Eating out - is it a waste of money

Thanks Shysal did not know about the one in Oxford where I occasionally visit.

We went into a Harvester pub a couple of years ago, whilst visiting family in Lancashire, wish we had one round here, great food at good prices. NanKate, I don`t have any girlfriends to go out WITH, and if I did, hubby wouldn`t be best pleased.

We have a Harvester near here and it is appalling!

My brother's ex girlfriend started The Case with her business partner a long time ago J52 and my brother and I often go there still although the ex gurlfiend lives in Australia now!

I haven't been to the Olive Branch granjura as last time we thought we would go booking was about six weeks ahead!

We like Sunday lunch at a pub in Wing called the King's Arms and the Paul Leary restaurant called the Woodhouse in, surprisingly, Woodhouse Eaves!

Our Toby carvery is stunning! I counted eight different vegetables when we were last there including onions and red cabbage. Very generous portions of meat ( I usually say 'that's enough, thank you' ) You get the kind of joint that only a big family could afford to buy which is lovely for older couples. You really have to steel yourself not to take too much of the lovely veg.

We have Ember Inns. They do nice food at reasonable prices, although the interiors of all of them are exactly the same but quite pleasant with log fires in the winter.

We love The Case

Numberplease if I am not interfering have you thought of joining your local WI or other women's group, or the U3A.

It is a lovely way of making friends and has given the courage to women with selfish, dominant husbands, to say once or twice a month they are going to their club and enjoy themselves. Even if they go out to a husband with a moody face, so be it.

I hope I haven't over-stepped the mark with my opinions, but we only have one life and I am sure you deserve a bit of 'me time'.

Many of my friends are widows and they are so pleased they have somewhere safe to go when they are on their own and a network of friends.

Go for it !

We have a pretty good Harvester locally, they're particularly good for fish and chips. I really like Bill's in Reading and we have a nice little Italian cafe in one of the garden centres.

Granjura

French food, now you're tslking.

We used to go to France each year and loved their meals.

Eating out we have found to be a bit of a risk these days. Sometimes good but uncertain, regardless of price. Eating-in at home is much cheaper, less formal but somebody has to source it, cook it and wash it up. Sometimes we compromise with a nice M & S take-away, bottle of champagne and nicely laid table. This seems to work well with a bit of planning, and we take it in turn to choose the menu. If we want more ambience we go to a nice pub for a bar meal.

I wish we had a Harvester near us as I reckon they are generally good value for money, though not very exciting I used to love the salad bar to fill my plate, maybe with some grilled fish or chicken. The desserts however were not a treat. We have several Witherspoons nearby and they used to be OK but they have really gone down hill and the service is appalling.
There are so many restaurants to choose from here but as we don't have a lot of dosh we have to choose carefully. I'm still looking for that special place - maybe now I'm retired we can look a bit further afield. I always did love country pub food (Berks and Oxon.)

Both Dh and I are vegetarian so eating out can be a bit boring. Vegetarian Lasagne anyone? I would rather go out less and pay more and eat somewhere sensational than eat out regularly with food that we can cook better at home.

There are some fantastic vegetarian restaurants about, but there's only one within a taxi ride of us and neither of us are good at saying no to wine, so we tend to combine meals out with weekends away and do research for good places to eat first.

My husband and I are both a bit fed up with cooking so we do tend to eat out quite regularly. It is quite difficult to find good food at reasonable prices but we have lived in our area for a long time and have a few tried and tested favourites that very rarely disappoint. My husband is a strict vegetarian and I rarely eat meat.

For anyone living in/near - or visiting - London, we have always found the following pretty good:

Diwana (Indian vegetarian, menu and buffet (finishes 2.30 weekdays, 4.30 weekends) in Drummond Street near Euston (around £20 for 2 with non-alcoholic drink)

Tibits ("fusion" buffet) in Heddon Street off Regent Street (around £25 for 2 with alcoholic drink)

Vijay's Chawallah (very fresh, authentic vegetarian) in Green Street, East Ham (around £20 for 2 with non-alcoholic drink)

New World Chinese Restaurant in Gerard Place, Soho (Chinatown) - dim sum served on trolleys until about 3 p.m. as well as normal menu (around £35 for 2 without drinks - Chinese tea free)

Tai Won Mein Noodle House, Greenwich (near Cutty Sark) (around £16 for 2 with Chinese tea)

We also go to our local Toby Carvery at Snaresbrook, near Wanstead. We have everything, minus the meat (good choice of vegetables, yorkshire, veg gravy and sauces) for, I think, £5.95 each.

Overthehill- must say that British food and choices have changed dramaticall for the better since I first lived there in 1970! French food can be overrated at times, and also go from sublime to ridiculous. We are lucky around here that we have a huge choice, on the Swiss and French side- with Swiss side not being a lot more expensive (unlike places like Zurich or Geneva- where you need to take a mortgage before yougo out! Mind you, same in parts of London and other tourists spots in the UK).

NanKate, thank you for your suggestions, but I don`t really think the WI or U3A are for me, from what I`ve heard and read, they seem to be attended by very "worthy" women, and that definitely isn`t me, I`m way too common!

My friends and I tend to go to our local hostelry which does a very nice carvery. Other places we've visited often have nice food but the service is appalling. I'm always a little nervous about self service salads - especially if there are a lot of children around! Runny nose potato salad doesn't really appeal!

Goldengirl I can see that glistening potato salad now !!

Numberplease to be honest our WI has women from all walks of life. I think all women are worthy, but sometimes they are told so often that they are not (often by close relatives) they begin to believe it. Anyway I will keep quiet now as I have said more than enough.

number - you are one of the MOST WORTHY women I know! I won't hear anything otherwise. I just wish I lived closer, because you and I would definitely be meeting on a regular basis for coffee and lunch. Ooohhh!

Totally agree with that! One of my favourite people in the world you are, number.

...I know where you're coming form with U3A though; I tried it and it just didn't work for me...same with our village WI.

Tegan I think maybe you are right with U3A but our WI in Thames Valley is fab. The women are from all walks of life rich, medium and poor, but we have such a laugh together and have quite a few raucous meals out at the local pub.

Thank you Tegan and Marelli for backing me up. I am really keen for women not to put themselves down. It can become a habit.

Well Numberplease you clearly have some Gransnet friends.

Oh by the way I am always grateful for your great book recommendations.

The more you pay, the less you get seems to be the rule! - like private education really.

We almost never go out for meals because the places in our price bracket serve such big helpings (even if we ask for small) that we waste so much - I can't bear that!

We usually end up just having a starter.

One nearby pub does excellent Sunday lunches that have a good selection of vegetables; the other is a pile of gristle with a few soggy veg - shame really as it is our local.

We've got some lovely country pubs down here in Devon. Varying prices and value, of course, but many of them are reasonable and do good food.
I avoid anywhere which might be a 'gastropub' as they sound too expensive for the likes of me!
I belong to a GLC (Girls Lunch Club) and we try somewhere different once a month, taking it in turrns to choose. Great fun.
Apart from that, if i'm feeling poor, then it's Wetherspoons, - cheap and cheerful and tasty food. At present I eat out once a week with my ex-husband who has terminal cancer. It seems to cheer him up no end.

I've wanted to start going to restaurants that cook food that I've never experienced; Tai food/sushi etc..things that I can't cook myself [not that I can cook much]. I've never been much of a foodie but I would like new 'taste experiences'. Being a bit borderline eating disorder'ish in my youth[I blame Twiggy!] I found it hard to not look on food as some sort of enemy for a long time .

I went recently to a gastro pub, paid about £20 for 2 courses and 1/2 pint lager, camr home and got the muesli out. I was still hungry. I won't be going back!