[Food] Eating out. Is it all that?

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

I probably regard myself as a decent cook and my missus top notch. 90% of the time I go out I honestly think we could have done better. Do we eat out because we can rather than think we could’ve saved ourselves a fortune and have something just as good or better at home.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

No, it's not. Mediocre is now accepted as the norm. Which is pretty mad, really.

 

[Beach Hut]

Island life = very slow

 

[Knocky's Nose]

Eating out for me is a social event. Neutral ground for the people attending and you can have a good chat and a drink without worrying about anything.

I couldn't cook better at home (because I'm average at best when it comes to cooking) but I used to eat out maybe 4-5 times a week in times past. Now, I eat out maybe once a month. It's just become so expensive it's a piss-take and I can buy the same or similar food from Just Eat or Tesco for a fraction of the price.

Mrs Nose and I went to Pizza Express last week and had a starter and main, plus I had 2 glasses of Pinot and she had a Diet Coke. The bill came to just over £60. I can no longer afford this.

 

[jcdenton08]

My girlfriend seems to enjoy it.

 

[Justice]

Surely this depends on where you go, one of my customers owns restaurant’s in Mayfair and Islington. I’ve had tasters he’s knocked up for me and the food is amazing popping with different flavours.
Of course dinner will set you back £300 but well worth it for a treat. The time and effort that goes into preparing top notch dishes is mind blowing.
5am starts for the chefs and leaving after midnight all to do it again the next day takes some doing.

If I go down the gastro pub and order something for £25 I don’t expect anything near although I have been surprised at times.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Your wife seems to appreciate it.

 

[dazzer6666]

I cook at home a lot and enjoy it, but also like eating out which we do a fair amount. Cooked in our holiday apartment last night as we have a bit of ‘eating out fatigue’ and couldn’t be arsed to go out

 

[The Clamp]

My girlfriend seems to enjoy it.

She does

 

[The Clamp]

I eat out properly a couple of times a month and grab light meals out a few times a week.

Two or three times a year we’ll go for a top notch restaurant and hang the expense.

I love eating out and will continue to do so as long as funds allow.

I’m not an enthusiastic or particularly good cook so it’s nice to get cooked some decent scran.

 

[Easy 10]

I love our date nights eating out. We'll typically go for a couple of beers somewhere beforehand, then mince along to the restaurant for a nosh, then a nightcap somewhere before heading back. I would say that we go out a LOT earlier than we used to, because I like to be back on the sofa by around 9pm these days (rock n' roll). But now that our crotch-goblins are all grown up, its such a luxury to have that freedom, and its still not something I ever take for granted.

So yeah. Eating out IS all that. Probably costs us about £100-£150 all in for the night depending on where we go, but its worth it.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Does a spoons cooked breakfast and bottomless coffee count as eating out?

At ~£12 for the BOTH of us, I can accept the quality.

£300 for a meal out is above my station ....

 

[Canfan]

When I emigrated to Canada 30+ years ago I was amazed how often people ate out. From what I remembered from the UK I would only go out to a restaurant for special occasions or other celebrations. In Canada (Vancouver), even if you just went out to a pub for a beer or two it was normal practice to order food as well and that is the case even to this day. Of course there were, and still are, higher priced dining experiences here which would be reserved for celebrations but overall the cost of regularly dining out was reasonable and something that was often easier to do than making a mess in the kitchen. Covid changed all that and prices have since risen so much (in Canada we get taxed on top of the meal price and then there is the tipping culture which can add anywhere from 15% - 25% to the bill nowadays) that eating out is no longer affordable for me. As a result, I don't go to the pub nearly as much and typically eat at home more often. Having said all that, I do still enjoy going out for a meal occasionally and in Vancouver there are so many different types of cuisine available I would be depriving myself of so many culinary experiences otherwise.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I eat out a fair bit, at least twice a week, on average, and it’s anything from high-end Michelin star to a cafe for brunch. I enjoy it for many and varied reasons, I love going to restaurants, I love reading about them, I love watching stuff about them. When lock-down happened, and cafes and restaurants were closed, I truly realized how much it meant to me.

I can cook, have a decent kitchen and I enjoy cooking, but going out is quite different. Can I cook as well as the cafes and restaurants? Depends what it is but generally no…but that’s not the point.

Jay Rayner once said, a good restaurant should make you feel a whole lot better coming out than when you went in. We all want to feel better don’t we?

 

[albionalba]

Jay Rayner once said, a good restaurant should make you feel a whole lot better coming out than when you went in. We all want to feel better don’t we?

I think is is the nub of it. True, genuinely-intended hospitality is hard to find. Food that isn't out of a freezer (i.e. pre manufactured elsewhere and frozen) is hard to find. That's why a friendly local cafe cooking stuff to order can sometimes outdo an allegedly higher standards / rated place. It's hard to define and you know it when you've had it. But there really is so much mediocrity and as said by the OP, many folk can do better for themselves on the food front at home. But you don't get to people-watch etc at home so there is the side entertainment aspect of eating out (that observational aspect of couples on a date night that are on their phones more than in conversation etc). Yes, eating out in a group can be social but being the deaf old git I am that can sometimes add stress - and there are so few round tables for six etc where cross-table conversation flows. It's a difference you notice immediately visiting in urban-Oz because the customer is so much more discerning and the competition is high leading to a much better experience in all types of restaurant. Sadly, I can't see that happening here. We've sold the high street to hedge funded franchise chains who will squeeze until shuttered finally for the zombie apocalypse.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I prefer to eat out with friends and family but I have also eaten out on my own quite a lot over the years, and I love this. A nice restaurant, my iPad, and just me is very enjoyable.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Cooking a Sunday roast or even a breakfast fry-up is far beyond my culinary capabilities. So it's pure magic to have it just appear on your plate, whether that be in a pub, cafe, restaurant or round somebody else's house

 

[essbee1]

Curries/Chinese/Thai and fish and chips are food types that I would rather eat out for -because it's almost
impossible to replicate at home. Otherwise, I enjoy cooking stuff myself.

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

Island life = very slow

 

[tedebear]

I'm being a bit of a grinch lately, well longer than lately but thats another topic. So I don't really enoy going out. I have a very short tolerance of other peoples behaviour at the moment particuarly when they start drinking, and boy does Shoreham like to drink.

I hate being talked over, talked at for hours or listening to drivel and incoherent ramblings where the volume in a place gets louder and louder as the evening goes on...kind of ruins the food and the outing to be honest...So at the moment I don't think going out around here is all that to be honest....