Hey no totally I agree, 15/sandwich is so much more than I remember and 12/drink is nuts. With inflation and cost of living here it’s like double what I remember from 2018 ‘burbs. I’m not trying to say it’s necessarily cheap.
But as someone lucky enough to be able to eat out almost every day at a variety of restaurants I have no trouble staying under 35/person without drinks. That place is not an outlier.
And like, fancy cocktails are nice but I don’t think you can say that it’s impossible to go out and do anything without spending $500 like OP claimed.