Do you know the true cost of your meal?

At Vita Mojo, we are pretty obsessed with transparency.

We aim to provide our customers with the most accurate picture of what goes into their food. From ingredients to macros, allergens to prices.

This is not common in the restaurant industry.

When you buy a standard meal at any quick-service food outlet in London, you never know the real cost of the items on your plate. A little-known truth is that these big chains typically subsidise their meat meals by over-charging for vegetarian meals. Many also put higher markups on protein add-ons or sides, as customers’ price sensitivity is typically lower for smaller purchases.

At Vita Mojo, you pay per food item and quantity (down to the exact gram). This means that you’ll always pay the fairest price based on your choices and how much you eat. We’ve always thought that when you consider the quality of the food we provide, we provide good value for money compared to the competition. However, a common complaint from first time customers is that we are expensive.

So what did we do?

We took matters in our own hands and went to two popular high-street, quick-service food chains. We weighed their food and made a cheeky little price comparison with our own. Considering these restaurant chains benefit from economies of scale and that we generally have better quality food, we expected our meals to be generally more expensive across the board.

The results were quite surprising.

Methodology.

1. We selected three popular menu items from two prominent restaurants, who promote themselves as healthy.
2. We weighed each ingredient individually and rounded up the numbers to make the maths easier.
3. We compared the price with the closest like-for-like ingredient on the Vita Mojo menu for the same weight.
4. Where there wasn’t a close equivalence, we combined two (or more) ingredients on the Vita Mojo menu which are commonly known to have similar price. If you’re curious, you can see the full breakdown here.

What did we find?

• Vegetarian dishes were cheaper at Vita Mojo! Our hypothesis (that high street restaurants unfairly markup veggie options) was somewhat validated.

Vegan Mezze Salad.

Vegan Mezze Salad, £4.95. At Vita Mojo → £4.39.

Veggie Box (Sweet Potato Falafel), £4.50. At Vita Mojo → £4.05.

Veggie Box.

• Meat dishes are only slightly more expensive at Vita Mojo. Considering freshness of our produce, this seems rather fair. If you opted for the chicken thighs instead of the chicken breast we’d actually be the same price or cheaper.

Greens, Grains & Chicken.

Greens, Grains & Chicken, £4.75. At Vita Mojo → £5.47.

Chicken — Aioli, £6.95. At Vita Mojo → £7.33.

Chicken Aioli.

• Protein add-ons are grossly over-priced compared to Vita Mojo. Restaurants are seriously profiting from those little extras. We use Legbar Hen eggs, so the fact that you are paying more for standard eggs is pretty shocking.

Chicken Add-On.

Chicken add-on (98g), £3.45. At Vita Mojo (100g) → £2.85.

Egg, Avocado & Spinach Bowl, £2.45. At Vita Mojo → £2.24.

The bottom line is that there are issues with how the restaurant industry charges us for food. Vita Mojo isn’t large enough to truly benefit from economies of scale, but when we do, your wallets will be the first to know. We haven’t even discussed the ingredient lists and nutritional aspects of these meals — this merits a whole other post.

We hope this will help you be a little more mindful of demanding value when you eat out, and of course, we’re always here when you need us — and are having a transparency craving!

N.B. This was meant to illustrate a point on price transparency, but we realise that this wasn’t done with scientific rigour (e.g. having a statistically relevant sample size). We kindly ask that you take this with “a pinch of salt”.

We are always open to feedback so please leave your comments and let us know if you liked this by giving us a clap below!