It can depend on the place, but yeah, in general if the restaurant can get away with charging high prices and staying in business they’re offering superb service, atmosphere, and food. Probably the most expensive dinner I’ve had was JP¥40,000 for two, which was about US$350 at the time. (Thankfully, I didn’t pay for that one.) The food was perfect, the atmosphere was unique, the service was great. Seriously awesome.
The place I proposed to my wife, and where we go on our anniversary most of the time, is an Italian restaurant in Tokyo that has only about 8 tables. Like an earlier poster said, you will never find your glass empty. The food combinations are perfect. They know which of the dozens of wines go well with what foods and will give advice if asked. The course menu is different every time, and it’s always excellent.
The hostess knows who you are if you’ve ever been there before. I’m sure she has detailed notes on every guest they’ve had. Either that, or her memory is improbably perfect. The dishes are presented and introduced as they come to your table, and everything is paced so well that you never have to wait for long before a new dish is on its way, yet you never feel rushed to finish what you’re eating now. We typically spend a couple of hours there, from appetizer to dessert, but it never feels that long.
It usually costs over ¥20,000 (about US$245 at current exchange rates), with a glass or two of wine per person, but I pay that gladly considering the quality of the food and service. The cheaper course is around ¥7,000 ($85) and feels like a bargain.
The most expensive meal I have had was at Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa, FL. The food is actually very reasonable - about $45 will get you a dry-aged prime NY strip plus a bunch of sides (which are included in all their entrees) - baked potato, onion straws, vegetable, and salad. The wine is where they get you, and they have tens of thousands of choices. I believe we split an $80 bottle three ways. So the final tab for three was in the neighborhood of $200 before tax and tip. Then dessert, which is served on a separate floor, but that’s another story.
It was marvelous. The food was all great and the service was the best I’ve had at any restaurant by far. I didn’t feel ripped or cheated. They went out of their way to make us happy. So it was more about the overall experience than just the food.
Just to piggyback on this somewhat, there is a fairly clear lines of demarcation even within fine dining between expensive, very expensive, and what I call stupid expensive.
The first category is more accessible to non-foodies and easier to stomach the occasional let down. The menu will be intelligible to most folks, and will include at least a few standards that would be safe choices for the uninitiated or unadventurous (eg. steak, scallops, etc.). Those would be places that are considered by the average person to be the “best” well-known restaurant in one’s city. Prices will be around $100-150 pp.
Second, are the pre-fixe menu places that are smaller, more exclusive, and more expensive. Less of the menu will be in English, and fewer of the dishes will be like the things you cook at home. Prices around 200-250pp.
Then there are the stupid expensive places. Places where you drop 1k for dinner without much drinking. These places are few and far between. There are probably a dozen in the US, and most of them are fairly small. Here is a list of the restaurants with the highest average check. There are very few times a dinner for two will set you back over 1k without some heavy drinking, or an excessively large tip. Even really rich people don’t go to these places too often.
My experience is similar to Athena’s. I’ve eaten at about ten genuinely fine dining restaurants in my life, and with a couple of exceptions each experience was truly astonishing - and memorable. I can still conjure up the tastes and textures in my mind.
The most I’ve spent on a meal for two is about $600 for lunch. I’ve written about this before several times. It was at The Fat Duck, which was voted best restaurant in the world in 2006. Lunch was seventeen tiny courses, and took three and a half hours. It was as different to Morton’s as XKCD is to Picasso. This is an advised analogy: imagine an art form that is not only visual, but also uses the scents, tastes and textures - and sounds - of food. Add in a bit of stage magic. Make it replete with flavors that confound your expectations.
It sounds pretentious, and I thought it was going to be too until I’d actually tried it. It blew my tiny little mind. My dining partner wasn’t really enthusiastic, and said beforehand I should have taken someone else who would appreciate all that pretension. Afterwards she had completely changed her mind. It was as memorable and delightful - and as expensive - as a short vacation, but was worth every penny.
I think you mean prix-fixe, French for “fixed price.”
My ex and I used to enjoy an occasional meal at horribly expensive places–maybe a few times a year. I agree with the others who say that “better” comes out of the food as it is purchased by the restaurant. Fresh, naturally; but some things leave you wondering where or how the restaurant found them as fresh as they are, especially if they are out of season locally (as is so often the case with produce here in Canada in winter).
Then there is the preparation. A skilled chef and his or her staff, who know what to do with food and seasonings, are wonderful things. I’ve never been disappointed by a meal in an expensive place–and this is underscored by the fact that my ex, who was not shy about returning a meal in cheaper places, never was either.
Service is important, and there is more to it than just keeping one’s glass filled. A server in such a place makes sure that you are happy with everything, and is unobtrusive but equipped with some sort of ESP that brings them when you need them. The server never sounds like he or she is reading from a script (for example, “Hi-my-name-is-Jason-and-I’ll-be-your-server-tonight-our-specials-are…”). Anything different from the menu, within reason, will be met with a “Yes, we can do that for you.” And it’s a small thing, but I am always impressed when the server has noted my name from the reservation book or remembers it from the maitre d’, and addresses me by it (for example, “May I tell you about our specials, Mr. Spoons?”).
There is much I do not miss about my ex, but one of the things I do miss are our visits to expensive restaurants. It’s not the same when you’re by yourself.
You’re not paying for the quality of the food ingredients - well, you are sort of, sometimes, but not really to the extent by which the prices scale - and in some cases, the expensive, exclusive restaurants make a point of using humble ingredients such as mackerel or brisket.
You’re paying to participate in a form of creative art, and you’re paying to experience a meal that has been thought about and finely-tuned in every detail. I’m sure there are fantastic or horrific exceptions at every level of the spectrum though. Is Monet’s Waterlilies better than Lucy in the Field with Flowers? - Only if people think so.
I believe a big problem with expensive restaurants for the average folk arrived out of their 1990’s California cuisine experiences. Nobody wants to buy a $50 steak and get delivered a couple ounces of fillet with 2 baby carrots and an asparagus tip surrounded by some sauce. Just so you know, the vast majority of expensive places are not like this. You will leave full, satiated, and your head will pop at the amount of art/food you will have eaten.
I’ve eaten fifty dollar meals and I’d consider that an expensive meal. But I like seafood and there is seafood you just won’t find cheaply. Sometimes you are paying a lot just for the basic ingredients.
As you told your doctor during the emergency angioplasty.
[QUOTE=brickbacon]
As far as who goes to places like this, I would generally break them in to 5 categories:
People on business. Since they don’t have to pay, and often are trying to impress someone, they go to the “best” places.
People who are celebrating an event, and want something special.
People who really like food, and the experience of dining at a great restaurant.
The truly rich who just don’t want to be bothered by regular folk.
People who want to check out the new hot chef’s restaurant, or want to be seen by important people.
[/QUOTE]
I am number 1. Hope to be number 4 someday and I don’t like to admit that I also am the latter part of number 5.
Been to several and while the only really truly great and mindblowing place was a Gordon Ramsey restaurant in London, I must confess there is a noticeable difference between your Michelin 3 star restaurant and even the nicest, classiest “normal” place.
I don’t get this argument. To me, a high end restaurant is not about volume of food, which is what you are equating price to.
It’s about the quality of the food, the opportunity to try ingredients that you can’t get at your local market, cooked in a way you can’t replicate in your kitchen.
I’ve rarely seen entrees for more than $50, but at many places people order an starter and/or a salad, entree, and dessert, plus wine. If the starter is $10, salad is $10, entree is $30, desert $10 and wine $50 for a bottle then you’re looking at $100+ per person. Of course, people split the bottle, making that cost shared, but the idea is the same.
I’ve not done this at chain restaurants, but every city has tons of upscale but not extremely fancy restaurants where this is common.
The REALLY expensive places are often set tasting menus where the chef makes many (often 15+) small courses - like a few bites each, not as big as a course in a normal restaurant. These are brought out to you, you spend 4 hours there, everything is presented beautifully and creatively. I’ve done this once, for a wedding anniversary. It was $200 per person for the food plus another $100 or so for the wine, plus tax and tip.
Is it better? Obviously I think it is. Food at expensive restaurants is often prepared better and uses more creative and/or rare ingredients. Then there’s the experience - the service is amazing, and the food is presented beautifully. There’s a theatrical aspect, too, in the way the food is brought out. Some people don’t value this, others do. It’s the way I prefer to spend my entertainment budget.
I think brickbacon’s post is pretty comprehensive. I haven’t been to many of these restaurants (I don’t get taken out on #1, kids and being in Minneapolis limits 2 and 3, and I’m not 4 or 5), but I’ve been to a few. Part of it is the total experience; food, atmosphere and service.
I do want to add that if you are a foodie and you can get a chef’s table (aka kitchen table) at one of these sorts of places, it HAS to be done.
The most expensive entree I have had was probably $90 for a Kobe beef steak at Bobby Flay’s restaurant in Atlantic City. Easily the best steak I ever had. Dinner for two was a little over $200.
Bern’s also gives you a tour through the kitchen and wine cellar before dessert. Pretty cool!
I’m a natural-born skinflint, but fine dining is one thing I can deal with spending money on. We always do it when we are traveling on vacation, so it isn’t a usual thing, but it’s generally the highlight of the trip.
L’Auberge in Virginia, Jean George in NYC, and Tru in Chicago are the best I’ve been to.
I ate at Fogo de Chao and I was not impressed. Sure, they come by with the cuts of steak, but I felt like you couldn’t eat in peace, what with the waiters swooping down on you every moment. If they weren’t swopping on you, because you had your card turned over, they were swooping on everyone around you. I really didn’t think that atmosphere was worth the money.
On the other hand I had dinner at a nice tapas restaurant overlooking the bay in Baltimore. It was just before sunset; it was 75 degrees and gorgeous and sunny, I was with my love, and the food was delicious. I would have spent a lot more for that experience again, much more than I paid.
There is certainly a dividing line but I think after that all of the restaurants just meld together. I have heard that at Peter Luger’s they cut your steak though, which is one of the things I want someone else to do for me - cut my steak! Yes I just want to eat it.
I admit at the high quality places there is a complete lack of children, which I like a lot.
I have to admit I’ve never been to any of the really high quality places, like over $50 an entree or a head. If I’m paying $100 for a plate or for myself they’d better be getting on their knees at some point during the course of the meal.
