# Do you like fine restaurants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451 "2017-03-18T00:47:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/21 "2017-03-18T14:08:04Z")
Yes. The food and service generally live up to the cost (yes that is not universal) and I like them the same reason I like nice hotels: it’s fun to be pampered. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/22 "2017-03-18T14:10:34Z")
If it’s just lunch with coworkers on a workday, my main reason is that I can’t have alcohol. If I’m going to pay for a decent meal at a restaurant, I usually want a beer, wine, or cocktail to accompany it. At most USA companies, even one drink is completely unacceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/23 "2017-03-18T14:30:29Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > I like 'em, but like **Shagnasty** , not all the time. Also, not all of them. I’ll get excited about going to a true “fine dining” place that gets great reviews and is really doing cool things, but those are few and far between (at least for me, living in the middle of nowhere). **Shagnasty** is right. You can eat well in NJ… and at some places that won’t break the bank. That said, **Athena** has a great point too. When fine dining is your one big meal of the day (and you skipped lunch just out of expectation) there is nothing worse than being disappointed. I’m going to sound like Frasier if I mention that some places are just… whats a good word that really says it… Gritty? :dubious: In a state known for Portuguese seafood, you’re really going to serve some seafood that tastes like you rolled it in salt, stuck it between an old saddle and a dirty horse and rode on it all day? Or the fine restaurant that had beach sand all over the tiles floor? (That place smelled like two track teams had a barefoot run on the beach, but were invited in to pick their feet before the bus trip home.) Or that one place that had a fly problem so severe, each table should have had an AA gun? But three problem spots doesn’t ruin a state, especially when one out of every five strip malls seems to have a small hidden gem restaurant with food just as amazing as some of the expensive places. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/24 "2017-03-18T16:13:23Z")
The only time I’ve ever been to one was at the fancy rotating restaurant atop a big fancy hotel in Phoenix, AZ. The setting, the service, everything was great. The “nouvelle cuisine” consisted of tiny bits of very ornate food, sitting in the middle of plates. Not enough to feed a cat. I had to go to a McDonalds afterward, to get a real goddamn meal. Never again, thank’ee. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/25 "2017-03-18T16:14:10Z")
I don’t do dress-up. For me, ‘fine’ dining means that the food is better than what I make at home, or it’s something that I make very seldom because of the work involved. That goes for burger shacks and places with _fois gras_ alike. I get no pleasure out of paying $150 for two people when the food is mediocre. A great thing about the internet is that you can look at restaurant menus before going. If they’re using screwball ingredients or I don’t like what they’re doing to the food, it’s a non starter, and Portland certainly has its share of that sort of foo-foo crap. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/26 "2017-03-18T16:24:54Z")
I like dressing up every so often. I like having a ‘fine dining experience’ every so often. But I don’t seem to experience food in that orgasmic sense that foodies do. In my entire long life which has including eating out since I was a small child, I’ve had about ten memorably good meals, which often enough have more to do with the company and/or how hungry I was than the food itself. One of the best meals I ever had was homemade carnitas burritos assembled on the hood of a truck. Another was blackberry cobbler made over a campfire from wild blackberries we children had picked in a clearing in the mountains. I guess I’m not a city girl. ‘Every so often’ is about twice a year, with my husband and/or daughter. The rest of my dining out is about solving the problem of not being able to get home for lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/27 "2017-03-18T16:30:38Z")
Yes. I’ve eaten at 2 Michelin starred restaurants already this year. Wore a dress and heels both times too, though like mentioned upthread in SF you can probably wear jeans everywhere. I keep a running list of places I want to go to next [Octavia](http://www.octavia-sf.com/) and [August1Five](http://www.august1five.com/) being tops, though my list actually is a mixture of choices from fine dining to brewpubs to a food truck on a particular corner, and I try to knock something off my list every month or so. On the other hand I had a killer burrito for lunch last week and got in and out for $12. To some people here I get that it seems like a waste of money or pretentious to be a foodie and enjoy high-end dining, but it’s my money, earned honestly and dining out is my hobby. For me eating fine meals falls into the “spend money on more experiences, instead of more stuff” category that we all talk about but rarely do. The whole thing gives me enormous pleasure. By the same token I don’t knock my bestie (who knits) for spending $75 dollars on 3 skeins of wool for a sweater when I can and do get a sufficiently warm one from Target for $12. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/28 "2017-03-18T17:08:54Z")
> [@Hedda\_Rosa](#): > > Yes. I’ve eaten at 2 Michelin starred restaurants already this year. Wore a dress and heels both times too, though like mentioned upthread in SF you can probably wear jeans everywhere. I keep a running list of places I want to go to next [Octavia](http://www.octavia-sf.com/) and [August1Five](http://www.august1five.com/) being tops, though my list actually is a mixture of choices from fine dining to brewpubs to a food truck on a particular corner, and I try to knock something off my list every month or so. On the other hand I had a killer burrito for lunch last week and got in and out for $12. > > To some people here I get that it seems like a waste of money or pretentious to be a foodie and enjoy high-end dining, but it’s my money, earned honestly and dining out is my hobby. For me eating fine meals falls into the “spend money on more experiences, instead of more stuff” category that we all talk about but rarely do. The whole thing gives me enormous pleasure. By the same token I don’t knock my bestie (who knits) for spending $75 dollars on 3 skeins of wool for a sweater when I can and do get a sufficiently warm one from Target for $12. Being a foodie doesn’t mean you have to wear a suit to spill the _au jus_ on. 😃 High prices don’t always mean good food, either. We like trying new restaurants as much as anyone, but quite often a snooty place just means $60 for a rib eye that is no better than the pub down the street. Michelin places are a good bet, and I’ve paid quite a bit for meals that were a bit of heaven. We don’t have any in Portland as yet, but there are a lot of James Beard winning chefs here. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/29 "2017-03-18T17:43:43Z")
Of course I do! I’ve had some of my finest meals in fine restaurants! I prefer cuisines I don’t care to cook for myself…it’s a great disappointment to finish dinner thinking “I coulda done this better at home for one-sixth the cost.” Also paying over ten dollars for a cocktail with two dollars worth of booze, and fifty dollars for a bottle of wine that retails for twenty. Not having to clean up or wash dishes is a plus, however. I’m another one of us who considers an excellent dinner in a great restaurant an entertainment expense. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/30 "2017-03-18T18:54:11Z")
OK, let’s go a bit deeper on what kind of fine dining I get in Missoula. The best restaurant here is The Pearl Cafe, a nice little French-focused restaurant with an eye to local ingredients and modern (that is, not too fussy, not too elaborate) dishes and presentation. [Here’s the menu.](http://pearlcafe.us/menu/) The French cuisine focus alone sets it apart. The restaurants the next step down are all either American or Asian (there’s a nice Thai restaurant, in fact, and a nice sushi restaurant as well), and the other restaurants on the same level (of which there are two) are either American or experimental. So eating nice is the best way to get French food, and I like French food. Also, this is Montana. We don’t treat steak like a fine dining only thing here. There’s a steakhouse just south of me, in Lolo, which does steak just about as well as it can be done, and their sense of decor is, uh, taxidermy. Tasteful taxidermy, but plenty of dead animals staring down at you. Therefore, the Pearl has things like bison and pork paté and duckling on a charcuterie plate, and reliably has duck confit on the main dinner menu. Ain’t no second-tier restaurants doing duck confit, and I wouldn’t do it, either. They do have “normal” steak, but they also have steak in a green peppercorn and brandy sauce. I certainly get the point about food quality being independent of restaurant class. There’s a restaurant down in Hamilton, Nap’s Grill, which does the best burgers and fries in the whole region, if not the state, and their sense of style is license plates nailed to the wall and serving your food on plastic trays. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/31 "2017-03-18T19:01:14Z")
No, there is no food I want to spend that much money on. When I was able to eat, I just wanted something I liked the taste of, and a Coke. A Chipotle burrito and a Coke would have been my favorite, but I’d go up to a Red Robin burger type food for a birthday or something. I don’t dress up, I don’t, or didn’t, linger over my food, and I get antsy after a certain amount of time at the table. I guess I was a cheap date, and it didn’t change at all after marriage. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/32 "2017-03-18T20:45:20Z")
We’ve eaten at Ruth’s Chris, Emeril’s, and Bern’s for dinner and birthdays. We don’t do it all the time, but it’s nice to get dressed up and have an experience. But [this place](https://willowtreecafe.com/) is a blast too, live music and fantastic food, and you can get a lot of bang for your buck. I had Ivylad’s 50th birthday party there, and providing three meats plus sides and one adult beverage for 16 people set me back just $500 (oh, and a whole Black Forest Cake for the dessert.) ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/33 "2017-03-18T21:07:21Z")
I don’t do dress-up. Eight years since the last time I wore a tie, 19 years for coat and tie, and over 35 years since I wore an actual suit. And I wouldn’t pay more than $35 per person for a meal (including drinks and whatever else) even if I could afford it. Just a barbarian, I guess… ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/34 "2017-03-18T22:54:59Z")
Here’s the dinner menu from a current favorite “fine dining” establishment that doesn’t require fancy dress, is located in an old pub about a block from the Old Vic theatre, doesn’t cost a fortune, and you can even have a pint of bitter with your food instead of wine. We’ve been to this place a half-dozen times over the past several years and never had a bite of food that was less than swoon-worthy. [http://www.anchorandhopepub.co.uk/page/dinner-menu/If](http://www.anchorandhopepub.co.uk/page/dinner-menu/If) ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/35 "2017-03-19T00:02:02Z")
I once really loved getting dressed up and lingering over a leisurely pricy meal for hours. These days, I’m much more…ahem…low-maintenance, and I’d rather have really good food in a more casual environment. Case in point: [The Publican](http://www.thepublicanrestaurant.com/dinner/) in Chicago. Great food, not too expensive, kid-friendly, and come-as-you-are (as long as you’re not in your Walmart sweats). ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/36 "2017-03-19T00:08:51Z")
Sorry, missed edit window. Somebody mentioned Ruth’s Chris above. I really wouldn’t consider that fine dining as such. I’ve been dragged there a few times. It’s a corporate place in all senses of the word…someplace to meet over an expense account and a sales pitch – where you aren’t expected to really enjoy or linger over the food, but it’s non-challenging and anybody can find something they’ll tolerate within 2 minutes of glancing at the menu. It’s like an upscale Applebee’s, only you’re meeting with some vendor there instead of your picky in-laws. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/37 "2017-03-19T02:44:19Z")
> [@Elemenopy](#): > > I once really loved getting dressed up and lingering over a leisurely pricy meal for hours. These days, I’m much more…ahem…low-maintenance, and I’d rather have really good food in a more casual environment. Case in point: [The Publican](http://www.thepublicanrestaurant.com/dinner/) in Chicago. Great food, not too expensive, kid-friendly, and come-as-you-are (as long as you’re not in your Walmart sweats). One of my favorites! Though truly… I wouldn’t necessarily say “not too expensive” unless you’re comparing it to the super-fancy (Alinea, etc). At least, I’ve managed to spend several hundred there on dinner for two. I guess you _could_ get away with less, but I’m… not very good at that. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/38 "2017-03-19T04:52:59Z")
I have a hard time enjoying anything that is, or feels, expensive. It just feels mentally guilty. Only way I could enjoy it would be if I’d somehow won it as a coupon/gift card or something. And even then, having waiters or staff who cater to me too much, makes me uncomfortable; I don’t like feeling like I’m a burden to people. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/39 "2017-03-19T04:59:31Z")
As a professional cook, I have absolutely no desire to sit in a “fine dining” establishment. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451/40 "2017-03-19T05:41:29Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > We’ve eaten at Ruth’s Chris, Emeril’s, and Bern’s for dinner and birthdays. Chain restaurants aren’t fine dining, to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-fine-restaurants/782451.md?page=3)