I wish service was included in the choices.
Last week we went out to eat with my son, his wife and kids.
5 minutes from getting our appetizers we got our salads and 5 minutes after that we got our dinners.
There wasn’t enough room for all that grub on our otherwise large table.
All the food was delicious and fairly priced but this wasn’t the first place that has done this nonsense.
Eat faster.
I can’t really prioritize those.
Obviously, price is important; otherwise I’d be going to $200/plate restaurants and tipping 100% each time, and I don’t do that. Within reasonable bounds I don’t care too much, but clearly I’ve taken price into account already in my restaurant selection. I’d get sushi more if it weren’t like $60 for a reasonable spread even at fairly modest places.
Nutrition–sure, though I’m coming in the opposite direction. As often as not, I want to get a decent number of calories in me. I might be looking at In-n-Out vs. the ramen shop just because I can easily get 2000 calories out of a reasonable meal. I eat one meal a day and if my weight is trending low, I’ll go for something with more calories.
Taste–of course, I’m not going to explicitly go anyplace that serves bad food. But there’s an upper bound to how much I get out of a meal, which is part of why I don’t usually go to $200/plate restaurants. I like a certain amount of variety, and have a definite quality floor, but beyond that I’m not really super picky.
Nutrition, then price, then taste.
I find that nutrition generally comes with plenty of options 'round here, that if it’s bland, I can always add some salt, pepper, or green chile. Unforunately "ambience* wasn’t one of the choices though–that beats all.
Tripler
My taste buds were destroyed by MREs and Army chow halls.
This.
It’s what keeps me out of fast food joints. I don’t live close to restaurants so when I do eat out I’ll be damned if I spend that opportunity on say a Whopper.
I often get fish when eating out. I have always liked it, but hate the lingering smell of fried food generally and fish (fried or not) in particular especially in my house.
Taste. But no matter what, I never, ever order the cheapest thing on the menu. That’s just asking for disappointment.
This was my immediate thought when I read the question, before I saw the list of options.
I go to a restaurant because I want them to give me a dinner I don’t feel like cooking. There are very few restaurant dishes I’m not capable of preparing myself, so it’s never really about the treat of taste. It’s about relaxing into a meal that requires no effort on my part, and that’s down to service.
So I choose restaurants based on their reputation for taking care of their patrons. And when I get there, I am friendly, personable, and accommodating with the staff; good service does not mean I Demand To Be Served like an a-hole. Nearly every time, they recognize I’m an experienced restaurant person who will treat them respectfully as human beings, and they respond accordingly.
A great service staff can elevate what’s decent on the plate into a fine evening. A bad staff will make great food unenjoyable.
This is why I avoid fast food situations: not because the food is garbage, but because I hate feeling I’m an interchangeable cog in an assembly line of calorie delivery.
Taste. There’s a number of items that I don’t cook because hubby won’t eat them. Or there’s fancy salads that would result in too much waste if I would make it at home. I really like tapas (Spanish) and meze (Greek/Turkey/Lebanese), because I can try lots of different things at one sitting.
But also quantity. I’m not going to order something which I can’t finish and there’s no possibility to take home the leftovers.
As a young person I ate bacon cheeseburgers because they taste good and my metabolism could burn them off. As a middle-age person I ate fish cause my metabolism could no longer burn off bacon cheeseburgers and I wanted to make it to old age. In old age I order bacon cheeseburgers because I don’t want to drop dead having fish as my last meal.
Ambiance is another consideration though not on top.
My other son is a chef and owns 3 restaurants, one of them very high end. He insists there is a psychology to dining. The patron is in a different mind set while eating in a Dennys than they are in a place like his or Guy Savoy. If the ambiance and atmosphere doesn’t match the food and the prices something is “off”.
Ever been to a Cheesecake Factory? Not a high end establishment by any means. But 6 people can run up a large bill. It is so goddamn loud in there one cannot even think. They need some sound absorbing material in the ceiling and partitions. I came out of there feeling like I had just worked a shift in a factory. My ears were ringing.
At the top rated place my son Max owns he has a set up where every table has a small button like a door bell. If you need service you push it and it alerts your server. Otherwise wait staff leaves you alone and isn’t in your face with that obnoxious “how’s everything tasting” horseshit while you are trying to eat or have conversation with your guest. I think it’s a brilliant idea.
I’m on a budget so I’ll select a restaurant to match that. From there, I’ll go with taste and not really consider nutrition because I generally eat healthy meals at home and lunch.
My gut reaction is to say “taste”. I’m a picky eater and sometimes only a few menu items will suit me. I’m not selecting one that wouldn’t suit me just because it’s cheaper or more nutritious.
That said, depending on the type of restaurant and how much choice I have, I might pick a less desirable main over a great starter if I’m really hungry. In the US starters are often enough of a meal for me though, so … And if one dish is outrageously more expensive than an almost as desirable options I might go for the cheaper one, though I don’t eat out often enough for that really to matter in the long run. Which I’m trying to convince my cheapskate core of with intermittent success.
This is huge for me and my wife and will have an uplifting or crushing or mitigating effect on the other options. I would also include atmosphere as well.
We love banter with the servers and whatever other staff we interact with. Where it’s an option, we’ll often sit at the bar and have a great time with the staff, to the point that there have been a few time we’ll be offered some sort of complimentary drink or dessert.
No! I’m with @pkbites here. I like a leisurely meal. If I’m in a rush, I’ll go through a drive-thru(shudder).
My favorite places to eat have great food plus a laid back atmosphere so we can chat between courses.
That’s my top choice ambience, followed by service. What kind of ambience? For dining, Not a tomb, not frat party, with some care and thought put into the decor. I like a lively atmosphere but not raucous. Waitstaff should be engaging, helpful, attentive yet not hovering.
When I choose a place taste is always going to be decent imo, unless it’s a fluke, I don’t care for the taste of fluke.
I balance price and taste, though it varies which one I prioritize more highly. Sometimes it’s all about price: I need to eat something and I don’t want to spend a lot to do so, so I’ll pick something from the value menu or the low-priced special. Relatively rarely do I “don’t care what it costs” (about anything), but if it’s a special occasion or if everything on the menu is around the same price, I’ll just pick whatever I most want to eat; but normally, if one choice is significantly more expensive than another, I’ll have to weigh whether I’d enjoy it enough to be worth the extra cost.
If I ate out more often, I’d worry about nutrition more. But I’m healthy enough that I don’t have to worry about what or how much I eat at any one particular meal as long as my overall intake isn’t too bad.
I’m surprised call buttons are not ubiquitous in restaurants. It benefits the customers (get assistance when and only when you want it) and it benefits the restaurant (more efficient time use of waitstaff).
I try to find a balance of all 3. I’m too old and too fat to keep eating hamburgers with bacon and cheese or some kind of deep fried artery buster. My thing now is grilled chicken or fish with a salad of some kind. The only time I go for something decadent is for my birthday, I have no problem spending big bucks at a premium steakhouse. Had a $95 tomahawk ribeye for my last birthday. My only side was a green salad, I needed the fiber.
It’s not that easy a system to implement. The waitstaff, number and configuration of tables, pattern of busy periods, and just every factor have to come together or else it will make the situation worse. It can be bad enough waiting for service, if you hit a button and no one shows up it will bother people even more. There are wireless desktop devices growing in popularity, but mostly in chains that are willing to make the investment.
That’s ridiculous. One should not have only 5 minutes to eat an appetizer and then only 5 minutes (it was more like 3) to eat a salad.
And the fact that they brought out the appetizers before the salads is ass backwards in itself.