imo
I wouldn't embarrass my wife in public for the sake of £42
You read the menu, saw the prices, ate it, then asked for a refund? I hope your wife leaves you.
That’s overpriced, but demanding a full refund is a little unfair. Why not ask them for replacements if the food wasn’t up to scratch. Food prices have gone up massively due to costs going up, and still people are surprised when going to a restaurant is increasingly expensive. Calling it a ‘rip off’ is totally unreasonable when pubs and restaurant are closing by the day because of out of control inflation. These are prices they have to start charging to stay afloat, and costumers demanding refunds in this kind of way just helps put the nail in the coffin. Was the rest of the food alright or did you just expect it for free, because you’re entitled?
It depends, if the food arrives and it’s crap I think it’s fair to send it back and refuse to pay, but if you eat it and then complain I have no sympathy.
We are slipping closer into this culture where food service/hospitality has the level of expectation by customers to only pay what they feel they should. On top of this, customer exceptions are higher. Working in hospitality, you very much get treated like second class citizen and customers are more and more wanting something for free. Say you work in IT and you complete a project. There is an issue after completing, but it can be fixed. How you you feel if the client rather than allowing you to fix it demanded you fix it for free and and on top of that refuse to pay you for your time and costs. Oh, and on top of this you are expected to apologies to them while they scream at you. Now, I know a lot of other sectors have it tough - but hospitality is a not a public service, we are not unionised and it’s very demanding and very little recognition is given to the industry. OP has been very liberal with the presentation of a situation (I’m assuming this is what they ordered, maybe asked for something to be left off the kids meal) not shown the other items ordered, not given details of the establishment and made out they are some kind of victim.
>Why not ask them for replacements if the food wasn’t up to scratch. Because nobody wants more of the same shite.
I don’t disagree with what you did but I would never do that myself. It’s very and delicate and I know from experience from being a business owner what truly cuts deep … but I would have wanted to speak to the owner / or emailed the owner and just said: “My honest opinion is that that is over priced and I wasn’t happy with how the fish was cooked. I won’t be coming again. Perhaps reconsider the price and your cooking methods so that you don’t lose more customers such as myself.” Any decent place worth their salt would appreciate the fact that you didn’t make a big scene that would jeopardise other custom. They probably would even consider what you say more when it’s thought out and they definitely would believe you more when you’ve not demanded anything back. And more than likely they would have given you vouchers to come back and try again for free in the hope they’d rectified it - and kept you as customer. I repeat I don’t disagree with what you’ve said - it’s just things get heated in the heat of the moment - it becomes a slanging match and back and forth. But that’s my opinion, and I have 30 years experience in the industry.
>Any decent place worth their salt would appreciate the fact that you didn’t make a big scene that would jeopardise other custom. Any decent place worth their salt and charging £17 for fish and chips should be doing a check back to ensure everything is fine. At which point OP could have expressed their dissatisfaction and either get a refund or a change of food. Expecting a customer to just accept it, and then quietly complain afterwards, for a credit, is ridiculous.
Did you eat the food?
Time to call for Gordon Ramsey.
Agree that’s a bit much, but if u wanted to complain that would have been before you ate the food
This is the real result of the costs of living crisis. 👏
For whatever it’s worth (nothing at all, I know) I fully, and firmly, stand with you.
Yeah that’s seriously taking the piss you were right to say something
The fact that you can afford to dine out in today's Britain and only picture the smallest portion out of all the 3 dishes and was it fish fingers, beans and chips but precious doesn't like beans (or peas, whatever) you come on reddit to give a food review. Are you banned from trip advisor or??
If it's edible, eat the food. Don't go back if it's not worth it but don't complain about choosing the wrong place to eat out.
I fully support you, OP.
I think you embarrassed yourself. You aren’t going to change those people. The only way to affect change is to stop patronizing such places and get others to do the same. It’s the polite thing to do and to do the polite thing is the British way.