large booking at restaurant- how to split the bill?

mumps

duchy wrote: »

Well yes ...... Years ago I worked for that well known pub chain that serves food and although I worked lunchtimes mainly (I worked school hours) I'd sometimes do overtime on evening shifts and if someone was drinking soft drinks then they'd be matching drink for drink in the rounds -so for each pint ordered the non drinker would be having a coke or a pint of coke. Sounds like a lot - but that to many people is normal consumption -personally I'd burst if I drank eight pints of anything - but yes people do.

I am surprised, when we go out I know I drink very little but I don't think any of the soft drink drinkers will drink as much as the alcohol drinkers. At our local pub chain where we sometimes meet friends for lunch you get free refills for the soft drinks so it isn't an issue. Thinking about it the alcohol drinkers don't tend to drink so much at lunchtime either. It is a bit of a minefield.

I think I'd burst if I drank 2 pints never mind 8.

mumps

duchy wrote: »

How do you tell the difference ?
Do you check their credit rating ?

Unless there was a really appealing starter I'd probably skip the starter as often there's nothing that jumps out at me -and I tend to not just eat for the sake of it so to have a main and no starter isn't unusual , or even have two or three starters and no main if the starters are appealing the mains aren't. I don't tend to talk about money on social occasions as I was raised to think it's vulgar -I may not think it is nowadays but I also find the endless talk about mortgages, property prices etc not my favourite dinner chat either However as I don't usually talk about money - would you assume my skipping the starter was because I couldn't afford it-and would my glum face be because of your body language caused by you assuming my motives ? I certainly wouldn't feel I had to justify what I was ordering or not ordering in normal circumstances.

I agree. I have been hard up in the past but comfortable now and sometimes I have the cheapest thing on the menu because that is what I want. I sometimes have a starter instead of a main, particularly lately as health problems mean I daren't over eat. I find it quite upsetting that people would be judging that and thinking I am being tight or whatever. I don't see why I need to justify it, I mean what would I do produce a bank statement to show I can afford it, produce a doctor's note confirming that I can't manage a big meal? Humiliating and being "forced" to admit I couldn't afford more wouldn't be nice either.

seven-day-weekend

Well I suppose if you had a cheerful face and chose not to tell me you couldn't afford the restaurant, then I'd assume you were eating little by choice and there wouldn't be a problem.

onlyroz

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Well I suppose if you had a cheerful face and chose not to tell me you couldn't afford the restaurant, then I'd assume you were eating little by choice and there wouldn't be a problem.

I would hope that any discussions about the cost of the restaurant would come up before you agreed to go there. If one person suggests dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant and you knew that your funds wouldn't stretch that far, the time to bring it up is at the point of the invite.


However, if your friend suggests going to a fancy restaurant, and you look at their menu in advance and decide that you could manage it as long as you only had one course, then I don't think there's a problem. Many people would be happy for the opportunity to sample higher quality food, even if they knew that they could only afford one course and a soft drink.

Spendless

Just to update - I caught the train and we bought the cheapest bottle of rose wine at £5.99. Two 10oz steaks @ £9.99 became bogof due to my voucher. The wine lasted us all evening as I suspected so £16 total bill divided in half £8 each. The soft drinks option wouldn't have been enough with just one glass.

The wine was perfectly acceptable though I'm no connoisseur, the steak was underdone to my preference, i asked for medium and got what I considered medium rare. Friend asked for well done and got the medium I'd preferred.

mumps- everyone I have ever dined or drank with has matched the other person/people drink for drink regardless of whether that drink is soft or alcoholic. Whilst I've not come across anyone who can drink 8 pints of coke, or other carbonated drink I have come across people who can drink the same quantity of J20s as someone on an alcoholic drink, The only person I ever came across who struggled to manage even one full soft drink is one of my Grandmothers and that was due to medication she was on. In your case I think I would just buy my drinks separately at the bar (or pay at the table) - as I've previously mentioned, this was suggested to us by the manager of a restaurant recently and then split the rest of the bill as per your preference.

btw- the pub chain is called Stonegate Pubs Company. I don't know if the cheap prices I've mentioned on here are replicated around the country in which they are located or they price to local demand.

seven-day-weekend

[QUOTE=onlyroz;70460549]I would hope that any discussions about the cost of the restaurant would come up before you agreed to go there. If one person suggests dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant and you knew that your funds wouldn't stretch that far, the time to bring it up is at the point of the invite.


However, if your friend suggests going to a fancy restaurant, and you look at their menu in advance and decide that you could manage it as long as you only had one course, then I don't think there's a problem. Many people would be happy for the opportunity to sample higher quality food, even if they knew that they could only afford one course and a soft drink.[/QUOTE]

Yes, so would I, but my companion might not chose to discuss their finances.

If they are happy to only have one course that is fine. It's the people like me who WOULDN'T be happy if they couldn't have what they wanted that I am talking about. There is no way that I personally would ever go for a meal if I could only afford one course (even though I might only chose to have the one course when I got there). It's a matter of being able to have a second course if you want it.

Pollycat

Spendless wrote: »

Just to update - I caught the train and we bought the cheapest bottle of rose wine at £5.99. Two 10oz steaks @ £9.99 became bogof due to my voucher. The wine lasted us all evening as I suspected so £16 total bill divided in half £8 each. The soft drinks option wouldn't have been enough with just one glass.

The wine was perfectly acceptable though I'm no connoisseur, the steak was underdone to my preference, i asked for medium and got what I considered medium rare. Friend asked for well done and got the medium I'd preferred.

I hope you both sent the steaks back for a bit more cooking.

And I hope you had a good time and it uplifted your spirits, despite the underdone steak.

SingleSue

I've never matched drink for drink, I drink to my own schedule, sometimes it matches up and sometimes it doesn't. It's one of the reasons apart from cost that I don't get into rounds buying , don't really want to be accused of taking longer over a drink to avoid buying my round or having the others sitting their parched while they wait for me to finish my drink.

When we went out on Monday, I had one orange squash, the two others in the party had 3 drinks each (and one had a coffee on top of that).

Pollycat

Spendless wrote: »

btw- the pub chain is called Stonegate Pubs Company. I don't know if the cheap prices I've mentioned on here are replicated around the country in which they are located or they price to local demand.

Gotcha! :T

We've got one in our town, it used to be a Yates's pub but has been recently refurbished and renamed.

Looked at their website and it says 'wine from £7.95 a bottle', it's competing with a Wetherspoons about 100 or so yards away.

Spendless

Pollycat wrote: »

I hope you both sent the steaks back for a bit more cooking.

And I hope you had a good time and it uplifted your spirits, despite the underdone steak.

We didn't both had already started tucking into the rest of the meal on the plate and put sauces etc on. It wasn't quite how I'd liked it but still ok. I'd go back but I'd ask for my steak more well done in future (or choose a different dish -lol)