Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

We went out to eat last night and on getting the bill I was shocked to find I had been charged 20tl for a glass of house wine. I know prices are going up and accept that but 20tl for a standard glass of wine is well over the top, I won't be visiting that particular restaurant again I'm afraid.

We were charged 30tl for a shandy! Likewise we won't be going there again either.

Name them!

rent in sterling, fewer customers, holiday maker season

most now charge gin + a tonic now
a wine plus soda etc

but don't get me started on Baileys but hey as it was pointed out to me in 2005 it was 20tl, £7 now its 50tl £7!!!!


It will be a case of fight of the fittest and thank goodness some still do a shaken baileys with ice for 18tl and get your own bottle of tonic and soda.

Hi. I think most places are charging that for wine now. Certainly if it is Angora or Cankaya.
The lira as it is and the drop in tourists, they do have to make a living to cover the winter months too.
20TL is £2.63 !!! If you can't afford that you have the option to drink water!
The majority of restaurants all pay their rents in Sterling so they have to charge to cover that.

Panchocat wrote:Hi. I think most places are charging that for wine now. Certainly if it is Angora or Cankaya.
The lira as it is and the drop in tourists, they do have to make a living to cover the winter months too.
20TL is £2.63 !!! If you can't afford that you have the option to drink water!
The majority of restaurants all pay their rents in Sterling so they have to charge to cover that.

This particular restaurant is family owned, not rented, the wine was bog standard house wine and I can afford to pay that price, but it is still over the top for a glass of wine.
Whether or not you agree with that is of course your choice, as it is mine not to visit the restaurant again.

This is what I don't get, we are living in the TRNC the currency is lira, not pound. why is there always a necessity to convert the prices into pound? we aren't in the UK. doesn't matter how much wine in the uk or elsewhere costs. 20 lira may not seem much to people for a glass of wine, but considering you can go into shops here and buy bottles for less than that it makes you wonder how much profit they make! its all fair and well saying rent is in sterling, but as consumers that isn't our problem. seems that bars, restaurants and the likes are taking the mick somewhat. we aren't all tourists, nor are all customers tourists for that matter. what about people residing in the trnc and locals especially who live on the breadline and are expected to just pay price increases as soon as the tourists arrive? i recently went in a restaurant and wanted an ice tea. they had none so i asked for something else, as the drinks came in comes the waiter running in from the nearby shop with a can of ice tea. (the price in the shop was 7 lira less than they tried to charge me for) i voted with my feet and left. won't name the restaurant, but just so people realise some, not all places think we are stupid.

You get 5 glasses to a bottle approx so that is 100tl i went to the Acapulco as my family staying there 150tl for a bottle . Its always dearer buy the glass more so now . Also if you have red the life is about 2/3 days so nobody else wants it it ends up cooking wine . Is it dear not in my mind

Any local restaurant has to buy their ingredients, wines, spirits, pay their gas and electric, rent and staff wages etc.
The lira is not strong so of course prices will rise. Food on the menu either has to be priced up or portion size reduced.
Wine, beer and spirits will, ergo, rise too. It's not really rocket science, restaurants are businesses and are there to survive and make a profit. They also need to be able to survive the winter months.
As to converting to sterling I was making a point. 20 TL or £2.30 is not in my opinion over the top. I did not even quote the price of a glass of wine in the UK!
Having lived here for thirteen years I have seen many things change. Inflation occurs worldwide even in the TRNC.

mermaidsexist wrote:This is what I don't get, we are living in the TRNC the currency is lira, not pound. its all fair and well saying rent is in sterling, but as consumers that isn't our problem. seems that bars, restaurants and the likes are taking the mick somewhat. we aren't all tourists, nor are all customers tourists for that matter. what about people residing in the trnc and locals especially who live on the breadline and are expected to just pay price increases as soon as the tourists arrive?.

Yes the currency is lira, not that stable but unfortunately things are imported in dollars, euros, GBP slighter more stable hence why landlords want sterling and i suppose why they have been allowed to charge sterling.

but from what i gather rent for these bars / restuarants to me is way over the top and after tax staff etc it must be a hobby as they really can't get a good hourly rate for hours they work or they have another source of income

Maybe a person running a business can explain why they need to make over 100% plus on items

At first it was just large items i.e. cars, houses etc that were priced in Sterling. Then it became larger items such as BBQ, washers, dryers and other electrical items. Now it is painters and decorators, next it will be the window cleaner and pool man. There are times when I feel like asking if they would like payment in Yen or Rupee. If they want foreign currency, but never Tl, then why not? I don't care what people say or twist the currency exchange to suit, you should be able to pay for goods (no matter what) in the currency of the country.

Just for comparison, https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflatio ... eries/kef4 , personally I just order what I want, not that it matters.

Enjoy yourselves you only live once.

sophie wrote:At first it was just large items i.e. cars, houses etc that were priced in Sterling. Then it became larger items such as BBQ, washers, dryers and other electrical items. Now it is painters and decorators, next it will be the window cleaner and pool man. There are times when I feel like asking if they would like payment in Yen or Rupee. If they want foreign currency, but never Tl, then why not? I don't care what people say or twist the currency exchange to suit, you should be able to pay for goods (no matter what) in the currency of the country.

Most pool companies charge in sterling as their materials are charged to them in euros and dollars, customers would hate you saying 150tl one month and then 350tl the next just due to a rate change.
shops when buying do tend to let you know the sterling amount as well as the price but that I think is a reassurance to us as they can see a lot of us converting it.
quoting on a job which is labour intensive generally if its going to be carried out in the near future I ask for in lira as we all know the actual work force is poorly paid but if legal their boss is probably paying that amount again to the government in various taxes.

So if the currency in the TRNC is Turkish Lira then why are people on the forum selling their unwanted items in Sterling then? If you don't want to deal in TL then don't. Shop around for what you want and walk away if you can't find it in one place - it will always be available in another currency somewhere else. Stop worrying about it and just enjoy life.

Thickey


(Enjoy yourselves you only live once.)


Twice.

Once you are born and having faced death.!

Went to one of our favourite ‘reasonably priced’ restaurants (Dogus Adresi) a couple of months ago and they were charging 160tl for a bottle of Yakut which is a mark up of about 400% on shop prices. Cheapest bottle of wine was 100tl. Haven’t been since which is a shame really cos food is good. If I do go again I will probably stick to beer !

elizabeth wrote:

Panchocat wrote:Hi. I think most places are charging that for wine now. Certainly if it is Angora or Cankaya.
The lira as it is and the drop in tourists, they do have to make a living to cover the winter months too.
20TL is £2.63 !!! If you can't afford that you have the option to drink water!
The majority of restaurants all pay their rents in Sterling so they have to charge to cover that.

This particular restaurant is family owned, not rented, the wine was bog standard house wine and I can afford to pay that price, but it is still over the top for a glass of wine.
Whether or not you agree with that is of course your choice, as it is mine not to visit the restaurant again.

If it was bog standard house wine it was probably from a 5 litre box of SA wine. If it was a standard glass of 125ml they will get 40 glasses out, so they are raking in 800tl per box. Not sure how much a box of SA plonk now costs but I would guess about 80-90tl.

Not bad if you can get it!