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I had supper last night at 131 Main in Blakeney. I had a plate of smoked salmon with herb aoli & toast points to start, ($13), Grilled swordfish w/lemon/crab sauce ($30) & strawberry shortcake ($8). What I was most surprised about was that the swordfish w/o the sauce was $27 for a 4oz portion. Now to be fair it was cooked to perfection. It was nice & moist & the pile of something next to it was delicious. But $27 for a 4oz piece of fish was insane. Actually come to think of it, the pricing for the appetizer, entree & dessert were all crazy. The swordfish was a special & it wasn't on the menu & I didn't think that I had to ask the price. Shame on me, next time I'll know better.
I guess I'm going to have to start eating at iHop.
Please share your tales of restaurant sticker shock.
I understand where you're coming from, but if you take a look at my post under the Delancy Street Thread, it is important for the general public to understand that food prices and costs in general are rising. Which I'm sure you've seen in the grocery stores and in the news media.
Most of the food that we eat, the smoked salmon had to travel to a processing plant and then to a distribution point to get to the restaurant, and at $4.00/gallon gas and higher for diesel which is averaging $4.68/gallon is more expensive than it was last year. The strawberry shortcake has sugar in it and commercially sugar started to get tight when the Imperial Plant burned in Savannah GA a few months back, and sugar in general just jumped about 25% in the last few weeks. Not to mention the flour prices, in the shortcake have risen through the roof since January.
We'll just have to reside ourselves to the fact that costs are going to continue to shock us for the next few years.
I understand where you're coming from, but if you take a look at my post under the Delancy Street Thread, it is important for the general public to understand that food prices and costs in general are rising. Which I'm sure you've seen in the grocery stores and in the news media.
Actually your post in that thread was the inspiration for this one. I didn't want to hijack the other thread.
Since I moved back here, I have thought the prices were overall too high. Now they are definitely too high. I understand why prices have gone up recently, but I travel and restaurants just charge too much here for the same types of food elsewhere. Just my opinion, but I did notice a few years back that Zagat made the same observation about Charlotte restaurant prices.
I think the rule of thumb these days is if the restaurant has new menus, then they have raised prices. But I think that even given the causes for the increases that Jake has mentioned, that the higher prices are driving away customers. My wife & I used to eat at Thai House in Pineville a couple times a week. We could get a great meal for $40. Now that same meal is closer to $70. Do we eat there as often? No. We may eat there once a month.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but get a chuckle at this thread...
Every time we go out to eat, my husband is amazed at how CHEAP it is to eat out here. We lived in Northern Virginia for two years before coming back, and every time we went out to eat there, for two people, the price would have been at least 1/3 to 1/2 MORE than it is here. (Even at the chain restaurants, or the "cheap" places.) We see it as a bargain!
And to be fair, 131 Main is a classy restaurant, so of course prices will be higher than the IHOP.
I also suspect that as places get more popular, they raise their prices, figuring that people will pay to keep coming back. As the population increases, the number of people coming to a restaurant may increase, etc.
Barkingowl, my husband also says the same thing about the new menus.
i wouldnt be jumping in the car to goto IHOP anytime soon as the last time i was there was 2 years ago on the free pancake day. i ended up paying 3.50 for a side of hash (about half a cans worth). i just stick to a few of my regular places and avoid the type of surprise you got.
It's a CAtch 22: Grocery prices have skyrocketed but not as bad as restaurant prices so it has become "cheaper" to whip up a restaurant style meal at home! And the portions sizes have diminished considerably along with less bread in baskets, etc. Guess we won't be the Obese Americnas for long!
I agree with all the above...however food shopping is definately more expensive here than NJ and restaurants honestly are equal to NJ I do find some that are cheaper here, we eat out alot but figure the way my kids eat, its the same thing to go out than too cook...LOL....all kidding aside, I agree ive noticed the prices went up in some of our favorite restaurants too...sad but I will also say that most of these restaurants have been really busy..dh and I joke how its dead in NJ when we went back as everyone is eating home and here everyone goes out...
I went to taco bell and my bill was $18! then again, I did get 16 tacos and a small diet pepsi.
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