To ask DP to cancel 9.45pm restaurant booking

[Thewindkeptmeawake]

DP & I were reading the Sunday papers which featured a restaurant close to us. I mentioned it may be nice to go for my birthday which is coming up.
He immediately emailed & called them & eventually got a booking for a Saturday evening but at 9.45pm.

I feel ungrateful but it is too late for me - I’m thinking starters won’t be served until 10.30 !

Am I being ungrateful?

I also tend not to pass up the chance of a good night out with my partner because I might be a bit tired in the morning?

We are certainly not regimented with the times we eat.

We went to a very good restaurant recently- the table was booked for 9.

We ended up leaving at 12.30.

DP likes to pair wines with different courses - to have an ‘experience ‘

They’ll be no change from £200-£300 so fancied getting his money worth

I would also struggle with not eating for so long. Whenever there's a work dinner booked for 7.30 or later I always have to eat at 5-6pm at home because it takes sooo long for the food to come, with everyone pondering and dawdling. I'd need a proper sandwich or something to get me through till past 10pm after lunch at 12-1pm.

Ah OP, make a night of it, have a late lunch and enjoy.

I think it would be quite sad to for your husband if you were to cancel. I assume you aren't in your 80s?

I'm Spanish. I used to have rows with my British then-BF because I refused to have dinner at 7 - 'tis unnatural . We had to compromise at 8 (and I still felt like I was sick or something like that - the only reason I could think of to have dinner so early).

@froginapond: I have travelled to other countries often enough to know that people do not generally go out for a meal at 10pm. 8.00-8.30pm is fairly normal, (although 7.00-7.30pm is more common,) but no way is it normal to go for a meal out, at 10pm!

Laughing my head off here. Come to Madrid and see.

Definitely not going to cancel.

Will make a long day of it - defo an afternoon ‘nap’ & few snacks then cocktails at the restaurant. I’ve sussed the menu out & will look again on the day & decide on food before we get there 😀

Oh, and you are allowed a snack in the late afternoon-evening until you get to dinner, you know.

Good for you, OP. We will NEED to know what you have to eat :))

DistanceCall
I'm Spanish. I used to have rows with my British then-BF because I refused to have dinner at 7 - 'tis unnatural grin. We had to compromise at 8 (and I still felt like I was sick or something like that - the only reason I could think of to have dinner so early).

@froginapond: I have travelled to other countries often enough to know that people do not generally go out for a meal at 10pm. 8.00-8.30pm is fairly normal, (although 7.00-7.30pm is more common,) but no way is it normal to go for a meal out, at 10pm!

Laughing my head off here. Come to Madrid and see.

You got here before me! Can't imagine eating before midnight when it's 38º (or more) ! Most restaurants don't open until 9pm; our favourite opens at 9.30pm and takes bookings from 10pm.

This doesn't mean OP has to eat late, if she doesn't like to, but certainly there are many people who eat their dinner later than froginapond and other posters have stated here. Each to his own!

@LockedOutOfMN: it doesn't have to be 38º outside! Restaurants near where I live are full every night until 12-1 (and start serving at 8.30 at the earliest - for tourists, mainly).

But yes, of course people should eat when it suits them. No need to have three courses and dessert at night, though!

I imagine frog is the kind of tourist who takes her own brand of tea bags and eats in her hotel every night. I have no idea otherwise how anyone could claim to have been to Southern Europe and think that people don't eat late. The kids are all up late too - it's almost like they are hot countries and people sleep during the heat of the day and socialise when it's a bit cooler, isn't it?!

My idea of HELL ! Hate eating that late as I'm usually starving by 7 anyway and if I eat out that late, once I finally get to bed I'm awake all night feeling full and orrible . Ugh. 8pm table is my cut off. 730 is optimal.

Distancecall Claro!

I couldn't eat this late. My liver would be working overtime and I would never sleep.. DH's bless them sometimes make wrong decisions for the right reasons

I am genuinely reeling by the number of pathetic posters who cannot cope with eating slightly later than normal for a special occasion. For me, you are the ultimate in spoiled, unimaginative, joy-sucking miseries and I'm glad you're at home in bed when the rest of us grown-ups are out having a great time.

I hate eating late, I hate going to bed on a full stomach. And if it were my birthday, thus an occasion specifically for me, I’m free to say so.

If you like eating late good for you, it’s your life you can do what you like. I’m not so gauche as to insult people based on your meal time preferences as I really don’t care. And I can’t say that I see what time people prefer to eat has to do with joy or imagination - simply digestion.

Don't go to bed until later, then. See - lack of imagination.

We went to a very good restaurant recently- the table was booked for 9
Who booked it?

I LOVE this debate.

Canadians are all eating dinner at 5pm, going to bed at 9.30pm and getting up at 5am and thinking they are morally superior.

Italians and Spanish people are all eating at 11pm, going to bed at 3am, having a siesta and English people think THEY are morally superior (I've never met an Italian who gave a crap).

There is NO, NONE, NADA, ZILCH moral superiority to either position. Some people eat late, some early. If you like eating early and someone books a late restaurant, it's not as much of a treat. It would be like the late diners eating at 3am; weird and unpleasant. And we are entitled to like or dislike different things.

If I booked a restaurant for DH at 9.45pm, he would hate it. And he would still be entitled to 'nice things'. FFS.

Don't go to bed until later, then. See - lack of imagination

It’s not my imagination at fault - I’m well aware I can go to bed later, I just don’t want to. Which you could have ‘imagined’ yourself with a bit of effort.

It's not about a dubious "moral superiority" of eating earlier or later. The time is irrelevant.

It's about the childish lack of flexibility, gasps of horror at the very idea, unwillingness to consider, dogmatic slavery to routine of grown adults who can't bear to eat at a slightly different time in the evening.

9.45 definitely too late, unless you are from southern Europe

Actually a great number of us from the northern parts are perfectly able and even happy to eat later. We are not toddlers, we do not need to have early dinner in the nursery.

I have only just finished my dinner. Not unusual at all.

It's not 'slightly different' here. It would be a whole new mealtime. Like you eating at 1am.

What could be more childishly inflexible than failing to accept that different people have different preferences and respect their choices. And trying to insult people with different POV.

Nothing to do with slavery to routine, Ive done my wild all nighters. Even if I were staying up til dawn I’d still choose to eat earlyish.

I suppose there’s not much going on in the E. Midlands. Perhaps a late meal counts for excitement.

A whole new mealtime.
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or when to go
Or say we're only eating...