I’ll usually go for a grilled fish fillet. Gimme some mashed potatoes too.
Reuben for me too. My favorite sandwich, and I like to see how well (or poorly) made they are. Sometimes I’m surprised, but more often than not I’m disappointed.
That sentence did not end the way I expected it would. 
As to the overall thread, it’s been interesting to see different ideas for different sorts of restaurants.
One of my primary rules of thumb when eating out at a nice / fancy restaurant is “Never turn down a chance to eat a duck.” Only rarely will I skip the duck on the first visit to a particular restaurant.
For any restaurant if I’m going back there regularly I’ll develop a list of 3 to maybe 10 different items and more or less rotate through the whole list before repeating. The idea of getting the exact same thing every time at someplace I frequent is just wrong.
Couldn’t get enough of this when I was in New Zealand. The best I had was at a small place in the Re:Start shopping mall in Christchurch. They were cooked in bacon grease.
Other foods I like to try include corned beef hash and biscuits and gravy.
Duck
Pretzels
Scallops
I always get fried plantains because I can never make them at home like I can get them at a restaurant. And they are delicious.
Living in Michigan there are not a lot of places that make them.
I’ll go with crab cake Benedict almost every time it’s on the menu.
For dinner, I’ll have the duck.
(these threads make me hungry)
Eggs Florentine
Fresh-squeezed orange juice
French Dip
Onion Rings
Dim Sum: Cha siu bao (steamed)
Spanish Tortilla
Key Lime whatever. Key Lime ice cream, Key Lime cheesecake, Key Lime pie, etc. I see Key Lime, I order.
Falafel. In California I could find good falafel almost everywhere and truly magnificent falafel three blocks from our house at the Lebanese restaurant. (Well, everything that woman made was amazing.) In Texas, well, not so much. To the point that I have not experienced good falafel anywhere in Texas. The Great Greak restaurant that opened here near Austin has ok falafel (and according to my husband their lamb is wonderful). If anyone in Texas knows a good falafel in any sort of restaurant please PM me!
I’ve tried to cook duck twice in my life, and both times the smoke detectors all went off and the house was filled with smoke while I juggled a pan of boiling grease. 
I tried. I TRIED. I will leave it to experts, as I do deep-frying things.
Yowza.
I would add fried okra. Sometimes offered as a side dish by barbecue joints, but not often enough.
Yep. Even bad creme brulee is good, but good can be transcendent.
I’m making notes for myself.
Oh God, yes. One of the things I missed. Okra falls under things to eat in Greece, specifically Crete, where it is stewed in a tomato sauce. Divine.
j
I don’t eat out often enough to really worry about the cost. What I like about appetizers is that they’re often more interesting and flavourful than the mains, even at the very best restaurants.
I guess what I like about appetizers is they resemble one of my favourite styles of dining, the many-course tasting menu, which isn’t a menu at all but an order for a long sequence of small tasty and beautifully presented dishes, often more than a dozen or as many as 20. Japanese omakase is the embodiment of that, which can be done with sushi, sashimi, or with any combination of Japanese dishes, but can also work well with just about any kind of elegant food. It’s basically an instruction to the chef to surprise you with a long array of small dishes showing off the best he can do. The only downside is the inevitably huge bill at the end!
French Dip
I get burgers a LOT at restaurants. I’m not a fancy restaurant guy, and burgers are usually tasty and attractively priced.
Calamari if we’re sharing
Italian Ice if we go to an ice cream place for dessert
Ravioli, especially if it’s a new italian place, it’s my go-to test of the restaurant’s sauce. Pass the test, I’ll come back.
1 Plain cheese slice and 1 Sicilian slice for lunch.
I’m not ordering a cheesesteak if I “see it on a menu” I’m ordering a cheesesteak if I went to a place for their cheesesteak.
Bone-in fried chicken.
We have a goofy little place here you’d probably love.
They specialize in whiskeys and spirits, their cocktails are fun and different. The tasting plates are impressive for where we are. Their vibe is pure country and Japanese. The place is always packed – make a reservation. Quite a feat to pull off in podunk Oregon!
I love going there because they have things I’d never try to make at home. And it’s not cruelly expensive.
Looks interesting – I like the focus on alcohol as well as food! 
Reminds me of a place I went to a few months ago for an organized event. It was held at a microbrewery which included a bar and a large private area on the second floor where we were. I understood it was to include dinner which I imagined would be a sit-down dinner ordering off the menu. Well, we got to sit down, but the food was actually an endless procession of miniature versions of much of the stuff that the bar served, all of which turned out to be really good. It was delightful! They even managed to turn out a miniature version of their marvelous Cajun burger, perfectly done (medium) on a tiny bun. After enough courses of these miniatures, I was well and truly full, and reveling in the tasty experience! 
That’s my wife’s go to as well.
It used to be Monk Fish which I loved, but one time I got very ill after eating it–not sure if it was the fish but it was after that meal–and haven’t eaten it since. We were on vacation and had to find a drug store open at like 1am to get some pepto. Ooof.
And if I see Chicken and Waffles on a menu–I’ll ask if it’s a thin waffle (which is correct) or Belgian (which is effing wrong)…its 99% a Belgian so I do not order it, but I always ask.
If I’m at a bar and they have a Painkiller on the menu, I’ll order it.