Restaurants- worth the cost?

The holidays provide us with an excuse to eat out - and i don't mean McDonalds, we mean nice establishments. Over the course of two weeks, we've dined at 6 restaurants, some local some in NYC and 2 were Michelin rated. We had some stunning meals - but was the 6oz of salmon and a few pieces of carrots, string beans and turnips really worth $30? Let me note, this was not for one of the fancier places in NY. All in all the ingredients appear to be worth $9, so we paid $21 to pay for the help, lights and service and the time an energy to prepare the food. Then, don't we have a right to ask for the food to be served "hot", or "on time" and by skilled servers that don't act like we are doing them a favor? I'm sorry, but more and more of these restaurants are taking advantage of their local residents and eventually they will find their lights will be out.