I spend a lot of my “going out to eat time” at sports bars, all of which have the same menu as every other sports bar: “If it’s deep-fried we have it; if not, we have a burger.”
But when I go other places, it depends.
Diner breakfast: If they have a BLT, that’s my go-to. No eggs for me, thankyouverymuch, but even if it’s not on the menu, if a diner can do any kind of “two eggs any style” breakfast, it can do a BLT.
British pub: Shepherd’s pie or beef-and-Guinness pie. Mushy peas or baked beans on the side. Fries too, if they’re offered.
Steakhouse: Coin toss between filet mignon and tournedos rossini. Basically the same thing, with a few slight differences.
Any kind of Spanish/Italian/Portuguese/Greek place: Grilled or Braised Octopus, grilled sardines, calabrian anchovies, baccala on toast
Italian restaurant: Sausage pasta (any kind)
Indian: Chicken Balti
A good man with a good point! Years ago when I worked in downtown Toronto, a group of us would frequently have lunch at what I think was actually a Vietnamese restaurant, but it was very good. Singapore noodles weren’t on the menu, but I learned you could ask for them anyway, and I immediately fell in love with the curry-spiced noodles with stir-fried shrimp, onions, peppers, and other good things. Today I’m lucky to live near a Chinese takeout that makes Singapore noodles that are every bit as good, and, indeed, though the things I order from there vary, there is always an order of Singapore noodles!
Poutine (I’m from Philly, so it’s rare down here. When my son and I took a weekend trip to Toronto, we made two rules: we could only listen to Canadian music, and if we see poutine on the menu, we have to order it)
I always order things that I do NOT make at home. I have two main reasons, one of which is variety. The second reason is that we tend to tailor the taste of the things we cook to the taste that we prefer the most, so the odds are that, if we order one of those meals in a restaurant, it might not taste quite as good as our own.
Another vote for French Dip, in fact when we got to a new place, my partner will always say “I knew you were going to order that”. The only exception is if I’ve been to the place before and/or they make it too fussy (ciabatta bread? NO). Give me prime rib or decent roast beef, a FRENCH Roll and decent au jus that’s not water and I’m in heaven. If you must put horseradish or a bit of cheese on it, that’s ok but usually not an improvement.
Breakfast is Eggs Benedict, especially Crab though that can be hit or miss, or Corned Beef Hash.
Another mention is because I’ve only seen it once and had one of the best breakfasts of my life. Our local breakfast/lunch place (now sadly closed) which always had consistently good corned beef hash AND French dips, put a special of a cornmeal-fried trout. Just like my grandma used to make when we were camping. If I ever see that again, I’ll eat the hell out of it.
In Cuban restaurants, my go-to dish is ropa vieja, partly because I like stewed meat, but mainly because I learned a long time ago that the name translates as “old clothes,” which I can’t but inform my dining partner(s) of, whether they speak Spanish or not or whether they have dined with me before and have learned this bit of information many times over. But recently I’ve discovered that I don’t really like the dish, and so have dropped it from my order and replaced it with a seafood dish.
Of well-cooked meat, I have also removed most BBQ from my orders–I frequented BBQ restaurants for a long time, experimenting with different preparations and recipes, throughout the Deep South, before realizing again that I don’t really like overcooked meat that much, and most places tend to cook BBQ until it’s falling off the bone, that is to say, tasteless save the goop they heap upon it disguised as “sauce.”
Patty melt or liver and onions (my partner can’t bear the smell of fried onions).
Eggs Benedict (I can’t make a decent hollandaise sauce to save my life.).
Prime rib.
Any kind of fish or shrimp or crab, anything except squid or octopus.
Anything right out of the deep fryer, especially fried chicken and onion rings (mom don’t do deep frying in the house).
Chinese food, I love it, and Thai food. My attempts to make it have been very sad. There are thousands of Chinese and Thai places around, I will leave it to them.