The Real Pie Company?? wonder whats happend

[Julius]

On the rare occasions I do eat out, I usually end up very disappointed with the meal I'm offered. Whether standards have dropped over the years I couldn't say, but I often regret spending £20 or so (I live outside London) on a sub standard meal, that I could have cooked better myself.

I'd love to hear the comments on other posters about eating out, and whether its 'just me' !

I definitely don't recommend Pizza Express in Mill Hill. Also the "Prezzo" directly opposite was quite horrendous.

Do you know what I miss more than anything? Spud U Like! I used to LOVE that place. There was one above Victoria Station and another in the Imperial Shopping Arcade just off Oxford Street - which unfortunately has been shut down. I think there's still one in Brighton - I'll have a look when I go down there on Tuesday.

 

[Julius]

Trailers for sale or rent. Rooms to let 50 cents. No 'phone, no pool, no pets.

 

[shopperholic]

We went for a pizza at Pizza Hut the other day and I've got to say, it tasted more like the Hut part than the pizza. The salad was nice though which was free and all you could eat so was the side dressings and it wasn't really expensive, it was the afternoon special, so can't complain really, it's the company of the family I enjoy more when dining out.

 

[boffy]

i hate eating out. the food is usually old stuff thats microwaved in a few minutes and served. anyone asking me to come out for a meal is usually met with big hesitation. i like to cook and there is hardly anything i cant make from scratch. oddly enough i like mcdonalds. not every day or even every week but its quite high quality. freshly cooked in minutes and served in minutes. if you are not happy they will make it fresh just for you

 

[deanos]

there is a sticker on the door you can see on google that's what made me have a look

 

[Lemonpop]

On the rare occasions I do eat out, I usually end up very disappointed with the meal I'm offered. Whether standards have dropped over the years I couldn't say, but I often regret spending £20 or so (I live outside London) on a sub standard meal, that I could have cooked better myself.

I'd love to hear the comments on other posters about eating out, and whether its 'just me' !

We have a nice pub near us that does very good food. They have a vegan menu as well. Being a vegetarian I find that most pub chains choice is non existent. I have contacted many to complain. At least in a restaurant meals can be adjusted for me.

 

[AndiK]

The Real Pie Company has probably been affected by the CO2 shortage, like a lot of other drink and food companies. CO2 is widely used in food processing and packaging and even if The RPC themselves don't use it so much or haven't run out, their (meat) suppliers may have, for example.

https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2018/07/09/CO2-shortage-still-hitting-food-industry

 

[Mazza]

Andi, I wondered that as well. Also, I know TRPC gets a bad press here, and I would never buy them myself, but that Brett chap seems to have a very good rapport with the FB followers doesn't he? That always seems a bit odd to me, if his product is overpriced rubbish. But then I suppose DF is adored on social media, so who knows.

 

[Brissles]

Me too wondered that, the shortage appears to have affected many food companies, but why don't they just admit it? far better to give the reason than have people speculate, and not for the good.

 

[Bettyboo]

I would never buy food from a shopping channel I like to buy pies, cakes etc from local shops I also make my own. I tried Pizza Hut yuk. I’ve only had Macdonalds burger twice and much prefer my home made ones. We eat out a lot and Have had some rubbish served up. We went to a posh Lake District hotel for afternoon tea recently and that was a total disappointment I could have made afternoon tea for ten people for less than it cost. Never again.

 

[Vienna]

My husband says I`m a nightmare to take out for a meal. I don`t think I am. I just expect good food, well cooked, hot and worth the asking price. So many places serve up pinged food, frozen veg and supermarket ready meal type meat, chicken or fish.
I`m of an age where I grew up watching my Mother cook a daily meal from scratch even though she worked, when nobody owned a freezer and supermarkets were non existent. On her way home from work she`d buy her meat, bread and vegetables daily, milk was home delivered early every morning and there were no cupboards filled with snacks or sweet stuff. If you were hungry inbetween meals you were given a jam butty and you either ate what you were given at meal times or you went hungry. I more or less followed the same routines whilst working and raising my own family and the only difference was I owned a freezer and shopped in supermarkets because corner shops and local butchers, fish mongers etc had almost disappeared.
The last time I ate a Macdonalds was almost 13 years ago, I remember it well because I was with my heavily pregnant daughter in law who had a craving for a strawberry milkshake so we ate lunch whilst we were in there and I can honestly say the burger I ate gave me indigestion for hours !

 

[Twilight]

Vienna - I could have written your post as I had a mum like yours, my dad always said she could produce a meal from out of an empty cupboard. I have been a veggie since I was 18, more than four decades, & in the early days it was a choice of omlette, salad or a Ploughman's if eating in a pub. It's much easier now, especially as we love Italian food. We go to a couple of really good veggie places but as they are in Birmingham & Shrewsbury we only go when we're in those places rather than a journey for just a meal. I hate poor service & indifferent food & would rather do a meal at home. I've never eaten a McDonalds's but loved Pizza Hut when our children were little & our older daughter still has Jet, her Gladiators model courtesy of PH, & she's 33.

 

[Brissles]

My husband says I`m a nightmare to take out for a meal. I don`t think I am. I just expect good food, well cooked, hot and worth the asking price. So many places serve up pinged food, frozen veg and supermarket ready meal type meat, chicken or fish.
I`m of an age where I grew up watching my Mother cook a daily meal from scratch even though she worked, when nobody owned a freezer and supermarkets were non existent. On her way home from work she`d buy her meat, bread and vegetables daily, milk was home delivered early every morning and there were no cupboards filled with snacks or sweet stuff. If you were hungry inbetween meals you were given a jam butty and you either ate what you were given at meal times or you went hungry. I more or less followed the same routines whilst working and raising my own family and the only difference was I owned a freezer and shopped in supermarkets because corner shops and local butchers, fish mongers etc had almost disappeared.
The last time I ate a Macdonalds was almost 13 years ago, I remember it well because I was with my heavily pregnant daughter in law who had a craving for a strawberry milkshake so we ate lunch whilst we were in there and I can honestly say the burger I ate gave me indigestion for hours !

Clearly we're in the same age group, as I was brought up in the same conditions.

As for eating out, judging by the posts, I'm clearly not alone in thinking that we're not happy with restaurant meals in the main. But what do we do about it ? our age group can moan, but eating out amongst the young is the norm, and just a means to meet their friends, so the quality and standard to them is of little consequence - and they are the ones who can afford the prices it seems.

 

[Julius]

I was VERY disappointed by my experience at Pizza Express, particularly given that they used to be very good, serving up excellent food at reasonable prices. What was also interesting was that there were possibly only 2 other diners at the restaurant - on a Saturday night! That place used to be full at the weekends.

There's also the price element to consider. I'm not happy paying the best part of £20 for a bland pizza with no flavour and a skimped topping. I'm lucky enough to work in an office complex which has several subsidised restaurants, however this makes the contrast with eateries on the High Street all the more stark.

 

[Julius]

That whole CO2 shortage is something of an indictment on humankind. A more abundant gas on the planet it's hard to find - yet we're running out!

 

[Boris Bear]

That whole CO2 shortage is something of an indictment on humankind. A more abundant gas on the planet it's hard to find - yet we're running out!

Nitrogen, oxygen and argon?

 

[Julius]

Nitrogen, oxygen and argon?

Those three are abundant enough. We don't seem to have problems harnessing them for our needs, so why the big problem when it comes to CO2?

 

[Boris Bear]

Those three are abundant enough. We don't seem to have problems harnessing them for our needs, so why the big problem when it comes to CO2?

The carbon dioxide used in the food industry is a byproduct from fertiliser production and a number of the plants have not been operating. It's not pulled from the atmosphere which is well under 1% carbon dioxide.

 

[Julius]

I heard that carbon dioxide is used to asphyxiate animals being killed, however some places use carbon MONoxide. I wonder which Basso uses?

 

[ERICS MUM]

On the subject of fresh food, I'm old enough to remember only having fresh food when it was in-season. Strawberries were available in the market for no more than 2 or 3 weeks mid summer. Tomatoes and other salad stuff through the summer June - Aug. New potatoes for Easter. Chicken was a treat, presumably they took longer to reach the 'right size' for the butchers shop.

Mum and Dad got a freezer when Bejam's opened up, probably late 60's, but it held frozen peas, big tubs of vanilla ice cream, and those packs of meat that were fashionable at the time.