[Closed] Putting up with the second-rate. Why do we do it?

You were prepared to pay £5 for scrambled eggs on toast at all??????

Totally with you. Which is why we take packed lunches everywhere: Lovely food for £3 for 2 people, not £5 each..... 🙂

come to the north mate, its much better.

Hmmm. Fish sarnie for lunch!

I agree with MF you went somewhere and were willing to pay £5 for scrambled eggs on toast, are you CaptainFlashHearts love child.

£5 for decent food - good portion of eggs, proper bread, coffee. Yes. Seems reasonable to me.

In the event, didn't pay.

If you ate it, you should have paid for it. If you'd sent it back after tasting it, then you'd have been perfectly within your rights to not pay.

great british tradition , if people pay for it , they'll be happy to charge for mediocre shite , i still think if it wasn't for the influx of foreigne restaurants we'd be having steakhouse fare and going home at 9.30 cos it suited them .

So it wasn't £5 for the egg on toast then? But as has been said - if it wasn't good enough then you should ask for a refund and not eat it.

Or put some meat on it and have a proper breakfast 😉

So when your thread says "Putting up with the second-rate. Why do we do it?" you didn't, also like others have said you ate it. When I've had crap food I've sent it back there and then not eat it then refuse to pay.

£5 for decent food - good portion of eggs, proper bread, coffee. Yes. Seems reasonable to me.

Agreed, but only if it's good! I have a cracking little greasy spoon up the road that does a smashing egg and pig bun for £3.95. Proper smoked back bacon, cooked to order, two decent fried eggs again cooked to order all wrapped up in crusty white loveliness.

You just picked a duff caff, of which there are sadly far too many.

[i]And how dare you serve such rubbish and ask for a 500% mark up?[/i]

Are you basing that figure on just the cost of the eggs and bread, or on the total overheads of the cafe?

Not sure what you expected scrambled eggs to taste of, but unless you add a something to them they are very bland. Was there not salt and pepper on the table?

Drac - Member

So when your thread says "Putting up with the second-rate. Why do we do it?" you didn't, also like others have said you ate it. When I've had crap food I've sent it back there and then not eat it then refuse to pay.

"like others have said you ate it" - amazing - are there invisible STW posters hanging around me when I'm (not) eating?

Not sure what you expected scrambled eggs to taste of, but unless you add a something to them they are very bland.

Clearly, you are not used to eating decent food.

I'm with muffin man here - scrambled eggs hardly ooze flavour unless they've been well seasoned with salt and white pepper. Mmmm.

If you sent it back uneaten, why the hell did you pay?

Oh dear. Please re read my posting.

1: I didn't pay.

2: Eggs from non-battery hens, cooked properly, are delicious.

Clearly (at the risk of repeating myself) - you haven't yet tasted any.

[i]See also:[/i] "What is the best chocolate (bar) ever?"

I ask where they get their eggs before ordering

I love it when I go into cafe's for a full english, and they give you one sausage cut in half down the middle and opened out. What the blue blazes is that all about? Am I supposed to think I'm getting two sausages? You dirty, evil, sausage cutting bas****s.

djglover - Member

I ask where they get their eggs before ordering

That's a good idea and one I'll adopt in future. 😀

Clearly, (at the risk of contradicting you), I eat eggs laid by my sister's free range hens so I know the difference.

I think that in future, you should prepare your own scrambled eggs then you'll not have anyting to moan about. 🙄

I love scrambled eggs, but they make me cry whenever I order them 'out'

and they give you one sausage cut in half down the middle and opened out

So it cooks quicker I expect.

I think that in future, you should prepare your own scrambled eggs then you'll not have anyting to moan about.

Pretty difficult to do in a Cafe...

Asking where eggs come from might get you a literal answer.

I'd avoid cafe scrambled eggs but I also avoid big chain places like the plague. Down here in That London there are loads of little independent places doing good quick food at reasonable prices if you look round a bit. Turkish and Portugese run ones are usually pretty good.

I'm sure the An*us steak houses round Leicester Square are only kept going by people from out of town coming in to see shows, though they are a reminder of how cr@p eating out used to be in the 70s.

I do feel the original poster should have specified "second rate [b]eggs[/b]"...

T'other week i found myself at the mercy of motorway service stations .Between £3 and £4 for the most unappetising sandwiches you could imagine .Thanks but i'll go hungry .
On the Mendips the weekend had an al day breakfast .2 eggs , 2 sausages ,loads of excellent bacon,saute potatoes,beans ,toast and a mug of tea for £5.95 .Gert lush it were !

If anyone is ever in Dorking, Harleys Cafe do a fantastic bit of tucker.

Very good sausages!

The best Cafe breakfasts I ever had were in a bar in Wanaka, NZ. They called it the "All Day Beast" (lol).

Saute potatoes, eggs, mushrooms, bacon, beans, proper fresh bread and butter, 1/2 pint FRESH orange juice and as much real coffee as you wanted.

Bliss.

Plus, when you left the place, you were in New Zealand... 8)

joolsburger - Member

If anyone is ever in Dorking, Harleys Cafe do a fantastic bit of tucker.

Very good sausages!

Is that where the old Harley Davidson showroom used to be, jools?

sorry if I am missing a post but did you eat all the scrambled eggs on toast or just taste & return them?

If you ate it all up & then didn't pay (regardless of how lacking in taste they were) then I think that's bit cheeky....

Morrisons breakfast £3.95 for sausage, bacon x2, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, fried bread, hash browns, 70p for 2 slices of toast, and another 70 for some black pudding, enough to keep me on the bike all day! Bargain.

PS: All Day Beast here...

[IMG] [/IMG]

Is that on the front overlooking the sandy beach and the island? With a car park somewhere just of shot to the left of the picture?

Or is that somewhere else I am thinking of? Does it overlook the Tasman sea?

mastiles_fanylion - Member

Is that on the front overlooking the sandy beach and the island? With a car park somewhere just of shot to the left of the picture?

Stand by...

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

Best café breakfast I have had is I think at La Note, which is a French café in Berkeley, California.

Very good scrambled eggs, homefries, a ludicrous quantity of roasted garlic in there (I think I counted 10 cloves or something), and pancakes & maple syrup on the side. Oh and with a fresh citron pressé on the side.

Cost £8 including the drink, but it did mean I didn't need lunch really, and the quality was very very good. Haven't had anything so good anywhere else. Americans do some of the best breakfasts, and fancy Americans trying to pretend to be French (so not so fatty and using good ingredients) are even better.

I agree with the general point - like bloody coffee places that do terrible coffee or worse, you can get a teabag that has been put into milk, then had tepid water put on top of it (and it costs you £2 for the privilege), yet everyone still seems to go into them. And Starbucks cakes, they look quite fancy, but I can't believe any bugger actually likes those disgusting pieces of junk.

Oh and bad, but shiny looking restaurants, particularly outside London they're everywhere, it is so blimmin expensive to eat out when you are outside London, and such a lottery, so much worse on average than London eating, and more expensive which is pretty stupid.

Joe

My description doesn't match the images but it was a long time ago I went, but yep!

I loved NZ. Not as much as Kenya, but it was amazing. Also had the bestestest ever shell-on tiger prawns in salt and pepper in Queenstown. Nom.

Nom.

Nom.

hothouse cafe in chiswick, best full english for miles around

Well, M-F, there's a sandy beach... and what could be an island (it's actually a peninsula, though)...

Wanaka is on the edge of Lake Wanaka.

It's where Queenstowners go to when they want a break!

And Starbucks cakes, they look quite fancy, but I can't believe any bugger actually likes those disgusting pieces of junk

I go there all the time. Coffee is 7/10 but the concoctions (caramel frappucinos and whatnot) are lovely and yes I HAVE tried lots of other shops when they are available, and not liked them as much. It's all very well to say 'oh you simply MUST go to snobby so and so on this lovely little side street in gay Paris' and whatnot but when I am in a place I don't know on a wet Tuesday morning what choice do I have?

Their sandwiches are also very nice if pricey, and the cakes are better than the usual slop too.

As for putting up with slop - people sell it because people buy it. There'll be plenty of people who go round muttering that they like their food the way they it and it's been that way for 30 years so why change it etc etc etc. These places must do business after all.

It stinks from a professional point of view tho. How can you serve sh*t knowing that you are serving it?

Frankly, nobody makes breakfast like I do. Just ask a few folk off here that have enjoyed hospitality at CG Towers 😉

My organic porridge sets you up for the day, made with water naturally, with a choice of honey, demerara sugar or maple syrup 8)

Actually I'm just too mean to pay for "food" in poncey over-priced establishments. On a ride I always bring my own picnic, using free range organic eggs obviously.

So, yes, Mr Woppit, respect for not paying but so long as you pointed out the error of their ways 🙄

Some caffs get their eggs already scrambled in bulk, which i cannot imagine does anything for the flavour/freshness. The giveaway is that they do scrambled eggs and omelettes but do not serve fried eggs cos they are already mixed up before they get them. 😕

Why dont you take in your own food next
time and tell him to cook that.
If its crap it is the cook !

To be honest you should have taken it back after one mouth full
Has you have eaten it, how can you then complain.

This issue bugs me so much. As anyone who's travelled in the US, Australia and NZ knows, we tolerate absolute rubbish on our high streets. I'll walk into a random cafe in a town in Tasmania or NZ and will have a good chance of being served something that has been cooked to order with fresh ingredients, a dollop of pride and a dash of skill for about a fiver. Walk into a random cafe in British town and I have a 90 percent chance being served something sloppily decanted from a tin for the barest outlay by mouth-breathing idiot.

I've asked myself why this is so and can only come up with two conclusions: either as a nation we don't know how good food and coffee can be or not enough of us care. I suspect the chains are partly responsible for downgrading our expectations. It's notable that Starbucks pulled most of their outlets from Australia last year as nobody was gastronomically challenged enough to enter them. Why would they when there's a better, cheaper, independent cafe next door? I also suspect nothing can be done about this, but I share Mr Woppit's rage.

FWIW best breakfast in recent years: random cafe in Launceston, Tassie - two perfectly poached eggs, handmade hollandaise, sourdough, fresh squeezed OJ, flat white. Sublime. About £5/6.

To be fair there's a lot of crap available in the US too - it's just different crap, which is of a type that's less offensive when done badly.

I think that a large part of it is that not enoguh of us eat out on a regular basis. Breakfasts in particular - in the US it's very common, so there's a thriving business competing for your custom. In the UK breakfast places are few and far between, and they are always just greasy spoon builder fare.

Oh and on the subject of independent cafes - how do you know it's going to be good before you go into it and buy food?

grantway - Member

Why dont you take in your own food next
time and tell him to cook that.
If its crap it is the cook !

To be honest you should have taken it back after one mouth full
Has you have eaten it, how can you then complain.

I'd rather cook my own food at home, thanks.
If it's crap it's either a) the cook, b) poor quality ingedients or c) a+b
Why do you assume that I ate it?