Do you enjoy eating out?

I find the helpings far too big for my appetite - perhaps I need to go to really posh restaurants where you get a minute heap of something in the middle of a tile or wooden platter, with a drizzle of something around the sides!

I love eating out and do so at least twice a week. When with my husband, it'll be either a pub meal or the local curry house.

With family (AC, GC)we tend to go for somewhere in town and we have a Sunday roast. We always pay for the family and really enjoy all being together.

I’m another who enjoys eating out. Fortunately we have 3 excellent restaurants within walking distance.
I remember being in France and on several occasions watching elegant elderly ladies dining out, some alone others in twos or threes. All were obviously known to the restaurants and treated very courteously.
I’d like to be able to do that as I age and for as long as I could!

Eating out is not something I look forward to these days, especially as DH has very narrow tastes when it comes to food. He doesn’t do Italian, Indian, Chinese or anything else ending in ‘ese’!! Or Fish restaurants. So that leaves us with a carvery or a few country pubs that serve decent food, but I find it rather depressing that he orders the same thing wherever we go. We stumbled on a very good restaurant quite near to where we live, and thought we had struck gold, and then all of a sudden they announced they were closing. End of. It was rather out of the way and I suspect they had problems finding and keeping staff who could actually get to and from the place! If I go out with DD we sometimes have Japanese or Italian, or a vegetarian restaurant if we can find one.

Yes I love eating out and don't begrudge paying for something that I really enjoy and is good quality, using locally sourced ingredients.
One particular gastro pub we go to, which has won national awards, makes a point of using local suppliers, so we are supporting not onebut several local businesses.

It may seem expensive but when you take into account the cost of employing staff, complying with health & safety and hygiene, the prices are justified.

I don't enjoy the whole process and it makes me anxious. Strange how we change, I used to love it.

I do like eating out and wish we had some good places nearer to us.

DH and I try to go out to eat with friends about once a month. It's usually to a pub/restaurant, but occasionally we try somewhere with a bit more class. Just recently we have had afternoon tea instead. I really enjoy eating out.

Like the OP and some others I, too, have gone off the experience of eating out. Used to love it. But it is so much of a muchness. My husband´s youngest brother is a great amateur cook and his dinners are far superior to anything you can get in a restaurant.

I love eating out, late DH and I used to almost every week. Not so often now that I am on my own, but if I have a day out shopping I always find a nice restaurant for lunch. Don't mind eating out on my own. Been out three times in the last two weeks with family!

I'm a lot like your husband, greyduster, although I do eat Indian and Chinese.
I do tend to always have the same thing, just in case I try something new and don't like it.
I really enjoy English food, too.

On the whole I prefer having meals at friends houses or having friends at ours. I find it more relaxing than eating out. Eating out also seems so expensive. A week's grocery money goes on one meal!

Eating out is one thing I don't mind spending on.
I don't mean a fortune, but a nice carvery. Lovely!

Dh as I eat out about twice a week. Always brunch on a Saturday in a local cafe/bistro which is very homely and everyone knows everyone else. Where the staff call us by name as we arrive and ask....the usual??

Possibly a lunch on another day or at teatime. I prefer not to eat out at night. There may also be a lunch or coffee myself meeting a friend.

Like annodomini I sometimes have two starters served as my main course and this is usually bbq ribs, duck spring rolls and salad.

Going out with family AC and dgc is usually a Sunday roast for a birthday or event.

Very occasionally dh and I will have a sneaky KFC after doing the grocery shopping. I had my first KFC just one year ago.

I could eat out right now , we have a great pub restaurant and a yummy chinese here in the village and I didn't make any tea ! Was reading and forgot ?

I love eating out and average 2-3 times a week. I agree that the chains are much of a muchness and try to avoid them (which is probably why so many are going out of business). But there are so many independent restaurants where I live that we are really spoilt for choice. And I generally prefer lunch rather than dinner (one of the joys of being retired!). I also often have two starters rather than a starter and a main, but prefer sharing food especially tapas or Chinese. Generally I don't like food which is 'plated up', although I make an exception for Le Gavroche!

No, not really. I have very rarely eaten anything out that I couldn't make better at home. Other than coffee and cookies/muffins I find 'out' food disappointing. Some waiting staff can be a bit supercilious as well, like the servers at Hotel Chocolat in Edinburgh who looked at me as if as I was peculiar when I asked them to put the teabag in the hot water rather than bringing it to me in a saucer for me to put into the off the boil water.

This has continued from a time in the late seventies when my father-in-law took us, en route back from Sutherland or Wester Ross, to a posh hotel near Aberdeen (he had a business meeting). I ordered fresh trout, hand fished from the river beside the hotel. It was overcooked.

Wait though... I did enjoy a steak pie that I had in the Kelpies cafe a few weeks ago.

We are lucky to have a super Gastro pub in our village where we go if we get an urge to eat out. We also have a Turkish cafe but we often have food from there as a takeaway.

We tend to eat out differently for different reasons Lunch for Dh and I could often be at a pub, meeting friends for lunch could be at more upmarket Gastro pub and, if we are pushing the boat out, there is a Michelin starred restaurant in the next village.

There is a large Italian element to our town so there are some great Italian restaurants about

And, of course, being close to Leicester, we have a huge number of Indian restaurants to chose from.

I don’t enjoy eating out as much as I used to as it’s becoming quite a challenge I have a garlic intolerance (garlic goes into Everything nowadays) and high cholesterol. DH can’t drink alcohol or eat chillies. This Sunday we’re meeting friends at a local gastro pub and he’s vegan. It’s become a minefield!!

We have lots of different eateries near us which with my late OH I enjoyed visiting, although he didn’t do India or Chinese but now I’m alone I won’t enjoy doing that alone. I’ll maybe go to lunch and with evenings with other family members I do enjoy it.

I too enjoy eating out however DH only occasionally. He is happy for me to go out with girlfriends to some of the many restaurants, cafes in our town.

We have a lovely small Vietnamese restaurant but I think it is pricey.

Our favourite that DH will always come to is a small Italian cafe that has been such a hit in our town that they now keep open in the evening . They have a tiny kitchen so a limited menu. We often go early evening when we just have a chilled glass of wine and one of their toasted paninis filled with Italian cheese, salami, vegetables etc, just fab. The good news is that a dress shop about 10 yards away has closed they have bought it and are going to make it into a genuine pizza cafe. Just to set the scene this is in a small courtyard and in the summer they put out striped deckchairs in the sunshine for customers. Perfect ?

I’m often disappointed when we eat a meal out. Too picky maybe. There is a good restaurant on our sea front which we go to for a treat. Excellent food, efficient, intuitive staff and a fabulous view. My favourite meal out is a good cooked breakfast. Usually happiest with a nice piece of GF cake and a cuppa in a warm and comfortable setting.

Last year, we took some out of town friends to lunch in the restaurant at our local catering college. The food was beautifully plated and absolutely delicious, the service impeccable. We had to book well in advance because it is very popular. A lot of years ago, my son did his chef training there but the training restaurant was not at that time open to the public except on certain ‘theme’ nights which were invitation only.

OOOHH! You've just reminded me, GD, our local agricultural college had a Catering Department that used to do the most fantastic Sunday lunches. I haven't thought of it for ages - must check if it is still going. I can think of one GNer who would enjoy that.

We enjoy eating out but dislike restaurant chains so try to find independent establishments.
In the next town are two very good fish restaurants, owned by the same people, we like to have lunch in one or other.
Almost all restaurants and pubs in our own town serve Italian food and none of it reaches our own cooking standard.