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

liz545

I love to eat out, living in London I'm spoiled for choice and you can often get really lovely food very reasonably priced. I don't like chain restaurants, and find that they do often serve up micro-rubbish, but I couldn't give up eating out! I don't get takeaways much any more, though, as I usually find myself thinking that I could do better (and cheaper) myself.

competitionscafe

lynzpower wrote:

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

OMG it was uttely GORGEOUS!!!

Vietnamese food is gorgeous - we have maybe a dozen or more Thai restuarants in Edinburgh, but not one Vietnamese one - maybe it will start to become more popular, like Thai did about 10 years ago....

That's another good reason to eat out - I love Thai, Vietnamese etc but cooking it at home often needs a major list of ingredients + a trip to a specialist grocer so it's not something I would do often - much easier to get an expert to do it for you! The advantage of living in London is you can 'travel' to almost any country for a few hours just by having a meal - used to enjoy some great Iranian and Lebanese restaurants when I lived there and quite a few other cuisines too - great fun and v. interesting.

Also in London, as you say you have the choice of some of the top Michelin star restaurants - but if you go for their lunch menu or early/pre-theatre options you can get the same quality of food at a fraction of the cost you would pay if you went later in the evening..often not much more (or even less) than you would pay for very average food at a chain.

At the opposite end there are some good everyday budget restuarants/ cafes in London - like Food for Though in Covent Garden; just because you are in central London doesn't mean you can't get a decent meal at a bargain price. Often wonder at all the tourists ploughing into places like Beefeater, TGI, Pizza Hut and the like (see the same thing in Edinburgh) when you can get so much better for the same money or less. Maybe they don't want to 'take a risk' and so go for the same option they could get back in the USA or wherever.....?

Zziggi

I'm glad it is not just us that now wonder why we bother eating out!

Since becoming OS we hardly ever go out. The food is just always such a disappointment as it never tastes really nice, or, i end up looking at it and telling DH how i could replicate this at home for next to nothing. My let-down is presentation. The best these type of meals do is give me inspiration on how to present meals at home.

There is just one place that we would bother to eat out at. It's a restaurant owned by a family of italians but the majority of the menu is kinda english/ french. There is a pasta section to the menu but it certainally isn't an italian restaurant. The food is absolutely divine and presentation, service and surroundings is always first class. It's so good we even booked them for our wedding reception!! A 3 course meal, drinks & coffee would set you back about £25-£30 per person. It isn't cheap but it is worth every penny. We'd much rather go out very rarely but have a meal at this restaurant.

I've also noticed kids menus are always chicken nuggets, pizza, chips etc. Whatever happened to kids healthy eating? A friend of ours takes my kids our once a fortnight and the trip always includes a meal out. She always selects something from the main menu and either asks for a small portion or asks for one adult portion but 2 plates so the kids can share it. So many times she tells us that staff comment on what a good idea to get the kids to eat "proper" food from the main menu.

debtworrier

Actually one lot of restaurants that I do go to for the food are the sushi chains. My 'treat' afternoon was to buy a cheap paperback and then sit in the sushi bar all afternoon with pretty food scrolling by on the conveyor belt and free refills of tea. The kitchen is right in the middle of the restaurant, so you can see what the chefs are doing, and how clean it is, and I really like that I don't have to plan ahead but just keep nibbling until either my stomach or my wallet cries uncle!

My friends say "Yuk! Raw fish!" but anything on the tempura menu is cooked, and anyway the restaurants here have adapted the dishes to allow for us cranky gweilo. (I'm pretty sure that strawberry jam pancakes are not a traditional Japanese dish.) :dance:

KarensKraftyBits

i always do it, i go out to eat and really regret it or if i order a takeaway.
Most the time i dont enjoy it but even if i do i think all that money wasted when i could of made beans on toast for a pound lol.
But you got to treat yourself every now and again.
It is a shame you was dissapointed tho , a lot of places are like that latley especially the resturants who microwave everything, if your going to eat out i think a pub with home cooked food is the best bet.
xxx

Lucie_2

Pretty much the only food we go out to eat these days is chinese/thai/indian, as we struggle to recreate them at home. Everything else is subject to the "I can cook this better, for a fraction of the price" treatment, especially italian food & pub food.
We do have a very good independent pub up the road which does all home cooked food for bargain prices (nothing is more than about £7), which is our standby "can't be bothered to cook" place about once a month or less.
I too hate chains like Frankie & Bennies, Brewers Fayre & the like. Not only is the food "plastic", in general the service is usually pretty poor too.
I have got the Wagamama cook book & all the recipes are very authentic, I'd definately recommend it.
The only place we splash out on is the local "celebrity chef" restaurant once a year for either a birthday or anniversary. It's not cheap but it's an experience, the food really is very good.

janine22

As others have stated, we go out to eat what we can't recreate ourselves.
OH and I are both on diets (slimming world) and spent all of our syns and over £50 on possibly the worst meal out I've had in ages at Frankie & Benny's. I hate all of the chains and find the food, when not rubbery through re-heating, is often raw in the middle.

The exceptions to this are chinese and indian restaurants. We had a gorgeous Chinese Buffet in Sheffield at weekend, £12 odd each for an evening sitting (£6 for before 5pm), extortionate drinks prices but refillable & they had a chocolate fountain! This is great because we can't make it at home and it's so nice to sit in a restaurant and talk to each other with no distractions (apart from Crispy Duck & pancakes!)

skintlass

I'm single as well and eat out every now and again but I must say I usually enjoy the food - this may be because I go to places that have been recommended by other friends. I like Sandanista (pub grub but nice), Little Tokyo (really good noodles) and Tampopo (Asian food) all in Leeds. I have had some dodgy tapas in Leeds in La Tasca but thats about the worst I can think of.

Horasio

I go out to get time off from cooking. I love cooking but not every day.

I have high standards as I know I am paying more than it is worth, even after their overheards etc.

I despise bad service, and without sounding racist here, people who can't understand my order, with avengence. Badly cooked food is unforgiveable and they can both spoil what can be great evening.

Of course, excellent food and service make fantastic memories.

Horasio

I don't like famous chefs, in general, they are horrible to their staff and have a bad attitude.

We don't buy meat that has been reared in cruel conditions, why buy food made by people in cruel conditions?