I don’t get this “I can make it myself at home cheaper and/or better.” If I’m at a restaurant, I’m not “at home.” And I need to eat. It would be like saying, “I’m not ordering the burger here, because they have better burgers at this other restaurant in Tacoma or Miami.” Yeah, but you’re not there, you’re here. Order what sounds good, even if you can do it better and cheaper at home, or even if 5 other places do it better. I probably eat more meals in restaurants than I do at home. I might decline to order a PB&J, not because I can do it at home, but because it’s not the most interesting thing on the menu.
On the other hand, I do get the idea of ordering something at a restaurant that’s not something you make at frequently home, because you like having something different. If I had scrambled eggs 3 times a week at home, I’d probably order something else at a restaurant just for variety. Unless, of course, I was in the mood for scrambled eggs.
When I go out to eat, it’s because I forgot to pack my lunch, I’m on the road,I’m short on time, or I just don’t feel like cooking. I’m a good cook. But I’m also a good seamstress. Some days I’d rather be a cook. Some days I’d rather be a seamstress. Next Tuesday I’ve got a basketball game to see an hour after work. I’m sure I’ll eat something at the game that will cost three times as much as it would to make at home. But I’ll be the sports fan Tuesday night, not the cook, not the seamstress. I base my food choices on what I want and can afford.
Steak rarely fails to disappoint me when eating in a restaurant. The steak I cook at home. is so much more flavorful and cooked exactly the way I like it.
I wound up eating at a restaurant last night. It was okay, but the steak was medium, not medium rare. Even rare would have been better, if they had to get it wrong.
Well, I suppose it depends why you’re at the restaurant. I don’t eat out a lot for many reasons. When I do, it’s because I want to have something that I can’t make, don’t feel like making because of the mess/time involved, or the restaurant I’m going to has a version of something I have a hankering for. This covers about 80% of the time I eat out. The other 20% is if I’m meeting someone for dinner or on vacation/traveling/need to grab a quick bite. In that case, I still generally go for foods I don’t like making at home or foods that the particular establishment is known for. If that’s “pretentious,” (and I know that’s not your term) so be it. It’s simply not why I eat out. I’m happy to eat at McDonald’s and places like that, but it’s because I actually do enjoy their burger, and I can’t make the same thing at home.
Interesting. Steak is my go to when going to a new restaurant. It’s hard to get good steak in the local supermarket and butchers so a good piece of steak served with chips and a salad, very noice.
Things I won’t order are Spag Bol, Chicken Parma, lasagne and any kind of sandwich. If i want a sandwich I’ll go to a food court or a sandwich shop.
More or less the only times we eat out are our anniversary [oddly enough, Valentines Day was the first legal date after my divorce we could get married on between Navy and state paperwork.] and our ‘mutual’ birthday [his is Aug 27, mine is Oct 27 so we go out on Sept 27] and if we are traveling.
Having been a professional hash slinger, and collector of cookbooks and mrAru being also an accomplished cook, we can make more or less anything we can get supplies for and find a recipe for and can probably make it cheaper than we can get it for out so we simply get what is reasonably close to what is on my nutritional plan for the day, appeals to us and is in stock - though typically once a year the 3 of us [hubby, roomie and I] hit Nordic Lodge for the all you can eat lobster. Our roomie and I have a deal, I get the tails and she takes the front half of the lobster as she likes the innards and I don’t so this way they don’t go to waste. Drives my cardiologist nuts, but as my cholesterol numbers are great without any statins, I told him he can’t bitch me out about it. Turns out that upon cardiac stress test and MRI, I also don’t have any plaque action going on either. [Drives him nuts, fat, diabetic glutton me, eats eggs, butter, whole cream, an annual lobster gorge … Just goes to show that you really can eat anything as long as you maintain reasonable portions. My nutritionist is down with my annual gorge, she sees my diet log and my glucometer charts. She knows I don’t eat the typical premade junk foods.]
Picture it: Shoney’s all-you-can-eat breakfast bar. One half of my plate was the eerily-uniformly-yellow scrambled eggs, and the other half was the eerily-uniformly-pink jello-y stuff. YUM.
There are 2 reasons why I never order lasagna at a restaurant. 1 is that lasagna (imo) tastes better as leftovers than fresh. They hold the shape better? 2 is that I’m Garfieldian in my lust for lasagna and can eat half a damn pan if not more.
I rarely order fish dishes either. There are precious few cooks who can make a fish taste better than an order of cow, pig, lamb, or duck. I’ve been pleasantly surprised a few times at Chinese/Indian restaurants but I don’t think I’m missing much.
I don’t order Panera because I used to work there and just can’t bring myself to pay those prices KNOWING the mark-up first hand.
As for dishes I don’t order because it’s too easy? Pasta, fried rice, meatloaf, and chili. If the price is right and I’m hungry enough though ($1 Wendy’s chili) I could make an exception but usually not.
I dunno… toast maybe? Thought that comes as a side with other stuff I might order, so maybe after all.
Cereal for sure. When I was a little kid I did have cereal in restaurants when we were on a trip down to Florida, sounds silly, but to a kid of that era, cereal = breakfast. I’d certainly never order cereal today.
Absolutely nothing. Sometimes I don’t want to make it myself. I don’t care how easy it is to make, I don’t go to work everyday for my health, let someone else make it and make a couple bucks off of my cooking laziness.
All right, you people have had me going, convinced that I am a complete philistine for always going with the safest/dullest option on the menu. You see, I am a picky eater, so I am that person ordering steak or spaghetti or grilled cheese sandwiches.
So last night I was taken to a Very Nice Restaurant. Instead of ordering steak, I decided to try something new (which I believed there was at least a decent chance I might like) that I would have no ability to prepare at home. Well, I didn’t like it. No complaints from me - I’d gone the safe route on the appetizers, so I wasn’t going hungry, and I wasn’t wondering if I’d just gotten a badly prepared main course, I just didn’t like it. The fellow who was bussing plates noted I hadn’t eaten much, and asked what was wrong. I told him there was nothing wrong, I’d just wanted to try something new. He said “You didn’t like it. I will tell your server” and was off before I could do anything. My waiter turned up and we had the same conversation - he was concerned there was something wrong (fair enough) and I repeated that there was nothing wrong with the dish, I had simply been trying something new. Then he ticked me off by saying he should have explained to me what it was. I knew what I was ordering. If I had had questions, I would have asked. By now I felt terribly embarrassed in front of my dining companions. I felt like a little kid again, being berated by my relatives for what I was/was not eating. So much for adventures in dining, I guess it’s back to the local Mexican place and plain bean burritos for me. (And since I don’t have lard at home, those *are *better than what I can make myself).
They’re trying to ensure that you are happy with your dining experience. God knows how many people they get who don’t complain and then go online to bitch about how awful their food was.
If it just wasn’t to your taste, just explain that. They will fall all over themselves trying to ensure you are happy; politely counter them and tell them they’re fine, you were trying to be adventurous and just didn’t find it to your taste, assure them you loved the appetizer.
(Today I had a salad at a place that I could only eat some of the appetizers and salads, due to being a vegetarian. My salad was… salty. I politely sent it back and since my husband was basically done with his food, left still hungry and a little tipsy from the beer I’d had. The waiter really tried to offer me other stuff but we had to go. I’m not holding it against them, though; the appetizer was good and what I ate off my husband’s plate was yummy.)
At home, where there is no one around to be disturbed by this, I will cheerfully eat raw hamburger. So I had reason to believe raw minced beef with egg and herbs was not completely out of the question.
I suppose they must get at least a few people who were disappointed not be be receiving more of an Outback Steakhouse sort of product.
Anyway, I know they were concerned about the quality of my dining experience. I think once I had explained I was trying something new, that should have been the end of it.
I am not a chef, but I am one damn good amateur cook. Frankly I can’t think of anything that I can’t cook at home that isn’t either easier, cheaper, or probably better tasting at home. Yet I go out on a regular basis.
Why?
Lots of reasons.
Every work day at lunch the fact that my kitchen is 50 miles away is a pretty good reason if you ask me.
Dinners and breakfasts? Often going out with friends for a bite. Also see work is 50 miles from home.
Many times even though I can produce a per serving saving, the total is more than going out. For example a prime rib roast is well over $100 even though 1 serving maybe works out to $10 or so.
Also quite often I go somewhere to see what their take is on a particular dish.
I don’t get the complaints about restaurant food being more expensive than home cooked. Well of course it is, you’re paying for the whole experience not just the steak.
But I wouldn’t order pasta. I make better pasta than most restaurants. And I wouldn’t normally order chicken or salmon, just way too everyday for a restaurant meal.
OOO - prime rib … that is something I will definitely go out for to one specific place - Red Osierin Batavia NY - I am not really set up at home to do a prime rib and they do it so nicely. I hate going for a prime rib and they serve the food service version where it is cooked in a factory, portioned out and retort packaged. I would love to go to the place I saw on one of those food TV shows in LA - Lawreys. I love those prime rib carts and being served at the table.
Another thing I will go out for is tempura and sushi/sashimi. While I can fry up my choice of grub, and do a reasonably good tempura, and I can make sashimi it is worth the money to have someone else do it for me. When we meet up with a particular bunch of friends, we go to a specific Japanese place because we have carnivores, vegetarians and vegans in the group and everybody can find something to eat. [not to mention Japanese is great for fitting into the nutritional profile I have for a meal. Well, I also adore tuna sashime, the tamagozushi and the shrimp-miso soup] I would love to be able to find a place that has all you can eat tempura - my favorite bits are the shrimp, the yam and the onion. Sometimes they will also do cauliflower.
I grow my own greens and vegetables and make my own salad, and bake my own bread and butcher my own meat and make own cheese and build my own sandwiches. I raise chickens so I have my own eggs and obviously I have the cows to get the steaks for a delicious steak and eggs breakfast. My pigs provide my bacon and the chops. I hired a sweet old Italian lady for the pasta and sauces, she is wonderful.
I went to a restaraunt once, but it was only to use their restroom. I didn’t flush.
Just goes to show that you really can eat anything as long as you maintain reasonable portions. My nutritionist is down with my annual gorge, she sees my diet log and my glucometer charts. She knows I don’t eat the typical premade junk foods.]
I politely sent it back and since my husband was basically done with his food, left still hungry and a little tipsy from the beer I’d had. The waiter really tried to offer me other stuff but we had to go. I’m not holding it against them, though; the appetizer was good and what I ate off my husband’s plate was yummy.)