Two courses in a restaurant. Are you ordering....?

[noblegiraffe]

....a starter and a main, or a main and dessert?

When I go to a restaurant, I'm scanning the main courses and then looking at the dessert menu before I've even ordered. I don't even look at the starter menu, as far as I'm concerned those items would delay your dinner and probably ruin your appetite so that you had no room for pudding.

When I've been out, and someone asks the question 'is anyone having a starter?' generally there's a shake of heads and we get on with looking at the good stuff.

In my mind, the starters have always been there for people who feel like they could tackle the whole menu and are headed for 3 courses. Someone who has a starter and a main but no pudding has simply failed to complete their meal.

But I've heard tell of people who would deliberately choose to have a starter and a main, knowing that this would leave no room for dessert. They prefer it that way. Savoury over sweet.

These people must be ultra-rare, right? Who in their right mind chooses garlic mushrooms over chocolate brownie? (I struggled to even think of an example of a starter, so rarely do I look at that bit). Or are there lots of people out there who are regularly crushed when no one else wants a starter, the same as I am when people say they couldn't possibly have dessert?

Please vote! (Note: People who would only have one course and declare themselves full to the brim don't get a vote).

Nearly always a starter and main course. As I've got older, I'm not tempted as much by the desserts.

If there is tiramisu I'll always pick that. Otherwise it depends on the starters and desserts on offer.

Starter and main always. Much prefer savoury to sweet.

It's the mains that bore me. If I could, I'd have a starter and a dessert. But only if the desserts are not chocolate torte, cheesecake, or icecream. Otherwise I'll go for a seafood/fish starter and a meaty main.

Preferably two starters and then assess, ideally a tasting menu. I get bored with big portions of one thing.

But if there's really good bread, I'll be too full for a dessert.

We went to Frog a couple of years ago and I can't remember a single thing about the meal except the crispy chicken skin butter with sourdough.

Unless it's somewhere very high end, I almost always find puddings disappointing, so I'd go for a starter....unless there's cheese.

I'm always a starter and a main, I actually think my friendship group are all the same!

I do love a sticky toffee pudding or apple pie and custard though!

Always starter and main. When we eat out (rarely) we tend to go to speciality places that do food we couldn't necessarily replicate, at least as well, at home - so say seafood or a really good steak restaurant or Indian/Thai/Korean/Caribbean etc.

In these places the starters are also part of the speciality and I will inevitably be more drawn to trying them than a pudding which is often a bog standard brownie/ice cream/mousse/fruit salad/cheesecake etc. I can eat those any day of the week! I mean I'm sure they're done more nicely than you'd get in Tesco but fundamentally it's still the same dish.

So for me it's not so much about preferring savoury over sweet and more to do with wanting to make the most of the experience 🙂

Starter and a main for me. Unless there's a cheese board on the dessert menu. I don't have a sweet tooth.

@63isMe What’s wrong with the word dessert?

I'm wondering this too.

I used to always have a starter and a main. Now, if it had to be two, it would be a main and dessert. Especially if there's so much as a whiff of lemon meringue pie. Weirdly, I developed a sweet tooth after DS1 was born.

I always choose a starter over a dessert. I do look at the dessert menu but always choose a starter and main. If anybody in the group I'm in choose a dessert I will usually have a coffee in place of a dessert.

In principle I’m in the camp of main and pudding but it depends on the specific options on offer. If we’re at an Indian or Middle Eastern restaurant it’s a guarantee that I’m ordering starters over puddings for example. Also I’m vegan so if the pudding option is a generic free-from-everything chocolate torte from the freezer but there’s a tasty starter on offer I’m often inclined to go for that.

I love dessert, but cannot have dairy. All the desserts (the good ones) have dairy, cream, ice cream all the proper nice stuff.
That I daren't eat in public as I would shit myself before I got home!
So starter and main for me.

I went out for a lovely meal with some friends I hadn't seen in a long time. Had our starters, mains... and then when the waitress came to ask if we wanted dessert, they asked for the bill! I was horrified!

My idea meal would be three starters.

Nothing worse than seeing loads of amazing starters, then a fairly “meh” section of mains. I love tasting menus for this very reason.

I (usually) don’t eat desserts for diet reasons. Rarely feel a dessert lives up to the expectations.

So for my self im scanning the sweet menu before iv even looked at the main menu.(Iv got a very sweet tooth) So Main course and pud for me. For my husband he is starter and main as he doesn't have a sweet tooth. We went out for dinner last night and I had a pudding but was so disappointed in it that it wasn't worth it!!!

If I'm having more than one course then I always order a starter and a main course, and very rarely have a pudding. Most of the people I eat out with do the same, except my husband who always eats a pudding too.

I have a major sweet tooth but almost never get a dessert in a restaurant unless there's a dedicated pastry chef.

They're usually just something that's defrosted and/or microwaved from the supplier (I've worked in restaurants and have seen this firsthand).

I'm a bit pernickerty about desserts, and I don't find anything I fancy all that often. Mind you, having said that, I don't always see a starter I like either, and if I do, it tends to be something you wouldn't have with the main course I've decided on.

I used to be a main and desert but as I get older I find myself going for starter and main more.

Starter and main, unless there’s a good dairy-free dessert (which there almost never is - I’d had high hopes for the rise of vegan food, but vegan desserts tend to just have disgusting fake dairy)

Always starter and a main.

I don't have a sweet tooth.

More information needed. Do the starters include deep fried mozzarella? Or garlic mushrooms?

I’m a savoury lover so if something on the starter menu really takes my fancy then I will definitely go for that. More times than not though there’s nothing particularly spectacular so I end up going for a dessert.

In my case - yes, garlic mushrooms are much nicer than a brownie!

Tbh I'm not fussed about dessert in general. I'll sometimes have a sorbet or something if I can tell the other person wants a pudding. But I'm usually too full up with cheese for anything else.