...being a supposedly more wealthy part of the world, this is worthy of comment.
A certain Young's pub that I have been known to frequent (daily) is doing a deal - £20 gets you two starters, two main courses and a bottle of house wine - be it red, white or the pink stuff in between.
The quality of the food is absolutely fine and you might expect meagre portions, but that isn't the case. OK - the Sea Bass fillet I had wasn't the biggest you would ever get, but after a very handsome Fishcake starter it was more than sufficient to leave me comfortably full. Mrs TMR (to be) had the rump steak which is laden with mushrooms, tomato and chip, again a big fulsome plate. She was so full that I was forced to eat a third of her steak.
Plus we had a bottle of red - not the worlds best, but eminently quaffable.
All for £20.
I think I would struggle to put such a plate of food together - with wine - for that.
Perhaps the Credit Crunch does have some good points?
(If ordered individually, the bill would have been £34, before the bottle of wine)