Why is eating out Cheaper then...

I read that eating out in Japan is cheaper then cooking at home in Japan. Is that true? If it is true why is that?

It totally depends on what you are willing to eat! Indeed, some low-cost restaurants serve you gyudon, udon or hamburger meals for less than 500 yen. But for a more normal meal, you are more likely to pay around 1000 yen.

Likewise, you can get a fish for grilling at under 100 yen per piece at a supermarket and produce a meal that easily competes with the cost of a meal at the discount restaurant.

Overall, cooking at home will be cheaper. But it depends on what you want or are willing to eat.

Thanks for the info.

It varies but seldom true that eating out is cheaper unless you compromise on the quality of meal over a common counter e.g., you can get a fresh marbellized beef grilled in kitchen at a quarter price than same size meatin a restaurant.

As in many urban environments, generally, charge in individual human services is higher than assembly line products esp in Japanese cities. Hence many housewives buy prepared meals to cook at home rather than order same meal in a kiosk or restaurant.

Often people compare the cost of ingredients with the cost of a single meal at a cheap restaurant, in which cooking can come out to be more expensive for a single person if you look at just one meal. For example, for me to make a bowl of udon would be more expensive than to just buy a single bowl at a cheap noodle place because I have to buy a whole thing of dashi, vegetables, things for tempura if I want that, etc, and then I would have a lot of leftover ingredients. However, from those ingredients you can get multiple meals as long as you freeze the fresh things and use the spices etc. in other dishes, so it ends up working out to be cheaper as long as you cook often and use everything you buy. I save a lot of money by cooking for myself and making bento to bring to work every day instead of buying food outside.

Curry rice is good example. You can buy one at a restaurant for about 1000 yen or cook one for yourself for the same price. However, the one you cooked will feed 8 people for the same price.