If you were an adult in the 80's

[Gr33ngr33ngr4ss]

What was your typical dinner party / restaurant menu?

Im thinking
Prawn cocktail / melon
Coq au vin with duchesse potatoes & peas
Pavlova?
With a glass of orange juice on the table before the starter.

I definitely remember a small glass of orange juice being a choice of starter!
And a prawn cocktail- mind you I still love a prawn cocktail

Black Forest gateau.

Same here but wracking my brain to remember the main courses!

Summer pudding (the one with bread)

I wasn't doing dinner parties then. Prawn cocktail was quite early 80s imo (starter at my uncle's wedding in 1980 - ice never forgotten it, I was 11 and it was THE HEIGHT of sophistication to me).

Chinese dishes maybe? Sweet and sour chicken? And yes to Black Forest Gateau.

I was going to say this! I LOVE Black Forest gateaux. Gutted it’s gone out of fashion!

Melon and Parma ham to start.
Pepper steak with chips and peas.
Sherry trifle.

The glass of orange juice was the starter. Then chicken in a basket followed by Black Forest gateau. With an After Eight mint, or an Elizabeth Shaw(e) mint crisp beside the coffee.

Black forest! Yes

Mains I'm a bit stumped. I thought Kyiv's but I absolutely hate panéeing stuff! I can't bear the mess

Vesta chicken curry with the crispy noodles!

that sounds more like the 1970s to me.
maybe depends on region.

I was in my twenties in the 1980s.

"Dinner party" menus were usually something with pasta or something on a barbecue or something from the takeaway.

If you want to know what 30 and 40 somethings were serving at dinner parties in the 1980s then you'd need to ask the Grandmas of Mumsnet.

This is such a load of old cliched shit.

In summer I would serve something like watercress soup, salmon en croute, raspberry mousse. Alternative menu might be a soufflé, main a rack of lamb, lemon tart.

Periferoles
Black forest Gateau (it hasn't gone out of fashion)
Chicken Kiev
Chicken cordon bleau
Prawn cocktail

I remember doing a fondue when friends came for dinner in the 80's.

Viennetta was the pinnacle of posh puddings, still is

Most of this was more 70s. 80s was more likely to be chicken kyiv, veal marsala, beef stroganoff, pasta with tomato sauce and garlic bread, lasagne. Prawn cocktail was still around but melon and orange juice not so much IIRC. Pudding - yes to summer pudding, also lemon meringue pie.

Abigail’s party!

I was 15 in 1980.
Most of the above I'd say were 1970s not 80s.
We'd go to the Berni Inn in the 70s for special occasions and starters were:
Orange juice/soup/prawn cocktail
Mains would be steak/halibut/etc
Pudding would be cheesecake/ice cream/cheeseboard

My mum married my stepdad in 1977 and they often had people round and would have a fishy thing in cheese sauce on a scallop shell, lasagne, and then cheesecake usually.

Sounds more like a u0s menu OP. I turned 21 in 1982, never had a dinner party, more likely to go to a Chinese restaurant

Orange juice or soup

Steak and chips

Black forest gateau

*70s menu

Was too young/parents couldn’t afford for us all to go out for meals but I remember my dad raving about having T-bone steak and Black Forest gateau when he went out. Another early ‘80s favourites was chicken in a basket washed down with Mateus rose.

That sounds more 70s than 80s. By the 80s we'd gone all Mediterranean with moussaka, stifardo, and kleftiko, or a robust lasagna, with avocado or goat cheese salad starters. Profiteroles were the classic 80s pudding.