It’s the weekend! Many people will be eating out. Casual or fine dining. Inside or out.
I was noticing on a FB group I belong to that some people will ask where is a good place to get “specific dish” - like tonight I saw specific requests for chicken piccata and Nashville hot chicken.
I would say we often will decide on a style of food - bar food, Italian, Indian….but rarely am I thinking “I want this specific dish”.
How do you decide where to eat out if you’re say a group of 2 or 4 (so not a large group)?
And then for fun, if you have or will go out this weekend….what type of place did you go?
H gets very specific food cravings at times. He’s like “I want X .” And often from Y. So then we go there. Otherwise, one asks the other what sounds good. The other picks 3 places and the other usually picks from there.
Haha, I found a gift certificate that expires next week. So we went there. It’s American basic food. Expensive for our area. Which is not expensive. I wore pants and a denim jacket and was overdressed.
I had fish and my husband had the filet. I had a local red ale.
I am so stuffed that I’m uncomfortable. I guess this is why we usually will go out at lunch instead of dinner. I even brought home 1/2 of my entree and I’m still feel uncomfortably full.
Well, we very rarely go out on the weekend because the bars and restaurants are absolutely packed, plus we have the time to cook things at home that require some care and attention. We do, however, go out midweek. We go to the same neighborhood bar/restaurant every Wed. and thus make no decisions at all! It’s like “formula dressing” except for food. For special dinners with another couple or when family is in town, we go to our favorite BYOB Italian restaurant (HOME). We are really creatures of habit and don’t make decisions anymore. It’s really liberating.
I think it’s definitely true that since Covid and no eating out and MORE cooking at home overall, you realize that restaurant food can be a lot of food! Even when you take some home!
We decide by me throwing out numerous suggestions and husband turning most of them down until he’s finally satisfied. We did go the place I wanted for our pre-Passover dinner out. I wanted their garlic brie.
Husband will often mention about 5:00 on a Saturday that he needs to either get take out or go out because he has nothing for dinner. On occasion we can get a reservation at a local restaurant but usually it’s take out from one of two or three usual places. The places I would most like to go out are invariably fully booked.
He did mention a couple of weeks ago that he wanted a hamburger for dinner. But not casual dining; had to be a hamburger main meal in effect. That narrowed it down to Raglan House and Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern. He could have just said that in the first place instead of turning down all my other suggestions.
Yesterday I got pizza delivery for dinner because Passover ended at sunset and I was tired of matzah. And I stopped at the Classic Malt Shop today for a hot dog, onion rings, and a malt for lunch.
Like @NJSue, to avoid crowds, we rarely go out on weekends, and we only eat out to socialize with friends, so we almost always leave the choice of restaurant up to them because the food isn’t the point. We’ll always be able to find something we like on just about any menu. And, if the restaurant can make a decent Manhattan or martini, the menu doesn’t matter at all. (None of our friends frequent restaurants without a good bar.)
Today is DH’s 66th BD, but he’s in Ireland for a couple of weeks (business), so I’m heading over to my mom’s for dinner, don’t know what she’s serving.
Add us to the rarely go out on weekends group. I have crowd allergies.
We have a place we go to most Wednesdays for lunch, but it’s a market food court so we have several options once there. Most of the time we pick Mexican, sometimes Thai or Burmese (same place), and sometimes Korean. This market is only open Wed - Sat, so if we’re not busy, we’ll often hit it on Thursday for lunch too - choosing something we didn’t choose Wednesday. Each place has authentic cooks from those countries.
At other times we just discuss what we’re in the mood for combining food options and length of drive. If we’re eating with others, we’ll usually let them choose as we can find things we like pretty much everywhere even if we normally wouldn’t choose it ourselves.
We eat out probably 4 times per week when we’re home, often more when we’re traveling even when staying with family.
We mostly eat in given our location and ShawWife’s excellent cooking. But, if we are going out, I typically decide. We live in the exurbs that have pretty mediocre restaurants. The questions are how much do we want to spend/how formal or elegant and how far we want to drive (in our burb, in inner burbs or in Cambridge/Boston). For some nights, I’m thinking ethnic. I have good Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, etc. But, if more formal, I think about who we are going with. Then I look at Eater or call my daughter (complete foodie who goes out on lots of dates) for suggestions.
In terms of where to go with groups–we typically look for fun places we haven’t been.
When my wife is home, we are creatures of habit. Friday is local place with carefully curated beer list. Sunday is our neighborhood Mexican place that is our cheers. We are friends with staff and they have the best margaritas in the area (regional magazine award winner).
My wife is out of town this week so I was running errands and went to 5 Fives. Tomorrow I’m coaching until late and will likely just do something in the “fast-casual” space. Sunday will be the Mexican place (I’ll sit at the bar)
We love to try new restaurants with friends - tonight was a well reviewed restaurant - doesn’t take reservations and serving food influenced from Laos. Fun cocktails and amazing food. As usual, we were the oldest diners there :). Next week a wine tasting dinner with 8 friends.
H has become a stick in the mud about eating out lately. He would rather not. However, we do have a short list of places he likes okay and we sometimes go to those. My reaction is always “we should do this more often.”
On our list? French/Vietnamese place in the neighborhood that attracts older people (like us!) and Happy Hour fans (not like us), taqueria down the street, or funky place with changing, limited menu. I check the menu of the last place every week hoping that H will say yes to what they are serving.
Went out last night to a really fun restaurant bar by a canal. It’s mostly outdoor seating and has an indoor and outdoor bar. It’s casual and in the summers has a Band starting at 8. People can bring their dogs. Very popular place. We went last night, git there at 6, and it was already packed. We had a fake summer this past week and it was 80. One more day of it, then back to spring.
