Meatloaf, chilli, and mashed potatoes.
Nice to hear someone else feel this way. My wife used to be a big fan of Capellini Pomodoro ($6.95 - $10.95 depending on the restaurant) until I broke it down for her:
1/4 package of angel hair pasta = .25 * $1.00 = $0.25
2 chopped tomatoes = 2 * $0.30 = $0.60
Garlic Powder = 0.02
"Broth" = .10
Total: $.97 cents or so of ingredients. Hmph.
Even more offensive: at a restaurant last night, they were charging $8.95 for aglio et olio. For those who don’t know, this is pasta in olive oil and garlic and NOTHING ELSE. I can make that at home for pennies! 
They are still in business. I drive by them occasionally and have always been tempted to try them. It’s good to finally see a review.
I dont see the point of eating stuff that is just…well plain vanilla food at a restaurant. I want something with some pizzazz. Something I don’t know how to make myself. Like Italian, Mexican, Thai or Japanese food.
Of course, I have known Italian people who can’t stand Italian restaurants, or Mexican-American people who don’t see the point of going out to eat tamales as well.
I agree about the pasta/value thing. Also, messy ribs.
I also avoid things that I suspect are very garlicky. I suspect that restaurants use more garlic than needed to make them smell more hearty. One example is the ceaser salad at the Outback. I was sick for a week.
I seem to run the opposite of most of you.
My tastes in food are…picky. Not snobby, but picky. (Did a mushroom touch that? Can I pick it out?) Consequently I order as simnply as I can. I try to order things without sauces or fillings or anything that some one could add the many and varied spices and fillers I don’t like. (Onions, mushrooms, pepper, curry…)
I’ll experiment with home cooking, but resturants I usually find one or two things I can eat without having to work too hard to pull things out of and never try anything new. New things I leave for the cooks among my friends who know how annoying I am. When people I love and trust hand me something and say “eat it” I usually will.
I’ve turned into a restaurant snob and find myself to be much more discriminating in where I eat out. The specific foods depend on where I’m dining. I would probably not order a steak in a seafood restaurant or vice versa.
Otherwise, I look for various “warning signs” when making a decision. This is assuming I have many available choices of restaurants.
If my table is the only one occupied in an otherwise empty restaurant I would probably order something that could be made to order (a steak or hamburger maybe)… otherwise it’s gonna be pulled from the fridge and reheated. Mashed potatoes do not keep well for instance.
I’m skeptical of huge expansive menus that offer everything from seafood to Mexican to low-cal (as done at many chain restaurants). Given an extensive menu, I would probably not order anything particularly adventurous, such as “marinated lime cilantro chicken stir-fry with a cous cous relish” at Bob’s Big Boy.
A dirty restroom is an indicator that I should order something “safe” that doesn’t require much preparation, such as chicken tenders or soup.
Of course if it’s midnight… and I’m at an airport waiting for a delayed flight… and I’m starving, any type of food starts to look good.
GrizzRich, the Generous George’s restaurant on Little River Turnpike and the one across the street from Mike’s American Grill in Springfield, VA have closed. The only one left is on Duke Street. That’s quite a shame, because I loved their pasta dishes also. They served them on bread which soaked up the sauce and was just delectable. I guess I’ll have to go to the Generous George’s on Duke Street and find out why it’s the only one left.
I can’t eat spaghetti in a restaurant.
If you cut it, people give you attitude about it.
If you don’t, you get a fine spray of sauce all over.
Hasn’t anyone else seen When Chefs Attack?
As for myself, I won’t eat anything stuffed.
Cut it anyway, how you eat your pasta dish is no one else’s concern. I cut my pasta all the time. If they don’t like it, fine. I don’t want sauce all over my shirt, glasses and face. You don’t alter the flavor, just the means by which it enters your face. 
Some people cut their pizza slices with a fork and eat it with a fork others prefer the hand and slice way. Me, it’s not the delivery but the taste.
BTW, I always break up my own spag noodles in half before cooking and cut them up even more while eating.
Grilled cheese.
I know at least three different people who order grilled cheese everytime they see it on the menu. I can not justify paying $5.00 or more on something I can make at home for a lot less, a lot faster, and tastes exactly the same.
That bubble gum from the dispensers in the mens room. It makes great bubbles, but has the weirdest flavoring.
This is a tough one, as you never know what will turn on you. To this end, I keep a pail handy in the bathroom at all times.
I agree with Cranky about the egg thing; they never seem to get it right. Although in my case it seems to always happen with fried eggs, not scrambled. The trick seems to be to take a restaurant and try different gradations of cooking until the eggs get as set as you like. If the whites wobble, send it back for another round atop the oven.
But I would have to say brussels sprouts. I make it a practice never to order anything in a restaurant I wouldn’t normally eat, and brussels sprouts are normally nasty no matter how you cook em. I grew those horrible things in a garden once and the pests wouldn’t even eat them.
Maccaroni & Cheese because it always looks like
Maccaroni & Sneeze.
No fish on Monday. It’s been lying around the kitchen since Thursday. In and out of the cooler Lord knows how many times, on the counter, back in the cooler, into the freezer, back on the counter, back into the cooler. Food poisoning waiting to happen and certainly not fresh. Fish on Thursday, Friday or Saturday—OK. Any other day-Noooo!
Same with any cut of beef cooked medium-well done or well done. The really croppy cuts full of gristle and fat pockets and freezer burn are reserved for well done or for the waiter’s lunch.
I also refuse to eat pasta in a restaurant on principle. I just cannot justify spending that much money on it. Besides that, the noodles are always overcooked.
I don’t eat tuna salad, egg salad, or ham salad. That’s about it.
(And all subsequents postings concerning pasta/spaghetti)
I used to eat often at a little restaurant in south Redondo Beach (I was driving an elderly woman around; her health failed and she died about five years ago. :()
I tried their spaghetti once. The very last part of it tasted–and looked–like it was saturated in dishwater. My Mom (not the person I ate there with) has since told me spaghetti is not a good dish to eat at a restaurant. The closest thing to that I’ve been served at a restaurant is jambalaya, in The French Market at Disneyland. Excellent stuff there. 
And I ate spaghetti in a Disneyland restaurant once–and never again.
Since then I’ve had a really gross dream about spaghetti–which is a shame since I sure like it at home. Yum.
:spews Sunkist all over keyboard:
Thanks 
I think I’m the first New Yorker to check in - most people I know here don’t put any limits because they simply don’t cook much. It’s not uncommon for people to eat in restaurants or take out for almost every meal, so yeah, I know places with good oatmeal, mac & cheese, meat loaf, etc.
About the only thing I won’t order out is cold cereal, and that’s cos those damn miniboxes are so small you need three or four of 'em to notice that you’re eating anything! Oh, and Cream of Wheat, since no one ever makes it properly (with milk, not water, dammit :)!).