To feel restaurants are a waste of time and money

[worldly123]

Have been on holiday this week here in the UK. Have eaten at quite a few restaurants, including one recommended, a top hotel, a teashop and a foodie deli.

It all reminded me why I rarely or never eat at restaurants. I splashed out on this trip but usually only cook at home. Without exception they were pretty awful and I ended up leaving most of it. The tough, stringey steak. The pre-cooked roast beef (ordered in like school dinners but presented as a fresh roast I guessed?). The tiny salads totally drenched in dressings. The cheapest, fattiest sausages you ever tasted - at an exclusive hotel! Teashop scones - tasteless dough and water. I felt like crying. Yet all around me people laughed and joked and seem to enjoy their food .

When I got home I made my own bacon and salad sandwich on white bloomer, and it was to die for. It probably cost £1, and was the most delicious thing I'd all week .

I know overheads are high in restaurants, its labour intensive and so forth. And I've had one or two excellent meals in the last 10 years. But honestly why would anyone eat out at a restaurant when so often it feels like an ordeal from beginning to end. And this at a time when we are bombarded on TV with cookery programmes ...

AIBU?

[KitKat1985]

I love eating out in the main. For me it's not just about the food but actually being able to sit down instead of doing the food prep (whilst constantly checking toddler DD isn't destroying the house whilst my back is turned) and not having to do washing up afterwards. I generally feel the standard of food in restaurants in improving and I usually enjoy my meal. I'm very lucky down in East Sussex that we have lots of lovely country pubs that do home cooked food etc.

The main disappointment I have is when I go and visit a friend who lives in central London and likes to eat in 'naice' places. I'm vegetarian and so often when we've been out to eat I only have one menu option, which usually is pasta or risotto. It's usually a stingy portion and I then get charged £15-20, which does make me wince everytime. (I know they have more expensive over-heads to cover in London before someone says so, but even then I've often been very disappointed at the food quality in a lot of 'naice' London places). If it wasn't for my friend enjoying them I wouldn't personally bother with them.

[Mominatrix]

YABU. I am a keen cook and baker and adore eating out. Within a 5 mile radius of where I live, there is such a variety of places to eat from a number of Michelin * restaurants, including a couple which make the best restaurants in the world list, to fantastic and authentic ethnic places. I get ideas on things to make at home from my meals out, and love the whole process of a night out from the dressing up down to the petit fours with coffee. I love stopping to have a great dry cappuccino from my local independent coffee house to stopping at any number of gastropubs along my dog walk on a sunny afternoon. Eating out is important to us as a family and we love sharing a great restaurant experience with our children.

[parmalilac]

I also don't like eating out, even if someone else is paying! Seems like a big waste of money if I'm paying, can't help thinking of all the lovely food I could buy with that money!

[dulcefarniente]

Rural France can be awful for food. Unimaginative and in a time warp - much like their wine.

[IHaveBrilloHair]

That should have been loves to cook, but lives is probably accurate😂

[IHaveBrilloHair]

rookiemere
That's true, even in my small town it's improving, I was overjoyed when one of the Chinese takeaways put tofu on their menu!
I've heard the same about Italy as you have France, though haven't been to experience it and no doubt I'd be looking to eat local food anyway if I was there for a holiday.
Eating out is about much more than the food of course, but as someone who lives to cook, I hate feeling short changed by a crap meal, at least make an effort!

[FuzzyWizard]

Where I live the local Turkish restaurants are really very good indeed and very reasonably priced. We went out a while back and there were 6 adults and a child in our party. They give you salad, dips, bread etc to start. We all ordered a main course and then they bring Turkish tea and baklava. We had a bottle of wine, some beers and soft drinks for the little one and there was change from £90.

[oldlaundbooth]

For me the only places to eat in the UK are Indians, Chinese, bakeries and fish and chips.

[rookiemere]

To me one of the positives this thread has highlighted is the great range of international cuisines that are offered in the UK. I can't think of any other country that offers all the ethnic variety that you can experience here.

Certainly not in France where, whilst the cooking generally tends to be of a more uniformly high standard, the choices are usually restricted not only to French cuisine, but to the specialties of that particular region. Which is nice for a holiday, but there is only so much foie gras you can take on a menu ( particularly if you don't like foie gras be that on ethical or taste reasons).

People eat out for many reasons and it's good that we have restaurants/pubs for different needs. When DH and I grab a quick bite whilst DS is at cubs we recognise that we can't always go far enough to get gourmet food and it's also an opportunity to catch up and have a DS free natter.

[BorisJohnsonsHair]

I've never had a decent roast dinner anywhere out. The meat is always overcooked and the veg either soggy or out of the freezer. That said, I'd never go to a decent restaurant and order a roast, as there are always more interesting things to have. Carveries are just for those who want to eat a lot for a low price, not for foodies.

[IHaveBrilloHair]

I find Asian food easy to make at home, it's fiddly stuff I struggle with, things like pho or congee, curries will generally freeze well too or the base sauces or stocks will.

[Groovee]

We have some great independent places near us which is lovely home cooked food.

[StarlingMurmuration]

I sort of know what you mean. I think part of it is needing to eat out for every meal when on holiday. Last time we went away, I was dying for cheese sandwich when I got home - just something really simple with good quality bread, butter and cheese.

[Aeroflotgirl]

I go to cheap and cheerful places, think local gastropubs, Chinese buffet, and all and delish, as well as being easy on pocket.

[ThisIsStartingToBoreMe]

Were you in Cornwall? I still haven't got over the shock of my awful eating out experiences in Cornwall (Rick stein being the exception)

[zoemaguire]

I'm a really keen cook and often find the same as you. My solution is to avoid 'modern British/European' restaurants, which usually do the same as I can do at home, only worse, and either save out and splash out for a michelin-starred place, or else go somewhere chinese/vietnamese/pan-asian/indian/sushi or similar. They usually have the bonus of being pretty cheap as restaurants go. I have tried making bowls of soup noodles and gyozas at home but it never tastes as good as in a restaurant. As for sushi, I wouldn't even dare! Bar the odd disaster it's pretty reliably good as well.

[HermioneJeanGranger]

We have some amazing local restaurants in my town. There's only a handful of chain cafes/restaurants here, though - everything else is independent, the food is locally grown and it's incredible.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I never order steak or scallops in a restaurant because they are easy no-effort no-time cook at home foods.

If I am paying restaurant prices I want something that takes time, effort or complicated and obscure ingredients that I can't easily replicate at home.

I've rarely made Chinese or Thai food (except red Thai curry) as nice as a restaurant or take away so will go for that.

[rookiemere]

I think we may be remembering the cute Italian restaurants from the 70s with rose tinted nostalgia. In those days it was considered exotic to have spaghetti bolognaise as a main course and my DM was seen as quite the foodie for using fancy ingredients such as garlic and mushrooms .

Some of these restaurants still exist where I live and quite often the only thing that has changed since then are the prices, which unlike the menu and the décor seem to have no problem keeping abreast of the times.

[Dapplegrey2]

" I'd rather go there infrequently than eat crap I can make better at home all the time."
This.

[MewlingQuim]

I never order steak in a restaurant after I had one on canada that was about 8cm thick and bloody gorgeous. Happy memories

I never order something I would cook at home either. As I have got older and more experienced at cooking I find restaurant food not as good as my own, which is cooked precisely as I like it.

When I eat out I always choose things I can't or just don't cook myself, usually chinese or fish.

[CMOTDibbler]

I live in what city dwellers would think of as the sticks, but I can go to a fabulous little proper Italian place, an amazing restaurant, a pub that has its own farm and serves great local food (not faffy, just really well sourced and cooked), somewhere lovely for a roast with local veg (with a view), and a number of tearooms with proper scones/cakes etc. All within cycling distance.

Its actually more of a faff to get takeaway food here than proper food.

[suit2845321oie]

I was just saying to my husband the other day how great UK restaurants are. We are foodies, so to be fair we do pay a lot of attention to where we eat and avoid almost all chains, but we have eaten incredibly well over the last few years and often for a reasonable price too

[disappoint15]

Well, yes and no to whether you are being unreasonable. There are a lot of overpriced mediocre restaurants around and there are also a lot of very good restaurants, not all of which are hugely expensive but which you need to know about.

We eat out a lot but a) we live in London where there is an enormous variety of restaurants b) we have two or three really reliable local places with good ambience and good food which rarely let us down c) we can afford to eat in quite expensive restaurants so probably have a wider choice.

But when we visit relations in another medium sized city we often eat in a variety of chain pubs and the food there is always disappointing and all bought in premade, so I get that feeling of 'I could have made this so much better myself'.

For me the advantages are: everyone being able to order something different; choosing something I couldn't be bothered to cook at home or wouldn't do well; trying dishes/combinations I wouldn't have thought of; no cooking, serving, clearing or washing up.

[leelu66]

YANBU. DH is a foodie and loves eating out. But I just feel bad when we hand over £50+ for a meal that was meh. Like paying £15 each for a fish main that is a salmon fillet with some veg.

Exceptions are places where I know exactly what I'm getting - Nandos, Cabana, Dominos.

I do love Lebanese, Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian and Thai food though.