What common starters would you have as a mainmeal?

[ThisPlumShark]

Cheese on toast

I would be encouraging them to share the main, seems much better value.

I'm still 🤔at cheese on toast.

@xsquared is this something you come across regularly in restaurants in the starter section, Cheese On Toast? I feel like I'm missing a trick here.

Soup, especially if it comes with bread. I find a lot of places are really generous with portion sizes of soup and I'm generally full after I've finished it. Could possibly manage half a sandwich but never anymore than that.

Calamari with a side salad.
Or the mixed starter that our local Thai restaurant dies - satay chicken kebabs, crab cakes and spring rolls with a bit of side salad.

Caesar salad is definitely a main course, fish cakes and chips definitely a main and dal is a side dish in Indian cuisine, eg served as part of a thali but also a vegan main dish, we regularly eat it

Soup = lunch, not a starter.

And while I'm at it, cheese and biscuits also = lunch, not a dessert.

Edited to say I know it can be a starter!

Garlic bread with cheese is pretty much cheese on toast with a bit of garlic butter.

Never seen cheese on toast as a starter

cheesy garlic bread perhaps in an Italian

but cheese on toast is lunch , or emergency dinner when the takeaway card machine is broken

We used to have chips in our (canned, vegetable soup). My mum said we weren't to tell anyone outside our house!😂

I have never seen cheese on toast on a menu as a starter but, if I did, I'd have it! I bow to noone in my devotion to melted cheese 😊
If put for lunch, I often have soup and add a bowl of chips, for excitement.

Cheese on toast is served as a main course at Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Domino's etc

Aha got you. Interesting. But then wouldn't it be Cheese on Toast Express, Cheese on Toast Hut..?

@xsquared I don't think cheese on toast is pretty much the same thing as garlic bread with cheese, and I don't have either of them for a starter so maybe I'm the wrong person to get involved here.

😂😂😂
it was don't tell in our house as well and we only ever had it when dad was on nights so I don't think he knew about it either 😄 It was always Heinz tomato in our house and we loved it , but I find that soup too sweet now.

There is only a two ingredient different between cheese on toasted bread and garlic bread with cheese, at least the way I make it. I didn't say they were the same.

Cheese on toast may not be seen commonly in the starters section of a restaurant menu, but I don't see why it can't be if someone decided they wanted cheesy garlic bread without the cheese. 😄

Like I said in my earlier post, we often have cheese on toast with our soup - the soup being the main and the toast being the side.

Buffalo chicken wings, especially with celery sticks and blue cheese dip. Loaded nachos. Arancini. Pakora, any kind but chicken or mushroom are my favourites. I love creamy mushrooms on toasted ciabatta, Frankie and Benny's used to do it as starter called mushroom Alfredo crostini. Does crispy duck pancakes count?

I often used to have the "sharer" platter of starters as a main course...all the unhealthy deliciousness of onion rings, wings, ribs, loaded potato skins etc. 😋

😂

Chicken liver pate with sourdough bread with a beetroot and carrot side salad - my mouth is watering! Pate has to be homemade without all the nasty additives though.

If I’m out somewhere I’ll quite often have the veggie mezze board, meant as a sharing starter, for my main meal.

Quite a few places now offer starters as ‘small plates’ with a cheaper price for ordering 3, a sort of tapas. As a previous pp said, I do this with an Indian takeaway sometimes (and occasionally also in a restaurant)

Also something like fish cakes, I’ll ask for it on a large plate with new potatoes or chips.

And yes, soup and bread is lunch, too much before a main course. As are most starters which is why they are better eaten tapas style.

Dhal isn't traditionally a starter

Indians will have it as a side/part of a main meal

Things like samosa/bhajis are more traditional Indian starters

How is cheese on toast a starter? 🤔

I can be relied upon to order a starter instead of a main course, as standard mains are too big for me.

Went to an Ivy Brasserie last week and I had crab and avocado to start, followed by another from the starter menu which was roasted scallops.

I’ll always go for scallops or anything involving beetroot or goat’s cheese.

Any more substantial soup, with bread and probably grated cheese on top.

Tomorrow night we’ll be having a substantial minestrone as a main, with some of the garlic bread I’ve just made and put in the freezer.

Smoked mackerel pâté with nice bread and salad.

TBH when eating out I often have two starters instead of a main. I often fancy them more.

Love a big prawn cocktail especially at the weekend with a glass of wine. Then again I love soup and mussels with a glass of wine and copious quantities of good bread and butter too .

Can you tell I'm hungry 😀