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I can’t recall ever paying more than $20 or so for myself, and that would have to be somewhere like an airport bar with a $10 burger and a $7 beer.
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Oh hey, this is easier to find than I thought, thanks to online banking and good search tools. My wife and I had an anniversary dinner this year for $150. Also, after friends and family helped me move a few years ago, I took everyone out for dinner and drinks afterwards for $270.
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For my grandparents’ 50th anniversery, the whole family took them out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. I don’t remember the precise details since I was 17 (and they let me drink the champagne, and I only weighed 120 lbs…) Still, I recall the total cost worked out to a few hundred per person for 12 people.
The most expensive meal I’ve ever paid for for myself was £280 in 1989 for Christmas dinner at the Ritz Hotel, London. The entire food experience however, was around £1000 when you include all the other fun bits like new dress and shoes, return limousine and lots of champagne before and after.
I can say that at the time it wasn’t necessarily an easy decision to spend what was a lot of money on ostensibly, one meal. And almost 30 years later, I can assure you it was a paltry price to pay for one of the most hilarious and memorable 24 hours of my life. AND I got to raid the Ritz’s walk-in chocolate fridge. Drunk.
Best money I’ve ever not spent on cocaine and hookers with cocaine.
The most expensive meal I’ve had at a restaurant when I was alone was probably about $20. I can’t really justify spending more than that, and I don’t usually want to go to really expensive restaurants.
Though this doesn’t count the times when I was younger and I’d go to a bar and order something simple and not-too-expensive like fries or something, and then drink I don’t remember how many glasses of beer. Don’t remember much about the total cost of those nights. Don’t always remember much about those nights themselves. Ah, youth.
Not counting alcohol, the most I’ve ever spent on a meal out on my own dime was probably in the $60-75 range, either for steak or sushi. The most I’ve ever had bought for me was about a hundred bucks, again not counting alcohol.
- What’s the most expensive meal you’ve paid at a restaurant that was just for yourself, at a time you were alone (or just paying for yourself)?
I don’t tend to spend a lot when I’m alone - not because I don’t enjoy great food but because socialization is a huge part of great food for me. So based on years of business travel I’d say that the high end while eating alone is probably in the $70 range.
- What’s the most expensive meal you’ve paid at a restaurant that was for more than one person (like with a significant other or group of friends)?
For my husband’s 50th birthday last year we took 10 of our closest friends and family to dinner at his favorite restaurant. 12 of us, dinner and drinks and tip was just over $2200. We also drank an additional 5 bottles of his favorite wine and left the 6th as a tip for our waitress which added another $300 to the cost. If we take out alcohol and tip it would have been around $800 - $1000. If we add the rooms we paid for so no one was driving home, the weekend was in the $5000 range.
- What’s the most expensive meal you’ve EVER had at a restaurant, period, regardless of who was paying?
Same year - dinner for two to celebrate our 20th anniversary at Stripsteak in Las Vegas. We spent about 4 hrs there eating our way through an amazing meal. Total bill was about $450.
My wife and I were on an anniversary trip and we ate at Ruth’s Criss steakhouse. The bill with tip for the two of us was two hundred with tip.
The worst part was the food. We live in Omaha. Gorat’s and/or Piccolo’s have better steaks and the sides are included for about a third of that… Last time we ate at Piccolo’s we sat at a table next to Warren Buffet…
For myself, probably $20.
For myself, my son, and my stepson, it was probably around $75.
When someone else paid, probably total (for everyone) around $150.
I once spent over $200 on an appetizer. It was for 6 of us, and it was for the last dinner we assumed we would have with my Father-in-Law with terminal cancer (unfortunately we were right).
We were at a high end restaurant specializing in seafood. It was a multi tiered display with a few different styles of lobster, shrimp, king and snow crab, oysters, and I’m sure other things I’m forgetting. I arranged it in advance as a surprise. Everyone loved it.
On the way out my mother-in-law thanked me and said she knew it must have been expensive and wanted to split it with me. She slipped me a 20.
ETA: I thought it was wonderful for her to do that and thanked her profusely.
Any truth to the rumor that he has someone who chews his food for him?
- Probably about $35-40 or so for myself.
- I have taken my wife out for our anniversary a couple times and spent somewhere around $80 for the two of us. We’ve also taken my wife’s son to Red Lobster and spent close to $80 for the three of us (I paid). Although we’re planning on going to a Brazillian steakhouse in the (hopefully) near future that’s going to be $40-50 each, so that should put the record at around $100.
- I’ve been to family dinners at restaurants where one person paid for everyone’s dinner, and it was in the $200-250 range. There were around a dozen people.
Also, not sure if this counts, but back in my computer programming days, I worked for a contract programming company that usually had a really nice Christmas party at an expensive restaurant for their clients and a not-as-nice party for their programmers at a bar. One year they decided to invite the programmers to the client party. It was at LeMont on Mt. Washington, a ritzy area above downtown Pittsburgh, and the washroom attendant probably made more money than I did. After I’d washed my hands in the bathroon he was standing there holding a towel. I wasn’t sure if I should hold my hands out for him to dry them, or take the towel and dry my own hands. I hesitated for a minute, not knowing what the protocol was, and he kind of sneered and threw the towel at me. I felt like one of the clampetts:o. Don’t know what that shinding cost but it had to have been in the tens of thousands.
- What’s the most expensive meal you’ve paid at a restaurant that was just for yourself, at a time you were alone (or just paying for yourself)?
Probably in the $100-125 range. Meals by myself are rare and don’t really stand out in my memory.
- What’s the most expensive meal you’ve paid at a restaurant that was for more than one person (like with a significant other or group of friends)?
$800.00 at La Toque, Napa for my wife and I and that was our half of the total for four people.
- What’s the most expensive meal you’ve EVER had at a restaurant, period, regardless of who was paying?
$1900.00 at Carnevino, Las Vegas dinner for three while on a business trip entertaining a prospective client.
I had the same experience at a small Japanese place in sandwich, MA. My brother and I sat down and told the chef to do the beat meal he could-the meal was awesome, and (yes) the chef removed all the soy sauce/condiments (it would have detracted from the food). Came to about $225.00
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On myself, probably $40-50.
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and 3.) Dinner for my wife and I, it was around $400.
By myself, probably at the ITC Grand Chola’s restaurant on my last night, just to burn through my remaining expense allowance. It would have been the equivalent of about $120 USD, including wine and a really good ribeye (yes, in India).
With another person, I can’t say. I can’t recall having ever spent more than $100 on a meal for two (including a bottle of wine but not tips). On the other hand I feel wallet-raped by having had to pay $20 for a hamburger in Las Vegas.
And I’m certain the most expensive meal would have been either some family meal, or probably a business meal wherein a vendor will invite my whole working group, although I have no idea how much that would have cost. Food is always relatively cheap compared to wine.