How often do you go out for a meal?

catkins

When we lived in London and both worked long hours in full time jobs we ate out a lot (sometimes 4 or 5 times a week) mainly in indian restaurants.

We had more money then and there was much more choice of restaurants in London and some very good cheap ones (Brick Lane indians were dirt cheap). We are vegetarian and there are obviously a lot more restaurants in London that cater for us.

Now, not only do we have a lot less money - I don't work and, as we all know, everything has gone up in price (food, heating bills etc), where we live there in far far less choice of restaurants and no vegetarian ones. In the last say 10 years we have gone out less and less and now probably eat out in the evening on average once a month (nearly always indian). Average spend is about £40.

We do cook a lot of indian food at home but, as good as our food is, it's not quite up to indian restaurant standard. We can never get the naans as nice although we both think our onion bajees are better than any we have ever tasted in a restaurant.

Like many others, we do not see the point of paying for meals that we can make as well if not better at home. We both love cooking and now I don't work I have plenty of time to make our meals.

The few times we eat in pubs we almost always say to each other "we can make it better than this" so it seems pointless. Recently we have been out with family quite a few times for birthdays, anniversaries etc and apart from one pub restaurant the food has really been disappointing, in one case it was dreadful.

We do tend to eat lunch out more often but rarely have a proper meal - more likely soup and/or a sandwich although this is getting pricy so we may cut down.

If we are feeling lazy we may get a takeaway (usually indian) occasionally pizza and maybe once a year we will eat in a pizza place. Again though I can make better pizza than most places although I do like Pizza Express ones

moonbabe58

We usually only go out for meals on special occasions i.e. birthdays/anniversaries/family gatherings. We will have the odd pub meal or lunch out but probably not more than once a month if that.

I would like to eat out more and I am sure in the future we will, but at the moment I like knowing that every meal I cook myself at home means more pennies towards our mortgage/wedding/honeymoon etc.

Robin_TBW

I've decided to lower the town purely by focusing on the following few quotes from the original post.

ibizafan wrote: »

but it got me thinking about eating out. How often do you eat out

ibizafan wrote: »

My OH and myself eat out about once every two weeks,

ibizafan wrote: »

I'd love to hear whether retirement has curtailed eating out, or changed the frequency

:rotfl:

heartbreak_star

I actually prefer takeaways to pub grub sometimes!

HBS x

Lunar_Eclipse

As a family, it varies. Some months we don't eat out at all, other months we might eat out twice a week for 2-3 weeks in a row. I probably have a cheap lunch out once week/fortnight with girlfriends though.

I would eat out much more often if we had more disposable income and/or food quality was better value. I begrudge spending £60+ for a very mediocre meal at a local or chain restaurant, which is nothing in even the cheapest places like Pizza Express. I can't get excited about our local Chinese or Nandos for example.

On overseas holidays, we eat out every night.

We're having a couple of days out in London next week and have planned meals out there at restaurants we have wanted to visit for years (I keep a bucket list in my head.) I doubt we'll see change from £100, without wine, but at least the food should be delicious.

Pollycat

angeltreats wrote: »

We live in a small town where your choices are either Indian or Chinese food (takeaway is better as there's very little atmosphere in the restaurant, more enjoyable to have at home with friends) or mediocre pub grub. If we go to the nearest bigger town it means someone has to drive and can't have a drink.

Hmmm.
I wonder if the scarcity of really good places to eat has a bearing on how often people eat (more than say, financial consideration).
We pretty much are the same - about half a dozen Indian and same Italian.
Pretty uninspiring really.

catkins wrote: »

We do cook a lot of indian food at home but, as good as our food is, it's not quite up to indian restaurant standard. We can never get the naans as nice although we both think our onion bajees are better than any we have ever tasted in a restaurant.

I agree, naan is very difficult but even the ones you get in Indian restautants here are nowhere near as good as you get in India (Goa).

I'm far from vegetarian but in Goa, I eat so much veg food as the choice is amazing and it's so tasty.

Faith177

Me & OH live 80 miles apart and only see each other twice a month if we're lucky so we eat out most times he's back. We take it in turns to pick where and to pay.

Average is about £50 but if we can get vouchers then that's even better. We like places like Strada, Frankie & Benny's and TGI's. If it's a birthday we always end up in the Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden as we get 50% cause we are staff for that chain.

We should really cut down but we miss out on all the normal couple things and this is our way of compensating.

dandelionclock30

FatVonD wrote: »

Probably every couple of months and then it's usually via MrT's rewards or a Wethersp00ns.

We do have a few takeaways though because we love Indian food but I begrudge buying drinks in a restaurant when it pushes the price up so much (especially when I'm only drinking coke.)

.

You can always ask for a jug of water.I always do with a curry, not because Im being tight but because that is what I want.

catkins

Pollycat wrote: »

I agree, naan is very difficult but even the ones you get in Indian restautants here are nowhere near as good as you get in India (Goa).

I'm far from vegetarian but in Goa, I eat so much veg food as the choice is amazing and it's so tasty.

Me and OH would love to go to Goa just for the food! Naans really vary in restaurants here but some are lovely.

We both love Dosa, especially Marsalla Dosa and there is no indian near us that does them. In London there are a few restaurants where you can get them, one of the best being Sagar in Covent Garden. A completely vegetarian indian restaurant where the food is gorgeous and the prices low. Whenever we are in London we eat there

dandelionclock30

Robin_TBW wrote: »

I've decided to lower the town purely by focusing on the following few quotes from the original post.







:rotfl:

Its lower the tone,not lower the town.