Wetherspoons’ meal deal that once cost a tenner has risen to almost £20 for three small plates – as the budget pub chain is hit by rising costs

A meal deal that saw Wetherspoons customers enjoy three small plates for just £10 has almost doubled in price as the chain is hit by rising costs.

A Wetherspoons customer posted a photo on costs at a branch in Manchester.

In other locations, such as Holborn in central London, prices are even higher: £18.09 for three small plates.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks increased by around 21 percent between November 2021 and November 2023. per cent.

While posting the photo, the

He tagged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the royal family, personal finance guru Martin Lewis and TV presenter Noel Edmonds in the post. He did not specify which site he had visited, but noted it was in Manchester.

A current menu from the website of Wetherspoon Manchester, located in the city’s Northern Quarter, confirms the price of three small plates is £17.75.

The original poster added: “Honestly, there needs to be a Spoons Price Index to track the pace of Spoons hyperinflation.”

Responding to his post, other X users expressed shock at what they perceived as a steep price increase on the meal deal.

One person asked where the location was on the original poster, thinking there was an expensive meal deal on offer in London.

However, he replied to confirm that he was not in the Big Smoke, but in Manchester.

“The end is near,” he joked.

Another X user named Marc posted a screenshot of a menu that he claimed was from a JD Wetherspoon site in Dublin, Ireland. The menu states that the price of the meal deal is €20.95, which is the equivalent of £18.12.

The menu on Wetherspoon’s Keavans Port site in Dublin confirms that the three small plates deal costs €20.95.

Another person commented on the original post, claiming: ‘It really goes up every time I go in. How much do they spend on reprinting menus?”

One customer, who insisted the price of the deal was £10 when it launched, declared the chain ‘isn’t even affordable anymore’.

Another X user joked that the deal was “a new inflation calculator to rival Freddos.”

A central Wetherspoons location in London, Shakespeare’s Head in Holborn, currently lists the three small plates deal as available for £18.09.

Meanwhile, the Cooper Rose site in Sunderland lists the deal for £14.93.

It appears that the price of the three small plates deal has increased over the years since it was first introduced around 2018.

The deal cost around £10 when it was first launched (although customers in some locations have suggested it was much cheaper), and the price was briefly reduced to around £7.50 during the pandemic.

In September 2020, Wetherspoon CEO Tim Martin launched the pub chain’s Stay Out to Help Out programme; a play about then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out initiative, which ran for two months.

The scheme slashed the prices of JD Wetherspoon items across the board from Monday to Wednesday, with most locations offering the three small plates deal for just £7.50.

At the time, Mr Martin said: ‘The government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme has been hugely popular with customers and has been a great boost for the hospitality industry.

‘We want to offer our customers an excellent choice of food and drinks at good value for money.’

However, as inflation began to rise as Britain emerged from the pandemic, Wetherspoons customers noticed prices rising at the pub chain – with many using the three small plates deal as a benchmark.

In 2022, a shopper called Sophie, who lives in Liverpool, posted a photo of the menu at her local Wetherspoons, where the price of the deal was listed at £15.45.

She wrote: ‘Hi, I’m Sophie and I rate inflation using the price of Freddos and the price of Any Three Small Plates in Wetherspoons.’

The criticism of the three small plates deal comes after the pub giant ran into trouble over the cost of its festive menu for the 2023 Christmas period.

The Christmas dinner set pub patrons back £12.05 for a soft drink or £13.52 for an alcoholic drink. But in 2022, Christmas dinner cost €10.69 with a soft drink, or €11.99 with a glass of bubbly.

That means it rose sharply by almost 13 percent, with or without alcohol for the exact same meal.

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: ‘Our prices vary from pub to pub, as do our rent and rates.

‘We always strive to remain competitive, generally, in the areas in which we operate and most price surveys appear to indicate that we are achieving that.’