What do you order at the restaurant?

[SparklesandGold]

For me it’s:

Starter - soup/nachos/cheese board etc

Mains - chilli chicken strips/steak/burger/curry / lasagne / roast dinner etc

Dessert - pavlova/choc fudge cake/sticky toffee pudding/cheesecake

I don't have that big an appetite so typically just have a main course. Occasionally a starter to share like a platter of seafood smoked fish or charcuterie, or pâté. For the main course I tend to choose fish, (particularly bass, sardines or mackerel) sometimes steak or beef carpaccio. Dessert is always an espresso.

This is a good thread... didn't realise I was such a creature of habit.

Starter - pate

Main - burger or pasta (never lasagne as it's never as good as homemade)

Dessert - chocolate anything, but only if I haven't had a starter

Ideal restaurant meal

Starter - proper french onion soup with bread dripping with cheese-extra bread with olive oil
Main - a beautiful halloumi salad maybe with chips on the side
Pudding - a soufflé lemon or I once had pistachio which had hot chocolate sauce 😄
And I would drink only champagne as I do genuinely love it,

@SparklesandGold

I would really love a cheese board at home. Does anyone know anywhere that does them?

Er, just buy a selection of cheese from a supermarket or a fancy cheese shop and Bob's your uncle?

If I'm paying restaurant prices I'm paying for something that I can't easily recreate at home. So it has to be something with lots of chopping, multiple steps, specialist equipment or lots of unusual ingredients. There's almost always lots of different things on the menu I want to eat, so one way of cutting it down is discounting anything that's easy to make myself.

I would not be paying a tenner or whatever for someone to put a couple of pieces of cheese and some bread, grapes and pickle on a plate for me. That's what I do most days for a quick and easy lunch.

Starter - always either fish or a salad
Main - usually a second starter
Dessert - cheeeeeese, all the cheeeeeese

Starter - salad with grilled goats cheese, beetroot, croutons

Main course - duck / lamb / beef with some sort of herby red wine sauce, crispy potatoes, roasted carrots, buttered greens

Dessert - creme brulee

Oooh, I think I would pick completely differently every day, but today I’m going for Italian and French:

Starter - caprese salad (but it has to be made with very good buffalo mozzarella) or maybe a charcuterie board.

Main - Cacio e Pepe

Dessert - Creme Brûlée

And some kind of white wine I think. I’ll let someone else choose that, something crisp and fresh but not sweet.

I like your idea of a cheese board for a starter OP. I could quite happily go for a cheese board for all three courses.

Starter: scallops; asparagus with hollandaise; arancini; fish chowder

Main: seared tuna steak salad niçoise; melanzane parmigiana with fresh bread; Levantine style mezze; pasta

To finish: espresso and petit fours or most usually cheese and a glass of red wine

Now I’m hungry!

@ElizaDoolots

I like your idea of a cheese board for a starter OP. I could quite happily go for a cheese board for all three courses.

On holiday in Paris we ate at a café with a shared cheeseboard as an option. I had it to myself as my main. It was glorious, though I was in a cheese coma all afternoon. 🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀

I don’t eat carbs at home so if we ever eat out (like once a year or less, bloody money), I’ll always have the carbiest thing on the menu just because I can.

I love good pub food and will always go for the cottage pie or lasagne with a side of chips. Then Sticky toffee pudding or similar.

I couldn't do a cheese board started, I'd eat it ALL and not be able to eat anything else.

I like the french way.

Starter
Salad
Main
Desert (I don't have it)
CHEESE

I don't have anything id specifically choose, depends what's on the menu. I very rarely choose steak out though as it's always disappointing for the price of it, I can go to my butcher, get an amazing steak and can cook it exactly the way I like.

If there’s something on a menu I’ve never tried, that’s what I’ll order

@Redglitter

Starter - soup/nachos/cheese board

Cheeseboard as a starter? I've never seen that

Yeah.. it's most definitely the school holidays ;)

Starter - peking duck

Main - Fillet steak and lobster (surf and turf) with lashings of garlic and fresh parsley butter. Served with extra extra thick crispy chips and hand made onion rings.

Desert - Whipped fresh strawberry cheesecake with lots of fresh in season strawberries.

Had the main just once in a fancy restaurant around 20 years ago and still remember it, perfectly cooked Fillet steak and 1/2 lobster - every bite was perfect and oozing with beautiful garlic butter - £54 just for the main and £10 extra for the chips to go with it which was/is a lot of money for me for just one dish!! We were celebrating our massive lottery win - £1500 shared between 6 of us! 🤣

@NeverTalkToStrangers

I don’t always order a specific thing, but there are certain dog whistle words on a menu which will blind me to all other options. Kimchi, salted caramel and, bizarrely, sesame.

For me it is razor clams, chilli, saffron

Gosh I'm boring compared to all of you!!

Starter - none
Main - steak, grilled chicken or grilled fish with salad or my favourite a ploughmans.
Dessert - none! I'm diabetic so don't eat anything sweet although I could be temp d by a good cheeseboard.

Yum so many nice things.

I regret starting this thread, I just want to eat!

This is not good for my diet but sod it, I'm having:

Starter: mushrooms in a garlic, stilton and cream sauce with freshly baked bread.

Main: proper steak and ale pie, chunky chips, peas and gravy.

Dessert: pear and stem ginger crumble with custard.

Malbec to drink.

The entire menu from my favorite fish restaurant in cornwall.

@NoNotMeNoSiree

You've got a healthy appetite, I'll give you that.

FFS one post in and it's competitive under eating or judgy hoiky pants, gotta love MN lol

I usually just go for the main, as I'm not usually a dessert fan (got to be in the mood for it!) so if I do get another course I go savoury.
Usually something like bruschetta, or soup and crusty bread.
Mains I usually go vegan so something like curry, or tofu based.

I didn't read it that way - I read it that OP had put down several options for a starter, main course, dessert - and NoNotMeNoSiree made a joke of it as if OP would manage all of those dishes for all of those courses.

This is a nice thread, I'm thinking of what I like to eat still. Don't do a bat-signal for those posters who think they're so amuuuuzing with their silly waft-of-a-lettuce-leaf posts. They're so boring and predictable.

Can't always manage a starter and dessert but if I can its:

Pitta with oils, balsamic, sundried tomatoes and hummus

Pizza or fish, chips and peas

Fruit crumble with custard

Eclectic menu! I also love Greek, Indian and Chinese but they're different kinds of menus.

Cheeseboard for a starter???

Hmmmm...... at our favourite restaurant (which does not change it's menu that often) I would have;

Stater- oysters

Main- either moules nariniere or roasted duck breast with a fruit sauce and pureed butternut squash (with a side order of fries)

dessert- usually cheese or sometimes they do homemade belgian waffles with bananas, ice cream and caramel sauce.

DH has ;

Starter - flatbread and olives

Main- vegan pizza

Dessert - cheese and biscuits.

The Dcs have;

starter - calamari

Main- either ham and cheese pizza or fish goujons

Pudding- chocolate brownie with ice cream.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe I would love to be able to manage all those dishes in one sitting but I think I’d need an ambulance