We were given a gift certificate to an upscale restaurant that we used yesterday evening. Two dinners plus two drinks (a glass of wine and a bloody Mary) and two desserts (a golf-ball scoop of vanilla ice cream each) and the total was $270, not including tip. I am amazed that some folks spend this much to eat out.
What’s your story?
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I don’t think it’s ever been more than $140, and that was at a steakhouse. Neither my wife nor happen to be drinkers, and I suspect that’s one of the biggest reasons we’ve never run up a huge tab, even though we like to eat out.
One fine meal was about $275 for the two of us. I received a $250 gift certificate from my employer that I put towards the meal.
I would certainly go back for the $25 out-of-pocket. No way i would pay the whole tab myself.
About $300, I think. Not that upscale a restaurant, either. Great, but not “Oh. My. God!” great.
OTOH, we will regularly spend $250+ on a good dinner in Vegas at someplace like SW Steakhouse, Sinatra or CUT.
$140 – in 1985. High-end place in DC, with my then-girl friend, now wife.
About $150.00 at Jack Fry’s. We were splurging for our 10th anniversary.
It isn’t too hard for us to spend $250 for the two of us. There was this $300 bottle of wine once…
We had a really expensive meal at Craftsteak in Vegas. I think we did the domestic wagyu, which is currently at $140 per person for the meal. And then there were cocktails.
http://www.mgmgrand.com/pdf/craftsteak-group-menu.pdf
About $375. Used to do it twice a year (her birthday and our anniversary). Chef’s tasting menu with wine parings at a fine dining joint here in town. Extravagant, yes, but amazing.
About $220 for the two of us at Prime 112. We shared the foie gras appetizer, creamed spinach, and an order of truffle-oil fries, then each had a steak. We shared a bottle of wine.
Too bad the foie gras made us gag, the creamed spinach made me gag, we weren’t used to truffle oil so it made the fries inedible. We enjoyed the steaks though.
I think it was close to $300. It was very very good.
The absolute top I think was somewhere around $425, maybe $450.
That happens VERY rarely, maybe once every 5 or 7 years.
Once or twice a year we’ll blow $200 - $250.
Once a month we do a nice diner for $100.
I’ve never paid for it myself, but my son has treated us three times at Herb Farms outside of Seattle (Redmond, I think). Depending on the day of the weak, dinners are $150-175 per person. They have a different 10 course menu every night and you choose when you want to go, but you have no choices. You get at least five different wines and maybe a cognac at that price. All taxes and tips are included. It is more an experience than a meal. Nearly all the ingredients are local, many grown in the field attached to the restaurant. They even have a guy who scours the woods for wild mushrooms.
$200+ in 1982.
Just over $400 for the lunch tasting menu at L’Espalier. Included wine and cocktails,
We haven’t topped that yet for dinner. 
Right around $400 with tip.
I was once at a dinner for about eight of us from the magazine group at a very exclusive place in LA. The general manager took us there, urged us to order lavishly, and then she and another wine fancier discovered they had some hot vintage, so we went through four bottles of it. When the tab came, she squinted at it, handed it to me, and said, “I forgot my glasses. Did they already figure in the tip?”
They had. It brought the check to $1,744. I almost fainted even though it wasn’t my money.
ETA: Of course, this was the manager who approved my expenses for an NYC visit without a blink. Including dinner at Windows on the World.
Close to $200 in depressed town in Illinois. Maybe once per year.
$400 for a 7-course meal in the late 80s, as a birthday present for my then-gf, who was what we now call a “foodie.” Well worth it for the pleasure it brought her at the time and it was literally a life-changing experience for her. She’d been floundering after college trying to choose what to do and decided to follow her passion for food after that meal - she owned two restaurants last I saw her.
In 1970 my husband was stationed at Fort Lewis WA and a friend of ours had a girlfriend flying out to visit him from Pennsylvania. We were living on a meager budget but he insisted this had to be special and that we all go to the Space Needle for dinner.
I think we paid around ten dollars each just to ride up to the restaurant.
We ordered the least expensive thing on the menu which was squab with peapods and little carrots and each had a drink. I can’t remember what the bill was.
But I do remember well that the price of the bill represented a month’s worth of groceries for the two of us from the commissary. Was the food special? I don’t think so but I was too young to know that and the trappings were impressive - Seattle skyine at night. Pretty cool.
$550 at Next in Chicago. Fantastic meal, the theme was The Hunt and every course was eye opening.
Over $400.00 for dinner at the Eifel Tower restaurant at the Paris Hotel in Vegas.