The most expensive dinners have been paid by someone other than myself.
My brother and his wife had the $300 per person tasting menu at the Fat Duck in Bray. Plus another $100-200 on wine.
I can’t remember exactly but it was in the region of $400, at Le Cirque in New York on my honeymoon. We’d been given some cash to spend on the trip, so spend it we did. A very nice meal, wine matched to each course and attentive service. Worth the money IMHO.
mrAru and I are also less willing to pay mucho dinero for meals - we go more for the service level as a splurge for our anniversary or birthday, and the service at Ruths Chris is very nice. I am just as happy buying a few lobsters and a couple really nice steaks and cooking at home. having once actually worked in a professional kitchen, I can make pretty much anything they can with the exception of molecular cuisine because I have never really played with it and am not set up to do much of it. I can pop out souffles or any other ‘restaurant food’ pretty much at will at home.
Turns out we may break the US$100 barrier this weekend. Sunday is the wife’s birthday – she shares it with President Obama, but she’s older – and she wants to go to Outback. We’re both thinking “big steak.”
Happy Birthday to her!! Maybe don’t mention the part I bolded…
No worries. She’s comfortable with her age. Me too, and I’m older still.
I doubt we ever went far over $100. A big part of this is he doesn’t really drink at all, and I will at most drink one drink, and it’s usually a mixed drink. Alcohol takes up a lot of money.
I can’t imagine spending anything above, say $250, and I’m having a hard time with that. We are very events-oriented people, though - I’d rather eat cheaper and spend the money doing something.
I think our biggest bill was about $200 (with tip). This was for Shaw’s Crab House in Schaumburg, IL. Not much alcohol, just two mixed drinks - but when you each get a plate of king crab legs, along with some sushi, a salad, and a shrimp cocktail to boot, it adds up.
Part of the price pays for a beautifully appointed dining room and waitstaff who are clad in clean uniforms and exhibit professional behavior - as opposed to the pimply-faced teenager with jeans, sneakers and untucked t-shirt who serves you at Joe’s Crab Shack.
First of all, I can’t even eat that much. :eek: A plate of king crab legs will pretty much fill me up. Sushi and salad are a whole separate meal. So most of that meal would be wasted.
Secondly, I must protest. Both times I’ve eaten at Joe’s Crab Shack I haven’t had any pimply teenagers. I had young men, in their early twenties, handsome, and quite polite and nice and gentlemenly.
To boot, I had dinner once at one of those places where you have red and green tags, and they are constantly bringing around meat. It was a fairly upscale place and lovely atmosphere, and it didn’t cost me $250. So I would say you can still get service - and very good service - at far lower prices. They wore uniforms and were very professional
Fogo de Chao! That was it.
I was given $100 on the stipulation that I had to use it to get a nice dinner. I did. The tab was about $98 without tip. We had an appetizer, an entree each, iced teas, and a dessert.
Loved the experience. The waiters did everything for us without being asked or being intrusive. The iced tea came with a tiny pitcher of liquid sugar as opposed to crystals - smartest thing I’d ever seen. And the serving sizes were exactly the right size a meal should be.
Now I get sad over all the restaurants I go to where the entress are so huge I could never have an appetizer or a dessert to go with it. Most restaurants in my price range, even an appetizer plate has enough food for two people to make a meal out of it. Some charge extra if you buy one entree for two people. I’d really prefer much smaller portions than what I’m given most places. It’s worse on vacation when you don’t want to toss out food but the hotel does not have a minifrdge in the room.
Somewhere in the $250-300 range, but I couldn’t tell you where. Probably Hawaii or British Columbia.
I did spend about $800 for dinner for three people, in Las Vegas.
Now, the most expensive breakfast for two I’ve ever had was $130 for dim sum (no booze involved) on New Year’s Day 2009 in San Francisco. It’s a long story.
Up until recently, my meals at Fogo would have been the most expensive ones on my list. I’m overdue for another trip there.
Mmm…massive quantities of meat. <drool>
Probably $100/pp. It was at an old inn/restaurant in Ridgefield, CT, 20+ years ago. It was really nice, but not that nice.
We often go to very expensive restaurants, but usually at the expense of someone who’s trying to impress my husband. I don’t get that much pleasure out of food to justify spending more than $50 or so. Maybe it’s because I’m blessed to know some really great cooks.
It’s not as much as it sounds. In this case, a “plate” is one pound, about half of which is shell, leaving maybe 8 ounces of crab meat to be eaten. If you can handle a half-pound burger (which includes a bun and toppings) and a side of french fries, then a “plate” of crab legs leaves plenty of room for other items.
We’ve busted the $100 mark at a few places - but not over $150. For just my husband and I. We’ve broken $200 if one of our sons were with us. If both sons are with us, we eat at home - we can’t afford NOT to. 
Spent around $750 for two at Manresa in Los Gatos. This included bring our own wines (they have a $50/bottle corkage charge), plus supplements to the tasting menu and tip. Great restaurant, although I would probably skip the supplements next time. Fortunately, this is with an eating buddy so I only picked up half of the bill.
I go over $100 all the time… twice this week so far, including $150 for sushi at a dive sushi bar called Go’s Mart in Canoga Park. I considered going back again last night, it was that good, but thought that might be a bit too extravagant.
My eating is somewhat subsidized by my job, since I get a per diem when traveling, so I try not to worry too much about it, and there are plenty of days when I don’t spend too much. I often eat out for over 500 meals a year, there are going to be some expensive ones in there.
I’m a pretty healthy eater, and a half-pound burger and a side of fries would fill me up to the point where I wouldn’t want anything else. Though admittedly crab legs aren’t as filling (at least to me) as a big ol’ beef burger and fries.
Actually, in terms of “number of zeroes” I can think of a better contender: a tourist trap of a restaurant by the Rialto Bridge in Venice in 2001, when they still used lire. I’m pretty sure it came to about 350,000 lire. Even more perturbing when they use the same symbol (£) as for pounds sterling!
Edit: although come to think of it, I went to Turkey just before they lopped 6 zeroes off their lira. IIRC it was about 2.5 million to the pound, so I probably racked up a nine-figure bill or two 
Probably around $200-$250. As much as I love food, cooking, eating, and all that, I just can’t bring myself to spend the kind of money I’d need to for a meal at places like Alinea, Moto, Per Se, etc. I know I’d enjoy the experience (my brother’s been to Alinea three times in the last four years and raved about every experience), but I also would have this nagging guilt on spending that kind of money for the transitory experience of eating. It’s something I should get over, but I just can’t. My eating out style is more finding bang-for-buck and homestyle eating. I don’t like it when the bill is higher than about $60 for two with beers when I go out.