No but like seriously, why are vegan and vegetarian options always MORE expensive at restaurants. Whenever I cook my self, the meat is BY FAR the most expensive part of any meal. Meanwhile stuff like soy strips are DIRT CHEAP, not to mention they last basically forever!
The canteen I go to for lunch actually sells the meatless meals for 2/3 of the price, always a taunting reminder. Like hell yea, that’s how ya convert me!
Maybe it’s different in America, but we actually have a few cheap vegetarian joints here in Prague, and their prices are pretty unmatched, even by other cheap lunch places. I just find it weird that the wast majority of places that sell meatless stuff, are capable of selling it for like twice the price of the rest.
I also find the “overhead” argument hard to belive, considering that all you need for soya strips/chunks is throw a but load of them into hot water for 10 minutes and that’ll last the entire bloody day. Unlike meat that can barely leave the fridge. Meat also generally makes a bigger mess, the only worthy competitor is some cheeses. And other things take even less effort than meat, meals that primarily use nuts or beans, or if you don’t wanna go full vegan, cheese and eggs also open the doors to plenty of dishes. Like ever heard of tiger eggs?
As generally used, “overhead” doesn’t address the topic with a degree of granularity that takes the difficulty of preparation into account. It simply means the operating expenses associated with the business - wages, facilities and utilities are by far the three largest aspects, raw materials, consumables and related equipment costs are (depending on the industry) anywhere from a minor line item to little more than a rounding error. This is true for essentially every industry you care to name (I actually can’t think of an exception. Maybe NFTs or some related crypto nonsense? Though even those famously have to factor in utilities).
TL;GTTP: The type of food you’re preparing matters comically less than where your restaurant is located and the size of your staff.
Yea I get that, and my question is, why is the vegan or even just vegetarian option at the same restaurant more expensive? And like up to 50% more so? I’d argue it doesn’t take any longer to make a meatless dish, nor does it require any unique equipment/procedure. The only logical explanation I can see, is if you intentionally use some super expensive replacement lab meat or demand is soo low that the allocated storage would be better served with something more popular, at which point why even sell it? Prep is basically non-existant compared to meat, so extraordinary work can’t be it. The only realistic things I can think of is a lack of demand. Hmmm, in the context of America that seems a lot more likely actually…