I like meat and potatoes - the same old things I’ve had for years. If I order a “club sandwich”, I expect it to be a traditional club sandwich - NOT a yuppie creation with sprouts on a croissant roll!
With that said, I avoid any restaurants which have changed these basic items on the menu and don’t tell you, and use the same names. Note I have noticed some of these going out of business lately, but good old Dennys and IHOP are still packing them in! Note McDonalds french fries are popular for a reason - people like them that way (NOT with the potato skins left on.)
I also don’t like pushy waiters like they have at a Texas national brand BBQ restaurant. I feel like the waiter used to be a used car salesman. (Want to try this? Want to try that? After being there 10 seconds… “Are you ready to order?”)
If it’s my choice, I’m with even sven on this one – local home-in-the-wall ethnic eateries.
If the choice is more conventional chain-fooderies I go by the theory that if you’re in a place that has chicken-fried steak on the menu you might as well order that because nothing else is going to be any better.
Souplantation is my favorite … make sure your the first one in line though at 11am. I don’t like thousand island in my blue cheese lol
but like the OP I like seafood and wind up ordering shrimp 90% of the time.
I like Mexican food the best with the rice and the beans and the fresh tostada’s, especially at Roberto’s with the two drive up windows (one on each side).
Chinese at the local supermarkets is cheap and fresh and when they say fried rice or chow mein? I always say both and wind up getting double the protion’s of what I would’ve received.
Usually anything I can’t or don’t want to make at home. We have a good Thai restaurant and two Mexican Restaurants run by actual Mexicans within walking distance of our house.
Pretty much anything ethnic I suppose, except I really don’t care for French cooking.
We seldom go out for seafood, 'cause we do that just fine at home, and there’s only one restaurant around here where we have gotten better steaks than we can do ourselves.
I like all-you-can-eat buffets where I can try lots of different dishes, but the spousal unit complains that we always overeat.
Whatever floats my boat at that time. No real pattern to it, except it won’t likely include seafood of any sort unless we are planning on paying through the nose for dinner. If it isn’t fried shrimp or beautifully prepared halibut, I ain’t eating seafood.
It doesn’t matter a bit whether or not I can make meatloaf. Sometimes I’ll order it at a restaurant because I just don’t feel like making it. Ditto everything else on the menu.
1: Money is an object for me, so I’ll choose partly based on price. In practice, this often ends up being daily specials.
2: If I’m in an unfamiliar place, I’m likely to go with whatever the house specialty is. Many places really only do one thing well, and if I’m in a place, that’s what I should get.
3: I like variety. For places that I frequent, well, frequently, I’m likely to get something different from what I’ve had the past time or two.
4: All that said, a few places have one particular dish that’s so good it just blows everything else away (even if the others are reasonably good), so if I’m come to know such a dish, I’ll usually order it.
Can’t say I’ve ever been to a BBQ place with waiters. You’re clearly going to the wrong barbecue places.
My wife and I have a handful of “tried and true” places where we go when we’re tired and not otherwise feeling exploratory as far as getting dinner on a night out. Those place are not coincidentally the places we typically go when we go out to eat with our children- a local Tex Mex place, a local Chinese dumpling place and a couple of hamburger places.
Otherwise, if we’re feeling exploratory, there’s not really a type of place we prefer. Sometimes it’s been a hole-in-the wall sushi place, others it’s a spendy high-end American style place, and others it’s a place known for charcuterie and beer.
The only catch is that we rarely return to the high end places and usually try new places; it’s the mid-range and cheaper places are the places we return to.
My mother will not order chicken, regardless of how it’s prepared. In her mind, chicken is a cheap dish and not worthy of being ordered when dining out. One also does not serve chicken to company - too bad for her, 'cause I make a killer rotisserie chicken.
My MIL orders lasagne at Olive Garden - never anything else. The only way she’ll eat shrimp is battered and deep fried, so that’s her go-to in any seafood restaurant.
One of my sisters won’t order anything except steak, medium well, and 2 baked potatoes. She absolutely refuses to try anything, lest a cook dare to sneak onions or seasonings into it.
Each to his own and all that, but what a way to make dining out a bore…
Ok my dad has a rule that when we went to a sit down place it had to be something that couldnt be made at home in under 20 minutes so I learned not to go too simple …
and one reason I tell people if you don’t like the food don’t go there with me …
like a relative went with me to subway and ordered a plain ham and American cheese sandwich and I told her if that’s all she wanted we had that at home I wasn’t paying 6.50 for it so she went home and made a sandwhich and I had bbq chicken chipotle with something else on it
To this day my dad cant watch a Seinfeld episode where he sits in a diner to eat cheerios …
I didn’t suggest that anyone was impacted - I just opined that some people make what I consider to be boring choices. It certainly doesn’t affect me if my MIL only ever eats lasagne at Olive Garden - she’s entitled to her choice. And I’m entitled to think that it’s boring.
As a vegetarian, I typically don’t have many options and am generally a little befuddled when I do have options. I’m not much of a foodie, so my primary goals when I go out to eat are to stop being hungry, avoid cooking and clean up, and to enjoy the company.
Whoops; not trying to start a fight. I guess the way you worded it made it sound like her choices made the night boring for you and I couldn’t really see how.
I am not a fancy fellow, so when I am with someone who insists on “up scale” places I try to order something simple. Meat & taters thank you. Chicken fried steak is hard to screw up. It can be done though, usually at these fancy places.
If we are traveling, My wife & I look for the local mom & pop place. If there are a bunch of pickups, +/or sheriff’s vehicles, it will be good food for a good price, & often the service is excellent. Truckers also know the good spots. They do not frequent places that give you skimpy portions, so be prepared to get a lot of food for your money. Being a fairly large man, I appreciate the value. I hate having to order two or three meals just to get full.
I usually order from the breakfast menu if it is available. An omelet is good. I will get the ham & cheese one if I am too tired to think about it, otherwise I get the meat-lovers omelet. Lately though, I discovered that I can just order the meat-lovers omelet without looking on the menu. The waitress will know what I want & write down their version of it. Heck, even the, (few & far between), waiters will know what I want.
If we are at home, we have three restaurants that we frequent. All of them are locally owned & operated. Every now & then we try out a new to us eatery.
Depends what’s around. I want stuff I can’t get at home. And while good seafood tops that list, so does good veal ossobucco, decent tom kha gai with nam prik narok, first-rate cuban sandwich with plantains, etc.
Not all at the same restaurant, of course. That’d be wacky.