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

rachnbri

thriftlady wrote:

The thing I hate about chains and most pub food is their insistance on providing a 'children's menu'. It is always inferior to the usually already inferior food on offer for adults.

Even Café Rouge has one - goujons of chicken rather than nuggets :rolleyes: I asked if they did children's portions, but no, the answer was 'well, we have a menu pour les enfants'. 'But can't they just have a children's portion of steak frites?' I ask 'Non' was the reply. 'Is that man French?' asks my DD, 'No he's from Worcester like you'.

I hate this too. Where did the belief come from that children will only eat chicken nuggets and chips? We have a fantastic restaurant in Nottingham where they have a children's menu which is basically half portions of the adult menu. I want my children to eat proper food - I don't want to be out having a lovely meal with DP and watching my children eat crap.

Churchmouse

MATH wrote:

After 15 years of turning out meal after meal and watching other people shovel my creations down their gullets I'm happy to eat any old crud as long as I havn't had to cook it. I've even been known to whimper with pleasure whilst chowing down a Maccy D's LOL There is a fab restaurant near us that is V expensive but superb, we save up and go once a year, but TBH a cheap and cheerful pub lunch or even a bag of chips on the prom and I'm happy. Mrs MATH says I was such a cheap date she would have been stupid not to marry me.:rotfl:

I'd have liked to quote both MATH and Pen-Pen but I've forgotten how to do that ( sorry Pink, I know you taught us months ago!!:o )

Basically, any meal I've not had to cook is fine by me!!!! Seriously, yes restaurants vary, but you can't expect to pay them what it would cost at home, they have overheads and a profit to make!!

And I see eating out as a very social occassion! Like Pen-Pen we have times eating out where it's musical chairs in order to get a chance to speak to everyone!:cool:

MATH it must be something to do with being methodist (me too!) on our first date DH joked about being tight. I took him seriously and made one lager and lime last ALL night!:rotfl: :rotfl: Probably why he proposed 6 weeks later!!!

That's the best bit of holidays, no cooking!!!:rotfl: :T
CMxx

PS my children (all 4 of them!!) were perfectly behaved in restaurants because we insisted on the highest quality of manners even in a Mc Donalds!

competitionscafe

Peem wrote:

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.

Great post - I agree with you 100%. Would add TGI Friday (or whatever it's called, Hard Rock Cafe, Wetherspoons and quite a few more to your list....and like you, off the top of my head the only exception I can think of is Wagamama (only wish they would open one in Edinburgh).

The problem is that if you are a decent home cook then you are already streets ahead of the standard in so many places, including just about any chain - and you know exactly what has gone into your dinner. Anyway, I think a lot of these places bulk buy very average quality food from wholesale catering firms and do littl emore than reheat it in a microwave. Why eat out and pay a fortune for some gloriefied ready meal when you could do something so much better yourself for a fraction of the cost.

On the other hand I do love eating out when it's good - I think the secret is to go as upmarket as you can but go for the lunch menu or the 'early bird' dinner option. For example, i recently went to Kitchin in Leith, Edinburgh for lunch - it was £12.50 for 2 courses, but I think this was a bargain - the food was amazing and I could never ever cook food like this at home. If you went in the evening you are looking at 25 quid just for your main course, so you can see why £12.50 for a starter and main or main and pud is so good! I would rather have lunch in a place like this once a month, as a treat rather than eat in one of the chains above every week. Anyway, how far will £12.50 go in Pizza hut or similar.

The other kind of place I like is small, local restaurants where the owners really care about what they are doing and you get good value for money - again i would rather spend £20/£25/£30 for a good dinner here once a month than go to a chain or other bog standard cheaper place every week....

$nake_eye$

$nake_eye$ wrote:

prob a daft question, but whats DH and OS!!?

Still curious...

Churchmouse

$nake_eye$ wrote:

prob a daft question, but whats DH and OS!!?

DH dear/darling husband

OS old style

competitionscafe

misty wrote:

When I eat out, I try to order items I don't make at home otherwise I do spend my time thinking about how I'm being ripped for what I'm getting.

Me too - when I eat out and look at the menu I always think which of these would I be least likely to make at home (or least able to) and order that!

Pink.

$nake_eye$ wrote:

Still curious...

Sorry $nake eye$,

DH/DS/DD = Dear husband/Dear son/Dear daughter

OS = Old Style

For more help with abbreviations on MSE have a look at sra's Unofficial A-Zand check out the post on Abbreviations.

Pink

Pandora123_2

$nake_eye$ wrote:

Still curious...

DH = Dear Husband

OS = Old Style

:A

lynzpower

well update

Last night we went for a walk round our new locale and chose a vietnamese place.

OMG it was uttely GORGEOUS!!!
We had chicken & beef satay, butterfly prawns, prawn toasts, wantun, crab & sweetcorn soup, duck & pancakes, fried rice, Monks veg, prawn in chilli && garlic & fillet steak & black pepper sauce. and 6 beers. total cost 65.00 inc service.

I came away feeling ID fleeced them! excellent VFM, and theres no way I could have cooked this volume of different things, to that standard.

I did have a look at a few of the lunch menus at gordon ramseys too, and was qute surprised that theres a pre-theatre menu in one, and its 21 for 3 courses. you cant even pay that at a beefeater, so Im gonna drag OH soon I think!

nearlyrich

I eat out a lot because of my job and my experience is the more exciting the menu looks the more disappointing the meal usually is.

Locally we have some great restaurants including Indian, Italian and Gastropubs, good food but a bit pricy compared to making it yourself but nice for a treat when you need a day off. My fave restaurant of all time closed last year and I haven't found anywhere quite as good yet.

Most of the pubs that serve food buy "ready meals" the test is whether you can change it a bit, for example can you have the chicken without the sauce, if not it's from a package in the freezer.