Does eating out stink where you live?

[Moemg]

No, It does not stink in fact it is a great bargain . There are so many restaurants around here that competition is fierce so high prices would be the kiss of death . The food quality seems the same but frankly I do not find the food in Florida even waving at the small Italian restaurants in New Jersey . I would kill for that food .

 

[Ronstar]

I eat out 4 or 5 times per week in Chicagoland. Food is awesome, but prices seem to creep up.

 

[sweetana3]

I stay away from fast food, cheap chain restaurants, and heavily advertised places. We stick to small chef owned or family owned and operated places and yes the prices are up but the food is still great.

Note: La Halle a famous French restaurant in NYC ala Anthony Bourdain is run by a crew of Central American cooks now.

 

[W2R]

Hmmm - pre Katrina, Italian, upstairs, not too far from Elysian Fields and Gentilly.

The name escapes me. Probably isn't there anymore.

Il Ristorante? Ain' der no mo and been gone a long time, says Frank. The building is still there, though.

 

[Marquette]

One of my favorite places for finding new favorite places is the local Chowhound board for my city: Chowhound Boards - Chowhound

 

[deserat]

Well, I'm living temporarily in the San Francisco Bay area right now and the restaurant food has been of high quality for the most part as usual, but the prices have gone up and they were expensive before....I'm about to move to Europe - let's hope the dollar is a bit stronger - worst part over there was when they converted to the Euro - many restaurants just changed the monetary symbol...we were supposed to get 2.2DM to the Euro.....uhh - and we got 1.1 Euro to the dollar - that was awesome......however, I've found the quality of the restaurant food in Europe to pretty good and consistent.

 

[jazz4cash]

We took customers out to an upscale place in Indy last week...Harry & Izzy's is a sister establishment to St Elmo's, featureing good ol Midwest Beef. I was surprised that business appeared very robust for a Tuesday evening (in Indy). What was most interesting was our young waiter with the New Zealand accent. He also served us breakfast the following morning in the resturant of our hotel....talk about hard working immigrants!

 

[IBWino]

We have numerous fine restaurants where we live and we try to dine out at least once a week. The food is still generally very good, but prices are up and portions are down.

It's amusing to order something that you've had numerous times in the past and see it served on a smaller plate, or have the food arranged differently so as to make it appear to fill the plate. But so far, we've still been satisfied, regardless.

 

[jazz4cash]

At those prices, no wonder self control is a problem!

Total bill for two? $28

The portions are too big in most restaurants here, too. I wish we could order half a portion, since it is difficult to have enough self control to stop half way through and get a to-go box. Often Frank and I split a meal between us, and cope with the problem that way.

As for self-control, we've started playing a 'game' where we convince ourselves how good the leftovers will be and it seems to encourage us to save enough for a second meal. It kinda works too because we've found the meal is more enjoyable when we're less stuffed. This only works if the meal re-heats well. This game has gotten a bit more elaborate lately and we request more bread just before we're done (and take it home with the leftovers). Sometimes we stop short to save room for a shared dessert, but usually we're still too full for dessert. Sometimes the take-out becomes midnight snack! These are medium priced resturant chains like Longhorne, but it's still 45-50 bucks with 2 drinks and no dessert. The staff seems to play along with our 'game', courteously helping us pack up our leftovers and we leave a decent tip.

 

[skyline]

Good news: Easier parking, shorter waits for tables, less pressure to leave when you're done...

Bad news: Smaller portions of lower grade meats, higher prices, favorite (high value) menu items dropped...

 

[DangerMouse]

Ok now I am worried. Went out for some Pho at lunchtime and instead of the usual basil they served coriander. Should we be worried, is basil now so expensive that the coriander is going to be a permanent substitution?

 

[GoodSense]

We go out probably twice a week. Haven't noticed much change in quality, except that parking is easier to find.

The Chinese restaurant we frequent increased their price by about 20% recently. It's also at this same restaurant that I once asked for more rice, and the owner was reluctant. She asked me, in a not-so-nice way, "Are you going to eat it here?" and I was adamant that I was.

But generally I try to pack the leftovers for lunch the next day. Then I feel less guilty about eating out.

 

[clifp]

I've certainly noticed higher prices. My favorite Mexican place is charging for a second basket of chips and Salsa, and even a couple of the Vietnamese place have shrunk the size of the Pho bowls.

 

[jambo101]

Ice cream that used to come in half a gallon cartons is now 1.5 quarts. Ice cream manufacturers also love to pump lots of air into their product and call it "lower fat" or "twice-churned," and pretend it is so you will have healthier ice cream. I recognize a scam when I see one.

.

Most of the so called healthier or lite ice creams replace the cream factor with marshmallow base along with a few other tricks like air,water or copious quantities of B grade milk. You basically get what you pay for.
If your dining isnt what it once was come on up to Montreal and experience some of the best retaurants N America has to offer.

 

[alvarezg]

The food around here is excellent, heh, heh, but not cheap!

 

[harley]

As for self-control, we've started playing a 'game' where we convince ourselves how good the leftovers will be and it seems to encourage us to save enough for a second meal. It kinda works too because we've found the meal is more enjoyable when we're less stuffed. This only works if the meal re-heats well. This game has gotten a bit more elaborate lately and we request more bread just before we're done (and take it home with the leftovers). Sometimes we stop short to save room for a shared dessert, but usually we're still too full for dessert. Sometimes the take-out becomes midnight snack! These are medium priced resturant chains like Longhorne, but it's still 45-50 bucks with 2 drinks and no dessert. The staff seems to play along with our 'game', courteously helping us pack up our leftovers and we leave a decent tip.

We do the leftover thing too, now that I've finally (after ~50 years) overcome my "starving children in India" conditioning that caused me to always finish my plate and everyone else's too.

What I do to limit the damage in the restaurants is to use my Discover card to pay. Then I use the rewards points to get cards for the various chain restaurants we visit (Red Lobster, Carraba's, etc). I pay for everything I can with the Discover card, then get a $25 gift card for $20 worth of points, or whatever the deal is. It makes me feel like I'm getting away with something, since I never have to pay interest or fees on the card.

 

[Urchina]

Both quality of food and prices have held pretty steady here. Our favorite Indian place hasn't changed their buffet price for about 2 years; DH and I had a really nice dinner at a local steak place a couple of weeks ago and the tab was in line with what we'd spent there in the past.

Places are quieter now, but that's probably because we're a tourist town and the huge buses of tourists aren't swinging through anymore -- it'll pick up again in the spring. Hooray, there's parking downtown and space at the watering hole again!

 

[yakers]

Great dinning in Pasadena CA, where I live, 99 restaurants in a 6 square block area. Big chains, fine places and less expensive ethnic eats. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

 

[freebird5825]

many of our mom-n-pop restaurants are using processed food from the local megasysco supplier. they used to cook from scratch and use real chicken vs processed chicken, make their own lasagna as a weekly special, etc. groan!
i have very little ethnic diversity here. hence i collect international cookbooks and spices and make it myself.
local portions are still large, but the local prices are outrageous lately.
we just returned from Portland ME and were astounded at the tourist trap prices. $16.50 for a single lobster roll, which is pure lobster meat on a grilled hot dog bun with a single piece of romaine lettuce. we ended up ordering a pizza for dinner one night. 2 people ate for $17.