I live on a fixed income. I am not ashamed to admit that. I am not poor per se. But I do live on a fixed income.
Anyways, from time to time, I do like to eat out (although I don’t do this as much, since my father died in 2011). And from time to time, I do go to Red Lobster. (I assume they have a Red Lobster in every state. But in case you don’t know, it is a sea food restaurant that specializes in [you guessed it] boiled lobster.)
Anyways, Red Lobster is a bit pricey. But I have found an ingenious way around their often ridiculous prices. I buy the Cape Cod appetizer platter.
Last time I was there, it was still about $10. And despite being an appetizer, you really do get a lot to eat with it.
Appetizers items can often be a meal. My husband and I go for the triple dipper one at Chilis. TGIF also has an unlimited app promotion, 10 bucks for endless apps of one item or mix and match for 12. Last time we each picked one and shared.
I do not live on a fixed income, eat at restaurants >2x per month, and I quite often order an appetizer as an entree. Especially if the appetizers look better than their entrees.
Sometimes I’m asked if I want a larger portion for a small upcharge and I’m usually fine with that as I know it’s probably the server trying to protect their tip.
Tullys, home of the worlds best chicken tenders, offers low priced appetizers, but of course this is during happy hour - my neighbor used to take her grandkids there (for food, not margaritas!) for a real relatively low cost treat.
I often order an appetizer at lunch as I can’t eat a big meal in the middle of the day. You have the 1/2 lb. burger and fries, I am happy with a few clams casino or chicken bites! When my husband and I go out to eat, I will order an appetizer and he gets the full entree. I will ‘help’ him finish it when he slows down.
Not a thing wrong with all of this, I always leave a decent tip, everyone is happy.
If that makes you happy go for it. I know plenty of people who have more than enough money who still shop for the deals on any purchase. It’s one of the ways they’ve ended up with more than enough money. There’s nothing wrong with it, if RL doesn’t want to sell their food cheap that way they’ll take it off the menu.
I can’t remember the last time I saw an appetizer that was…well…appetizer-sized. Most are at least the size of a lunch portion. If it’s what you want to eat, go for it!
I order appetizers as meals all the time! I’ll check out that platter the next time I’m at Red Lobster. They don’t have it on their on-line menu, at least not for my RL.
Ordering appetizers as the main dish is pretty usual for me. There’s a few places I go to where I just order off the app menu: one is for the steak tartare, another for the wings.
I read an article in Gawker (IIRC?) by a writer who was assigned to eat the TGIF endless appetizer special from the time the place opened at 11am unitl it closed at 1am. With the TGIF offer, she was only allowed to get repeat servings of whatever she originally ordered. She ordered the mozzarella sticks and immediately regretted her choice. Imagine eating fried cheese for 14 hours.
Having said that, my wife and I will sometimes each just order appetizers.
