large booking at restaurant- how to split the bill?

missbiggles1

Pollycat wrote: »

What about ice cream?

Just putting it out there - I don't have puddings anyway (but I have sat through many a meal as my family work their way through various offerings).

Even better - home or artisan made sorbets - preferably little individual blobs of intense, chilly fruit flavour. The perfect light end to a good meal.

missbiggles1

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Of course Ice Cream! (how can you not have puddings? ! )

I tend to prefer cheese if there's a good cheeseboard - I don't have that much of a sweet tooth either.

seven-day-weekend

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I tend to prefer cheese if there's a good cheeseboard - I don't have that much of a sweet tooth either.

Nah! Forego the cheese. Let's have something as gooey, sticky and chocolatey as possible, preferably with ice cream.

(I don't have sweets very often due to weight issues, but when I do I don't skimp ).

Could just eat a knickerbocker glory right now.......

I'm a foodie. I love eating. Which is why I would not find it fun to go to a restaurant and not eat. If I've got to make do with bread and scrape I'd rather do it at home. I wouldn't waste my last fiver in a restaurant being miserable because I couldn't eat what I wanted.

I appreciate everyone is different in this.

itsanne

Wow - that's quite a lot must have vanished overnight!


Forget the cheese board, forget the starter, in fact forget the main ..... sticky toffee pudding with loads of sauce and some proper cream ......

Actually, don't forget any of the above - just as well I don't eat out that often!

TBagpuss

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I would choose the expensive restaurant so as thoughtful as your intention is, it's not for everyone.

I like to eat one course meals of excellent food. And an expensive, lovely drink instead of a few glasses of cheap crap.

It's got nothing to do with money, though I expect people to pay their fair share of whatever they consume, as I do.

If I'm going to pay £30 for a meal out, I'd like a nice piece of fish/chicken with some fresh veg, not a plate of brushetta, pasta/pizza and a pudding.

I actually love puddings, but only eat chocolate ones - calories just aren't worth it for anything else! So many restaurants don't offer anything for chocolate lovers. Anything with fruit is an absolute no-no for me. Fruit is a healthyish snack or part of breakfast; not part of a 500 calorie dessert as far as I'm concerned. If I'm out in a group and puddings are consumed, I'm very happy to have a coffee.

I have no idea how people fit 3 courses, wine and coffee in their bodies without feeling ill. I would be so physically uncomfortable it would actually be painful, result in an awful night's sleep and then a zombie like day the next day. I did however have no problem doing all of this as a student or in my 20's: it's an age thing for me 20 years on.

I would pick quality over quantity, too. Obviously it depends how cheap the cheap option is, and what they serve, but in my experience it can feel much more wasteful - if you end up paying for mediocre food, and you're conscious you could have have produced the same thing but much cheaper and nicer at home, you can feel ripped off, whereas paying the same amount for a single course of something which is far better and more attractive then you could produce for yourself feels much more like a treat.

If I am planning a meal out with someone who I know, or think, may be hard up I'll normally try to suggest a couple of places where he cost is at diferent levels, so they can chose which they feel happy with. And if someone else makes the arrangments I will order what I want and feel I can afford on the day.

On the issue of how much is eaten, for me, this depends a lot on what the food is and how long you spend over the meal. A year or so ago I got to go to a Michlin starred restuarant in London, with a friend. We had 4 courses, plus some amuses bouche - but didn't end up feling too full as the individual courses were smallish and the meal lasted for 3 and a half hours. It was expensive (although we had lunch which was cheaper than dining) but glorious.

(the dessert wasn't chocolate. Although we were given little hand-made chocolates with our coffee at the end of the meal..

Serena03

thorsoak wrote: »

Each couple pay for their own food (including their own children).

Agree with this totally - simple and fair! :T

Feral_Moon

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Of course Ice Cream! (how can you not have puddings? ! )

Some of us don't have a particularly sweet tooth, plus, speaking personally, it would have to be something really special if I'm paying £5/£6/£7 a portion and certainly not a defrosted piece of pie/cheesecake/sponge pudding etc that I can buy from any frozen food section at the supermarket.

So, on the rare occasion I buy dessert I'd maybe opt for a creme brûl!e or panacotta with a twist. Or, a recent offering was a liquorice mousse. Tasted divine! I'd never be able to recreate something like this at home!

onlyroz

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Obviously lots of people have friends from all over the place but I don't think that's true for the majority, that's all.

Well I have friends from "back home" (i.e. the city I left at age 18). I have friends from uni who have since dispersed to various corners of the country. I have extended family all around the world. I also have friends I made on the internet who live all around the world that I occasionally meet up with.


I think it is most definitely the norm, in these days of globalisation, and in an era where half the population goes off to uni, for people to have an extremely dispersed set of friends and family.


It's also not that unusual for events to occur where two different sets of people meet up - whenever I've been to visit somebody I'm often taken around all their friends and family, and whenever people come to stay with me I want them to meet my other friends and family too.


The days where people never left their home town are long gone.

duchy

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I tend to prefer cheese if there's a good cheeseboard - I don't have that much of a sweet tooth either.

Doesn't you refusing dessert spoil the meal for others as you can't join in the sugar high everyone else is enjoying ? How is that different to you claiming someone skipping the starter spoils the meal for you as you claimed upthread. Not having a go -just trying to understand as I took you to be saying that for you unless everyone fully participated it ruined the meal for you.

minimacka

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

That's fine IMO. I do it myself sometimes, or maybe even order two starters instead of a main.

I'd say that going by this thread, it'd all be down (whether it's deemed right or wrong) to who she goes out to eat with!

I agree, we went out the other night she ordered a bottle of prosecco to share with her friend and me and my friend shared a bottle of red. My SIL then had a glass of our red, at the end of the night I ordered a pudding (it was recommended by the girls) and the waiter brought 4 spoons and we all shared it. Then we all shared the bill, me and my friend didn't say you have had a glass of our wine you have to put more in, oh and she had another slice of garlic bread too lol.


Me and my dh often try each others food when we are out eating, we also share starters and puddings. I don't think there is anything wrong in this. We also share kisses to sometimes.