What's happened to all the decent pub food?

Dano

Dano

Dano

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Maybe it's just my area but a few years back you could walk into most of the pubs around here and pretty much guarantee a decent meal at reasonable cost, these days it's all pretty dire, I'm at the point now where I'd rather go to wetherspoons as it's on par with the rest of them for far less money.

Do you still have decent pub grub near you or is it all tat now?
 
You need to go to a pub out in a village away from the commercial tat, thats where you will find a good carvery for £6-£7 including a pint.
 
There are still a few out there but with pubs having a hard time, many are doing cheap offers or two for ones and are buying in cheap ingredients to do so.
 
All my local pubs seem to do quite well on the food front, but they are in the heart of the Devonshire country land :P
 
stulid said:
You need to go to a pub out in a village away from the commercial tat, thats where you will find a good carvery for £6-£7 including a pint.
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This.

You'd be surprised just how many of those 'pubs' you frequent in urban('ish') areas are just part of a chain. You won't find decent grub there!
 
We have a real mix of chains and independants in town to be fair, and they are all pretty dire regardless of ownership.
 
I get irritated that most pubs seem to sell Thai/Curry rather than proper English grubb.
 
Dano said:
We have a real mix of chains and independants in town to be fair, and they are all pretty dire regardless of ownership.
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I'd agree with this. There are some decent places which look like pubs and do pub grub but they charge so much that the place really can't be called a pub. £12 for bangers and mash? That'll be right.
 
You'll find about 50% of pubs and 100% of chain pubs these day buy all there stock from the likes of 3663, WinCanton, Bookers etc as pre-packaged frozen food. The only real exception is steak, but even that will likely have been sourced from Paraguay/Uruguay/Brazil or South Africa.

The quality isn't bad but your never going to get a properly cooked meals these days!
 
There is a top notch pub for food a few miles from me, out in the country by a river (carpark gets partially flooded on occasion). I've eaten there a dozen times a never had a bad meal. Reasonably pricey for pub grub though (about £14 for surf'n'turf plus £3.50 a pint). At busy times you actually have to reserve a table.

As for chain pubs I don't find it eliminates the possibility of good food if you can find a good branch (obviously quality will be inconsistent), I was pleasantly surprised when I had a burger & chips in a Slug & Lettuce recently - although the presentation was a bit OTT... wooden platter for a plate, chips in some sort of small vase / big mug, table service rather than ordering at the bar etc.

As for Wetherspoons it isn't great quality but I'm not not surprised for those prices, I mean if you could get a lovely slap up meal for a fiver it would defeat the point of more expensive places.
 
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