If not for Red Dwarf I would never have discovered vindaloo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLph6ePNkGQ

Eat DVDs, they are cheaper.

I think restaurant dinners in UK (and rest of the non-US western world) cost more because waiters and such here actually get paid, and don't have to live on tips only like they seem to do in US.

In fact, at least in Finland it is not always necessary or even customary to tip the waiters. I guess you can, but at least once the waitress basically ran after me for the few euros I had left there, and when I said it is fine, she looked at me like I'm mad, and didn't seem to have any idea what to do with that money (ie. should she put them into the cash register, or keep them herself, or what). She even complained to some workmate "That customer didn't want the change back for some reason...". And no that wasn't in McDonald's either, it was some quasi-Italian restaurant in a northern Finnish hotel.

I presume the higher wages (for lower paying jobs) and all kinds of taxes are the reason that I usually expect to pay at least 80-100 euros for a steak dinner for two. Hence, going to eat out here is not an every week occurrence, but mainly for special occasions like anniversaries etc. Unless you are going to eat burgers, pizza or kebab, sure, those are relatively cheap.

Yeah I lived in Georgia for a year and tipping wasn't expected there either. I would leave them some coins and they would act like I cured their cancer.

Depends where you are. Around here the cost difference between McDonalds and a good meal is fairly small. The main thing that you're paying for with more expensive places is more time to sit there and converse. Well, that and the really high end places where you're spending $30 for just the meal tend to have better chefs.

But, typically you're looking at $10 plus the cost of drinks versus maybe $14 for a higher end place.
In China if you leave a tip the waiter will literally quit his job. Tipping exists a bit in tourist areas, but normally the tips that Chinese give are on the order about 30 cents tops, and even then they're more about expressing the idea that the massage was particularly good.

It's taken me nearly a year to get used to the fact that not only do I have to pay tax on my purchases, I'm also expected to tip in many cases. Which means that I can't just go by the sticker price.

Really, really annoying.

London? That explains a lot; there's a reason we have 'London weighting' on some salary scales, and a 'living wage' versus a 'London living wage'.

Well, I was in London last summer, and while the traditional American fast food franchises (McDonald's, Burger King, etc.) are few and far between, you can't throw a stone over your shoulder without hitting at least one Pret A Manger. Seriously, in some places they are as close together as 20 meters apart on opposite sides of the same narrow street. Also, all the stuff they sell appears to be pre-made, and looks boring as hell. Apparently in London, a sandwich means "two pieces of bread on each side of one piece of lunch meat, and nothing else".

There's a difference in minimum wage law: according to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22846846 'the federal minimum wage [in the US] for tipped restaurant workers is $2.13 an hour, with tips expected to take the wage to $7.25 an hour'. How that plays out in practice presumably depends on how low the pay is in a given restaurant.

That sums up the entire islands fast food chains.

Good choice, Cork is hardly worth it now that I no longer live there. Except for the whole kayaking on the main street thing, of course.

On a serious note though, I found the cost of basic 'healthy' stuff like groceries to be overpriced in proportion to the rest, comparing to other places I've lived. Pre-made and frozen stuff was proportionally cheap though.

And for the sake of your mental health, do not order codfish. They completely destroy it over there, the poor thing.

But... Why?

It seems like that is catering to the tastes of the majority of Brits, or it shouldn't be economically viable.

Have you seen how most of these people eat? lol

Most people I know just don't care what they're putting in their mouth.

Cork is a bit far for a day trip when in Dublin.
If you like alcohol, you can visit Guiness and Jameson in Dublin. We actually stayed in a hotel across the street from Jameson.
The Temple Bar area and St. Patricks's Cathedral are worth visiting too.

We're not drinkers. I'll google those two locations though, thanks!