Or you’re traveling and just want something quick.
Isn’t it about the sauces on the pasta? I mean yeah, PASTA itself is easy, but a lot of sauces aren’t. (Who the hell eats plain pasta?) My mother makes a really good tomato sauce, but it’s the kind that takes all day to cook. And sometimes I like going out with my friends, getting together, and enjoying the atmosphere itself – the food is secondary. And if I happen to see something I like that’s really simple, I’ll order it anyways. I won’t have to wash dishes.
It’s not the food itself, sometimes. It’s the going out part.
So many people have already quoted him that I’ll just say I’m with silenus on this. Nine times out of ten, I’m not going to a restaurant to get a special treat; I’m there because I really don’t feel like cooking, not even something simple, at that particular time. I’ll order whatever looks good to me at the moment.
I must say, though, that I don’t go out for breakfast much anymore. On days when I would have time to go out for breakfast, I’d almost always rather be home in my pajamas, even if it means cooking my own food. And, now that I think about it, my pancakes are better than almost any pancakes I’ve had in a restaurant.
About the only thing I won’t get at a restaurant that I make at home would be Spaghetti. It’s easy to throw together at home, but for that matter, I don’t eat it very often. Partial jars of sauce rot in my fridge with distressing (long term) regularity.
Other than that, I go to restaurants because I’m with people, or I want something I can’t or don’t want to make, or it’s just easier.
I also find this idea of not ordering something in a restaurant because ‘I can make that cheaper at home’ to be ludicrous. Of course you can! It’s not like they’re waving a magic wand and creating it out of nothing. Although on the other hand, I’m sure they can make my two tacos cheaper than I can, because I’d have to buy a lot more than two tacos worth of lettuce, cheese, onions, etc, and I certainly don’t go through bulk lettuce to get that sort of thing as cheaply as they do.
BLTs. I make BLTs in the summer with my own tomatoes, five seconds from the vine, and good, warm toast. Far better than any I’ve ever had out.
For the steak debate, I’ll get it at a high end steak house, but never at a Applebee’s or some place like that. I prefer to eat stuff out which is hard to make in little batches, or which take lots of exotic fresh ingredients.
I don’t order steak at restaurants because usually the ones we’re at don’t have great steak. I doubt I’m getting prime beef at Applebee’s (and before you knock my choice of restaurant, we don’t go there often and we live in an area where locally owned restaurants that aren’t Chinese, Mexican, or $30 a plate just don’t exist.) We have a budget when we go out so Nebraskan Wuygu (whatever) just isn’t even close to being on the menu. I have steak at home when we’ve bought a side of beef. I get grass fed, local beef cut exactly the way I want and cooked exactly the way I want it cooked. Why the crap would I pay a $15/plate restaurant for a crappy steak? There are a lot of other dishes inexpensive places do a lot better.
I also don’t order stir fry in Chinese restaurants. That’s my go do dish when I’m in a hurry at home. Yes, I’m using frozen vegetables but the Chinese restaurants around here are doing the same thing. Basically, if the Mandarin sauce is day glo orange and came out of a Sysco bucket, the veggies in the stir fry probably weren’t fresh cut.
I totally get the OP’s question and don’t find it pretentious at all. We don’t go out to eat enough to make me want to order something I can do better at home.
This discussion does remind me of a story my mom told me though. My mom refuses to eat at Italian restaurants with my dad. Every time he goes to one he orders the lasagna and every single time he’s disappointed because it doesn’t taste like my mom’s. My mom’s lasagna would never be allowed on the menu. She uses jarred sauce and cottage cheese. For years she even used jarred Parmesan. (We managed to convert her to the good stuff in the last ten years.) It makes me laugh. He knows he won’t get what he wants, but he orders it anyway. Crazy man. He really should make it a rule to never order lasagna at a restaurant.
(Bolding mine) But that’s not the OPs question. The OP is asking if you won’t order something because it’s easy and cheaper to make at home, not because the home version is better. As I read the OP, the restaurant version can be spot on and terrific, but because you could make easily and cheaper, you’d refuse to order it.
That, frankly, is the puzzling part. I’d totally get not ordering an inferior version of something. But to refuse to order something tasty and well done because I can do it cheaper at home, or just too easy is odd to me. Not really pretentious, but just odd.
There is nothing that I would not order in a restaurant because I could cook it better at home. If I want a baked tator and steak, that’s what I order. I’m out at a restaurant to enjoy myself.
On the other hand, we have a local company that raises its own beef. That’s pretty much the only steaks we buy now adays. It’s very $$$ but worth it for the steak we have once a month or so. It’s worth every penny, and better or as good as any restaurant steak I have ever had.
I also think that fresh, homemade pasta is worlds better than the dry packaged stuff. Some folks disagree I know. But in any case, I like the fresh stuff. I don’t make it often. My Wife doesn’t seem to care either way and it is pretty time consuming.
What, like a tuna sandwich? Bowl of chili? things commonly ordered for lunch (in my experience) - they ARE ‘too easy’, and not all that special, but they’re quick, and don’t fill you up to the ears with food. I’ll order a cup of soup of the day, if I get a choice: Thai coconut? Yes, please! Chicken noodle - not so much :-(. Things too easy: I will order steak in a restaurant (because the only steak I like to cook at home is on the charcoal grill, and that’s not always an option) or anything with a ton of fried onions (because it’s easy to do myself but I don’t like cooking smelly stuff in the closed in house in the winter).
I don’t usually order tortellini or ravioli unless I know the restaurant is making them there. Too many places use the exact same frozen ravioils I can get at Costco, and that bugs me.
Otherwise, as others have said, while it may be technically cheaper for me to make a thing at home, sometimes I don’t have all those ingredients around. A baked potato? Yeah, easy to do at home but then I’d need cheddar, scallions, sour cream… and then I’d need to find something to do with the extra sour cream and scallions so I don’t waste them…
Uh, you’re the one setting yourself above everyone else who has answered this question in the spirit offered. I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Caprese. I can by heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and great olive oil and make a better caprese for 20% of what a restaurant would charge me.
I don’t get scrambled eggs because I can get those at home. I have a hard time making quality sunny-side-up or over-easy/medium eggs at home, so always get those when I’m at a restaurant.
And I don’t know if I could fit enough rolleye smilies in this post for the “potatoes are peasant food” comment.
He really should make it a rule to never order lasagna at a restaurant.