With restaurant bill shock, who can afford to dine out these days?

There I was, at the wrong end of a long lunch at Donlevy’s Restaurant in Melbourne’s Middle Park in 1980, when Donlevy Fitzpatrick marched up to the blackboard and proceeded to write up the new menu. I nearly fell off my chair when I realised that one of the new main courses cost more than $10. Who on earth would pay more than $10 for a main course? You could get an entire degustation at Stephanie Alexander’s Hawthorn restaurant for $28 at the time.

After that first seismic shock, life became a series of after-tremors. Fast-forward to 1997 when Sydney’s Bel Mondo restaurant first charged $6 for coffee. It came
with house-baked biscotti, sure, but I can still hear the howls echoing down the cobblestoned streets.

By 2000, the main course had hit the $50 mark and, by 2012, even an entree had reached the same milestone – at Neil Perry’s Eleven Bridge in Sydney.

Now we live in the age of the $90 steak and the $30 cocktail. Heaven help us, I just paid $15 for a bottle of mineral water.

Just when I thought I was unshockable, I came across a menu listing a barbecued dry-aged pork tomahawk chop for $160 and a Kiwami wagyu rib-eye, marble score 8, for $460. Then I read the fine print and realised the prices were per kilogram. What’s next? Tiramisu for $45 per 250 grams?

In a time of trimming the sails and looking for value, it’s going to be interesting to see how we can continue to enjoy the pleasures of dining out without having seizures. I have no real answers, but plenty of questions.

Will adults do what the young ’uns have always done and load up on booze at home before heading out to dinner to save money? Perhaps we’ll share more dishes? It might be better value for four to share a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb than eat as individuals.

Or will we see more opportunities to BYO? In Hong Kong, where restaurant wine prices are punishingly high, most top restaurants allow BYO, with varying corkage charges.

We’ll be looking for deals, value and niche offerings that offer us a memorable experience. Dine out less, make it count more. Support those places that give us more than just food and wine, by enveloping us in hospitality. Without charging us per kilogram for it.