I heard that in the US it’s almost always cheaper to take food construction in-house rather than outsource it to third party vendors, either by consuming it offsite or having it shipped to your property.
However in lots of other countries that’s not the case at all, it’s the other way around and it’s almost always cheaper to outsource. For example in China or Taiwan you just place an order and the delivery dude shows up 10 minutes later on his moped. Or you just stop by a restaurant on your way back home to eat there. So it doesn’t even make sense to even have your own in-house food assembly equipment. I heard some people even have a whole room for assembly and storage in the US. And this isn’t even for fast food it applies to regular, healthy meals. Makes sense too, I would think, due to economies of scale.
So what gives? Where are the economies of scale in the US?
We should go for outsourced food and drink the next time I’m in town. 
I shall construct for him a food in-house in my large room where I have the equipment and the inventory.
Income taxes and sales taxes hit restaurant food but they don’t hit your own production in the US.
eg, if you buy restaurant food, you pay sales tax, you pay for their income taxes and business taxes. But if you prepare it yourself, you don’t have to pay tax on your own labor and food is usually exempt from sales tax.
There’s also more regulation and insurance in the US. The restaurant has to have liability insurance, get inspected regularly, their premises has to be officially zoned for food production etc. Their employees have to have workers comp insurance and their working conditions are very specifically regulated and if you don’t comply you’ve got to pay fines.
Low unemployment and minimum wage means you have to pay workers more.
The workers are generally people just out of school (or still in school). Well, they haven’t had to pay off their student loans for a while so they are going to not want the job as much and you’ll have to pay more to get them to work for you.
The food has to be better in a restaurant for you to buy it. It has to always come out good, while if you make it at home, if you make a lower quality batch, you still eat it.
Thread title is at odds with OP’s claim.
I agree with what @An_actuary said regarding taxation on “restaurant” food.
I would also question what the actual comparisons Colonel is making. For example, in most rural areas–especially the uber-Po’–the cost just to get to a “food source” (restaurant or grocery store) is a huge factor and is one principle area of “economies of scale” regarding “food production costs”.
Also in many rural areas, hunting is a relatively cheap means of getting meet (and I’ve discussed this point in another thread on this particular topic).
If you’re comparing urban areas between the US and “elsewhere” . . . I think general economic principles are going to come into play–along with key cultural differences between “American” vs. “Other”. The “mom-and-pop” shops are going to cut their margins pretty thin (compared to corporate-type shops) to be competitive with each other for customers (regardless of location); and I think you’ll find a lot more mom-and-pop shops in non-US locations with a general cultural attitude of “helping out by giving them your business” is not a US mindset (unlike what I’ve seen in other countries).
Labour is cheaper outside the US.
But the added u should cost more
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This site should add a tariff on all these imported “u”'s. T_P can afford it. But he’d just charge me more to read his posts.
You can also monitor the ingredients in home-cooked meals better than those you receive at a restaurant. You can control portion sizes, too.