2023-07-29 05:20:00
This isn’t the first time Ikea has hit hard with the price of its mussel pan. In the past, the Swedish giant has already displayed the casserole at €5 (fries included) or a promotion at just €6.95 for an all-you-can-eat offer. This year, the floor price has been set at €11.50 (instead of €15) for holders of the Ikea Family card. But this card being free, all you have to do is register on a terminal at the entrance to the store to be able to take advantage of it.
Chez Léon, an emblematic Brussels restaurant located in the rue des Bouchers, the casserole is displayed between 26 and 29 € depending on the preparation. A 500 gr formula with fries and free beer is also offered at the very democratic price of €17. Mussels for less than €20 a pan, you can also find them in other brasseries, such as La Terrasse, opposite the Cinquantenaire, where the basic preparation costs €19.90 (compared to €25.90 for the most expensive) . At La Marée, rue de Flandre in Brussels, prices range between €28 and €32. In Namur, Li Scafiote has also made it a specialty. With democratic prices for a 700 gr casserole (€17.50 to €19.50) and for the greediest the 1.2 kg casserole from €22.50 to €26.50.
But it is also and above all at sea that we see the pans of mussels parading on the tables. Head to La Moulinière (Ostend), which has made it a specialty, displaying prices ranging from €23.50 to €26.50. Same at De Amandine (Ostend), from €23 to €29.90. In Nieuport, on the dyke, the Casino brasserie is also average, with casseroles between €27 and €29.
In short, while most restaurants offering the Belgians’ favorite mollusk remain under the €30 mark, there is still a big gap with the giants Ikea (€11.50) and Lunch Garden (€16.99 all you can eat). “You have to compare like with like,” says Jacques, head of a Brussels brewery. “We work with the biggest moulds, of Jumbo or Golden quality. If you take a smaller caliber, it’s already cheaper. They also have a different economic system than ours and can afford smaller margins because they rely above all on volume.There is no table service either.
That said, this year, despite rising costs, the price of the pan has not increased. It remains, it must be recognized, a profitable product, or in any case more profitable than other dishes. If we had increased prices to systematically exceed 30 €, customers would no longer come. Restaurant owners observe each other a lot in terms of prices. A few years ago prices went up for no real reason and everyone followed suit. Today, we arrived at a fairer price. If we count 5 € for the mussels, 1 to 3 € for the ingredients of the preparation, the fries and the mayonnaise, the cost price of the ingredients varies from 7 to 10 €. A profitability coefficient of 3.2 is applied, which fully justifies prices between 25 and 30 € for a pan of mussels, taking into account all the costs that we have to assume. But it is clear that some are trying to cut prices, not just at Ikea or Lunch Garden. The mussel season is important for many restaurateurs and they want to take advantage of it to attract customers. It’s hardly good. But when I see mussels at 16 € in the very center of Brussels, I tell myself that there is a problem despite everything. We don’t know how to serve a quality dish at that price in a restaurant.”
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