Food you can cook better than a restaurant

[Saracarbonera]

I love eating out but there are a few dishes that I have stopped ordering when out because I think I do them better myself at home. These dishes are fajitas, spicy prawns, roast potatoes. On the other hand I love arrabiata and have yet to get to grips with this dish, it is always better in restaurants, I can't get the hang of it.
Have you any dishes that you are always disappointed with in restaurants because your homemade version is better?

potato dauphinoise

I'm actually a rather poor cook overall but my potato dauphinoise tastes excellent

Arrabbiata, amatriciana, sunday ragu, pizza, lasagne

Amalfimamma how do you make your arrabiata? I just can't get the taste right. It always tastes too much like tinned tomatoes no matter what brand I use and if I use fresh tomatoes it tastes too bland.

Crumble is always rubbish in a restaurant. Just poshed up for no reason. Bit of fruit with dry crumble on top in a fancy glass
bowl.

What you want is a big school dinners style metal tray of fruit (pref rhubarb imho) smothered in crumble with some crunchy bits, some sticky bits where the juice has come up, some caramelised bits...plus a vat of custard. Restaurants do not understand this.

Roast potatoes never taste as good as at home unless it's a very good pub

DP makes the best hunters chicken I've ever tasted
Pub & restaraunt ones are always soooo dry
His is juicy and tasty and cheesy and just delicious

Risotto, they usually do that thing where they half cook it and add cream, yuck. Risotto requires the correct balance of love and neglect that can only be achieved in a home kitchen. It also needs stock of the day.

Yes agree about the roast potatoes and talking about crumble recently I've noticed restaurants doing banoffee pie differently, more like tiramisu with loads of cream and hardly any caramel, not how I would do it at all at home.

Lasagne
Roast dinners

sara undercook the pasta, through it in the sauce and cook for another 3 to 5 mins until it is right. Restaurants use more oil than you would want to imagine and often add sugar and a dash of vinegar, rose balsamic works.

Agree with crumble.

Also, roast dinner. Never as good in a restaurant.

Prawn toast - I'm very generous with the prawns and seasoning. I haven't made them in years though as its a faff I'm too lazy

Also Lemon meringue pie - for the same reasons as above (loads of everything!) but again it's a faff on. I should really as DH loves it bad wife

Veggie chilli
Risotto
Crumble

Although the absolute best risotto I ever had was in a mountain hut-skier's restaurant in Italy. I have been trying to recreate it for about 7 years!

Curry. Your average Indian restaurant seems to have one pot of slop which they use as a base and flavour to tailor it to different 'dishes'. It is not the authentic cuisine (and tastes like oily mush imo) - whereas, when I've eaten at Asian friends houses or followed a recipe myself the result has been so much nicer

Also chilli - always too mild in a restaurant

Anything vegetarian.

roob - that's what I was just about to say, anything vegetarian in most places...there are exceptions but usually it's something I could make better, and in not even that good a cook.

Anything based on mince. I'm a mince ninja.

Singapore noodles
osso bucco

Roast dinners
Risotto
Pasta with simple sauces
Most veggie meals (DD doesn't like spinach and it seems to be in all veggie options these days)
Most cakes

All pasta dishes to be fair. I'm yet to taste a spag bol or lasagne better than mine

Otoh I tend to order steak but not cool it at home, mostly because I love it super super rare/blue and get frustrated at home if I buy a lovely piece of meat and don't get it quite right. If a restaurant over does it I can always send it back and get another bit!!

Steak and salad. It's never perfect, the pepper corn sauce isn't peppery enough, salad is always flavourless limp shit.

Lasagna, have been making it since I was 12. Always disappoints in a restaurant...

Soup. I am a soup ninja! Soup in cafes and restaurants is always watery and disappointing...

Pestilence13610 I'll give your tips a try, thanks. Really jealous if all of you who can make pasta sauces better at home, I love pasta but even jars of sauce taste better than mine. The steak comment has made me remember that grilled fish is something I prefer to order in restaurants than cook at home because I hate all of the faff involved in its preparation.

Agree with the pepper sauce, it always tastes too creamy or buttery which takes away from the pepper taste.

I have actually stopped eating out as often as I used to because we were frequently disappointed. I only go to places now (when I can afford it!) that serve food I couldn't possibly cook myself.