The great chain restaurant rip off! Coleslaw with a mark-up of 1,567%, carbonara with one of 586% and a curry with 773%.... Why the ‘value for money’ chains aren’t what they seem

Brits have never eaten out as much as we do now. Restaurants, once the preserve of special occasions, were often quite intimidating places.

Over the last generation, however, more and more chains have opened, catering to families wanting to eat out without blowing their pay packets. The average family now spends £45.10 a week on dining out, compared with £56.80 on food at home, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But do these places offer good value? At least half the costs of running a restaurant are the rent, business rates and wages, all of which have increased over the past year. There is also VAT for the taxman. Ultimately though, restaurants control the prices they charge — and the level of mark-up.

A recent Which? report found that the average mark-up on a bottle of wine in a UK restaurant was 167 per cent — and in one case was 300 per cent. The food is more difficult to calculate. We recruited Janet Brinkworth, a food economist who works on TV programmes including the BBC’s Eat Well For Less. She took away dishes, weighed the ingredients, calculated their raw weight and priced them as if they had been bought from Sainsbury’s.

Brits have never eaten out as much as we do now. Restaurants, once the preserve of special occasions, were often quite intimidating places

Brits have never eaten out as much as we do now. Restaurants, once the preserve of special occasions, were often quite intimidating places

Though the ingredients might be higher quality than the supermarket options, that is likely to be balanced by the fact that restaurants can source ingredients cheaply from a wholesaler. Brinkworth believes this method is the fairest way of working out the true cost of the ingredients used.

With this, we calculated the mark-up for the food. This, of course, does not include the costs of cooking or serving the food nor the VAT, but nevertheless, it is a revealing exercise.

If you thought 300 per cent was a high mark-up for wine, you might well be surprised at the mark-ups being slapped on some pretty basic dishes.

 

Carluccio's

Spaghetti Carbonara: £10.50

Described on the menu as a ‘Roman Classic’, the dish was served in a stylish bowl with an enormous rim, giving the impression of a slightly larger portion than it really was, though it was still generous: the full dish, with sauce, weighed 430g.

Nonetheless, the raw ingredients do not amount to much including: an egg, 32g of smoky bacon, some Grana Padano cheese and cream.

Cost of ingredients: £1.53

Mark-up: 586 per cent

Chicken Milanese: £12.95

A thick piece of chicken breast, flattened, and then given a crispy bread crumb and cheese coating, the dish was accompanied by a rather ungenerous salad topped by two yellow plum tomatoes and half a red one.

Cost of ingredients: £2.08

Mark-up: 523 per cent

Green beans: £3.50

Side dishes of vegetables are often how the cost of restaurant meals can creep up. This little dish of green beans totalled just 28 beans, with a drizzle of olive oil.

Cost of ingredients: 88p

Mark-up: 298 per cent

Chicken Milanese: £12.95 A thick piece of chicken breast, flattened, and then given a crispy bread crumb and cheese coating, the dish was accompanied by a rather ungenerous salad topped by two yellow plum tomatoes and half a red one

Chicken Milanese: £12.95 A thick piece of chicken breast, flattened, and then given a crispy bread crumb and cheese coating, the dish was accompanied by a rather ungenerous salad topped by two yellow plum tomatoes and half a red one

Risotto ai funghi: £12.95

A staple vegetarian dish in many Italian restaurants, this is finished with a hit of chilli and truffle oil, which is a very luxurious ingredient, costing £35 a litre. But, in fact, only about 11p of it was used in this dish.

Cost of ingredients: £2.16

Mark up: 500 per cent

Carluccio’s says: ‘The profit on food in restaurants is actually very slim.

‘The cost of the ingredients is a tiny part of the price you pay with ingredients in each dish costing typically 25 per cent of the final price. The remaining costs have to cover myriad items.’

The chain says 20 per cent goes to HMRC in VAT and then there are labour costs, which are ‘significantly more expensive than the actual ingredients’.

 

Giraffe  

Indo-coco curry: £9.95

Part of the ‘Bowls For The Soul’ menu, this vegetarian potato and chickpea curry was not that large and came with a bowl of basmati rice. There were quite a few ingredients but none were expensive, the priciest being half a red pepper.

Cost of ingredients: £1.14

Mark-up: 773 per cent

Smokey Chicken pide: £10.50

Pide is a filled Turkish flatbread, and Giraffe has two on the menu. This one had slices of chicken and peppers on top and was pretty decently sized, with five large pieces of chicken breast on top.

Cost of ingredients: £4.10

Mark-up: 156 per cent

Slow-cooked jerk ribs: £15.50 This was a good-sized portion of ribs, weighing 700g (cooked), served with sweet potato fries and a dish of mango salsa

Slow-cooked jerk ribs: £15.50 This was a good-sized portion of ribs, weighing 700g (cooked), served with sweet potato fries and a dish of mango salsa

Slow-cooked jerk ribs: £15.50

This was a good-sized portion of ribs, weighing 700g (cooked), served with sweet potato fries and a dish of mango salsa.

Cost of ingredients: £6.94

Mark-up: 123 per cent

Beer battered onion rings: £3.50

Six onion rings you could buy from Tesco for 58p served with a dish of bar-becue sauce.

Cost of ingredients: £1.26

Mark-up: 178 per cent

Alex Meyer of Boparan Restaurant Group, which owns Giraffe, says our analysis of the cost of its Indo-Coco Curry ‘does not reflect our actual cost price’. Prices charged include the food prices, VAT, staff costs, rent, rates and all other costs involved in running a restaurant.

 

Jamie's Italian

Veggie tagliatelle bolognese: £9.95

Served as a main or starter, we ordered a main. This dish has few expensive ingredients, save the porcini (dried mushrooms), which were cut up small. There was pangrattato, an Italian term for breadcrumbs. It was served in a large, stylish bowl, making the meal appear more substantial than it was.

Cost of ingredients: £1.58

Mark-up: 530 per cent

Sicilian chicken: £14.95 The menu described it as half a chicken ¿ what arrived comprised the breast and a boned-out leg

Sicilian chicken: £14.95 The menu described it as half a chicken — what arrived comprised the breast and a boned-out leg

Tuscan pizza: £12.95

This was a good-sized pizza, nearly 30cm across, with six large slices of Tuscan fennel salami, an expensive ingredient, and mozzarella from Westcombe in Somerset. There were nine olives and a little tomato sauce.

Cost of ingredients: £6.04

Mark-up: 114 per cent

Sicilian chicken: £14.95

The menu described it as half a chicken — what arrived comprised the breast and a boned-out leg.

Cost of ingredients: £5.58

Mark-up: 168 per cent

Sweet fries: £3.95 An increasingly popular dish, these amounted to 150g sweet potatoes

Sweet fries: £3.95 An increasingly popular dish, these amounted to 150g sweet potatoes

Sweet fries: £3.95

An increasingly popular dish, these amounted to 150g sweet potatoes.

Cost of ingredients: £1.29

Mark-up: 206 per cent

A spokesman for Jamie’s Italian would not comment on the mark-ups, but says they ‘work hard’ to find the very best ingredients. ‘Everything is meticulously sourced from producers in Italy and around the UK. We always use free-range and higher-welfare meat from great British farms.’   

 

Pizza Express

Romano Margherita Bufala pizza: £13.15

This pizza was 35cm in diameter. It was a basic margherita — cheese and tomato — but had a generous amount of mozzarella and fresh basil.

Cost of ingredients: £3.98

Mark-up: 230 per cent

Romano Margherita Bufala pizza: £13.15 This pizza was 35cm in diameter. It was a basic margherita ¿ cheese and tomato ¿ but had a generous amount of mozzarella and fresh basil

Romano Margherita Bufala pizza: £13.15 This pizza was 35cm in diameter. It was a basic margherita — cheese and tomato — but had a generous amount of mozzarella and fresh basil

Classic sloppy Giuseppe: £11.95

A spicy pizza with spiced beef, pepper, onion and mozzarella. The beef would cost about 14p. Most of the cost is the base. The same pizza bought from a supermarket would cost £4.25.

Cost of ingredients: £2.06

Mark-up: 480 per cent

Grand chicken Caesar salad: £11.65

The lettuce leaves cost next to nothing, but there is 100g of chicken, a whole egg, anchovies and some croutons.

Cost of ingredients: £3.03

Mark-up: 284 per cent

A spokesman for Pizza Express says: ‘We are proud of the pizzas and other dishes that we serve and that our customers keep coming back.’

 

Wagamama

Sirloin steak chilli ramen: £13.50

This chain serves various types of ramen (a Japanese noodle soup) including this one which has generous strips of rare steak on top of the bowl.

Cost of ingredients: £5.82

Mark-up: 132 per cent

Salmon teriyaki soba: £13.25

Janet Brinkworth says that by using thinly-sliced salmon tail, the dish seems to have more fish than the 105g served.

Cost of ingredients: £4.85

Mark-up: 173 per cent

Sirloin steak chilli ramen: £13.50 This chain serves various types of ramen (a Japanese noodle soup) including this one which has generous strips of rare steak on top of the bowl

Sirloin steak chilli ramen: £13.50 This chain serves various types of ramen (a Japanese noodle soup) including this one which has generous strips of rare steak on top of the bowl

Yasai katsu curry: £9.75

sweet potato, aubergine and butternut squash, coated in breadcrumbs. They were served with sticky rice — and curry sauce over the top.

Cost of ingredients: £2.33

Mark-up: 318 per cent

A spokesman for Wagamama says: ‘The suggestion of huge mark-ups is both factually incorrect and very misleading.

‘Our customers know that any restaurant has major costs which contribute to price. That includes our hard-working staff wages, our central location rent, the crockery, the cooking equipment, the furniture, design and our management costs.’

 

Byron 

Byron Burger: £9.50

‘Properly-sourced British beef ground fresh into a 6oz patty and cooked medium, so it’s pink and juicy,’ is how Byron describes its burgers. The main one on its menu also has dry-cure bacon, red onion and mature cheddar.

Cost of ingredients: £1.90

Mark-up: 400 per cent

Mushroom burger: £8

A vegetarian alternative, this features a portobello mushroom instead of a beef patty. And not a particularly large mushroom. It also has a large slice of goat’s cheese, which is quite a bit more expensive than the cheddar used in the Byron burger.

Cost of ingredients: £1.50

Mark-up: 433 per cent

Chicken burger: £9

Grilled chicken breast in a bun, with shredded iceberg, costing a mere 2p, a large slice of tomato, costing 4p, and some red onion. It looks a decent sized burger, but you are only getting 155g of chicken.

Cost of ingredients: £1.61

Mark-up: 459 per cent

Byron Burger: £9.50 ¿Properly-sourced British beef ground fresh into a 6oz patty and cooked medium, so it¿s pink and juicy,¿ is how Byron describes its burgers. The main one on its menu also has dry-cure bacon, red onion and mature cheddar

Byron Burger: £9.50 ‘Properly-sourced British beef ground fresh into a 6oz patty and cooked medium, so it’s pink and juicy,’ is how Byron describes its burgers. The main one on its menu also has dry-cure bacon, red onion and mature cheddar

Sweet potato fries: £4

Becoming almost as popular as standard potato fries in some outlets, these were a fairly good-sized portion: 225g. But £4 is pretty steep for just a side dish.

Cost of ingredients: £1.64

Mark-up: 144 per cent

Coleslaw: £3

Coleslaw is one of the highest-margin dishes you can serve. It’s just shredded carrot, white cabbage and a few onions, covered in mayonnaise, which helps give it a relatively long shelf-life — meaning you don’t have to throw it away at the end of the day. Bryon’s serving was pretty small, weighing 165g.

Cost of ingredients: 18p

Mark-up: 1,567 per cent

Bryon says: ‘We feel the estimate provides inaccurate information for our customers. Our menu process reflects this high quality of produce, made fresh daily and served by our hard-working teams.’       

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