You want how much for what???

I think the most expensive packet of pasta I have ever bought cost about $5 and that was for a packet that feeds four people. I am not ashamed to say that I have paid as little as 99c and have still been more than satisfied with the product.
My husby cooks many excellent pasta dishes at home so if I go out for dinner I expect it to be no less than great. Here is one of my favourites. It's from the Rockpool restaurant in the Burswood complex.

Yes the lighting was a bit out but this is a goats cheese tortellini with king prawns and raisins. Normally it comes in an entree size (5 bits I think) but I asked for a main which is what you see above. There are 7 bits of pasta and no they are not the size of donuts (goddamnit I wish they were though). Can you guess how much this dish costs?
$49.00!!
I am a big fan of Neil Perry and the restaurant is beautiful but there is not a pasta in the world that should cost this much unless it fills a 5litre bucket. Am I an idiot for ordering it? Hell yes! It is delicious however but I think that amount of money is best spent towards one of their steaks. Even the side dish of mac n cheese is only $12.


Here is another example:

This is an arrabiata from a restaurant at the Hillary's boat harbour called Bella Fonte. They are quite lacking for decent pastas there actually but you can pretty much find everything else. Anyway, this normally comes with a red sauce but I asked for an olive oil base instead which I think was a good decision. They get points for letting me make modifications to their recipe. They lose points because when I asked the waiter for cheese he said "parmesan?". Uh yes. And then they forgot my bread.
Husby was reading reviews on Urban Spoon while we waited for my order and most of the bad raps were about the price of the pastas. In my view, no pasta anywhere should cost over $25 and you can get some damn good ones for much less.
So can you guess how much this one was?
$30.00- not as exorbitant as the Rockpool but still....
And so I ask you my friends, wtf is going on with some of the food prices in our fair city?

Thank goodness I only eat out on the weekends....