The menu said one price. The bill said another.
A menu I checked online before a meal in Manchester had an old price beside one of its main courses. The difference wasn’t enormous, but it was enough to make me wonder how many other people were planning their meals around figures that no longer existed.
I’ve run into this problem repeatedly as a food writer. Restaurant websites don’t always display current menus, prices are sometimes missing altogether, and information from one branch gets passed around as though it applies to every location in the country.
I’m Jamie Dalton, based in Manchester, and MenuTable.uk grew out of those experiences. I started the site to give people somewhere to check restaurant menus and prices before heading out. A meal shouldn’t come with an unexpected surprise at the till simply because the information online was out of date.
There’s a practical side to eating out that often gets overlooked. People want to know what a dish costs, how much choice they’ll have and whether the food is worth ordering. I’ve always been more interested in answering those questions than writing another glowing description of a restaurant.
A menu is only the beginning
The menu pages are the starting point, with prices shown in pounds (£) wherever I’ve been able to establish them. I cover popular dishes, lesser-known options and the items I think deserve a closer look.
Some dishes earn their reputation. Others are riding on a photograph.
A must-try recommendation has to mean something, so I pay attention to what actually arrives at the table. Portion size matters. So does the balance of a dish, the quality of its ingredients and whether the kitchen has delivered what the menu promised.
Calorie counts and nutritional information need a little more care. Published figures aren’t always available, and the numbers can differ depending on portion size, preparation and recipe changes. I include this information where I can find suitable published details, but readers should treat it as guidance rather than an exact measurement of the meal they’ll receive.
Food guides give me room to look beyond individual menus. Some explain unfamiliar dishes; others help readers understand what to expect before visiting a particular type of restaurant. I prefer guides that answer a question someone might actually have while deciding where to eat.
The food has to reach the table first
Photographs can make an ordinary dish look spectacular. I’ve learnt to be sceptical of them.
On one visit, a chicken burger caught my attention because the menu photograph showed a thick, well-seasoned fillet with a generous coating and a neatly assembled bun. What arrived was considerably less convincing. The chicken was thin, the coating had lost its crunch and the bun looked as though it had been put together in a hurry. It wasn’t the worst meal I’ve eaten, but it certainly wasn’t the dish advertised.
I wouldn’t recommend it as a must-try simply because the menu photograph looked good.
Actual visits are a big part of my work. I travel between different branches of the same restaurant, order food, look at the menus and pay attention to the details that don’t appear in promotional material. A dish can be excellent at one location and disappointing at another. Service, portion sizes and preparation aren’t always consistent either.
Manchester gives me plenty of opportunities to do this research without spending every day on the road. For other locations, visits need more planning, and I keep notes so that details from one branch don’t get mixed up with another.
I’d rather recommend a simple dish that’s cooked properly than an elaborate one that fails to deliver. A restaurant doesn’t earn a recommendation from me just because its menu has impressive descriptions.
The same restaurant name doesn’t mean the same price
A difference of £1.50 on a main course is easy to overlook when you’re checking a menu. Across a family meal, it adds up.
During one round of branch checks, I found the same chicken-based main course listed at two different prices at separate locations. The online menu I’d started with reflected the cheaper branch, while the other location had a higher price displayed on its menu. Both belonged to the same restaurant group.
It would have been easy to publish the first figure and move on. I checked the second location instead, compared the available menu details and kept the branch difference in mind when recording the prices.
This is why I don’t base price research on a single visit. I compare multiple locations, check the menus available for those branches and look at official restaurant information. Where a price can’t be confirmed, I won’t dress an assumption up as a fact.
A branch in a city centre can charge differently from one elsewhere, even under the same name. Menus also change between visits. I’ve returned to places expecting to order something I’d tried before, only to find it had disappeared from the menu.
Prices vary by branch and change over time. The till is the final word, so check with your local branch before making a special trip.
My name is on the work
MenuTable.uk is run by me, Jamie Dalton. No restaurant brand, chain or food group owns the site, is affiliated with it or endorses its content. I’m not writing on behalf of the businesses covered here.
My opinions belong to me. They come from eating the food, checking the menus and comparing what different locations offer. A favourable recommendation isn’t an official restaurant endorsement, and a critical comment isn’t a statement from a competitor.
I don’t think every restaurant needs to be praised. Some meals are worth the money; some leave you wishing you’d ordered something else. Readers are better served by a proper account of what happened than by a page full of compliments.
The same applies to prices and menu details. I use restaurant menus, official sources and other relevant material alongside my own visits. Where information is incomplete or a menu has changed, that distinction matters.
Menus change. I check again.
Restaurant pages can become outdated surprisingly quickly. A new seasonal menu, a revised lunch offer or a branch-specific price change can make an older page misleading.
I review pages regularly and update details as new information becomes available. My notes from visits help me spot changes, while menu checks and official sources give me another way to verify what has changed.
Some details are easier to establish than others. A listed main-course price is usually easier to check than the precise calorie content of a meal prepared differently at individual branches. Nutritional figures depend on the information a restaurant publishes, so I don’t present estimates as laboratory measurements.
If you spot a price that looks wrong, or a dish that’s no longer available, tell me. I’ll check the details and make a correction where it’s needed.
What’s missing from the site?
There’s always another menu to investigate, and I’m interested in suggestions from people who eat out regularly. Perhaps there’s a local branch I’ve overlooked, a dish that deserves a closer look or a menu detail that needs correcting.
If you’ve noticed an error or have a restaurant you’d like me to cover, get in touch via the Contact Us page. Your message can help decide what I check on my next visit.