Hotel restaurants are often 50% more expensive than comparable nearby restaurants in the same class simply because of the convenience factor. By going nouvelle cuisine in a hotel restaurant you’re pretty much guaranteeing the minimum volume of food for the maximum price.
If I’m spending fine dining money, I’m not going to buy chicken and pasta.
It looks like you ate at a spa, I expect the patrons are looking for a healthy, low calorie meal rather than meat and potatoes.
Did you see Agwood and Londie there?
Ya know, there are some very nice people in this thread talking about their experiences. Many have said this is typical for a fine restaurant where you need 3 courses to fill you while others have pointed out that he paid a premium to 1) eat at a hotel restaurant and 2) eat at a spa-like restaurant, where the patrons are looking for small meal options. There’s no need for you to criticize what people choose to spend their money on. You had absolutely nothing of value to add to the thread, only “fuck the rich”. I would hardly call anyone in this thread a “trophy wife”.
I’ve found at the high end ones that the portions are small but the food is so rich that it often feels like you’ve eaten more even though it physically doesn’t appear that way.
WTH is YOUR problem? I’m as free to post a comment on this board as anyone else, and if you can’t parse it, I deeply deeply apologize for not contributing something ‘valuable’ enough. I am not criticizing ANY of the fine people in this thread, nor accusing anyone of being a trophy wife. A meal of nouvelle cuisine is atypical of the average American, paying $200 for a tiny plate of spa cuisine is not something the average income couple can or will do often. The interesting anecdotes related in this thread point this out. The people who most often go to the trendy restaurants owned by the hottest new chefs, where these dishes are served, are the rich; they can and will pay for it, and they also go there to be seen at hip places. They often have trophy wives who don’t eat much. MORE POWER TO 'EM! I see nothing wrong or immoral with that! I would expect to see a picture in Vanity Fair of, say, Donald Trump and his wife, at the opening of a trendy boite on top of a Manhattan skyscraper, where they would pay big bucks for sea-urchin pate with caviar. So what? They’re stimulating the economy, and they’re right where they should be. I would not expect to see them at the opening of a $9.95 Chinese buffet restaurant in Yonkers. What this has to do with your assumption that I’m raging against the rich and the thin escapes me. 
I’ve eaten at one of those. Well, not sure it was technically ethnic, since it was Lebanese food in Lebanon, but the restaurant did rotate.
I think what lindsaybluth was getting at is that it seems like any thread on the Straight Dope about restaurants that run more than $100 for a dinner for two get a lot of comments about how such places are only for the rich, that average people would NEVER spend that amount of cash on a dinner, and that it’s some sort of elitist hobby that panders to people who want to be hip and be seen at fancy places and all that.
You never see those kinds of comments when people post about spending a few hundred bucks for tickets to see a sports event, or buying a Harley Davidson costing anywhere from $10K-$20K (or more!), or any number of other activities that easily cost as much or more than a dinner out at a fancy restaurant.
For those of us who aren’t rich and who do choose to spend our money that way, it gets old. A desire to eat at high-end restaurants isn’t some sort of activity reserved for the rich & wealthy, nor is it some kind of vanity pursuit. Sometimes it is really just about the food, and for some people, food is a hobby.
The first time I ate at a really high end restaurant was when I was in college, working part time, making $6 or $7/hour, and had absolutely zero parent support. I paid my own rent, my own tuition, and was damn poor. I saved up for a long time to go, and I went because I really wanted to try that chef’s food. And it was worth it to me, much like it was worth it to some of my other friends who saved up money to go to a pricey concert, or sports event, or go on a vacation. It wasn’t any more of an elitist hobby than any of those other things, and yeah, I get sick of hearing it described as if it was.
Thanks, I agree 100%.
Athena said it very well.
BTW, I recently read that one of the reasons Americans might be getting so fat is because everyone has gone to plates that are at least 12" in circumference, whereas in the “old days”, a 9" plate was considered normal. This means we have gotten used to rather large portions.
Granted, this doesn’t mean five spaghetti noodles and a two inch square of chicken is necessarily worth $85, but it does mean that a smaller portion is not something new. And as others have mentioned, sometimes the taste, preparation and presentation makes the expense worth it.
Living in the land of buffets here in Las Vegas, and watching people pile food on a plate that could easily feed a family of four, I can see how a simple plate of really good food might look paltry in comparison - but my guess is that your taste buds will appreciate the difference.
If I could afford it, I would very much like to go to high-end restaurants more often.
Always consider the source.
Then again, if you read the thread you’ll notice that your comment, while perhaps fair, was very out of place for the tone of this thread. Just saying, sometimes drive by snark is appropriate, sometimes it isn’t.
I think another huge problem with SD conversations about food and “fine dining” is that some people will be talking about that nice steak house where you take your mom for her birthday and the bill for four people runs around $200; and then others - I always recognize Athena as one of them, I’m one as well - will read the term “fine dining” and be talking about Michelin reviewed or San Pellegrino list places where your wine pairings alone may cost $200. Per person. (and like Athena, I’m not rich, I just have a professional and personal interest in restaurants and seeing cooks do incredibly interesting things with food). Like I read the OP and think, what kind of high end place serves chicken and pasta? And then, oh, hotel restaurant, I see.
And it’s not surprising on a message board not dedicated to food but it’s a little strange. I don’t hear fine dining and think of anywhere Trump would be. I think of Celler Can Roca or Alinea. I get that there’s an easy and lame stand-up routine available about rich guys and trophy wives and small portions, but you’d have to know nothing about food or restaurants to think it.
I like that you’re able to discern when certain things are appropriate and then they are not. :rolleyes:
This bears repeating.
Having the means to enjoy fine dining in all its incarnatiions, I avoid nouvelle cuisine. All fine dining tends to have smaller portions than your standard restaurant, but I’ve had the unfortunate experience of going to restaurants where they serve you a minuscule portion of something that tastes delicious. I came away thinking, “Delicious, but I would have liked a bit more, please.” For $200 or so, I don’t want to have the urge to stop at McDonalds on the way home.
Look buddy, really fancy restaurants clearly aren’t for you. Which is fine, I’m not the biggest restaurant snob in the world either. But the dining experience you described is a common one. If your food tasted and looked good, there’s nothing abnormal about the prices or the portions for a place that’s advertising itself as a high end fancy restaurant. The portions are small for 3 reasons.
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You are supposed to get your own appetizer and dessert, and probably a salad or something too.
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People frequently go to to fancy restaurants to impress pretty women. Most pretty women are pretty at least partially because they don’t think a 600 calorie meal is tiny.
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Large portions remind people of cheap restaurants with low quality food, like buffets.
Frankly, i prefer a slightly more casual dining experience myself. There are lots of restaurants that have awesome food for a better price. But I’m not surprised at all that a restaurant in that price range had portions that small. I’d be a bit surprised if the portions weren’t small.
I remember when nice places gave you a free salad with the meal. We did get something for free, it was some weird liver thing that was on a small cracker. And we got some free candy at the end that was probably 20 calories. The food was pretty average to me.
This is a great point.
And, for what it’s worth, I probably wouldn’t go to the restaurant in the OP. It’s not about the portion size for me - I work a desk job, I don’t need huge meals. And I’m sure the food is delicious, but I don’t have unlimited funds. I’ve been to plenty of places like that already. It’s just not all that interesting. I’d be more into some really great BBQ place or an ethnic restaurant of a type that I don’t often see or a nice Belgian Brasserie with a kick-ass selection of beers.
In other words, if I’m gonna have to wear heels & a dress and write a big check, it’s gotta be world-class. For Grant Achatz or Erik Ripert, I’ll wear gimp clothes and eat ramen for a month to pay for the experience. For pasta & chicken at a hotel restaurant, nope. I can cook that at home.
Okay, now you’re just yanking us. You got pâté as an appetizer in addition to what you ordered, and probably a truffle or the like as afters. Kwitch yer bitchin’ and just enjoy the meal.