To want to eat food I enjoy when we go out for a meal?

[FoodieLexie]

A bit first-world problem here, but I'll plough on anyway.

My DH and I have very different tastes in food. I like veg-based dishes, with lots of herbs and spices and contrasting tastes. DH likes comfort food - think bangers & mash, shepherd's pie. I don't mind comfort food, but it would never be my first choice IYSWIM.

But as DH doesn't like any spicy food, or anything remotely "foreign", if we go out for a meal we always go to places that serve the food he prefers. We've done this for 20 years now.

AIBU to think that, just sometimes (my birthday, Mother's Day etc) we could go to a restaurant that serves the type of food I enjoy?

What's really annoying is that as far as I know, DH has never even tried anything different, so how does he know he doesn't like it?

I know I could go to "my" type of restaurant with a friend, but we don't have a huge amount of money, and we like to spend what we have on going out together.

I would have stopped going out to eat with him years ago. I'd rather go out alone than with a person who eats like a baby.

No one chooses to be like that.

Yes, they do. The OP's husband chooses to be like this in his refusal to try anything but beige stodge.

Its rarely a choice though. An illness, or a phobia maybe but it is not someone just choosing to be awkward any more than my son chooses to be autistic.

I'm my experience it's rarely an illness or a phobia but just someone too stubborn or unimaginative to move out of a very narrow comfort zone.

No one chooses to be like that.

Yes they do! Len Goodman managed to make a whole series out of it! Him and a chef (Ainsley Harriot?) going around the UK trying to push him out of his comfort zone of steak and chips, chicken and chips, sausage and mash.....

YANBU, we are going out tonight to celebrate DHs and my birthday as we've been too skint lately to go out (something coming up - Feb, his birthday we needed two new car tyres, Mar, my birthday, was a five week month, drama class fees, etc but I digress).
Myself, DH and DS2 will eat anything but fancied a Chinese. DS1 won't eat anything too spicy, a lot of veg (peas and sweetcorn are his limit), doesn't like potatoes...
We're going to the local buffet place so we can eat in peace without "I don't like that"

Think I might have persuaded him to try Lebanese food! I’m counting that as a success!

hope you have a fabulous evening OP.

I hope he enjoys it!

I can sympathise with this! My in-laws are absolutely lovely but their standard way of meeting up is to go out for a meal and they are incredibly conservative.

They only like things that are varying shades of brown, have never tried Chinese/Indian food and think spaghetti Bolognese is a bit exotic. We tend to go gastro/nice pub, so they can pick from the pub classics part of the menu and my husband and I have the option of something else if we like.

This generally works... except when my MIL's sausages had herbs in them so she just ate the mash.

"except when my MIL's sausages had herbs in them so she just ate the mash."

OMG! That's hilarious.