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Is it just me, or have (local) restaurant prices gone way up?

Ken555

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On a positive note, CPK has added a take and bake option where you can get any pizza they offer for just $5 to take home when you visit for any meal in the restaurant. I’ve done this a few times for lunch when I get a soup and small pizza for $11 and then a $5 pizza for home (or $7.50 for one with their excellent cauliflower crust). It’s a great deal.

https://www.cpk.com/Contents/Downloads/InThePress/2019/CPK_Take_and_Bake.pdf

Update: forgot to mention that I also buy CPK gift cards at Costco for a 20% savings, so that lunch plus take home pizza is even less.

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davidvel

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Have to agree with all of the above, here in So. Cal. We used to eat out 2-3x a week, and now are scaling back significantly. Family of 4 used to get out around $40 with a few adult drinks, now closer to 60-75. Everything has crept up: drinks, apps, entrees.
 

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I am reluctant to pay more then a $1.25 a beer where we live. 75 cents is still possible but not at places I would eat at. Craft beer is coming on strong and will pay more. When traveling not important. I am a groupon type of guy and end up having to spend $40 alone at a place which is more than I can eat. $15 minimum wage results in overpriced everything.
 

rapmarks

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Here’s something that upset me, and it is years later
My aunts were very close with their money, and when I stepped up to take care of them, I felt I needed to carry on that way.
When my aunt passed away, we had a service and luncheon. Hernieces thru marriage chose the restaurant. After they ordered their meal, they said they would split a side salad. That salad was $25.00. That was ridiculous and I feel my aunt us giving me that look for not saying something when paying the bill.
 

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I had my curmudgeon moment last month when we were on the road. There was a Burger King so I ordered 2 regular fries, one for me and one for my DS, and the total came to over $6. Since when did French fries at a fast food restaurant jump to $3 each!!!
 

bbodb1

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While that is beyond ridiculous (price of fries and other side items) what has also changed my dining habits is the price charged for soda and tea!
Soda is a serious profit margin for dining establishments and there is no justification for charging $2 for a small beverage cup.
The dining out industry is nearing a point where some serious contraction is very likely.
 

moonstone

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While that is beyond ridiculous (price of fries and other side items) what has also changed my dining habits is the price charged for soda and tea!
Soda is a serious profit margin for dining establishments and there is no justification for charging $2 for a small beverage cup.
The dining out industry is nearing a point where some serious contraction is very likely.


We just order a glass of water, not even bottled water, when eating out. We started that many years ago when our kids were young, as dinner out, even at a fast food restaurant for 5, was expensive for us. Besides water is far healthier than soda.


~Diane
 

Icc5

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I've seen the same but sort of expect it in California. My $38,000 house is also valued at almost 3 million now. When I started working 52 years ago I made under $1.90 an hour and now its $12-$15 an hour so between rents and wages it's not surprising. What's even worst is finding a place to eat. All the restaurants that have been here for ages are either closed or going out of business.
We had 2 nice Italian restaurants that closed just this week after being here for 40-50 years.
Bart
 

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When I go out, if it’s not to CPK for the great deal I posted earlier, I only eat bread and water when in California. In most other States, which of course are much better, less expensive and where wait staff live on tips, I order steak.


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rapmarks

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When I go out, if it’s not to CPK for the great deal I posted earlier, I only eat bread and water when in California. In most other States, which of course are much better, less expensive and where wait staff live on tips, I order steak.


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Reminds me of when I was pregnant, I literally ate bread or crackers at one restaurant while my husband ate a meal. Not a good time
 

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We eat at home more than dining out. We don’t mind paying the money for a good meal out and I do think prices have gone up. But, we are finding that food quality and preparation is going down. We send food back more often than we used to. Things are not prepared as ordered, overcooked or undercooked, wrong items on plate, over seasoned, etc. We have a few of our favorite restaurants close to home that get our orders right most of the time. I don’t like that a lot of times the food server will blame the cook or chef, when some of the errors could have been caught before the plates were brought to the table. I waited tables a long time ago and I know how things work.
 

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Yes, but costs have gone up because of min wage, etc. SoCal here. We normally will eat out during lunch, family friendly places or when there’s specials. Limit to one drink if we do drink or happy hour since you literally can buy a 6pk or entire bottle of wine for the costs of one drink.
 

Big Matt

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I remember when I could go to a popular sports bar in my neighborhood and get a good steak with a salad and baked potato for $18. That was 28 years ago. I bought my house for $260k 24 years ago and now it's worth $725k.

I think the longer you live the more you remember how cheap everything used to be. Problem is that cost of living goes up and will always do so.

In restaurants today, one big change that has happened recently are employee wages and increase in minimum wage. That gets passed on to customers.
 

SmithOp

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Our main criteria for a restaurant is "will it throw off leftovers"?! Our previous favorite Mexican, part of the Acapulco chain, was torn down along with our favorite early bird restaurant to obliterate the old Ports o' Call wharf area and build a new Public Market and esplanade. They did a real good job of destroying everything, and there it sits. I'm sure we'll be long gone to Carlsbad before they every get the new project built. Both of those gave us leftovers (Acapulco 2 days worth of leftovers if we stuffed ourselves with chips and salsa at the restaurant; the other restaurant had a huge salad bar that went with their choice of 4 entrees plus dessert and coffee for $13, so by the time we were done with fruit and salad and had a few bites of dinner, the rest went home with us). If we do eat Italian at the restaurant, rather than take out, our favorite Italian restaurant will feed us for two more days (lately I've been ordering meatballs, salad and bread to pick up, skipping the pasta all together). Chinese takeout also feeds us for three days. Actually so does eat in Chinese because the best deal is a meal that includes appetizers, rice and two main dishes -- so we are stuffed by the time we are done with the entrees.

We still have an Acapulco near us, and receive coupons once a month. We mostly go to the buffet lunch on Margarita Mondays. $10.99 buffet plus $2 margaritas. Its our all day meal.

The other place we like is Soup Plantation, senior pricing hours.

Several local SoCal chains have added a 4% charge for the new labor laws, then the tip suggestions are 18%,20%,22%, what happened to 10-12-15?

We mostly do takeout now and eat at home with a glass of Costco wine, the $7 a bottle Malbec or Pinot Grigio.

Its hell getting old learning to live on a fixed budget.


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In many states, if not most, servers are not considered subject to minimum wage laws because they receive most of their income in tips. I believe they are paid a reduced hourly wage, sometimes as little as $3/hour, plus tips.

No, no and NO! Not any longer. We have all grown up with this mentality and tip accordingly. There are websites out there that will list the wage that servers MUST be paid, state by state and I was surprised to see that MOST make minimum wage. I have a minimum (hey, it really does take the same amount of work to serve a cheap meal) and a cap (does it really take more work to serve a $100 bottle of wine over a $10 bottle?) when tipping. Most important (to ME) did the server make my experience more enjoyable? Many servers really DO make your experience more enjoyable. A few do NOT and I see no reason to tip them some arbitrary percentage!

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Steve Fatula

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Way up, 5 years ago wife and I could do BBQ including drink for $13, combined. Now, double that. There are a few bargains here and there, but not many. Yes, we're cheap.
 

bbodb1

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Just to add another story to the weirdness that is current menu pricing these days:

Stopped at a local Burger King recently.
Cost of Whopper (the sandwich itself, no side items): $4.50
Cost of Impossible Whopper (the sandwich itself, no side items): $5.39

Keep in mind the Impossible Whopper is the beef-free option (plant based burger....) and yet costs more than the beef option.

Add to this point the size of many sandwiches (Whopper included) has decreased over the years.... SMH

Just to better document something I've done lately when I need to grad a bite to eat out is Chick-Fil-A because their main sandwich prices (again, no sides) are still among the lowest in our area (middle $3 range). No other fast food establishment is pricing their main sandwich options below $4. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you do have to eat out a bit, I'll try and save money as much as possible. 50 cents to $1 here and there adds up over time.

On another point, how many folks here have downloaded the apps of the various fast food chains?

One of the most aggressive in terms of offering decent deals through their app is Wendy's. I know, it's still fast food but there are some occasions where you have to eat and fast food is the only choice.
I've seen some pretty good deals on Burger King as well.

Among the apps that are awful when it comes to offering decent deals: McDonald's, Arby's, McAlister's (and that one really hurts me as a tea drinker...).
 

Rolltydr

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I’m not going to research every state and I know that Alabama is waaaaayyy behind across the board when it comes to wages. However, it is the state where I live and this is how Alabama law treats tipped employees in 2019 according to the minimum-wage.org website.

“Alabama labor law allows tipped employees to be paid a lower cash wage than the standard Alabama minimum wage by their employers, as up to $5.12 in tips earned per hour can be deducted from their wage as a "Tip Credit". This means that, with the maximum tip credit taken, tipped employees must be paid a cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour, for a total minimum compensation of $7.25 per hour (including tips).

Alabama's allowed tip credit is $5.12, the same amount allowed under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The minimum cash wage allowed under the FLSA, $2.13 per hour, is the lowest cash wage allowed in any state.

Alabama does not specify a minimum amount of tips an employee must receive in order to be classified as a "tipped employee". Therefore, any employee who receives tips can be paid according to Alabama's tipped minimum wage laws.”

So, yes, I WILL tip them accordingly in order to help pay them a decent, and hopefully living, wage because their employers don’t have to!



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bizaro86

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I've seen the same but sort of expect it in California. My $38,000 house is also valued at almost 3 million now. When I started working 52 years ago I made under $1.90 an hour and now its $12-$15 an hour so between rents and wages it's not surprising. What's even worst is finding a place to eat. All the restaurants that have been here for ages are either closed or going out of business.
We had 2 nice Italian restaurants that closed just this week after being here for 40-50 years.
Bart

The house you bought was 20,000 hours of wages, or roughly 10 years worth at full time work. That's attainable, imo.

The same 3,000,000 house at $15/hour takes 200,000 hours of labor, or 100 years of full time work. So even though wages have gone up a lot, housing (at least in your example) has gone up 10x more. Wait staff need a place to live too, so I suspect even at those wages their lives in your area have gotten harder not easier.
 

Tia

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Why do you think the nice Italian places closed?

.........What's even worst is finding a place to eat. All the restaurants that have been here for ages are either closed or going out of business.
We had 2 nice Italian restaurants that closed just this week after being here for 40-50 years.
Bart

The prices at the grocery store seem to continue to climb or they are shrinking what's inside, but you only notice if you look at ounces etc.

I know a person who will order the least expensive item on the menu, take 1/2 home to spouse, and tip terribly low. So low that other friends at the table will add more to their tip as we realize this and are embarrassed. This bargain meal/low tipper is worth millions of dollars always has a new car and takes expensive trips, very nice, but low ball tipper !

Just remember I actually knew a couple other low tippers, a relative, worth millions also had a brand new car, owned a Mooney airplane and took expensive vacations. And we used to add more to the tip after my FIL walked away because he too left extremely low tips . All 3 cheap tippers are/were their 80s, two paid cash for their new cars, not sure age/thinking has anything to do with it but. ...
 
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clifffaith

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We sit down to eat at a fast food type restaurant maybe half a dozen times a year, and half or more of the time is while traveling out of state. We don't do McDonald's, etc often enough in CA to let me remember that CA charges tax, so an extra buck easy, when you eat in. Every meal I look at the receipt while we are eating or waiting for our food to be prepared. Every time I say "next time we have to remember to say "take out" rather than "eat in" when they ask". Since we are people who pick up "nickels" in the street (been known to pull the car over for a plastic water bottle, as long as the liquid inside isn't yellow) or on our walks in the local park, a dollar saved on tax is the equivalent of bending over 20 times to pick a bottle or can out of the bushes. I don't think the tax man is going table to table looking for evidence that food was delivered in a bag rather than on a tray.
 

klpca

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We have started to split meals when we can - not so much to save $$ but because the portions are huge and I am tired of throwing away half of our food. When we split we usually split a salad or appetizer and an entree. I tip more generously when we split, and as bad as I feel for the waitstaff, I honestly resent having to throw food away and I have decided that I am not going to feel bad about it any more. If an entree is $15, then add $3 to the tip and call it good.

Back in the good old days, we didn't get free refills on drinks either. ;)
 

clifffaith

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Why do you think the nice Italian places closed?



The prices at the grocery store seem to continue to climb or they are shrinking what's inside, but you only notice if you look at ounces etc.

I know a person who will order the least expensive item on the menu, take 1/2 home to spouse, and tip terribly low. So low that other friends at the table will add more to their tip as we realize this and are embarrassed. This bargain meal/low tipper is worth millions of dollars always has a new car and takes expensive trips, very nice, but low ball tipper !

Just remembered I actually know more low tippers, a relative, worth millions who also has a brand new car and takes expensive vacations. We used to add more to the tip after my FIL walked away because he too left extremely low tips . All 3 cheap tippers are their 80s, two pay cash for their new cars. not sure age/thinking has anything to do with it but. ...

That was Cliff's dad, a low tipper because he went through the depression, because he was mired in the past where 10% was the tip rate, and because he simply wasn't aware that at the time he was still alive 15% was the norm. We'd always add a few dollars once he'd left the table. Speaking of 15%, I'm not sure why we are tipping 20% now that the minimum wages for waiters have been increased, but at some point in the last few years our tipping has increased (maybe we have money to spare from all the Worldmark cleaning staff we don't tip!). Used to be we'd tip a higher percentage (20-25%) when we'd sit down for a "1.99 are you out of your mind!?" breakfast at Denny's or IHOP, figuring they worked just as hard as someone bringing us a $15 plate of food. Now when breakfast for two runs $30 they get the same 20% that the $80 dinner gets.
 

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We ate at a craft beer and burger place this last week. They run your credit card in a hand held deal where you can add the tip, it gives options like 18%, 22% etc. I got home and figured later they include the tax on the amount your tipping on! :ponder:
 

clifffaith

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We have started to split meals when we can - not so much to save $$ but because the portions are huge and I am tired of throwing away half of our food. When we split we usually split a salad or appetizer and an entree. I tip more generously when we split, and as bad as I feel for the waitstaff, I honestly resent having to throw food away and I have decided that I am not going to feel bad about it any more. If an entree is $15, then add $3 to the tip and call it good.

Back in the good old days, we didn't get free refills on drinks either. ;)

We love our leftovers, so the bigger the food portion the better -- that's one of the best things about timeshare travel, having facilitates to store and reheat leftovers. Five years ago when my brother died in Houston we flew out to close up his apartment and drive his car back to Los Angeles. That was the last time I recall working with a waiter to choose a meal that wouldn't throw off leftovers because we were staying in a hotel. Very nice steakhouse where we had soup or salad, picked a cut of steak that would make both of us happy, shared the potato, had dessert and drinks. The waiter took excellent care of us, and we went from feeling like we probably shouldn't be eating there when we knew we wouldn't order two full meals, to feeling like valued customers even though we'd never be in that area again.
 
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