What is a substantial meal?

[Bletchleyite]

I’m sure that’s true. Spoons is very much the Ryanair or Sports Direct of the pub world, and those kinds of business treat their staff appallingly as a rule.

That and you don't get a good calibre of management if you pay them under twenty grand.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I've been to awful ones and I've been to pretty OK ones. I wouldn't go beyond OK in terms of describing the experience, but in terms of value for money you won't get much better if you don't want to spend much.

I think that's a fair description of Wetherspoons, both for food and drink. It's not haute cuisine, but at eight quid for a burger and a beer you wouldn't expect it to be. It's no better or worse than any other fast food.

A meal to me at lunchtime may well be a salad, bit of chicken and a few boiled potatoes or potato salad.

That is quite clearly a meal, and anybody would agree that it is a meal.

The legislation is there to stop people claiming they're "having a drink with food" because they're having a pack of pork scratchings or a Scotch Egg with their six pints of Becks.

It's not something you can easily define in watertight legalese, though.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Could be worse. It could be served with salad.

Ha! Reminds me of some Geordie builders staying at a B&B I was in, years ago. At breakfast, one of the staff asked if they’d like to pre-order their evening meals, and one chap, after finding steak was available, said he’d like that.
‘Do you want a salad with it?’ the lady asked
‘Aww aye, nae rabbit food, Pet’ was the response, which made me chuckle at the time