Whether it’s a specific restaurant, a particular type of food or a specific dish, do you have a go-to when you dine out?
For me, most of the time, I look for seafood. I love fish and most shellfish (can’t take oysters, tho) so I frequently opt for a seafood dish. Every once in a while, I may be in the mood for a steak or a veggie platter, but most of the time, it’s the seafood.
Seafood for me, too. Seafood linguini is my weakness. Put that on the menu, and I’ll bite more often than not. Linguini with a white sauce (not cream), clams, mussels, shrimp, fish = yum!!! Can be a red sauce, but I prefer white. Basically linguini con vongole PLUS.
It is either seafood for me too or something that I can’t easily get elsewhere. I would never order something like meat (even steak) and potatoes in a restaurant because I can cook those just fine on my own much cheaper. Even spaghetti and most pastas are right out. I don’t need fancy but I do expect something different than I can get anywhere or just make on my own.
The Mrs. seems to insist on Olive Garden most of the time. Me, I’m all about either KFC or one of two local Chinese places. The one restaurant is a local chain with two locations, the other is a locally owned family restaurant that used to be American food and then was bought by a Korean immigrant and now serves a curious mix of American and Chinese food.
Funny you should ask. A romantic prospect suggested we go to this place called Northside Social in Broad Ripple in Indy. I’d seen it from the street a zillion times and had always assumed it was a dive of some sort, as it’s in a run-down-looking strip mall.
To my surprise, it was a “fancy restaurant” inside. You know, “nice” decor, entres costing $17 at the low end to $30-something at the high end. I thought “oh no” when I saw the interior and saw the menu.
And I realized that I avoid restaurants like this and that price point like the plague. I feel I am always being disappointed by them. Lo and behold, the risotto was just cold. The pork belly corn cakes were quite good, but I swear, there is always something wrong at a restaurant like that (they politely remade the risotto, but wtf are you sending out a cold entre?!).
I find much better value and enjoyment at the following types of restaurants:
• Thai (Thai Spice, Thai Castle, Thai Kitchen, Sawasdee)
• Quality Chinese buffets (like Formosa Seafood Buffet, which has excellent crab and crayfish Friday-Sunday)
• Brewpubs (Blind Owl and Upland here have good food; Three Floyds up in Munster is incredible and almost crazily cheap for the quality of food)
• Mexican (La Margarita in Fountain Square: delish! I do require my Mexican to be more than the typical cut-and-paste joint, however)
• Unpretentious comfort food, such as British-style pubs (Red Lion, Claddaugh) or beer + burgers/comfort food (Blind Owl, Hopcat)
Those are also some food recommendations in Indy!
I love Indian food but am typically disappointed by Indian restaurants: too damn salty. I make a lot of Indian food myself.
Seafood or surf-n-turf; sometimes Chinese.
I usually go north to either the Tipton Moose (just wait in the parking lot for a passing Moose member) or head for Grindstone Charlie’s in Kokomo. But that is mostly because I know a couple of the bands who frequent both places.
All You Can Eat! I loves me a good endless buffet. Chinese is good. Hometown Buffet is okay, although a bit bland. I visit Souplantation about once a week. Pig out time! Don’t stand between me and the food, lest ye be trampled!
Seafood in general, and Japanese in particular. I eat sushi as often as I can afford it, and sometimes when I can’t.
We don’t eat out very often but we do get take out from a restaurant pretty frequently. We have a rotation of maybe six or so restaurants that we like. I’m especially bad about having only one dish that I get from each. Once I’ve had something I like from the menu I’ll never order anything else. I try to resist but when the menu is in front of me and I see the one thing that I know I love I just can’t bring myself to experiment.
Since my wife and I try to eat pretty “clean,” we both often order grilled fish or a salad.
Once every few months, my workout partner and i will go on a protein-fest at the local Korean BBQ place, which is generally the only red meat I eat anymore.
I do pretty much all the cooking at home, so when I go out, I try to find something that I don’t usually make myself, so steaks, chicken, meatloaf and all the staples are pretty much out.
So, that usually means Seafood. How damn original in this thread. 
Been awhile since I worked in a restaurant, but unless things have changed dramatically, the word you’re looking for isn’t “remade,” it’s “microwaved.” 
I’ve got small kids and not a lot of resources for date nights, so fancy restaurants are a great rarity. Pub burgers and chicken sandwiches and the like are what I normally get.
Unlike most folks here, I DON’T get seafood when going out, unless it’s sushi. We’re hours from the coast, and most seafood we get around here is lousy. Shrimp especially. I satisfy my seafood craving once a year when we go to the coast, and I pig out for a week on North Carolina shrimp and flounder and other delectables.
We eat out a couple times a week and tend to visit a dozen or so favorite places. At some restaurants, I know to pay extra attention to the specials. At our go-to sushi place we always get the Royal Boat (the sushi chef begins prepping one when he sees us walk in). A local Chinese place makes me a dinner that isn’t on the menu but is a meal I saw them eating one night. Our favorite Italian place makes a killer Penne Arrabbiata and will turn up the heat a bit for me.
Crap, it’s 7:30 am and I’m hungry for dinner.
I like to explore, and I’m particularly fond of local home-in-the-wall ethnic eateries. I’ll generally get on Yelp and search for places with good ratings that I haven’t tried yet.
I also like to try the places near me so that I don’t have to wonder what they are like every time I drive by.
The curse of an aging brain - we often drive past places and say “We need to try that out some time” but the next time we go out to eat, we can’t remember what place we wanted to try out, and we end up and a more familiar restaurant.
I should probably carry a notebook and jot down the details. No, neither of us have smart phones. Paper and pen all the way!
In general, things I’m unlikely to get at home, but nowadays I need to begin by checking the offerings against the list of “sensitivity triggers”: I don’t care how good your seafood paella is, I like breathing more than I like paella and mussels are a big trigger.
Seafood, I get at home but not paella.
I usually order things I don’t make at home. As with Nava, I have to watch for allergens (tree nuts in my case).
Going out to eat is not really a big deal to me, aside from the social aspect. When I go out to eat it’s usually with a specific meal in mind. A vindaloo or a nice prime rib or a Thai curry. If I’m in an unfamiliar restaurant I’ll choose whatever seems the least likely to disgust me 
I never go out to eat, unless I am with companions who insist, then I go where they go, and I order the cheapest thing on the menu.
If I’m on a road trip, I look for breakfast on Main Street in a small town, at a place with lots of pickups parked nearby. Other meals are eithe fast food, or a sandwich made from what I can find in my supermarket bag.
Traveling overseas, I try to find street food or market stalls.
I can’t speak for others but for me seafood/fish are such a pain to make at home, and my skills at it weak enough, that I don’t bother very much; especially when we’re talking the really-bad-for-you deep fried stuff. But when someone else is doing all the work -------- 
I’m lucky, I’m in a city with several terrific fish markets but even for me its just not worth it all for most days.