Do You Ever Eat Out and Wish You Hadn't Bothered?

Peem

I sometimes feel that eating out is not worth it. But TBH this is when I have been to chains. They really are worse than canteens.

Places I hate
Frankie & Benny's
Pizza Hut
Pub Chains
Toby
Beefeater
etc etc
you get my drift.

One exception "Wagamama" love the food. I had a nose in the wagamama cookbook the other day. I would love to have the time to spend cooking their dishes and (more importantly) time to spend buying the ingredients. I love the food.

Also - love non chain Italians. Great for kids. Exception is Pizza Express - do love their pizzas even if they are a chain. But I don't love them when I buy them from Sainsbury's.

Also love Tapas bars - preferably not chain ones again.

Yes I often look at the food and say "I can do that" but I don't get the atmosphere, each person having what they want, and most importantly someone else shopping and clearing up. I think I pay for this rather than the actual food (though the food has to be good to - if that makes sense)

And I'm a big believer in getting the kids used to such situations. They both behave really well in restaurants (ages 2 & 4) and I think that's cos they've never realised they have the option to behave badly. lol
Basically I'm saying - I won't eat !!!!!!, but there's more to the equation than food.

Essex-girl_2

I love eating out though dont so so much of it at the moment due to cutting back.

I dont go to chain restaurants at all, its generally chinese, indian and for mid price we go to a family run american restaurant in a local village. If we want posh we go to a restaurant in a casino - its lovely and does the best salt beef ive had in years.

Im making myself hungry now - had change of menu plan and OH is cooking a fry up for tea.

newleaf

There's a lovely little Italian restaurant near us, a family run place with very nice food. I like to go there, but like most people I am not a fan of 'chain' restaurants or fast food. We don't eat out very often these days anyway - it used to be our main hobby!

[Deleted User]

we don`t bother eating out much because you just cannot beat food such as that described by the OP. Lukewarm food, too much oil, over cooked veg. Ok you can get a decent meal but at too much cost and anyway I know I`m hygenic here and I can`t stand the thought of not-too-clean fingers mauling my food

We treated ourselves to fish and chips today as we haven`t had them for a good 6 months and they tasted fine but 2 portions cost over £9!!!

VickyA_2

I meet up with my old university housemates three times a year. This tends to be in London as they live there and I'm the only one who lives out in the sticks. Our Christmas meet-up was at Maxwell's in Covent Garden. We were on their "cheap" party menu (3 courses for £20), and needless to say it was completely rubbish. To make it worse, they'd run out of the pudding that I'd ordered but no one bothered to tell me at first. I was pretty narked, especially how expensive it was for what we got.

DH and I go to a lovely restaurant in the Lake District when we're up there (and we're going there again a week on Sunday). It's all home cooked, locally farmed and produced food with fabulous service and not really silly prices (more than £20 for 3 courses though :whistle:). Always worth a treat and their hot chocolate fudge brownie with ice cream really is to die for. Not that I know what I'm having for pudding already. :whistle:

brindles01

I gave up eating out for main meals ages ago after being repeatedly insulted with the quality of the food a lot of establishments serve up. I don;t think I could stand the disappointment of another wasted effort. There is one restaurant I will go to and that is my local Indian restaurant where quality, service and ambience never falters from one visit to the next. I had a party for my son last weekend at the bowling alley and had meals for the kids chucked in and what a disgraceful mess they were. I think the 16 year olds that were cooking them had never been shown how to really prepare food. If it wasn't for all the stress of the day I would have complained but the dog ended up with a 'doggy bag' of chicken nuggets to say the least - even the kids couldn't face them!

catkins

Myself and OH only really ever eat out at Indian restaurants nowadays. I have lost count of how many times in the past we have had a meal and OH has said "your lasagne (or whatever) is much better than this". I also hate the fact that most restaurant food has far too much salt in it for my liking.

It's a shame really as we both loving eating out. Don't mind paying for a decent meal but not when you can cook better yourself.

We do cook curries at home but often they are better in indian restaurants, although last year we went to a vegetarian indian restaurant in Central London which had really good reviews and thought the food was actually pretty disgusting. We can certainly cook better ourselves. We complained and they offered another meal another time for free. We didn't enjoy the first one so no way were we going back!!!!

lil_me

We usually only go out for a curry now, have a particular favourite Indian restaurant, but I have just got a copy of that Curry Secret book which I am going to try, after that might not even go there. Pub meals tend to be rubbish now, especially the 'chains'. I do enjoy not having to cook occasionally when we do go out, the best bit is not having to wash up! (only me cooking and cleaning up after at home gets a little tedious)

taplady

I have to eat out through work quite often - mainly snacks with my service users and it really pains me the prices they charge for a sandwich or jacket spud:mad: nothing fancy either:rolleyes: at least I get it back at the end of the month in expenses!:D

jennybb

We used to eat out a lot in our spendthrift days - mind you my OH used to hate going out with me and my family - my stepfather is an ex-chef and we're all a bit "foodie" - so invariably we'd pick holes in the meal if it wasn't up to scratch (often)! These days it's local curry house for a rare treat - they are better at that than me. Otherwise we eat very well at home on a budget.;)