To feel like I cook better meals at home!

[WilsonMilson]

Went out for a bank holiday meal today with the family. Tried somewhere new. Same thing as usual happened when we go out for mid priced meals - felt disappointed and underwhelmed by the food.

It was a gastro pub. I had fish and chips - the oil it had been fried in tasted old, the batter was hard and burnt, the fish had bones and overall it was just edible but average. I cook much better and tastier food at home. I find this happens more often than not, unless we go to really expensive restaurants, which is not realistic to do all the time. The place gets great reviews on Tripadvisor too, so I was looking forward to it.

Anyone else feel the same way when eating out and think you make nicer food at home? I am a keen cook, and for the money we spent I could have cooked an absolute feast at home.

I agree @WilsonMilson i don't want to pay for food I can easily make at home and then dump a handful of peas shoots on it to puff it out
Covid has definitely changed us
We have learnt to cook/bake better & cheaper so want more for my money
A pub near us advertised omelette for lunch, I can understand why but I'm not paying £10 for that

I only ever order things I couldn’t cook myself, and I’m a fairly good cook nowadays. It’s so disappointing to pay upwards of £15 for a worse than average main course in a dingy pub these days.

@BansheeofInisherin ah I mentioned Rosa's Thai in my post too- an example of really lovely food in non flashy surroundings - if I can also mention in the same breath Mowgli in Liverpool- excellent Indian street food in very plain surroundings -

Yep, we have a local steakhouse and an Indian restaurant we still use occasionally, both consistently excellent but that's it, I'd rather cook at home otherwise. I came to the same conclusion as you after one too many meals where I just thought 'we could have done better at home' and feeling pained whilst paying the bill.

I enjoy cooking and rarely eat out it’s not worth cost. We go to a local award winning Gaston pub sometimes as it’s different to what I’d make. Pub roasts always seem expensive.

@Crikeyalmighty I mentioned it because I saw your post:) I love their eggplant in yellow sauce. I should probably buy their cookbook.

I totally agree and feel the same about takeaways
However frequently go out for coffee n cake - I’m a good baker but don’t bake at home as I’d just eat it all which isn’t great for my diet
I am also quite partial to a nice breakfast or sharing platter type lunch which are so much cheaper
There are some lovely delis and independent cafes near me
Unless it’s something I can’t or won’t cook at home I usually find restaurant or pub food a disappointment

Yesterday I sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed lemon polenta cake with freshly squeezed orange juice and a glass of Pinot Grigio and still had change from a tenner

I'm a crap cook so don't often feel this way 😁

It’s happened loads of times where the food being served is far inferior to what I cook at home and I’m only an average home cook! Nowadays I eat mostly Asian food out and I usually don’t cook that better (although my ramen is better than Wagamama’s!).

I’m definitely no Mary or Nigella but with a couple of notable exceptions then yes, I often feel like that!

I love to cook and know I do it well. It is very disappointing when food is not at the kind of standard I can make. However, I mostly go high, or for things I am unlikely to cook due to time. We are lucky and have some great places locally and actually a really reasonably priced gastropub close by.

That is exactly why I hardly ever eat out.

Lasagne takes 45 minutes+ to cook. So any restaurant lasagne is going to be precooked and heated up in the microwave.

As soon as they tell you 'watch out the plates are very hot' you know it's straight out of the microwave.

Unfortunately my ILs believed 'piping hot' food was a sign of quality and took us to eat at some dire places.

Think sometimes it’s worth it but you have to choose carefully. I like going out for pizza to non chain places with a proper pizza oven. At home I can’t get my oven that hot. I also have a coeliac in the family so can’t cook their pizza and my pizza at the same time.

We say the same about 90% of meals out. Crap for the money. We could have had far nicer at home for a fifth of the price.

What we want to know is who the HELL is rating all these places as "5* A-may-zing"?!

I don't know anyone, I don't think, who can't cook a half decent meal at least. So who is finding this shoddy plate of food so fabulous? And what gets me as well, is this is supposedly their professional line of work, not the person next door trying their hand at something.

I'd would love, LOVE to be able to go out for an decently priced meal, and thoroughly enjoy it. But when we (family of 5) went out for a roast and spend well over £100 with pudding, and the meat is dry, and the spuds are hard, it's a joke.

We took my parents out last week for DF's birthday. Good restaurant. Nice, but not exceptional food. £265. Two bottles of wine and 3 courses. Four of us. And it was quite nice. I wouldn't go as far to recommend the place, but I thought the food was above average. To feel like we'd had good value, the price needed to have been £160. It's the top rated place in my county to eat. Shocking.

Honestly, I'd rather spend £15 at Wetherspoons. Yeah, my lasagne and chips has come straight from the freezer, but it's ok. And my expectations are so low, so I'm more likely to be pleasantly surprised.

I just can't understand how bad most people's home cooking must be for them to rate such shite establishments so highly and actually enjoy the naff food. Unless they are bought/fake reviews?

That sounded so nice, I popped it into Google maps to see if we could drive there. It is 417 miles though 🙁

DP has relatives who only eat my veg. It is just because I don't boil everything to death and do things like roast them instead. Or season them!

@WilsonMilson
I completely agree with you. It’s my huge pet hate! We now always only go to places reviewed in the Good Food Guide or have a Michelin star (or two!) or are genuinely good local restaurants where they are actually preparing the food! That is the key! Preparing their food. Not buying it in, shoving it in the freezer, and reheating it!
Or buying “boil in the bag” type dishes with no effort involved other than cutting the bag open.

Fish from my local fish and chip shop is half the price of fish and chips out. So I don’t want fish in batter out. Tempura oysters by Nathan Outlaw I cannot cook and cannot buy in my chippy. So I’ll pay for the best in the country. I really can do a great roast but the meat cooked by Tom Kerridge is amazing so we pay for something special. It’s also 100% reliable - going somewhere that has a first class reputation is not going to be disappointing. The food means something to the chefs. There have been times when, if I see yet another STP (sticky toffee pudding) in a gastro pub I will scream!!! Deserts are crap in so many of them. Just bought in. No expertise demonstrated at all.

What this means, of course, is that we don’t go to these better restaurants that often. I’ve repeatedly had awful forgettable meals out with friends in gastro pubs or similar and we try and avoid going now. Can’t always be a party pooper but it’s such a waste of money.

I appreciate that not everyone will feel that food should be special but I would urge everyone to look up past seasons of the Great British Menu TV programme and support those regional chefs. We can’t all go and sample Spencer Metzger’s fantastic dishes at the Ritz but others are more affordable and you won’t be disappointed. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons even has a children’s menu. Try it! One great meal is worth 5 awful ones. Every time.

My daughter is a great cook, I'm an ok one. I don't eat out only for the food I eat out usually for the company.

Sure, I could invite these visitors whose company I want, to eat at my home, but that would mean the cook (me or my daughter) shopping or cooking, with the energy that involves.

Or, I could meet them in a restaurant, have decent food, and concentrate on what I really enjoy. Their company.

I choose the restaurant

Usually ( and before this evening) I'd agree with you, but tonight we have had fish and chips with really crisp batter and fat chips, with mushy peas made on the premises.
Best take away we've had for years and was under £30 for 4 of us. There's no way I'd be able to make bartered fish like that at home.

I absolutely see your point op.
As I know what to expect we save our money and don't go.maybe you could do the same,saving up to go to a really nice one less frequently but with a much better menu.🍹

We used to go out and eat a lot. Food out now costs a lot, decided to stop going out for a while...the other day we went to eat out and I felt the same, I make my own food at home, a lot more healthy, tastier and cheaper!
I would rather spend the money on something else.

I agree! I'm not always the best cool, but I prefer my lazy meals to a lot of restaurant meals.

Service has gone downhill as well.
I prefer a takeaway delivered at home.