Why is eating out so expensive now when the food quality is worse?
Restaurants are simultaneously hiking prices, shrinking portion sizes, and letting service and food quality slip. This combination of higher costs and lower value makes customers feel cheated, pushing even loyal regulars to stop dining out entirely.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from September 2026.
- This comes up 186.3× more often in r/restaurantowners than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1cooking at homeDid this help you?
- 2buying cheaper alternatives like grocery store rotisserie chickensDid this help you?
- 3switching to lower-cost fast food or local food trucksDid this help you?
- 4ordering delivery instead of sitting inDid this help you?
- 5Implementing at least two no-spend days a week to consciously curb restaurant and food delivery spendingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We have reduced our dining out for a few reasons. The prices have gone up, which I understand and can handle, but the quality has gone down.”source ↗
“Younger buyers (like me) quit going because their portion size and customer service went to crap.”source ↗
“They really lost me, and I was an easy person to keep”source ↗
“The restaurant spending shocked me because I thought we eat out less than average, but a coffee and a pastry here and there, a quick order of Thai one night, pizza every Friday, all adds up apparently. My wife and I decided we can impact the restaurant bill more than anything else so we decided to have at least two no-spend-days a week.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why do restaurants charge a fee for sharing a meal?
- 7Why are food delivery apps so expensive?
- 3Why do restaurants charge extra for basic sides and additions?
- 19Should I keep going with my stagnating business or quit?
- 4Hidden fees and higher prices on restaurant bills abroad
- 2Should I open another restaurant after failing?