Wine prices in restaurants

Here in the USA we face the same problem. I'm planning a bachelor party and we were thinking about going out for steaks and cabernet. However, I realize I can have my buddies over and we can buy incredible bottles of wine for about 20 USD each if you know what you're looking for. Smart restaurants waive the corkage fee if you bring in enough business. Many restaurants here have half price bottles on Sundays or Mondays so that helps a bit.

restaurants are a business! think how much you pay for clothes or fuel or almost anything else against the original price. stay home if you cant afford it, leave the table free for someone willing to spend.

For those of you that drink at home, just type in "cheapest beer" in your google bar and then click onto "my supermarket", then you can click onto asda, sainsburys, or tesco, save this on your favorites and check it daily, and get the best offers,

This is very usefull when you need to venture out to re-fill your fridge, look out for the "price per ml" on every picture, the best offer, is the asda one that comes around now and again with the 5% carlsberg 15 X 330ml for a fiver, works out at £1-00 per litre and tastes great,

Just hoping that this offer surfaces before xmas, and if it does, my larder will be rammed to the roof with it, sod the rip off restaurants and wine bars, burp.

Why do we have to drink overpriced wine with our meal? Why not try overpriced beer or mineral water in an Indian restaurant? Just think of the impression you are giving your partner as they watch and see you pay £25 for a cheap bottle of plonk. You must be rich! Get you into bed ASAP. And gosh £4 on top for a bottle of Welsh rainwater. You must be stinking rich! And £5 for icecream? And £10 for a starter. And then 15% on top of everything as Service Charge. Oh La La La.

A friend and I went on a trip to London and I asked for a bottle of wine ,the wine was worth under a fiver they charged me seventeen pounds ,if I had been with my husband I would most definately told her to keep it , We went on a two day deal with an overnight stay and we were served dinner in a seperate room to the rest of the hotel it was cold and quite frankly shoddy service and poor quality food.

Restaurants are too expensive. I'm fed up of all this capitalism! I wish they would charge reasonable prices.

RobertELee - apologies for contradicting you but you can buy a lot of alcoholic products online for less than most of the major stores (including the delivery price). I've been doing this for at least the last six years. Back to the point about being ripped off..... cut a long story short....wedding reception...lovely time.......drinks....(yes you can guess what's coming can't you!)....invoice arrives from reception venue provider for said alcoholic consumption....line item "XYZ" Merlot @ £13.00/70cl bottle (inc VAT). Typed said brand name into Google and up popped at least ten sites offering the same, the cheapest of which was £4.49/bottle, plus delivery BUT based on a purchase of just one bottle, multiple bottles = cheaper price/bottle. If my calculation is correct the margin achieved by provider is 189.53% or thereabouts. Am I being ripped off? Sadly Dad was told to keep out of the wedding arrangements (particularly the reception bit) on fear of death, so I didn't have much choice in what I am about to pay. That of course is in stark contrast to when me and 'er indoors got hitched....but that's another story!

Totally agree. I recently come back from Australia and the prices for top class wine is considerably less than here. Mind you it is brewed locally

The price paid by the licensed trade for many alcoholic drinks to their wholesalers is virtually the same and often more than the retailers sell it to the general public, so it should not be assumed that our restuarants and pubs buy them for less that the retail price. There is acute concern in this country amongst the licensed trade that our supermarkets are selling drink at well below cost and considerably cheaper than our licensed outlets can purchase from their wholesalers. Because of supermarket competition, most off- licences are also forced to lower their retail prices to below what is considered economic for their survival, I do not know what the retail pricing policy of the licensed retail outlets in New Zealand is, but it is possible that retailers might not be selling as aggressively as they are in this country. That being the case,off-licences and other retailers of wine and other alcohol may be able to generate sensible margins. Restuarants and pubs' wholesale costs would thus be less than the retail prices, and the increased mark-up on wine etc in this country compared places might only be a perception and not a reality. The problem is that, notwithstanding the swingeing taxes levied on our drinks by the exchequer, the our high streets are pricing drink too cheaply, and this has contributed to binge drinking at home and to the demise of our licenced trade, but that is another gripe altogether!.

That, or wake up to the fact that Rip-Off Britain is a reality. Rising costs in fuel, services, food, etc. are painfully evident - but maybe not so in Cloud Cuckoo Land, eh Mark?

If Mark is "I'm fed up with everyone wanting something for nothing " - then he should stop reading The Weekly Gripe!

Your inference that NZ is a better value dining experience is way off the mark [maybe if you earn in pounds & spend in dollars].