Dinner at 9pm.

[LookAtTheFlowersKerry]

We are going out for dinner tonight as it's my sister's birthday.

The table is booked for 8.45pm. I'll be chewing my own arm off by then! We're meeting at 7.30 for drinks. So I'll be starving and probably pissed by the time we sit down to eat.

Am I just really out of touch? Is this how the world works now? Bearing in mind I'm usually in bed by ten.

Am I just an old fuddy duddy? Dsis is a hip young thing despite only being a year younger who has a vibrant social life. She says it's normal to eat that late and that I'm weird for always booking tables for 7pm ish.

Aibu?

It's not an inherent human feature to eat at 7pm.

I agree Lweji. I finished dinner at about 9.15pm, which is a normal time for me when eating at home. I now plan to watch a bit of telly and go to bed in about two hours.

I am British.

There is nothing wrong or right with this. It just suits my lifestyle. When in Spain I have dined at midnight. But I've also done that here.

However, it is very tiresome when people present something as simple as their dining habits as a measure of their social superiority and cosmopolitanism.

I have just finished my dinner, it was lovely and I coped

Those having 'dinner' at 5pm are just as strange to me as I am to them. But chaqun a son gout.

To be thrown by something so small is odd.

Before kids, dinner At 9, after kids, dinner at 6. My liver loves me for it though.

" eat a merienda to tide you over. "

How many working Spanish adults have merienda. Isn't it mainly for kids like the gouter in France? All these people saying just eat something earlier, surely OP will then still have to have a full meal at 9pm and will end up overeating and too full?

Well I managed it. Pork cheeks, some fried Brussels sprouts thing (which was amazing) and guinea fowl. And an espresso martini. I'm a teeny tiny bit pissed.

The best thing was that my sister paid for the whole thing. Totally made up for the lateness of it all. Awesome night.

Woohoo free food is the nicest kind of food

Glad you enjoyed your evening.

I think that's quite late for a restaurant meal, unless it's in Spain! Maybe have a mid-afternoon snack?

We don't normally eat dinner until 8.15 in the week, but I prefer to eat earlier as otherwise I end up picking.

I've never worked in a job where you can leave on time. Currently on maternity leave but when I was working full time, even when I would be due to finish at 5pm, no one would leave until 7pm or so.
I'm not saying it's right, but in so many professions you'd just look like a real clockwatcher if you put your coat on at 5.05pm.

Sorry, I see you have already been - glad you had a good time.
My eating hours are all over the place. 5-5.30pm with the children when DH does his fasting days (of the 5:2 diet). 8-8.30pm when we eat together when he gets back from work, and around 6pm as a family at weekends. Given the choice I'd eat around 6:30-7, or 8pm if we were going to a restaurant after the children had gone to bed. If I eat with the children, it's probably healthier because then I don't eat again until breakfast the next morning and don't snack so much. I tend to go to bed around 10pm because I really need at least eight hours' sleep.

As a child/teen we always ate around 6pm; if my mum was getting back late she would leave us something to eat earlier rather than expecting us to have a snack and wait until 7:30. It took me a long time to consider eating dinner later than about 6:30! I remember living in halls with a Portuguese student; he'd have a sandwich around 6 and then dinner about 9, and I used to wonder why he didn't just have his dinner earlier if he was hungry.

9-10pm dinners are fine.

What time does work usually finish in the UK? How can you have supper at 6 or 7 let alone 5?
Here in France most people finish at 7pm, and start at 8 or 8.30. In secondary school, lessons start at 8 and finish at 6 so nobody eats supper at 5 or 6 or 7 unless they don't have a job and have tiny children. We have lunch at 12, French people have an alarm clock in their stomach for this.

9pm is not late. Especially on a Saturday. With drinks beforehand!

Half of you sound like children on this thread. Anyone who can't alter their regular habits now and again to eat or sleep earlier or later than they usually do is behaving like a moody six year old. Eat a fucking biscuit if you're hungry. Skip a bit of lunch if you're eating early. It's hardly rocket science.

All these people saying just eat something earlier, surely OP will then still have to have a full meal at 9pm and will end up overeating and too full?

Can you honestly not see a way to not eat too much in these circumstances?? Like only have a little something before you go or don't ear as much when you're there?? How is this difficult??

It's very difficult not to eat too much at a restaurant when your eyes can be bigger than your stomach. If I'm going out, I don't want to have to eat a salad or just a starter, I want to take advantage of the food options I don't have at home and even have a pudding.

Madamfrog, I work 37 hours a week so I can finish work at 5 if I only have half an hour for lunch, or closer to 5.30 if I've had a longer lunch break. Some people have flexi time and work 8 to 4 instead of 9 to 5 so it's feasible for a lot of people to be eating by 6 if they live close to work. I understand that if I'm going to a restaurant it will be later because eating out tends to be later and some people work longer hours than me or have a commute so maybe 7.30 or 8. But 9 is just too late.
I also don't think it's good to drink before eating as it makes you really drunk, better to drink during and after.

So, because you won't take responsibility for what you put in your mouth, the world has to alter when it eats?? Madness!

What? The world doesn't have to alter. Most people go for restaurant meals about 7.30 or 8. I'm not making anybody alter, it's just my preference. It wouldn't affect anyone except someone inviting me to dinner.

We all have preferences or habits depending on our circumstances.

It's the inability to consider changing those habits which is unsophisticated, not eating at any particular time, which seems to be the case of some people on this thread

Most people go for restaurant meals about 7.30 or 8

I don't think you can say "most people". Especially when its standard to have two sittings in many restaurants, of which the later one is very popular.

I rather think dinner is like sex, it's necessary for the continuation for the human race but it's only a pleasure if it's in the right place, at the right time with the right people. Anything else is just a necessary evil. And people who have strong vocal and insulting opinions on how you prefer to do either are crass and boring.

Good analogy. And like sex, I find there is usually something good to be got out of it, even if its just novelty!

I much prefer a late dinner. During the week, we are lucky if we sit down to eat before 9pm.

Also if you go into a restaurant at 7pm it is heaving, wait an hour or two and it is much quieter as the main rush is over and most people with kids will have taken them home, and you can have a conversation easier - it seems far more civilized and adult

Well my family always have dinner by 6.30pm at the latest - even when we go out, and WE are not 'children.' How rude!

Half of you sound like children on this thread. Anyone who can't alter their regular habits now and again to eat or sleep earlier or later than they usually do is behaving like a moody six year old. Eat a fucking biscuit if you're hungry. Skip a bit of lunch if you're eating early. It's hardly rocket science.

I don't understand why people like eastmidsmummy above here ^ are being so rude and nasty about people who prefer to have dinner by 6.30pm and don't want it at 9pm.

Where do you get off insulting and berating people because they don't do as you do? Such nasty narrow-minded comments.

I can't help but notice that the people who prefer to have dinner late in the evening, are being far more rude and obnoxious than the ones that prefer it earlier.

I mean, God forbid people don't do as you do. They are obviously wrong, and probably a bit stupid.

I know several people like this in real life. The type of person I will happily walk half a mile out of my way to avoid!