To Eat out or Not to Eat out, That is the question.

[ShokWaveRider]

A response to another post got me to thinking. I personally detest eating out unless there is no other choice (Vacation, Travel etc).

This poll and question is for normal daily life at home as opposed to holidays, w*rk, eating etc.

I traveled for the last 30 years of my w*rking life and was forced to eat out all the time while away, I had a great expense account so price was not a consideration. The company paid what it cost, wherever I chose. That said, a lot of times I would get a sandwich or something or eat something simple in the hotel.

This is what I detest about eating out.

1) Too Much Salt in everything, even when you ask for low salt. (I am prone to high BP) I really notice salty food.

2) I really detest waiting after the meal for the bill and payment part. It simply takes too long, the more expensive the place the longer it takes. I typically do not like or eat many fast food items or at FF places.

3) Waiting ages for food. Again the more expensive the place the longer it seems to take, at least that is what I notice.

4) Typically restaurants are noisy places. Even worse when kids are out of control, but that is mitigated the more expensive the place. One good reason to go up market.

5) The food is typically mediocre at best at most places, I can recall only a handful of exceptional meals. Most were overseas and only 1 in the USA. I think we accept the mediocre very easily in the USA from a eating out perspective.

6) I generally do not like being waited on. It is time consuming.

BTW, my DW is an excellent cook, I am OK, we far prefer eating at home in general if we can.

My ideal restaurant would be a pay first, order a good meal, wait a minimal amount of time and enjoy it at my leisure and leave when done. The only issue with that is the service is typically only available at Fast Food places or lower end places. I would like to see this service in a Gourmet place. Even ordering before hand and arriving at the place a little before it was ready would be great.

I know a lot of you like eating out. I am curious as to your expectations, findings and preferences.

 

[Bamaman]

As an ex-road ranger, I too had the expense account for many years. I tried to eat on business like I ate at home--simple meals avoiding fast foods.

Now that we're retired, we eat out maybe once per week. And even then it's at very inexpensive places like Captain D's. My wife once was a Krystal waitress, and she still has the taste for their burger sliders. Stepping out is Red Lobster or Applebees for us. And we never eat steak out.

 

[wmc1000]

While most of our eating out is inexpensive places the places with sit down service we usually split a meal because neither of us usually wants a full blown meal and not interested in a plate of leftovers. DW prefers to have a beer out rather than at home so we do go and have an appetizer and beer regularly. More so now that we have more income coming in than going out and are not spending down our savings or any investments in retirement.

 

[ivinsfan]

SWR, one more thing that we agree completely about.

I'll add Number 7, to us at least, eating out is not a good value. Generally we eat out for the social value when seeing family and friends....

and Number 8, I really don't want to worry about bumping elbows with the party sitting next to me or hear every word of conversation from complete strangers.

 

[MRG]

We love to go out, with conditions. We're pretty good cooks and we love to go out for food we don't make at home. Mexican is top on that list. Cozy little hole in the wall where the waiter greets us with two margaritas. How can you not love that?

We don't like overly crowded places or times. If a place is super busy we'll come back another day.

 

[Scuba]

We enjoy eating out. Typically we eat at non-chain waterfront restaurants with a nice outdoor patio and view of the ocean. I don’t mind meals taking some time, as we often eat with friends as a social experience. What I hate is being rushed. This usually doesn’t happen in higher end restaurants, but we often order only one course at a time to make sure it doesn’t.

When I was working, I too had a generous expense account and traveled overseas often. DH accompanied me quite often on overseas trips. We really liked the pace of dining in the UK and Europe. It is so much more relaxing. Restaurants there assume you have the table for the entire evening, which we prefer.

Chick-Fil-A is the only fast food we regularly eat. Their grilled chicken nuggets are healthy and delicious.

DH and I have cut back somewhat on our dining out frequency for weight management reasons. We still meet friends for meals out 1-3x/week, and go out ourselves a few times per week as well.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We love eating out and go once or twice a week. My husband doesn’t cook and I do but don’t enjoy it. Sometimes we split a meal and sometimes we bring home leftovers and I don’t cook the next day. I like being waited on, talking to whoever I am with out keeping a eye on the food.

 

[savory]

I would enjoy eating out more if the food was healthy and made well. Since we began to cook more at home and being more careful about our food choices, I feel so much healthier. I suppose I could select the one or two things on the menu that are healthier but typically they are not made well. So, I look at it is a treat and often enjoy the large portion high calorie choice while eating and regret it until I deposit it.

 

[gstillson]

We don't particularly like eating out but there are a few dishes that are just a little harder to do at home efficiently when you get the craving. This is not related to health because all of these are rather unhealthy.

1) Pizza. You can do it at home but it is hard to replicated the crack they put into the steak pizza at something like Mellow Mushroom

2) Indian. We have made some curry dishes but if you want true tandoor cooked food and breads, not so practical at home.

3) Korean. Yes, bibimbap is essentially a leftovers dish, but replicating at home takes a lot of effort even if you have the stone bowls. Making homemade kimchi is also not super quick.

4) Street tacos. Yes Costco has a street taco kit which gives you about 12 tacos for $16 but our local truck has them for $1.50 each and they are even better than the Costco tray.

5) Wings. A good wing place that double dredges the wings then deep fries them is hard to beat at home. You can do it but your kitchen and half the house is going to smell like a fast food joint for a few days.

Oh and a big one here: Sushi. I am so not comfortable sourcing raw fish that I would know is ok to make into my own rolls.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I like to cook and I can’t remember the last time DH suggested we eat out, although he likes restaurants too and is happy to go to one. I’d like to go out once a week or every other week; we almost always go out to a restaurant when we get together with friends.

Neither of us travelled regularly for work, though—I can see how that would make me stay home!

 

[CowgirlUp]

My husband and I love going out to eat and enjoy trying out new places, although we have our favorites. Neither one of us care much for cooking and with their being only two of us now, hate cooking a whole huge meal and deal with all the leftovers.

 

[Rianne]

We're so particular about the restaurants we frequent, although we eat at home often.

Panera Bread
Original Pancake House
And some local (non chain) restaurants. We're lucky to live in a University town where there are so many options. Asian restaurants (we have a big engineering program here) and Asian grocery stores are awesome. Our downtown is littered with outdoor cafes and specialty restaurants (some too expensive) but nice to bring guests.

 

[Amethyst]

I don't enjoy eating out for the reasons you mentioned. The big exception was the luxury cruise we took, where we ate gourmet meals 3 times a day and had nothing else to do except shore excursions. So, if the food took a bit longer, it did not seem to matter. We could focus on each other.

However, I also don't much enjoy routine cooking, and detest cleaning up. Sometimes, I wish there was a true "nutrient pill" that could eliminate the need to eat at all!

Amethyst

A response to another post got me to thinking. I personally detest eating out unless there is no other choice (Vacation, Travel etc).

This poll and question is for normal daily life at home as opposed to holidays, w*rk, eating etc.

I traveled for the last 30 years of my w*rking life and was forced to eat out all the time while away, I had a great expense account so price was not a consideration. The company paid what it cost, wherever I chose. That said, a lot of times I would get a sandwich or something or eat something simple in the hotel.

This is what I detest about eating out.

1) Too Much Salt in everything, even when you ask for low salt. (I am prone to high BP) I really notice salty food.

2) I really detest waiting after the meal for the bill and payment part. It simply takes too long, the more expensive the place the longer it takes. I typically do not like or eat many fast food items or at FF places.

3) Waiting ages for food. Again the more expensive the place the longer it seems to take, at least that is what I notice.

4) Typically restaurants are noisy places. Even worse when kids are out of control, but that is mitigated the more expensive the place. One good reason to go up market.

5) The food is typically mediocre at best at most places, I can recall only a handful of exceptional meals. Most were overseas and only 1 in the USA. I think we accept the mediocre very easily in the USA from a eating out perspective.

6) I generally do not like being waited on. It is time consuming.

BTW, my DW is an excellent cook, I am OK, we far prefer eating at home in general if we can.

My ideal restaurant would be a pay first, order a good meal, wait a minimal amount of time and enjoy it at my leisure and leave when done. The only issue with that is the service is typically only available at Fast Food places or lower end places. I would like to see this service in a Gourmet place. Even ordering before hand and arriving at the place a little before it was ready would be great.

I know a lot of you like eating out. I am curious as to your expectations, findings and preferences.

 

[mystang52]

While most of our eating out is inexpensive places the places with sit down service we usually split a meal because neither of us usually wants a full blown meal and not interested in a plate of leftovers. DW prefers to have a beer out rather than at home so we do go and have an appetizer and beer regularly. More so now that we have more income coming in than going out and are not spending down our savings or any investments in retirement.

We love eating out and go once or twice a week. My husband doesn’t cook and I do but don’t enjoy it. Sometimes we split a meal and sometimes we bring home leftovers and I don’t cook the next day. I like being waited on, talking to whoever I am with out keeping a eye on the food.

DW and I enjoy eating out; we do so twice a week, generally. We eat simply cooked foods (I hate dishes sitting in sauce of any kind), and usually share a dish. When we don't share, we get doggie bags for another meal at home. One "trick" we use is we sit at the bar. When it's just the two of us, we've learned the service is much better. We tend to go to the same places so at this point the bartenders know us.

 

[ABQ2015]

I love to eat and enjoy eating out but have a weight problem and tend to overeat at restaurants plus the food is usually high in sodium and saturated fat. So I limit my restaurant meals to once every week or two or once a day when on travel. And I am selective about where I eat and pick places based on reviews or past experience -typically go to locally owned ethnic or home cooking restaurants in my city and non- chain higher end restaurants when on travel. Have lost close to 50 pounds since retiring.

Currently I'm on travel and have had a few good meals (one was exceptional) but one was very disappointing even though the restaurant got great reviews. It was frustrating to waste my calories on that meal but you can't win them all.

But back to the original question, I love eating out. I also traveled quite often for work and considered it a perk that my employer paid for my meals. It was per diem so there was a limit on the amount but enough to have a nice dinner. Breakfast was continental provided by the hotel and lunch was generally at the plant cafeteria.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Since retiring we have learned where all the good happy hours food and drink are. Many offers for this between 3-6.

 

[Eagle43]

We've solved #2, 3, and 4 I order online or phone. Ready in 15 mins. I get to pick our order up and grab a beer on the way home. Trash the packaging, and take a nap. Life is good[emoji41].

 

[Squirrel]

2) I really detest waiting after the meal for the bill and payment part. It simply takes too long, the more expensive the place the longer it takes. I typically do not like or eat many fast food items or at FF places.

3) Waiting ages for food. Again the more expensive the place the longer it seems to take, at least that is what I notice.

These were most annoying when on work trips -- we just want to get back, have some downtime, and sleep before the next day's rat race.

We don't particularly like eating out but there are a few dishes that are just a little harder to do at home efficiently when you get the craving. This is not related to health because all of these are rather unhealthy.

agree.

 

[davebarnes]

My ideal restaurant would be a pay first, order a good meal, wait a minimal amount of time and enjoy it at my leisure and leave when done. T... I would like to see this service in a Gourmet place.

https://www.parisidenver.com/parisi/ which we love.
But many Yelpers hate the concept.

Typically restaurants are noisy places..

This is deliberate in many cases. That is, it is built into the design concept.
You are just an old person like this guy -- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/opinion/sunday/best-restaurant-over-50.html

BTW, my DW is an excellent cook, I am OK, we far prefer eating at home in general if we can.

1. We are both very good cooks and enjoy the process of meal prep.
2. We enjoy wine with dinner and the price of wine in USA restaurants is obscene.
3. We have 46 restaurants within 6 blocks of our house, but we find ourselves spending more time eating at home after our major kitchen renovation. Better appliances have made us better cooks.
4. When we dine out, we tend to order items that are difficult to impossible to make at home.

 

[kcowan]

And we never eat steak out.

Love to BBQ steak, ribs, pork, chicken thighs (boneless skinless from Costco) but eat out for fish, lamb, shrimp and octopus. Probably average once a week. Always high end. Because it is dining with friends, the delays do not bother us. Table-side chip cards have improved the settlement cycle. We often shorten the beginning by ordering the cocktails and wine together. The wine gets delivered and tasted then sits open while we enjoy the cocktails and conversation. We will order well before we are finished the cocktails.

(I also travelled extensively while working but it was never with friends and loved ones.)

 

[Sojourner]

1) Too Much Salt in everything, even when you ask for low salt. (I am prone to high BP) I really notice salty food.

2) I really detest waiting after the meal for the bill and payment part. It simply takes too long, the more expensive the place the longer it takes. I typically do not like or eat many fast food items or at FF places.

3) Waiting ages for food. Again the more expensive the place the longer it seems to take, at least that is what I notice.

4) Typically restaurants are noisy places. Even worse when kids are out of control, but that is mitigated the more expensive the place. One good reason to go up market.

5) The food is typically mediocre at best at most places, I can recall only a handful of exceptional meals. Most were overseas and only 1 in the USA. I think we accept the mediocre very easily in the USA from a eating out perspective.

6) I generally do not like being waited on. It is time consuming.

I mostly agree with all of these points, and I would add the following:

7) I hate paying the exorbitant markup on cocktails and wine. Especially cocktails, where you have no idea how good it will be, exactly how it's made and how much alcohol will be in it, etc. Paying $14 (which is typical around these parts) for a 6-8 oz drink that consists of maybe $3-4 in ingredients seem like someone's idea of a hidden camera prank. "Let's see if this guy is enough of a sucker to actually pay top dollar for that little drink!"

On a happier note, this is my 1,000th post! Woo hoo!!

 

[Aerides]

We eat out (once or twice a week) not simply to have food, but for the overall experience. One of my favorite parts of going on vacation is the idea of going to new restaurants every night.

I like a place with nice ambiance, good service, and I'm not in a rush.I don't want the food to arrive any quicker than it should take to prepare from near-scratch. I know saturday night at 8pm means a long slow dinner, so go at 6 or a tuesday. I don't go to noisy places with kids. I'm careful on table selection in a new place.

I'm usually going out for something I can't make, or is always better in a restaurant. Good sushi, or something complex.

Yes, when it comes to having the bill arrive and getting paid, that can make or break the service for me. Good places and good servers tend to get this right most of the time.

 

[DFDubb]

Some of you are not qualified to comment on restaurants if you consider going "out to eat" at an Applebee's, Red Lobster, Captain D's, Panera, etc.... If that is considered going out to eat, well then I guess I don't do it either. We do spend considerable amounts of money each month dining out and trying new restaurants. We've also been known to get on a plane to try someplace specific and making a trip out of it. I do enjoy cooking at home, but we're at the busiest stages of our lives right now and both travel for work a lot so it doesn't happen too much.

Food and sex are two of the most pleasurable aspects of life. Some of the replies here make me sad. Food is also one of the best ways to connect with a culture when travelling.

 

[Midpack]

We have dinner out every Sat & Sun, and occasionally during the week as well. We're down to spending about $100/week, with a mix of low end (e.g. Panera, Noodles, McAlister's) to middle-upscale casual places. We splurge on higher end dining about once a month, but not on a schedule, just whenever temptation strikes. We've been to a handful of world renowned restaurants in the USA and Europe as well. And we always eat very well when on vacation. We thrive on variety - when we first moved near Chicago we went to someplace new almost every weekend. Once we hit 150 different restaurants, we stopped counting/keeping track. We also have breakfast out a couple times a month. We're both decent cooks, always from scratch, but we'd come to hate cooking if we had to do it every day, day after day.

 

[Teacher Terry]

DF, did it ever occur to you that most people can’t afford those restaurants on a regular basis or maybe not at all?