What food do you avoid ordering when out of the home, because you make better at home?

[IzzyGone]

What do you not order when you go out to eat as you know you'll make a better version yourself and therefore pick something else?

Mine is banana loaf, nothing flash but mine is better than coffee shop version.

Apple crumble. Made one this afternoon. And my great aunt made the best pavlova in the world. She's dead now and although she gave the recipe to my sister, who is an excellent baker, it's still just not the same.

@mrsm43sI don’t think anyone on this thread has said they can cook better than any and all restaurant food. You’re the one making that assertion, and then going on to call people deluded and arrogant.

It’s obvious (to me at least) that most posters are on a budget. They may not want to pay £20 for restaurant lasagna when they can make it at home for £3 per serving, and enjoy their own recipe better.

Not everyone enjoys canard au sang à la presse, or can afford it. Most posters wouldn’t order it from a menu, so it doesn’t matter that professionally trained chefs can do it, and they can’t. So yours is a strawman argument.

Roasts, Soups

I can tell you mine. Lots of cheese in the sauce and chopped ham and sliced sautéed leeks in with the macaroni. Parmesan and breadcrumbs on the top and in the oven until bubbling.

Snap - also made apple crumble today. Every time I make it, I think how delicious it is for such an easy recipe. The return to investment ratio is sky high 😊

Steak. I can't cook it better but I can cook it just as well and it's extremely simple to do, so there seems no point in paying £20 - £30 for a steak in a restaurant when I can buy a fillet steak in the supermarket for £8 - £10. I would rather pay in a restaurant for things that require several stages to cook, e.g. home cooked lasagna.

Nasi goreng is widely eaten across Malaysia and Singapore, and has actually spread to parts of Thailand because of regional trade and migration.

@IzzyGone my Mac and cheese recipe has way more spices and herbs than the conventional recipe. Here’s what I put into mine (on top of standard ingredients including mustard powder):
Onion powder
Parsley
Salt
Dried mustard
Bay leaves
Garlic purée
Thyme
Turmeric
Allspice
Nutmeg
Black pepper

It’s very good, if I may say so myself 😊

Lasagne, risotto. I'm veggie and most the restaurant or pub offering are shite. It's often £18-20 for a larger portions of the tomato pasta from the kids menu. I'm rarely blown away if eating out

This. I'm not paying restaurant prices for something I can make at home with no effort, time, skill or specialist ingredients.

When eating out I'll get something I CBA to make at home.

I also make great banana bread and also bread pudding. I also would never have a roast in a restaurant, no matter how high end its never as good as homemade.

❤️ your name is excellent

i grew up eating it - and mee goreng - in Singapore to the extent it felt like a local dish

bloody gorgeous whichever cuisine the restaurant claims to be from

Lasagne.

If I'm spending my hard-earned money on food, I want to enjoy it. I definitely avoid ordering things like a roast dinner. I tend to choose things I don't cook at home, eg fish, as I'm the only one who eats it or cuisines from different countries.

Spaghetti Bolognese
Pasta Arrabiata
Lasagne
Chicken Tikka Masala
Roast Dinners (I do order them but they aren't as good)
Hot Chocolate

Most Café/restaurant food is inferior to good home cooked food, unless it’s a very good restaurant. It’s also often far more expensive, especially for more than one person.

I sometimes go out to a restaurant to meet friends.

Lasagne. Most pasta dishes. Most Mexican dishes. Ratatouille. Roast dinners. Sandwiches ( the most ripped off I’ve felt on food lately is £8.50 for a cheese toastie!)

For me it depends on the restaurant. I can make a great steak at home, but my favourite steak restaurant has amazing beef and they cook it perfectly to my liking (they also probably douse it regularly in hot butter which is a bit indulgent for me on a weekly basis!), so I really enjoy it and it’s worth the cost.

I like a lot of pho dishes, where an amazing rich stock is important and I don’t regularly make that at home. Same with sushi, I have made it, but I like a bit of everything and it’s hard to buy sushi grade fish in small quantities.

I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t order at a great restaurant. If I love the dish and make it at home well, I would also enjoy it out. If I went to a restaurant I didn’t pick, there might be some things I would avoid, but then it’s more about the social experience so I’d probably pick the thing they were less likely to ruin!!

Another vote for cake unless it is somewhere that makes their own (or buys in from a local artisan baker) and I have seen good reviews or had reccomendations. Otherwise I'd rather just have the coffee on its own.

For main meals, pasta in chain places sometimes but other times in proper Italian restaurants it is really good. I can cook a better roast dinner than most pubs etc but it is still a treat to go out and have someone do it for you, I love the buzz of eating out, trying different things, sitting listening to the hum of chatter around the room, watching the world go by from a window of terrace.

Things I order because I can't make at home are often deep fried, I love a pub scampi and chips once in a while because we don't deep fry at home. I usually order fries in preference to other types of potato for the same reason.

Carrot cake. Always too dry when out and about, I like it slightly undercooked so nice and moist

I also avoid ordering cake and biscuits etc unless I'm sure they make their own and it's fresh that day.

I only get Kimbap out of the home bc it is all I can afford to eat out. It has a number of pickled and cut veg I cba to do at home and the wrapping involves waiting for the rice to cool (as with sushi) and again I am impatient. Kimpbap lets me eat the rainbow for under a tenner and I suspect if you added up all of the man hours of cutting, time taken pickling, rice cooking/cooling and the wrapping and cutting, is more worth the money than most other meals in the same price bracket; i.e a less healthy and more processed sandwich.

I generally avoid burgers because I’m picky about textures.
The same with sausages and Bacon is rarely crispy enough for me.
Yorkshire puddings are almost always overdone when eating out, although I once had one in a little cafe in Scarborough which was perfect.
Other than that I’m usually just happy just not to be cooking.

Roast dinner.

Scones, because I love to eat them still hot from the oven and cafes serve them cold and usually a bit stale