this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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I only ever go to a proper, sit-down restaurant like twice a year. Earlier in the spring, my dad got paid a reasonable amount for a big job so he took us both out for dinner at a average family restaurant. We each had some pasta with garlic bread.
After both meals, associated taxes, and tip were tallied up the bill was nearly $70CAD. For 2 pasta dishes in a casual restaurant.
I could not imagine paying those prices with any sort of frequency. Holy crap.
Pasta is the easiest thing to make well (the ready-made PC pasta sauces imo taste better even then most downtown GTA restaurants, i mean this sauce is goated ).
There's really no reason it needs to be more than $20 bucks a plate, apart from you paying for the ambience.
You can do a lot with $3 in pasta at home.
But....
The era of restaurants replacing cooking was never sustainable and it's over. We're back to restaurants as very special events only and frankly, there are way too many restaurants.
We make a simple tuna at home casserole that makes 4 huge portions for under $20. We only eat out once every month or so. I find stuff is better and cheaper made at home with better ingredients.
It doesn't make sense to me. With the economy of scale, eating out should be more sustainable than cooking at home, but somehow it isn't.
My best guess is that it's an issue of everyone expecting variety and a kitchen that operates all day. If you make a huge batch of food and serve the same thing to everyone at the same time every day, that should be way cheaper than cooking at home.
Eating out at home prices gives zero value to labor or the overheads of the restaurant. This is why restaurants go broke and no bank will loan to a restaurant.
This is all about real estate. Restaurants have to pay stupid lease rates and higher wages to workers who need to live in stupid rental rates.
So now we pay $28 for a stupid burger.
It always comes down to landlords, doesn't it.
What you're describing is the kind of cafeteria I ate at as a university student. Limited hours of operation, your choice of three entrees cooked in advance and served from steam trays, plus some stuff that was either prepackaged or could be made while they were closed and set out for self-service. And it works okay in those kind of circumstances, where you've got a large semi-captive audience who need fuel. It isn't what most people are looking for in a nice evening out, though.
That's the thing, isn't it? With the exception of maybe once or twice a month, I'm not looking for a nice evening out. I just need fuel, and I need it three times per day. That's over 95% of my meals. I'm pretty sure the majority of people are in the same boat.
Dinner parties need to make a comeback. Buying items on sale and cooking from scratch at home, I served four people a roast chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, stuffing, and cheesecake for dessert, for a grand total of 16 dollars. Not 16 dollars each, 16 dollars total. And honestly what I cooked was better quality than what you would get at a mid level restaurant.
And healthier. Restaurant food is never designed to be healthy.