It’s a question most of us have asked on a Friday evening. You’re tired, you’re hungry, and you can’t be bothered to cook. The two main options are clear: head to a restaurant or order a takeaway from your sofa. Both feel like a treat, but which one will actually leave a bigger dent in your bank account?
The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think. When you look beyond the headline price of the food itself, a range of hidden costs on both sides can tip the balance in surprising ways. Let’s break down the real numbers.
The Price on Your Plate
At first glance, ordering in often looks like the cheaper option. A main course from a local takeaway will typically cost anywhere from £8 to £15, while a similar dish at a sit-down restaurant might set you back £12 to £22. For a couple, that difference can add up quickly over the course of an evening.
However, this comparison only tells part of the story. Restaurant portions are usually carefully controlled by the kitchen, meaning you’ll get a set amount of food for your money. With takeaway, the dynamic changes. Many people find themselves browsing the menu for longer, adding a starter here, a side dish there, and perhaps an extra portion of chips “just in case.” Without the social cues of a restaurant setting, it’s easy to over-order.
Research from NimbleFins, based on ONS data, suggests the average UK household spends around £1,419 a year on food from restaurants and takeaways combined. That figure has been climbing steadily, driven in part by the convenience of platforms that make just a few taps away on your phone.
The Drinks Factor
This is where the gap between eating out and ordering in becomes most dramatic. Restaurants and bars in the UK are well known for their significant markups on drinks. Wine, for example, is commonly sold at three to four times its retail price, and premium bottles can carry even steeper markups. A £7 bottle of wine from the supermarket could easily appear on a restaurant list at £22 or more.
Cocktails and pints follow a similar pattern. A round of drinks for two at a restaurant can add £15 to £30 onto your bill without much effort. Over the course of a full meal with a couple of glasses of wine each, the drinks alone might cost more than the food.
When you order in from an app, like the Scoffable takeaway delivery service, you’re free to pour from a bottle you’ve already got at home or pick one up from the local shop at retail price. The savings here are substantial, and for many people, this is the single biggest financial advantage of staying in.
Hidden Costs of Ordering In
While the drinks savings are hard to argue with, ordering in comes with its own set of additional charges that can quietly inflate the total.
- Delivery fees on most platforms range from £0.99 to £5.99, depending on your distance from the restaurant and the time of day.
- Service fees are often added on top, typically calculated as a percentage of your order total.
- Small order fees may apply if your basket doesn’t hit a minimum threshold.
- Menu markups are common too. Some restaurants list higher prices on delivery apps than they charge in-house, sometimes adding 10% to 20% onto individual items to offset platform commissions.
These charges can easily add £5 to £10 to a single order. Over a month of regular ordering, that’s a meaningful sum.
The Over-Ordering Trap
One of the less discussed costs of ordering in is the tendency to order more food than you actually need. In a restaurant, you’ll typically order a main course and perhaps a starter or dessert. The structure of the experience, from sitting down to ordering to paying the bill, naturally limits how much you consume.
At home, the rules feel different. There’s no waiter to signal the end of the meal and no sense of occasion keeping things in check. Many households will order extra dishes to share, add on desserts they wouldn’t normally choose in a restaurant, or simply select larger portions because the perceived cost feels lower. The result is that the final bill can creep up to match or even exceed what a restaurant meal would have cost, with the added downside of leftover food that often goes uneaten.
So, Which One Actually Costs More?
The honest answer depends on your habits. If you’re disciplined with your takeaway order, skip the extras, and drink from your own supply at home, ordering in will almost certainly be cheaper. The savings on drinks alone can make a significant difference.
On the other hand, if you’re prone to over-ordering, stacking up sides and starters, and paying delivery and service fees on top, the cost advantage starts to shrink. A modest restaurant meal for two, where you share a single bottle of wine and skip dessert, could end up costing about the same or even less than a fully loaded takeaway order with all the extras.
Here’s How to Make Your Money Go Further
The smartest approach might not be choosing one over the other entirely, but being aware of where the costs pile up in each scenario. When eating out, watch the drinks bill closely, as that’s where restaurants make their biggest margins. When ordering in, set a budget before you start browsing the menu and resist the temptation to add unnecessary extras.
Either way, being mindful of these hidden costs will help you enjoy your meal without the unpleasant surprise of a bigger bill than expected.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.
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