Poll:Restaurant Meal Upper Guideline (NOT special occasion)

[OldShooter]

Wine included or no? Usually our wine is $30-40/bottle + two meals, so it's pretty easy to get to $90 with a tip. Range maybe $80-95.

 

[Amethyst]

We only eat out on vacations or special occasions. So we just pick what we like best, and pay the freight. I would agree that the tab is rising fast, along with pressure to tip increasing %ages.

 

[Gumby]

We eat out quite a bit. We eat and drink what we want and have no monetary "upper limit". The bill at our normal range of local restaurants is usually between $75 - $100 for the two of us, occasionally more. If we eat out on vacation or go into NYC, we're sometimes up over $200 for the two of us. Most of our dinners out include a bottle of wine.

 

[imoldernu]

Somehow, I got into the wrong thread.

Thought we we talking about our wedding costs... 150 guests, hall rental $40, Food total $400, unlimited bar... $300... favors.... $75... back in 1958....

Now, max PP about $12. We don't go out much anymore, and usually just to our local stir fry... Seniors $7.95 buffet.

 

[RobbieB]

Unless you are at some really upscale place it's hard to spend a hundred bucks / person even with drinks.

That said I would do it w/o a thought if the items were something I wanted.

 

[LOL!]

We eat out often and almost always bring home leftovers that give us 2 to 4 more light meals

While we typically spend about $15 to $20 for a meal with a waiter with the high-end $20 is if alcohol is purchased, I guess our "poll" limit would be $40 per person.

Also, I try to never eat breakfast or brunch out because that's the easiest meal to make at home for about a $1 person. That is, there is never enough value in eating breakfast out.

 

[Sunset]

Normally at home, we go out 2x per week for lunch, as we like dinners at home.
Many restaurants have lunch specials or lower prices at lunch, so thinking back we are less than $15 pp and sometimes even less than $10 pp.
We don't drink booze at restaurants, so that keeps the bill low.

 

[Independent]

No alcohol, almost always water as the only beverage.

If it were just my wife and myself, we'd get out for less than $20 each. My wife will often make a meal of an appetizer.

But, almost all our meals out are treating the kids/grandkids. The grandkids are teen boys, so they eat like adults. So I'm not sure where "special occasion" starts. We've been around $24 a couple times.

When I eat at home, I figure I spend about $6 per day for one person. So restaurant prices always are eye opening.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I have to add when we go out and pick the place we usually spend under $20 for two because we like Indian or Thai mom and pop restaurants and I have a big assortment of coupons for places we like. But once or twice a month or so we go out with friends or to some kind of social event and then we spend from $40 - $100 for two. But we do that just to be social and really prefer the ethnic food when we get to pick the place.

 

[Katsmeow]

Actually it is probably around $25 a person. We tend to not eat at terribly fancy places and we don't drink alcohol. Our meals tend to coalesce around 2 price pounds. About $15 a person for some place like Panera, Zoes, etc.
We will eat someplace like that once or twice a week.

Then maybe once a week we will eat at some place maybe like Chili's or Outback and it is more like $25 a person.

Occasionally -- even for a non-special occasion we will spend more, probably topping out at about $40 a person. Very, very rarely will we spend more for a non-special occasion.

 

[Conundrum]

Once a year for our wedding anniversary treat we go to our favorite restaurant. Salad, entree & water about $120 for two including a 20% tip.

On a more "normal" basis for us we can get by $20 for two. We prefer take out and eat at home.

Some of our other dining out places we can get by for $15 / $20 a person for dinner.

We budget $200 / mo on dining and usually manage to hit the mark.

 

[ABQ2015]

I rarely spend more than $20 a person in town as I don't drink and there are no great restaurants here other than Mexican. But when on travel, I often spend $45-65 for dinner per person and have spent as much as $100 when visiting a city known for its restaurants (Charleston, Las Vegas, etc.).

 

[Just_Steve]

I voted 40 per person as we will on a semi regular basis eat out at a semi higher price restaurant chain like Bonefish grill. We do eat out 4x weekly, so keep it cheaper otherwise.

Mmm Bang bang shrimp.

 

[Winemaker]

We rarely go out for dinner; only if we out with another couple or a special situation. Maybe twice a month, max, on average. We don't set a limit as we tend to have "dining experiences" if and when we go out. Cattle Baron Supper Club in Babb MT, Mankas Steakhouse in Mankas Corner CA, Prime 44 West at the Greenbriar WV, to name a few. It is not hard to drop $$$ there, call me a snob. DW or I can make a better meal in our own kitchen, drink a better bottle of wine, than going to a local restaurant. Perhaps when we get older, we may get tired of cooking, but it's hard to beat eating fresh out of garden, farmer's markets and our own beef and pork.

 

[Moemg]

We usually go out twice a week to local places where it is about $15 a person including some wine .Our new favorite is an Italian place with great food but the portions are so large we have to split .

 

[Scuba]

Our usual top end excluding special occasion meals would be $100-$150 for the two of us, depending on whether and what we drink. We often bring our own wine and pay corkage rather than paying $50-$100 for an OK wine from the restaurant list. Often we will share an appetizer and order two entrees.

Eating out in So CA has gotten really expensive with most restaurants paying staff $15-$20/hour now. Even lunch at a nicer restaurant (upscale casual, not high end) will often run $70+ for two with just entree salads and iced teas, including tax & tip. Doesn’t help that taxes are 10%.

 

[GrayHare]

The inverted bell curve results mean something, not sure what though.

 

[dtbach]

I didn't read this as an "average" tab as some folks but as the most you normally would spend on a typical dinner. So even though I average around $25/person, I put down $60 as that is the most I would really consider at any place.

 

[audreyh1]

I also wondered. OP was pretty clear that the poll was about the upper limit per person expense someone would allow for a non special occasion.

But I suppose folks want to share what they more typically spend.

How many answered the poll with their average or typical expense instead of their personal upper limit for a non special occasion?

 

[marko]

Growing up, mom didn't cook. She just didn't. The best she could do was maybe toast and a hard boiled egg once in a while for breakfast.

We ate out breakfast, lunch and dinner 5-6 nights a week. Take out was considered 'eating in'.

So, even today we find it normal to eat out 3-4 nights even though I'm a really good cook at home. A typical dinner, with drinks will run the two of us about $120, tip included.

Mom also taught us that you never even look at the menu until you're half way through your first drink; then a drink with the meal and then after dinner drinks. We don't go that way every night but we do adhere to her 'first drink/menu' rule.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Kind of hard to answer IMO since it OP talks about routing dining out but also places you'd go to but not necessarily go back any time soon unless for a special occasion.

We eat out a lot so our soft target is to try to keep our bills under $15 person which is pretty doable at "ethnic" eateries (eg. $12 fried noodles split+$6 congee split+$6 side dish split+tax/tip).

$25 per person covers us for most of the places we regularly go to.

For most nicer restaurants around town, we'll typically top out around $70 per person ($15 appies+$35 mains+$5 split dessert+drink+tax/tip).

We've done over $100 per person only a few times at home and on vacation which I wouldn't really categorize a "splurge for a special occasion" as would do it again for the right restaurant/meal/total experience.

 

[Idnar7]

We go to splurges with brother and sil. Twice we have spent over $300 at Oceanaire and over $400 at Frontera Grill in Chicago (they have marvelous margaritas and we each had three). Took a cab to the restaurant - must line up 30 minutes before they open to get in. Walked back to hotel after words. Great experience though still a splurge.

 

[audreyh1]

We go to splurges with brother and sil. Twice we have spent over $300 at Oceanaire and over $400 at Frontera Grill in Chicago (they have marvelous margaritas and we each had three). Took a cab to the restaurant - must line up 30 minutes before they open to get in. Walked back to hotel after words. Great experience though still a splurge.

Holy smokes! 3 margaritas at Frontera! Wow! Were you sober enough to even taste the food?

 

[calmloki]

Our upper sub special occasion meal price would be around $140/ couple. Problem is I take little joy from that kind of meal. Probably lacking in refined palette, but I haven't found price to have a strong correlation to satisfaction. Last night we went to a kinda fancy place, good sized crowd eating there, she had a mojito, i had water and the tab for us was $78. The meals were sub par. The sliced zucchini was better than the kobe beef on my plate. OTOH, some weeks ago we went to a new place and the gal got a better mojito and a great osso bucco, the ambiance and service were great and it was just a much better deal for less money. Almost no customers, so the place may be gone when we get back next year. A little breakfast and burger place opened in town - knockout burgers and fantastic omelettes and potatoes. Complimented the chef, who was the owner. Been back 3 times and no owner on site and it has been terrible. It's tough when you can do but want to move up from that position. I'll be happy to get back to Habit Burger or In'N'Out and light well done fries.
What were we talking about?

 

[Nemo2]

and the tab for us was $78. The meals were sub par.

In Porto, Portugal, a few years back we had a superb caldo verde at a stand up counter in a bakery/deli for €1 apiece. A few days later, at the behest of the airbnb manager and since we were in the area, we visited a restaurant he highly recommended.

Paid ~10X what the deli charged, and for an inferior offering.