Simple, Fresh and Delicious - what a contrast!

I am in Rotorua at ULearn a pretty stunning education conference. I am with two colleagues who are also close friends (after working closely together for 7 years now). We arrived last night around 8pm and decided to eat in the hotel we are staying in. The menu looked good - a bit old fashioned but some good options. We figured nothing else would be open so this was our best option.

Our meals when they arrived looked impressive (in an ostentatious kind of way), but really failed to deliver on taste. I ordered the duck which was incredibly disappointing (despite being reasonably pricey). I should have been warned by the description of the incredibly complicated sauce - a mixture of orange, basil, mint and at least three other items that disappeared in the sludge that appeared over my soggy skinned duck.

Thankfully today we decided that we all needed salads for lunch and that we had time to eat away from the conference. What a total contrast! For a third of the price we had simple, fresh and incredibly delicious salads. I will be making the asparagus, rocket and parmesan salad some time soon. Thank you Capers Epicurean in Rotorua (NZ).

Simplicity seems to be the key here. I remembering having this realisation while travelling in Italy. Most of the food was far more simple that what we ate at home. The classic example was pizzas - a few simple good quality ingredients rather than a heaving pizza covered with every possible ingredient...hence our family obsession with Al Volo pizzas, not a piece of pineapple in sight!

My question is...Why can't a restaurant that is charging triple the price present a meal that is equally tasty as a cafe feeding just as many people in a much shorter timeframe?