Day 18 - Restaurants - less for more
My family has been having a lot of trouble finding restaurants lately. It used to be so easy... just drive up the I-35 frontage road in Norman and you'll see tons of nice, clean, newish restaurants where you can get a good dinner, big enough portions, and unlimited ice-cold drinks for around $10-15 per person. You can do that in pretty much any American city. Not in England. Not even close.The $13 Outback Special doesn't exist here. But you might get something comparable (although probably very bland) for $25-30. That's just not very practical for a family of 5 or 6. Free drink refills? Forget about it. They don't seem to exist anywhere. It's another $3 or more for another small glass of Coke at most sit-down restaurants.
The $3.79 meal deal at Burger King or McDonalds doesn't exist either. A typical meal at Burger King is almost $9, and you don't get free refills there either. A family of 5 could spend $50 on a meal at Burger King or KFC.
I understand that most people here don't eat out very often. And I know that $9 is not totally unaffordable for a fast-food meal. But it bothers me a lot... not because I can't afford it, but because I always know that no matter what I'm eating, I could be getting something much better (and with bigger portions & free drink refills) for much less $$££ back in Norman.
5 Comments:
Free Refills in Reading try Nandos and Pizza Hut at The Oracle. Cheap-food - they're ok but beyond that your best bet are the Wetherspoons pubs (Back of Beyond, Monks Retreat etc)... yeah foods expensive here. In the daytime "The Toby Carvery" by Asda isn't bad...
Keep in mind that a big reason food there seems so expensive is that people there aren't payed in US dollars. The exchange rate is killer, it's not nearly as expensive for people making their money there. The portions are smaller over there, and beverages (other than water and alcohol) are quite expensive there anyway, but then again I also saw far fewer overweight people while I was there than here. This is all small consolation, I know, but maybe they won't seem as totally crazy.
thebluefish, thank you for the suggestions!! Pizza Hut here is about double the price as back home, but it's great to know they have free refills. We liked Toby Carvery a lot, and the price was reasonable, but the meat portions were TINY. Haven't tried the Wetherspoons pubs yet but I'll do that. Thanks again for the suggestions.
Umm, food is so cheap in Norman because its all corporate chain crap. The rest of the world tries to eat real food, which is inevitably more expensive.
To "anonymous"... have you ever tried to buy food in the UK? Have you compared it to what you can by *anywhere* in the U.S. for the same price (not just in Norman)?
If you've done so, I think it would be pretty obvious which is "real food" and which is "crap".
And again, I'm only talking about restaurants here. Some things at Tesco, for example, are cheaper and better than what you could get at Albertsons.
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