Am I the only one fed up with paying $20 for a plate of pasta?
 

How high is up? Is it just me or are restaurant prices out of sight? I can understand the astronomical prices at special occasion restaurants, but is it really necessary to spend over $100 a couple for the pedestrian food (and small portions) served at most of the run of the mill restaurants? The last time I checked you could still buy a pound of high quality pasta for less than $2.00 a pound.

Look, if it bothers you to pay non-pasta charges for pasta, why don't you get your $2 pasta (actually freshmade would be better than the dry), stay at home and cook it? You can make a nice sauce for under $3, and add a decent red for $12-$15. And a salad for a few more dollars, plus bread. I'm not sure what the real issue is here ... because the solution is so simple. Do you cook? Ciao

Ever hear the phrase "what the market will bear"? <BR>Most businesses price their products/services based on target prices which they believe people are willing to pay. If people buy in droves, prices go up. If not, they drop. <BR> <BR>Case in point is home prices. Watch boom and bust cycles play out like in Econ 101. <BR> <BR>If you don't like the price of a restaurant, vote your opinion by giving your business to someone you believe is 'doing things right'.

I'm with you on that one Fedup! <BR> <BR>Add crappy service with attitude on top of it and I'm up on my soapbox off on a rant. I avoid these types of places on general principle now. It's better for my stress level.

Hey, just a follow-up question: Ess and FedUp, clue the rest of us in ... how do you spot one of those rip-off pasta places, so you can give it a pass? Help me get the picture: you're in your truck, in the drive-thru lane, and the voice comes over the box "What would you like"? What tips you off, so you can throw it into reverse and haul ass out of there? Do you do some type of "big meal" calculation ... is that your secret? Ciao

Well, all pastas, and all restaurants, are not alike. $20 for spaghetti with marinara, and crappy service? Too much. $20 for rigatoni with duck confit, spinach, roasted red peppers, pine nuts and mushrooms, served nicely? Now that's worth arguing about! (See Il Poggio in Snowmass, CO for the rigatoni--it's great!)

L: Pasta is just an example of the problem, it carries through to $12 appetizers, $30 meat & seafood dishes, and $10 desserts. Let's not forget the $10 glass of wine. But I guess your so dumb you just don't get it. Keep getting ripped off and thinking that you have good taste. <BR> <BR>Ciao!

<BR>For you few defenders of L, his last post on this previous thread is a perfect example of why he is so disliked on this board. He has to respond to a simple question like this with his typical smarta** snobbish attitude.

I am popular ... my two supporters say so (well, there were still two by last week's count). I bet you probably even failed to notice that one poster nominated me for Mr. Congeniality. It's just that this is such a rube posting ... I mean, with all the interesting issues in the world of travel, someone wants to get off on pasta prices. By the way, Elizabeth, what kind of drive-thru offers those pasta bigmeals? I could go for a plate of that ... I mean, roaring down the interstate twirling pasta strands on my fork. Manga, manga! Ciao

Hi, L! Forgot your medication today? For your information, I don't drive a truck, and I don't eat from drive-throughs. The way I know a "place" like that is from having dined in a lot of restaurants. Usually, I can walk in, speak briefly with a staff member, ask to see the wine list, or scan the menu from outside, and get a pretty good idea of the type of place. If it's a new place I've tried where I feel like I haven't received value for my money, I simply don't go back and don't recommend it to anyone I know. I like to save my "dining" experiences for better quality restaurants - usually in NYC which we live close to. We will spend money on a good dining experience. <BR> <BR>For a quick plate of pasta that I can easily make at home, I make it at home - cuisine being one of my interests. I don't have to have that at a trendoid spot for $28 a plate. <BR> <BR>Otherwise, for casual meals we go to our local neighborhood restaurants, e.g., Thai or Afghan or Indian places, for a reasonably priced meal. Often we can bring our own wine - better stuff than is available at many restaurants. <BR> <BR>I guess it's just a matter of priorities. <BR> <BR>Ciao to you, too!

Fedup, <BR> <BR>You're spending over $100 a couple for pasta? How is that possible? What are you doing, ordering every pasta dish on the menu? Quit loading up on that $2.50 garlic bread! <BR> <BR>I'm sorry but I have to agree with Mr. CongeniaLity - why not cook at home for a change? <BR> <BR>

Hey, X: <BR> <BR>Figure $20 - $25 per plate of pasta = $50. Bottle of wine, the cheapest on the list, maybe $30 - That's $80 right there. Add on dessert or coffee, or salads to begin, plus tax and tip. It's very easy to spend $100 a couple for a casual meal.

I don't go to those $20 a plate pasta restaurants any more or any other trendy places. Too expensive for me. They just have to make do without my business. Now I go to cheap places or cook my pasta at home. The money I save goes into my travel fund. Then, its off to Italy! There I get the best, most delicious, most authentic pasta I can eat for $5 a plate. <BR>Like the man says. It's about your priorities and where you want to spend your money.

Yay, Gerry! You DO have your priorities in the right place! :-)

I'm with Elisabeth here. <BR> <BR>Besides pasta, for your $20 bucks, you are getting the following (if you're lucky): <BR> <BR>fresh baked bread <BR>dipping oil or butter <BR>salad <BR>the goodies on top of the pasta <BR>china plate and decent flatware <BR>fresh laundered linens <BR>centerpiece on your table <BR>uniformed waitstaff <BR>furnishings to enjoy <BR>artwork on the walls <BR>insurance in case you fall in the parking lot or in case you drink too much and crash on the way home <BR> <BR>need I go on? <BR> <BR> <BR>

X: We do cook at home, just not 7 days a week. Any other insightful comments? <BR> <BR>Ess: I see I have found a kindred spirit. Others may be impressed with these trendy restaurants, but I'm not.

Yes, I do have another insightful comment. Why don't you just get a GLASS of wine, or skip the extra salad or dessert and coffee? If the pasta's $20 a plate that means you're spending $60 on other stuff. Cut back on some of that, get your bill down into the $50's. <BR> <BR>Or eat somewhere else if the place you're going is a ripoff.

X: How dumb are you? That was $100 for 2 people not one. Pasta = $40, 2 glasses of wine = $16, plus Tax and Tip and you're up to over $70. You add a couple of green salads and coffee and that's $100. Get it! Now go back under your rock.

I just looked at a "trendy" local Italian restaurant menu.(Same place where fedup lives): Pasta dishes $16 and up; salad $7 and up; soup of the day($5.50; dessert $3.50 and up; coffee $2.50. Total minumum(cheapest items)=34.50 per person.+tax(8.5%)=$2.94+tip(15%)=$6. Total without drinks, appetizers or wine=$43.50 per person. <BR>Or you could go to The Old Spaghetti Factory and get all of the above for $8.99 without tax and tip. <BR>You do pay for the atmosphere!

Hey, Joan! <BR> <BR>Regarding all the extras that come with your pasta - bread, art on the walls, ambience, nice china, etc. We've got all that at home. The only thing we're lacking is the uniformed waitstaff (and my boyfriend isn't cooperating!) :-)

You're attempting to exaggerate the price of this magic pasta by throwing in a bunch of other crap like coffe, dessert, bottles of wine, etc. Just look at the main course. How cheap do you expect a restaurant to be able to serve a plate of pasta? Forget about all the other crap? I assume you're talking past with sauce, right? Maybe some decent sauce like a fra diavolo, or pesto, not something from a jar. If you stayed home, it would cost you $1 for a box of pasta, $6 for a jar of higher end sauce, $4 for some sort of prepackaged salad in a bag, $2 for a loaf of bread. So that's $13 for a dinner for 2. It would take you about 1 hour to prepare. What is your time worth to you? $20/hr? $40/hr? <BR>So this meal may really be worth $33 to you and you complain about paying $40 at a restaurant where you get to sit on your cheap ass and have someone else serve you??? <BR> <BR>You can find plenty of places in NYC where you can get a la carte past for $12 a dish, but those places make $$$ nickel and diming you on everything else.

Additup: <BR>When I make pasta at home with meat sauce , my cost of making enough to feed 8 people (8 very large servings) is less than $10. I make my pasta sauce from scratch, not out of a bottle. I never pay more than about $.75/lb for the pasta. And believe me my pasta rivals anything you can get at a restaurant.

Fed up, let's go back to those early IQ tests, which you must not have done very well on. You're spending $100 a couple for pasta. Each plate of pasta costs $20. How much are you spending on "other stuff"? $60, just as my post said. Do the math. It's easy.

additup, maybe fedup doesn't think a plate of pasta is WORTH $20, but maybe he thinks a nice rack of lamb is worth $28. Or maybe it's just the type of restaurant that he doesn't think is worth $100 a couple. Maybe he'd rather spend $150 a couple in a different type of restaurant. Better value. It's not necessarily all about pasta per se.

Italian-American you're right, the portions at the type of restaurants I'm talking about are generally small, that's how they get you to order appetizers and desserts. A pound of pasta will serve a minimum of 4 in a restaurant, translation $20 x 4 = $80 for 4 plates of pasta which cost 75 cents for the main raw material. That's my point. I used pasta as the example exactly because it is so inexpensive.

I'm with you Fedup! My husband and I love to cook as well and do so most of the time, but once in a while you just want to go out, look at a menu and be served, not to mention not having to clean up. I don't think the issue here is cooking in versus dining out, I mean it is beyond obvious that it will cost less to make pasta at home, isn't it? <BR>Restaurants where I live have gotten so expensive that unless you go out for pizza, you cannot spend less than $ 100 for 2 and that IS with one glass of wine each, not a bottle. Last week we went out for tapas and a pitcher of sangria. We didn't even have entree's for crying out loud and the bill was $ 100. When we got home my husband made a sandwich. Once again we agreed not to go out because it's such a ripoff, but in about a month or so the memory will fade and we'll get burned again. <BR>The idea not to patronize these places only works if everyone is fed up. Apparently they are not though because all the restaurants are packed! <BR>If any one knows of any reasonable and good restaurants in Fairfield County, CT please, please clue me in!

It's hard to believe anyone so dumb has the money to afford $100 meals. <BR> <BR>1. Restaurants, like many other businesses, pay far more for labor than raw materials in the dish. The raw materials aren't irrelevant, but they don't totally explain the cost. <BR> <BR>2. You have to pay your share of the overhead. If the restaurant serves 100 meals that night, you have to pay 1 percent of all of that overhead (insurance, utilities, salary), no matter what you order. <BR> <BR>3. If you don't want pasta, don't order it. If you don't want to pay, stay home. <BR> <BR>4. The size of a pasta entree in a typical "run-of-the-mill" restaurant ranges from normal to huge. Order one pasta dish and split it. You'll lose weight. <BR> <BR>5. Why are you complaining about frills like liquor and dessert? Again, if money is no object, order these things, enjoy them, and pay for them. But don't whine to me about them. <BR> <BR>6. As an alternative, consider asking the restaurant to bring you a package of dry pasta and bill you $2 (plus tax and tip, of course).

I just had to add this. A few months ago we went out for our anniversary to a fairly new restaurant that has gotten good reviews. We knew it was not cheap, but it was described as very casual, good food on the waterfront (There were many people there in shorts and jeans - we aren't talking formal and pricey here). The entree's ranged from $ 26.00 to $ 38.00. Now here's the kicker, if you wanted a vegetable or potatoe it was $ 6.00 extra! I think that is incredible to charge that much for an entree and not even throw in the damn potatoe! The amazing part is, the place was packed. We won't be back but obviously some people aren't bothered by this extreme nickel and diming! Just had to vent, sorry.

Oh come on. I live in a high-cost area (D.C.), and I can go lots of places for a nice meal for less than $26 for an entree without side dishes. Where did you go? Ruth's Chris?

The name of the restaurant is The Beacon in Stamford CT. Please feel free to call and ask the price range of the entrees. (perhaps they have a website as well). I am NOT exaggerating. D.C. is considerably less expensive than Fairfield County. I'm quite sure that can be verified easily if anyone cared to go to the trouble.

The point isn't whether the cost was $26 for an entree as you say. I believe you. The point is that most cities are full of restaurants serving cheaper meals that are still plenty good. If you are going to pick someplace for a splurge, why on Earth complain about it later?

Happy to tell you why - It wasn't worth it! They charge NYC prices and believe me, the food was just O.K. We don't mind paying big bucks for outstanding food or a very special ambience but this place had neither! This also was not considered a "splurge". We would have gone to any multitude of excellent places in the city if we wanted that. We were actually trying to go a little conservative as we were leaving on vacation soon and didn't want to spend a lot. The service was also so bad that I didn't realize that the waiter neglected to tell us the specials until I overheard him telling the next table. I'm complaining because we left feeling totally ripped off and IMO making someone pay for a potato when you charge outrageous prices is just tacky. At least other readers of this forum are forewarned.

How many of these silly posts are we going to have here? Yes, I don't have to read them, but they drive the worthwhile posts to the next 50 in a hurry. BTW, L, that would be "mangia, mangia", yes?

I see I have stimulated some conversation. Sorry I was gone for a few hours, had to have a fix of that $20 pasta for dinner (just kidding). The entire issue is VALUE! Where is the value? Who is going to object to spending $100 per couple for a good dining experience? We recently went to a restaurant that served a great meal for $50 a head, the $25 entre was 5 of the largest beer batter shrimp I ever saw, and it came with a salad and baked potato. We added soup, cocktail and coffee and it was a great meal. <BR> <BR>Curious: We have eaten many a turkey sandwich after one of those meals. <BR> <BR>Next Time: Sounds like I've hit a sore spot, in the restaurant business are you? Probably charging $20 for marinara sauce. Ultimately the customer is looking for bang for the buck and as the economy cools that will become more apparent.

I don't get it. <BR>I am from Manhattan. <BR>You are telling me that you can get pasta for less than $20? That must be a magical place.

Well Will, If I've saved just one fellow poster from throwing their money away on a mediocre meal then I consider this a worthwhile post. And so you know that I don't object to spending a lot on a good meal, I had a fabulous meal at American Seasons in Nantucket last month. Was it is expensive? Very. Was it worth it? Every penny. The food was incredibly delicious, great atmosphere and service. Can't wait to return next year. In fact it was more expensive than The Beacon. We didn't mind though since it was a memorable meal and worth the expense. You at least felt you were getting value for your money, as Fedup said. And Jeff, it is amazing that we live in an area with such high prices that people actually don't believe you! I've got a tip for you though, go to Lupa. Great food and very reasonable, the pasta may even be about $20!

Just another vent: <BR>In the past on special occasions(eg birthday, anniversary) I have gone to some of those "romantic" French restaurants. Everything is ala carte and you spend about $100 or more per person for a nice relaxing 3 hour meal. I especially like it when they bring out the dessert cart crammed full of lucious looking deserts for about $9 a piece. When you finally select one, they cut off about a 1" wide slice. And I wonder, since there are only about 15 people in this restaurant and its almost closing time what are they going to do with all that stuff left on the cart? Oh well. I just leave hungry having been told that you are more appreciative of the food if you leave a little hungry and not over-full. But, invariably, I have had to stop on the way home at a buger joint or someplace to satisfy my hunger. And while there I can get a whole pie for the cost of one little piece. <BR>These days, I just skip the French experience and go strait to the burger joint. <BR>At least pasta is filling.

My answer to all this high-priced resturant food is: A SPECIAL MEAL AT HOME. I cook up a skillet of cornbread (w/1 tea spoon sugar)and fry 3 pieces of sowbelly. Next I fill a large tumbler about two thirds with milk then crumble about a quarter of the cornbread into the milk and CHOW DOWN. Beats any fancy dish that I have had in a resturant and I don't have to tip a fat ugly waitress which I always do when I eat out. I take that back. Louisiana's crawfish et-too-foo is as good.

I'm with you on the pasta scam. Pasta and seafood like salmon are the major money-makers for restaurants. Beef and the fancier salads (not just greens and tomatoes) cost them, usually. <BR> <BR>I also don't know why people who aren't carbo-loading for a marathon eat pasta in the first place. It's starch, people, bland at that. And it's usually loaded up with something that'll add fat. Olive oil may have some bennies for you, but then there's that cheese, those pieces of salami or pepperoni, or whatever. Italians eat it but in much, much smaller portions, not as their major entree. <BR> <BR>When I go to an upscale restaurant, I usually pass right over the pasta part of the menu (unless I'm having a carbonara fit!). <BR> <BR>Ah, yes -- and let's not forget the $8. tiny ball of sorbet with a sprig of mint. Just fruit juice into the sorbet-maker and you've made a fortune.

Have to agree with Fedup and Ess. The $20 pasta plate is just indicative of all the trendy pop-ups during our recent great economy. People had money to burn. But now I think we'll see more and more of these places going under, as people become more cautious and seek better value. I'd rather pay $100 per person, than $100 per couple to receive a lot of the garbage I've encountered lately. I like Gerry's idea the best!