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’m always in pursuit of an amazing burger but I’ll have had read a review that it’s outstanding have kissed too many frogs. A good burger could have me close to tears!😂

And I still remember an amazing 5 cheese lasagne I had in an Italian restaurant in Boston 30 years ago!

Don’t people eat out for convenience? I know my partner can knock restaurant food out of the park by a long shot but we do it when we (he) can’t be arsed to cook and clean up

I find that pubs are the worst for this, as they try to do other cuisines but not as well as the originals. And they're very pricey.

So if you want fish and chips or curry then you're better off going to a chippy or Indian restaurant.

Chains are generally best avoided as they often just reheat prepared meals.

Most gastro pubs serve up food that's little better than a school dinner, but with artfully arranged sauce or a sprig of parsley or whatever.

I think you can judge a restaurant by the writing on the blackboard - that generic script that's painted to last years is bad. Scrawly writing that looks like it's by a seven year old is bad. You want writing that looks like it's changed regularly and has a bit of character in the handwriting.

You also want a menu that's not too long - the longer it is, the more likely it is that everything is straight from the freezer. And look at the staff - it's fine to have places staffed by teenagers but does it look like there's someone properly in charge who gives a shit about the place, or is the manager also pretty young and doesn't have their heart in it either?

You can also eat out on the basis that you only go to places where you couldn't/wouldn't know how to make it yourself at home - so sushi, good Indian/Thai/Chinese, unusual cuisine like African or South American etc, pizza from a proper pizza oven...

Picking a good restaurant without the aid of reviews is a fun challenge especially abroad - have to constantly refine our criteria

100% with you on this one, exactly what I was saying to DH the other evening.

I don't expect to pay 60/£70 for a meal, mains only, and it be pretty much on par with what I can cook at home.

Ah yes, this is frustrating OP and I wouldn’t even say I’m a good cook - I’m just alright and enjoy cooking uncomplicated stuff. It’s such a shame as we love supporting local businesses and dining out often.

However, we do still love going out for things like sushi (simple stuff made by Japanese chefs) and a really good Indian curry as the sheer amount of ingredients required (sometimes in one ingredient alone such as a spice mix) is costly - and I can’t make anywhere near as good an Indian curry as our local. I do like the soggy chips from a good chippy takeaway which I can’t quite replicate at home either. And I don’t really love deep frying fish at home as it stinks! So I’ll pay for that convenience.

Another poster commented on how their fellow diners often don’t share their disappointment. I’ve also experienced this too. In fact, we’ve been recommended a few places which are apparently ‘amazing’ and we have both been thoroughly underwhelmed and baffled. And I’m not talking about a difference in tastes here. We went somewhere recently where all the food was swimming in a shallow pool of old oil. (Don’t get me wrong - I love my greasy food!) But our friends were mopping it up enthusiastically with all the “Mmmm”s! 😂 Each to their own…

No, we don't. Not paying good money for food we can cook better.

We both love cooking so often batch cook. If we have a day neither of us feel like cooking we just get something out of the freezer we have made - curry, pizza, pasta bake, stew, shepherds pie etc.

We do have more than one freezer so easy to keep a good stock of meals/food.

YANBU. Some places seriously need to up their game.

Eating out in mid-range or even cheap places is so much more reliably good and better value for money in our nearest neighbours, Ireland and France. I feel embarrassed at how often quite expensive meals out are so mediocre to poor in the UK, even 4* hotels I stay in for work regularly can't cook a fucking tomato properly at breakfast or provide coffee that doesn't taste like it's made of mud. You can have good experiences but have to be quite selective. Hotels and restaurants have to be better than staying at home, or else why bother.

Agree. I'm a better than a average cook - definitely top end gastro hood but I love eating out because I don't have to cook/clean up etc.

However, my local restaurants are pretty underwhelming. But I still enjoy them if it's with a group of friends/family.

I do tend to choose things I don't cook at home. Often fish as I'm the only person that really likes it.

I totally agree.

I became so underwhelmed a few years ago that I started trying new recipes all the time. I'm a pretty good cook now and probably get more excited at trying a new recipe than going to a restaurant.

I was taken to a Soho House restaurant recently and even their food was underwhelming for the price.

No. Never found that.

I have. Perhaps a sign to stop throwing money at a lost cause but I continue to ignore it.

Yes, I agree. And I think it's got worse too.

But sometimes we don't want to cook, or meet up with friends...or there's a few people and we'll all want different things.

We have no nice takeaways near us.

So unless we go high end it's a mediocre pub with a disappointing meal.

totally agree.

Eating at home is the best.

Unfortunately 99% of food eaten out now comes in a box, they just reheat it. There are no proper Chefs in pubs etc anymore. Unless you count Chef Ping (microwave).
Last time I went out for a meal they had run out of gravy and said that the supplier wasn't due to deliver until the next day. Says it all really.
Considering a main meal costs around £17 now I'm loathed to part with that amount of cash for a ready meal.

Agreed. BIL &SIL are disinterested in cooking and are always going on about amazing restaurants to end up being served microwaved food for a fortune.
I did have an amazing pasta dish in a place in the Lakes, but that’s a rare example.

I want something I can’t cook at home, but where I live there isn’t a great amount of choice. There was a fab Greek place but it’s closed.

Lunches are the worst though. I was on another thread about COL and business trying to stay afloat. I mentioned I had paid £10 for a tiny and frankly shit panini and a small drink and being told that was reasonable. It’s not though. It didn’t taste nice and I was still hungry when I finished, which really pissed me off.. I could buy nice cheese and bread and sides for a few pounds.

This has always been the case for me and I have long only gone to 'ethnic' (hate the word) restaurants to eat things I would not make at home

But since covid I've had some pretty mediocre meals at these too

Yep totally agree. We used to eat out ALL the time pre-covid. Granted we have kids now so there’s that, but we ask find meals out generally disappointing. DH has become an amazing cook and we grow loads of produce at home so are eating at home pretty much all the time now

Better to go out for stuff it's less easy to make at home. Roast dinner and steak are both a piece of piss to cook.

I find the snobbery / superiority on here about eating out / takeaways bizarre. Every tread about takeaways / eating out is always full of 'I can make nicer food at home' comments. For me that's not the sole point of getting a takeaway / eating out. It's the convenience, having it cooked for you, having someone else clean up etc. Rarely when I go out does everyone at the table have the same thing, so it gives people options, at home I wouldn't cook 4 separate meals.

It's the same with any comments about coffee out, yes I have a bean to cup at home and could make it for a fraction of the price, but I'm out enjoying the atmosphere, watching the world go by, having someone make it for me etc, not just purely to quench my thirst.

A local and not very nice pub is currently advertising pie and chips for £14 pp!

Now Mimosa, you have opened up a whole new can of worms… Let’s talk about pies. My Northern friend once had a little rant about the bowls of meat in gravy with just a puff pastry lid (no delicious soft shortcrust pastry soaked in gravy under the lid). They tend to be more common down south apparently - according to him anyway.

I very rarely feel that restaurant food is worth it these days, barring a couple of places (our local Thai is sublime and I find Wagamama to be consistently excellent).

It's just not worth it. I'm an average/okay cook and I can easily make something that tastes much, much nicer for a fraction of the price.