Transcription
I think we can all agree that eating at a restaurant has become like ridiculously priced in the past few years.
In American restaurants, you're paying over $20 for microwaved frozen food. My job at Denny's and it's literally not a singular customer and we are empty. So, with the high cost of living issues that everybody's been dealing with, I've been getting more and more videos popping up on my for you page talking about how empty restaurants have become. With the increase in cost over years, along with the decline in food quality, it has really taken a toll in an already cutthroat business. And now we've gotten to the point where I don't even know what really could be done other than possible promotions to cut prices for a limited time to get people in the doors, but that's not permanent. And things only seem to be getting more expensive as time goes on. So, I think that this is only going to get worse. We have a lot to go over today along with comments from you guys from previous videos. So, if you want to be featured on a future video, leave in the comments down below. But, let's start off with a very interesting clip.
I think we can all agree that eating at a restaurant has become like ridiculously priced in the past few years. We cook at home most of the times, but like, you know, we like to go out like once or twice a week. And I honestly feel like we cannot me and my husband cannot go out to lunch or dinner without spending 50 plus dollars and we don't even drink. A couple months ago now like me and my husband kind of just looked at each other after going to like you know an moderately priced restaurant and being like that like was not worth it. And we kind of just decided then and there that we were either going to go like the fast casual chain restaurant route or go to a really nice restaurant where we knew that we were going to get a great meal and be worth what we were paying for. This has kind of helped with that balance of like, you know, sometimes we don't want to cook. Sometimes we want like a great experience, but like we weren't getting that like value out of going to the mediocre restaurant and it being like worth our money.
Okay, so on one hand, I understand and do agree with what she's saying. However, if she's talking about the current outrageous prices at a restaurant and still going one to two times a week, what am I really supposed to say about that? In the restaurant's eyes, you're still a paying customer and you're not really changing anything with your wallet going out that often. So, I don't know. This one really confused me and that's what the comment section talked about as well. Once or twice a week? That's insane. I thought you meant once or twice a month. You're going a lot. Another comment talking about when she was going to go to fast casual restaurants. I spent $15 at Panera for half a sandwich and half a mac and cheese. It was ridiculous. So, it's not like that option is much cheaper in today's world either. And then, of course, the other side of the coin, her saying that they were going to go all out to very high-end restaurants for high-quality food, but clearly that's going to be way more expensive than any other option.
We have a comment from one of you guys. Not only the prices have doubled, but it's also half the quality. And that's why these types of environment and night life in certain parts of the country are just really dying out. In American restaurants, you're paying over $20 for microwaved frozen food. And people are wondering why no one wants to eat out anymore. This isn't just some crazy theory. This is actually true. Restaurants openly admit to this. The system is absolutely collapsing on itself. People can't afford it. Customers aren't going out anymore. These places are sitting empty on Friday, Saturday nights. I could go to Central Avenue on a Friday night and film an empty restaurant for you guys if you don't believe me. It is happening over and over and over again every weekend at this point. As a live musician in this city, I can see it firsthand because the gigs are the first thing to go. If there's no one in the restaurant, they're not going to pay for live music. And this loss of restaurants in America is going to be studied. This is bad.
One of the comments from this clip, the TikTok I had before this was literally just saying restaurants nowadays are just competing over who could present Cisco food the best. We're going to get into that in a little bit, but even the restaurants openly know that customer volume is going down, but nothing's really changing. But a lot of the restaurant owners and chefs in Miami this summer have been talking about just how slow everything has been. And of course, it's not everywhere, but the Miami Herald talked to a bunch of people who live in Miami and asked them why they're not eating out. And for the most part, people said prices are just too high and they are trying to cut back right now. They say the main reason cited by diners who responded is the fact that prices are too high and that too many new restaurants aren't paying attention to the needs of local diners. Man, that one hits home, too, because so many of these restaurants are all the same. You know, they all kind of have the same dishes. They're all very expensive. The service is mediocre or crap at best, and then they want to charge you $30 to $40 a plate. One couple in Miami reported going to a restaurant in Winwood called Double Knot, which is an Asian restaurant from Philadelphia, and just a dinner for two was $300, guys. Like if I got a bill for dinner for two for Lizzy and I, I would have to do like a double take and like is this for real? I mean, is this the right number? I don't think I've ever paid that much for us to go have a dinner anywhere. And as I said, prices only seem to be going up even though they know the traffic is slowing down.
We'll see in a little bit a couple of sponsored posts on TikTok that I've seen from a few chain restaurants having some limited time offers and meal deals to just get people in the door. But as soon as that kind of stuff goes away, so will the customers. We've already seen that with McDonald's and a lot of fast food chains recently. People have been pushed away from the prices also. So they have some promotions on mobile orders, on their apps, takeout. People use them and buy the food, but as soon as the offer expires, there goes everybody at the restaurant as well.
But another thing that was said in the last clip, a lot of the newer restaurants all end up being very similar. The same dishes, the same looks, the overall prices. So much so that people are just done with the modernization of the logos, the restaurants, everything that goes along with it. And we have a little update of the Cracker Barrel situation that happened recently.
Restaurant chain Cracker Barrel is cutting ties with the San Francisco design firm behind its controversial rebrand. The restaurant chain hired Profit just 7 months ago. In August, it unveiled its new logo, streamlining the design by ditching the iconic man in the overalls and the barrel. The new logo drew massive backlash online. Cracker Barrel has since reverted to its original branding and suspended redesigns.
So, over the past few years, you increase the price, the food quality goes down, and everything gets a boring modern redesign. So, it becomes difficult to differentiate any restaurant, period. And you're surprised that this entire industry is declining. I just really don't understand how they don't get it.
But we have a comment from one of you guys talking a little bit more about the food quality. I don't understand how restaurants can nearly double the cost of their food while everything is frozen. Nothing is homemade. You could buy a bag of French fries from Walmart for three bucks. It baffles me that the food is disgusting yet they charge steakhouse prices. And a lot more people are starting to realize that and talk about it online because so many of these places just reheat food that you could get from the grocery store. Nothing is fresh. Can anyone else like not eat at chain sit down restaurants anymore? Like Olive Garden or Chili's? Like I used to love them. I worked at Chili's. Love the food, but lately it's like really freaking me out. Like every time I eat it, it doesn't like feel like real food. Like it it feels like it was made in a lab, which I'm it probably was in some like really nice test kitchen everything, but like I and I know it's like prepackaged and comes in frozen, blah blah blah, but I could get past that before and now it's just different. It feels like, I don't know, like dystopian slop, like presented as a nice meal.
I refuse to pay over $20 for an entree and it's a TV dinner. I'm having this happen with all food. Restaurant food is gross. Fast food is even worse. Frozen food is like plastic. Even the fresh stuff is constantly recalled and off. Now, we've seen that when we've talked about grocery prices in the stores. Nothing really seems to be too safe to eat anymore. So much of the food at chain restaurants literally come out of a freezer bag. And we have a perfect example of that right here.
So, I'm walking home, right, and I see all of these bags of chicken meatballs. I'm like, why on earth would a restaurant where would these be coming from? You know what? Cater to you kitchen. You pay for catering and you get chicken meatballs from a box. You'd be surprised where your local restaurants get their supplies. Look up restaurant depot. I love non-rest people learning about Cisco for the first time. I don't know why everyone's being mean about this. Do I expect a restaurant to hand roll meatballs? Yeah, I do to be honest. Especially for what you have to pay for it now, everything should be top tier. And that's just not the case at all.
This is the Costco of restaurants. And just like Costco, you have to be a member to shop here. And to be a member, you have to own work for a restaurant. This is where restaurants can get items in bulk. From disposable cutlery to tubs of mayo and soy sauce and even Willy Wonka sized chocolate bars. But here's a dirty little secret. A lot of restaurants will get frozen pre-made dishes here. Heat them up to the restaurant, serve it to the customer, charge $10. Most popular offenders are the labor-intensive dishes like empanadas, dumplings, spring rolls, raviolis, pastries, and especially desserts. It is rare for a restaurant to have a dedicated pastry chef. So many times the chocolate pudding or the tiramisu or the trace leches cake you're ordering is just thawed out restaurant depot food. So what do you think? Is this cheating or is this smart business? I mean in a way you could talk about it being smart business, but if the customers stop coming because of this, it's not so smart anymore. And the comment talking about charging $10 for it is kind of on the low end now. You'll see a lot of meals being $15, $20 for very basic dishes.
But we could go over to the comment section. I don't even think it's a dirty little secret anymore. You could literally tell that Olive Garden or Red Lobster and more literally taste like warmed up frozen food. Stick with small local family-owned restaurants if you could find them anymore. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the video because that also comes with a very hefty price tag as well.
But when it comes to the restaurant's drop in revenue, that does not just mean food alone. We have a clip up on screen. Restaurant operators see a drop in alcohol sales. According to Texas Restaurant Association, a survey of restaurant owners showed a drop in alcohol sales during the second quarter of 2025. Restaurant owners said that the economy and drinking trends among those under 29 years old led to the decline of alcohol sales. Gen Z and younger millennials are not drinking as much as other generations. The changing demographics and habits are leading the industry to adapt. While I don't really know how they would adapt if people just aren't doing it at all, I don't know. I feel like it's just my own experience, but I see a lot of people around my age, myself included, that don't drink nearly as much or really at all honestly anymore. Along with another one of the big reasonings in the comments right here. Easier to buy your own bottle than pay $22 for a mixed drink. You're getting to the point in some of these restaurants where one drink will be the same cost of a meal that is already overpriced in the first place. These things come out in very thin or small glasses, so you're getting a few ounces of liquid. And more people are waking up and realizing that it's just not worth it anymore. Barely any alcohol in a $20 drink? You don't understand. We're broke. We don't have any money. $20 for watered down drinks. No thanks. Who can afford to go out and drink at a bar in this economy?
None of this kind of stuff is surprising to me at all. We have another comment here. Went to Buffalo Wild Wings after 3 years. 15 wings and fries for me. Burger and fries for the other person. $48 before tip and taxes. Wings were burnt and soggy and there were only 10 people in the whole restaurant. I'll never go back. And piggybacking off of that, we could see a lot of these chain restaurants are hurting now. Applebee's and IHOP are losing money. They are amongst the latest restaurant chains to announce that customers are walking away from higher price items and not spending as much time in their restaurants. Remember that Applebee's and IHOP were part of the group of restaurants that raised their prices over the last few years and they are seeing customers pull back as a result. In fact, Applebee's says that the amount of customers that are only coming in to take advantage of promotions has significantly increased over the past year. Of course, it's little wonder that customers are getting very savvy and are only focused on deals when the price of food has skyrocketed so much, especially eating out and amongst even fast food restaurants. Applebees and IHOP say that they hope to turn things around for themselves by focusing on innovative new menu products. What can customers expect more of those watered down dollaras? Either way, given current economic conditions, I highly doubt there's going to be much that either restaurant can do to coax customers into spending much more on higher priced items. It just simply isn't the time for that right now.
And like I said, I'm seeing a ton of this right now because I looked up this topic on TikTok. A ton of the sponsored posts are what's up on screen right now. This one specifically is Buffalo Wild Wings Pick Six for $19.99, which I mean overall does seem like a good deal, but this kind of stuff doesn't last forever. I've seen ads previously with Applebees like he talked about in the last clip. Same thing with Chili's as well, but they end up going away and so do the customers.
But I thought it'd be a good idea to take a look at a clip from just a couple years ago where this problem was still happening in 2023. But we could also see how much it's changed and evolved in the past 2 years. Is price actually the problem why people are going out less? I think at the end of this video I'm going to surprise you. So we see this article from December 22nd of 2023. Uh it talks about how as you can read the headline is it price or is it something else why people are dining out less? So now this first part would show you it says that there to be clear there hasn't been an exodus from restaurants exactly but the anticipated rebound of the pandemic has been slowing but you see things like this so at the end of this late night Taco Bell runs were way up the fast casual has gone up we still left our homes in search of convenient food fast food joints all that type of stuff so we're seeing and this would lead you to believe that maybe price is the problem because these are oftent times the cheaper option but not so fast my friend as you would see here uh when it comes to the the more expensive locations. It seems as though they're either doing all or nothing. Customers are doing all or nothing. They're either going to Carbone or these really high-end viral places that are doing great or they're not going out at all. It's no longer in between where they'll go out for the the nice place but nothing crazy. Uh it it's just it's just different. And this is what we've seen in 2023. So at least back then it seemed like it was either super expensive or super cheap. any of the middle ground, a lot of the chain restaurants just wasn't really worth it, which I think is the same case right now. But two years into the future, people have been heavily complaining about fast food that not being worth it at all, comparable prices to those same chain restaurants. So sales overall is down in that part of the industry as well. And I guess it sounds like more people are going to very expensive high-end restaurants, which just at least in my opinion, I don't see it really being worth it at all. I'm sorry you can't tell me that any sort of steak is worth $100 or more if you have that kind of money to spend all the time. I mean, that's completely fine. That's your choice. But I've been to a very expensive high-end restaurant once in my life. And of course, yes, it was good food. I just don't think I could ever justify in my mind those types of price tags, even if I made an ungodly amount of money. But I guess that's just not the sentiment everybody has.
But talking about fast food joints, we have a clip right here of the prices being comparable to a sitdown restaurant.
The Subway, a foot long sandwich, the beast. $18.99. 12 for the half. The half foot and a right. Who's going to be spending $20 on a Subway sandwich? Subway would be horrible even if the food was free. And if you order at delivery, it's basically a $30 sandwich. $40 for two sandwiches is ridiculous.
I really don't know how a lot of these places are still in business. Met my job at Denny's and it's literally not a singular customer in this. We are empty. It's three employees and we're in California, too. So, in California, we get paid $19 an hour minimum. So, there's two servers $19 an hour. One of them, he's been here longer than me, so I'm assuming his pay somewhere in around like $23 an hour. And then we got to cook. probably makes about 25 to $30 an hour. So just in labor cost alone, they lose it almost damn near like 80 bucks an hour. Uh I went to Denny's about two months ago. A breakfast combo was $20. We walked out. Ridiculous.
But I thought it'd be interesting to talk about some of the wages in these places. Like he said, they were making $19 an hour because they were in California. And overall, I don't think that this is the main reason why people are angry at restaurants and not going anymore. But I do think it could be a contributing factor and probably not the best thing to put up online right now because I've seen some posts from servers talking about how much money they make. Oh, you're a server? Are you going to get a real job? And then you see how much money she made in the month of August. Almost $9,000. $52 an hour. We'll go right over to the comment section. Can we stop bragging about how much we make? It only makes people not want to tip us. Never tipping again. These comments are right. not tipping over $5 at any restaurant at this point. People with important jobs should be making this kind of money. Never tipping again. Going back to my standard 15%. Now, I'm not trying to make the argument whether this is right or wrong, but especially with virtually everybody hurting for money right now. Showing off making $9,000 a month being a server. Probably not in your best interest to do right now. Another one right here. How much I make in a work week as a server. Going through day by day. 383, 633, 365, 250, and in total 1633 for 33 hours of work. An average of almost $50 an hour yet again. And just these same type of comments. I'm going to stop tipping. Cool. I could tip less now. As a server, I need servers to stop advertising because it makes people tip less. This is more than I make in two weeks as a career paramedic. So overall, I think that these types of videos are not helping anyone out right now, but we could head back over to these areas just being dead.
So we just went to Jinx on a Friday night and there was like no one there and the food not what it used to be. So where is everyone going in Summerland, Las Vegas? Where is everyone partying? Where is everyone drinking? Where is everyone eating? Cuz that used to be the spot and it's not anymore. Everyone's broke, unemployed, and inflation's going up. Very straightforward comment, but especially when we're talking about Las Vegas. If you've seen anything in the news over the summer, tourism is down very heavily across the board. So, if you live and work near these areas, you're probably getting hit even harder. LA follows Las Vegas footsteps as visitors to city plummet 50%. No one's going. We're talking about people taking trips. They tend to do that when they think their lives are good. Nobody goes, "Hey, I'm unemployed. I just got thrown off Medicaid. Do you want to go to Vegas?" Not to mention that a drink on the strip is $50 now. I think overall this summer has been particularly bad. And if these restaurants are counting on the influx of people going to their restaurant because they're traveling, it's really not looking good right now.
And we have another comment from one of you guys right here. One of my local pubs here in Ireland has their menu on their Facebook page from 2 years ago when their 12 oz sirline steak was €20. Now, it's been replaced by an 8 oz for €30. So, 50% price increase and a 1/3 size reduction. I know in a lot of cases that the margins are not great when it comes to the restaurant business, but especially in the type of climate that we're in right now, I would completely stay away from this industry altogether.
So, there's certain businesses I would say stay away from. Number one, especially for me, I don't see myself ever ever getting involved in this type of business, is the kid industry. You can speak to any restaurant owner. It is a graft. The margins are low. You have to stress about the quality being the same every single day. I wouldn't be able to step away from that. I would find myself there every evening, every weekend. I wouldn't have a life. Yes, there may be some people who have made the fortunes in the food industry. I'm just saying is one of the hardest ones.
And one of the comments on this clip, it's not about the money, it's about passion. But as we've seen many times throughout the videos on my channel, most of the time passion does not pay the bills. People have gone to college, put themselves into six figures worth of debt because they got a degree in their passion, and now they can't find a job and are making basically no money. I'm not saying that nobody should ever open a restaurant again. But when 60% of them fail within 3 years and 80% within five, on top of all the issues we've gone over so far with customers and the overall sales volume going down, the odds are pretty stacked against you.
Here's some clips here. Sad to see that one of the best Mexican restaurants in North Jersey is totally empty at 7:30 at night on a Saturday. To be honest, there are a ton of clips on TikTok like this. The economy is worse. Restaurants are the first one to feel it. They probably want people to pay $40 for three tacos. Also, every restaurant just uses Cisco food. It's all the same cafeteria, hospital, jail food when you try to serve us $30 a plate. Maybe people don't want to eat at restaurants and they're cooking at home. Groceries are expensive and people are cutting back.
So, this ties in with talking about more of these smaller businesses instead of going to the chain restaurants that don't seem to be worth it. The same issue with high prices still apply. One of the big trends recently is the millennial burger joints. I feel like everybody has probably seen a clip or seen this out in public where they're supposed to be different than the average Applebee's or Chili's, something along the lines of that. And funny enough, all of these types of places end up looking like their own chain restaurant. They're all very similar. The prices that they're charging are just absolutely insane. I ordered a burger and this was at my table. Guess how much it was? $29 for the burger, 13 for the truffle fries. The in-house red sauce, in other words, ketchup alone would be six bucks. Another one here. Guess how much the burger costs where it's just a plain burger. Minimum $40 meal and there'll be no option to not leave a tip. And the creator comments, they asked me if I wanted truffle fries, so that would have been even more expensive. 600% gratuitity included. Just two guys with a crazy idea. Another one right here just showing the glasses of measuring cups instead of normal glassware. And the pepper being in a light bulb instead of a normal shaker. Another just two brothers with a crazy idea. The light bulb is genuinely insane. The giant measuring cups of iced tea get me every time. It just really doesn't matter if it's the low-end fast food restaurants, the mid-tier chains or small family businesses, or of course the high-end fine dining restaurants. Everything is just priced too high for most people now.
So, I am someone who used to really value going out to dinner and I would actually budget a lot of money every single month for going out to restaurants. That was a big part of my social life and how I like got together with a lot of my girlfriends. And now I would say that I've eaten out at restaurants maybe five times in the last 6 to 8 months, like literally since the summer. A few months ago, I went out to dinner with one of my friends. This was like early December. And we got pizza and wine and salad. And so we're sitting at this restaurant at this little teeny tiny table sandwiched between two other groups of people. So we have barely any space. The table's not even big enough to fit everything that we ordered. We got a glass of wine each. We got two individualsized pizzas. And mind you, neither of us eat meat. I ordered the vegan pizza, which didn't have any cheese. It was literally just a pizza with eggplant and sauce. And she ordered like just a white pizza, no meat. So, two of the least expensive pizzas on the menu. And we split a kale salad. And we each paid $80. The waiter came over with the bill and I was like, "What did we order?" And like the food was good, but $80 for pizza, wine, and salad is ridiculous.
So, I could show you a lot more examples similar to that, but I think you guys understand the point I'm trying to get across. So, that's all I got for you guys today. Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. YouTube thinks you'll like this video popping up on screen right now. But hopefully you guys enjoyed this video. If you did, please leave a like and I'll talk to you guys.