You Paid What? ....Yikes

Not absolute cost, but cost to deliciousness ratio.

I'll kick it off with today's lunch, a bacon and egg sandwich at Bovolo in Healdsburg, Ca.

House cured bacon, farm fresh egg, nicely melted Carmody cheese from Bellwether Farms in Petaluma on a crusty, yet light, sandwich size ciabatta.

Sounds pretty good, right? It was good, but with only two slices of bacon a slim slice of cheese and one egg I thought $10 way over the top. With a San Pellegrino Limonata and tax the pre tip total was $13.47. I put a dollar in the tip jar when I ordered and left a dollar on the table for whoever had to bus my dishes, bringing the total to $15.47.

Oh, and at Bovolo you order at the counter get a number and a staff member brings your food to the table. Not that I mind that style of service, just an additional data point.

You paid What?

The Deli Time deli in my office building buys its meat and cheese for its sandwich bar at retail from the Dominicks up the street. As a result, we pay retail squared when we don't have time to go out for lunch. This week, I had a moderately sized Turkey and and cheese on wheat, with a bag of chips and a pint of skim milk. $14.35.

At breakfast, a single serving of Special K with a half pint of milk is $3.95, about the price of a whole box of Special K at the grocery store,

Do you work in Schaumburg? If so, I know the building, that Deli Time and how close the Dominicks is. My company used to have office space there and I would eat there on occasion. Its been about 4 years, but I recall paying nearly $7 for a bag of chips, an egg salad sandwich and drink--which was a ripoff then as well.

It has been awhile since I have felt gipped in my dining experiences. I believe that this is due to recently joining this forum and sticking to its GNR list. .

CM2772 wrote:Do you work in Schaumburg? If so, I know the building, that Deli Time and how close the Dominicks is. My company used to have office space there and I would eat there on occasion. Its been about 4 years, but I recall paying nearly $7 for a bag of chips, an egg salad sandwich and drink--which was a ripoff then as well.

It has been awhile since I have felt gipped in my dining experiences. I believe that this is due to recently joining this forum and sticking to its GNR list. .

Actually Rosemont. One morning, I was walking through the Dominicks as I needed something for a headache. Low and behold, there was the DeliTime manager at the Dominicks deli buying meat and cheese by the pound for the sandwich bar. You think she could have at least gone to Costco.

Anyone going to Alinea tonight for the $1500 dinner - the ultimate "you paid what???" meal?

Walked into Dirk's Fish Market recently and the guy behind the counter had a big container full of cooked king crab meat from which he was doling out samples. He handed me a big, delicious chunk, and then I asked him how much. $30 a pound. Very expensive, but this was good stuff, and a pound of crab meat is a lot of meat. I requested 2/3 of a pound, and he went to the back to retrieve it. He resurfaced with one lousy crab leg in the shell. Turns out $30 was not for the already-shelled meat in the container, but was for unshelled, cooked crab. $20 yielded one tiny little bowl of meat, after a lot of messy work. I could have gotten more for my money at a fancy restaurant like Joe's Stone Crab.

After returning from two plus weeks of travel in Southeast Asia, I had this feeling as I purchased food at the airport in Detroit. Paying $15 for a really bad coney dog, fries, two sodas, and a crappy salad almost killed me, since two bowls of noodle soup and a huge beer was about $2 on the streets. I really miss that.

$5 for a hot dog at pro sporting events always gives me the "you paid what" feeling, but I'm just not sure if these occasions count since they are situational.

hoya97 wrote:Anyone going to Alinea tonight for the $1500 dinner - the ultimate "you paid what???" meal?

You know, I'm probably going to get slammed for this, but for the price of dinner at Alinea, and while our experience was good, it wasn't so fantastic that I would go back again.

I feel this way almost any time I eat steak out, which is why I hardly ever eat steak out.

I met up with a friend passing through O'Hare from London to Texas last night, and Harry Caray's seemed the most reasonable place within a short distance of his hotel, so we went there. I saw they had Tallgrass beef on the menu, so I ordered a Tallgrass strip, med. rare. It had good flavor but was just about as tough as you can get before I'd send something back. On the side, I had a modest, unmemorable salad. Between the two, $40. Now, I'm sure you can do worse, some Yelp reviews I read suggested that H.C. was the better deal in that area compared to things like Carlucci's, but still... it reminded me why I don't eat like that on my own dime.

He liked his spaghetti with Italian sausage, though...

hoya97 wrote:Anyone going to Alinea tonight for the $1500 dinner - the ultimate "you paid what???" meal?

You missed the point, it's not how much you paid, but cost to deliciousness ratio. A poor value $2 taco can rank as egregiously as Mike's $40 chewy-chewy steak.

The upcoming $1500 Alinea dinner, with both Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz, includes wine, tax, tip and a signed copy of each chef’s new book. Not saying I'm going, but to a select few I'd guess $1500 seems reasonable for an event of this nature.

Enjoy,
Gary

jpschust wrote:

hoya97 wrote:Anyone going to Alinea tonight for the $1500 dinner - the ultimate "you paid what???" meal?

You know, I'm probably going to get slammed for this, but for the price of dinner at Alinea, and while our experience was good, it wasn't so fantastic that I would go back again.

I had a great time and a wonderful meal, and while I'm reluctant to call anything at that price point a value, this was a really special experience (which only slightly resembled a typical Alinea experience) . . .



=R=

Maybe it's the lighting on the two chefs, but it looks like they're sizing you up for the main course of the next $1500-a-plate dinner...

Mike G wrote:Maybe it's the lighting on the two chefs, but it looks like they're sizing you up for the main course of the next $1500-a-plate dinner...

Please. Ronnie would command at least $2000 per plate.

Dmnkly wrote:Please. Ronnie would command at least $2000 per plate.

Wine pairing is going to be tricky, very tricky..........................

Might I suggest a nice full-bodied Renaissance Cabernet:

http://www.renaissancewinery.com/

Perhaps a 1574 vintage, if they can locate one?

I purchased 2 mid sized heirloom tomatoes from Mercato, an Italian market in Calgary, Alberta for $18 two months ago. I was shocked at the register because I didn’t think about looking at the sign when I picked them up. They were used in a panzanella salad, but were only okay compared to the ones I had been getting from the Green City Market.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

jpschust wrote:

hoya97 wrote:Anyone going to Alinea tonight for the $1500 dinner - the ultimate "you paid what???" meal?

You know, I'm probably going to get slammed for this, but for the price of dinner at Alinea, and while our experience was good, it wasn't so fantastic that I would go back again.

I had a great time and a wonderful meal, and while I'm reluctant to call anything at that price point a value, this was a really special experience (which only slightly resembled a typical Alinea experience) . . .



=R=

More pics coming I assume (and hope)?

One beer - Rikard's Red - Trudeau Airport, Montreal - $11.38. No wonder there aren't prices on the beer menu.

jesteinf wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

hoya97 wrote:Anyone going to Alinea tonight for the $1500 dinner - the ultimate "you paid what???" meal?

I had a great time and a wonderful meal, and while I'm reluctant to call anything at that price point a value, this was a really special experience (which only slightly resembled a typical Alinea experience) . . .

More pics coming I assume (and hope)?

Aye, Cap'n!

=R=

JermAngela wrote:I purchased 2 mid sized heirloom tomatoes from Mercato, an Italian market in Calgary, Alberta for $18 two months ago. I was shocked at the register because I didn’t think about looking at the sign when I picked them up.

It's funny how when that happens, you (or at least I) don't immediately say, "Hey, that's too much. I'm putting this back." Instead, you sheepishly bite the bullet. (Do sheep bite bullets?) Probably because you don't want to look like one of those people for whom price is a dealbreaker. Or you don't want it revealed that you were silly enough to come to the transaction without having any idea how much an item cost. This happened to me when I bought a cake for a party last summer and found out at the register that it cost $50. Probably the bakery person being a charming young lady contributed to my suppressing the urge to say "WHA?" and instead acting as if I expected that price all along.

But times have changed since last summer!

We picked up a rockfish a couple weeks ago at The Fish Guy which ran around 35 bucks IIRC. While it was tasty, it is not something I would order again.

riddlemay wrote:

JermAngela wrote:Instead, you sheepishly bite the bullet. (Do sheep bite bullets?)

It's a mixed metaphor Biting bullets comes back to civil war times (possibly before) when soldiers were having surgery and had no pain medication (remember morphine is a new thing relatively). They would be told to bite down on a bullet to fend off the pain. And well you can guess sheepishly. OK, English dork retreat!

$25 per glass of Don Julio 1942 Anejo tequila served neat @ Saloon Steakhouse.

worth every penny.

Yeah, I ordered something, and heard $15, but what they said was $50.

It is all in your priorities. Spent the weekend with my cousin and his 3 $2500 TVs, each hooked up with cable, Wii, and all the goodies. He wonders how we can get by on having a 27" standard TV. I told him that I have been offered about ten more TVs (old style) for free from various friends who need the "new" technology.

Of course, the cousin never takes a vacation and rarely heads out to a restaurant ...

I'd say the $5 Clover brewed cup of coffee at Intelligentsia was not worth repeating. Good, but not much different from their regular brew.

A $30 peach (raw, sliced) for dessert in a restaurant in Japan, accidentally ordered due to a little linguistic misunderstanding.

Big as a softball, photo perfect, tender, gushing with juice and basically the platonic ideal of a peach in every possible way.

Thank god we screwed up that order.

Dmnkly wrote:A $30 peach (raw, sliced) for dessert in a restaurant in Japan, accidentally ordered due to a little linguistic misunderstanding.

Big as a softball, photo perfect, tender, gushing with juice and basically the platonic ideal of a peach in every possible way.

Thank god we screwed up that order.

$20 orange purchased at Pasticceria Natalina. I just cant say no to this woman.

6 Euros (about $8 at the airport exchange rate) for a .5L glass of Pepsi (no Coke) in a restaurant our first night in Barcelona (needed the caffeine just to keep my head upright). I found that if you want bubbly stimulating sugar water in Europe, go to McDonalds.

$14.95 or $15.95 for an appetizer of "scallops in the shell, four ways" at Bob Chinn's in Wheeling. I was expecting an appetizer that featured scallops prepared four ways, in enough quanity to justify the price. When the bartender asked which one of the four ways I wanted them prepared I realized I was screwed. Six medium sized scallops placed on shells in a garlic butter. Good but not even close to the best scallops I've ever had.

I've been wondering why I've heard about Bob Chinn's for fifteen years. It took me a year of working on the north shore to ever get there. I'm pretty sure I won't ever make it back.