Beans on toast in a cafe, how much is reasonable to pay?

[Lysander]

How much would you think it reasonable to pay for baked beans and two slices of toast in a cafe? When I say "a cafe" I mean a greasy spoon, not an upmarket hipster cafe serving organic haricots on sourdough bread with cracked sea salt and Wiltshire chives.

Personally I think around £2.95 maximum. More in the region of £2.60. Anything above £3 is extortion and anything below £2.50 is a bargain.

 

[Lysander]

Actual cost? 3 slices of bread, a tin of beans + some margerine/butter probably comes in a lot under £1.

You are assuming they are using one tin of beans per customer.

 

[Lysander]

Hull
https://www.facebook.com/London-way-cafe-612824992149963/photos/612829108816218

Beans on toast £2

That was a few years ago, are they still selling it at that price though?

 

[Lysander]

£2.60 (and a cost of 0.15) would be a 94% profit margin.

But there's no way the cost is 15p when you consider staff costs, rents, rates, insurance, cleaning, depreciation, furniture ...

How can you work that out per meal though?

More beans does not mean more furniture.

 

[Lysander]

I'd say about £2 is fair, seeing as ingredients cost about 50p

I would say that, given that they probably buy the bread and beans in bulk, and make a boatload of beans and water them down, the cost per serving would be about half of that. I would imagine the ingredients cost about 20p if you divided them up. Or even less.

Agree that £2 is very reasonable. Anything above £3 is ridiculous.

 

[Lysander]

I paid £5.20 for beans on toast.

It did come with 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 fried slice, mushrooms, chips and mug of coffee.

You see, this is the kind of value that we're talking about. That's the kind of thing we should be seeing, not £3.50 or thereabouts for a quarter of the quantity.

 

[Lysander]

WTF?

For me, on the scarcity of sleep I've had for the last few nights, a Full English with chips sounds epic.

Needs black pudding though.

 

[Lysander]

Quality is questionable.

That's the point, the quality is often questionable in these places.

Hence why they will be buying the cheapest ingredients. One will not be served Heinz or Branston beans but Aldi "Essentials" or "Stockwell" from Tescos with added vegetable oil. Buying in Heinz is a waste of money, people will just buy whatever they serve and cover it in salt, ketchup and brown sauce. Greasy spoons are 'functional' places.

 

[Lysander]

That's exactly what I mean and same here. WAAAAAAY better when they're thick.

What other way is there to cook them than on the hob?

 

[Lysander]

anything over £3 way too high.

Absolutely, categorically agreed.

 

[Lysander]

in reality they probably don't use Heinz beans but some crap brand thats like 50p a tin with a splash of ketchup inside it.

your probably getting 25pence worth of beans and about 30pence worth of bread so the total cost of your meal is like 60pence or something. (assuming half a tin of beans + 4 slices of bread) in reality you probably get 4 triangles

Yes, cheapest beans I can find are Aldi and Tesco at 22p a can. Bread 49p a loaf. There may be cheaper.

 

[Lysander]

Beans microwave nicely in one of those microwave soup mugs you get that have a little hole for the air to escape

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sistema-Mi...Sistema+Micro+soup+mug&qid=1628854106&sr=8-10

Yes but does it give you a nice thick sauce?

 

[Lysander]

Yes it does, because the hole let’s the steam (moisture) escape, thickening the sauce. The brand of beans matters as well. Heinz are a bit thin, but Branston sauce is perfect for it. Little stir after 1
min, then another stir at the end. Piping hot thick beans guaranteed with no saucepan to clean up.

Hmm that's promising. By coincidence my wife just bought me a Sistema sandwich box for work, looks like a solid make.

Many years ago I worked in a Little Chef and the price they could buy stuff for was crazy. They were buying a whole loaf of bread for 11p and something like the Olympic Breakfast worked out at about 54p for all the ingredients in total.

This is the kind of thing it would be fascinating to hear more about. It would be great to hear from people who have actually worked in the industry and know how cheaply these things can be bought.

 

[Lysander]

I own a couple of restaurants, Gives me a little more insight

Why don't you give us something of breakdown.

 

[Lysander]

Nail head - hit.

3 times is the rule but for something below £1 to make you likley want a 6 times multiplier.

Which would make, on a 6x multiplier, £2 the most reasonble, assuming the ingredients are 30p per serving.

£3.50 is a 12x multiplier, which is just insane.