Do you enjoy eating out?

We love eating out though since retirement we enjoy lunches and afternoon teas more often. Less busy and don't always have to book which suits us as we like to go for a drive and call in to new places.

How much would you pay for a decent main......some sort of protein and accompaniments?

I love eating out. Get fed up cooking now, have done it for 50 years any chance to eat out I will.

I like the idea of eating out, but after working in quite a few restaurant and pub kitchens, I am discouraged by the generally appalling food hygiene practices.
I’m sure there are some very clean establishments, but so many are below standard that I’m frankly scared!

Trip Adviser is brilliant. Is it tasty? Pleasant staff that are attentive but not intrusive? Good value?
Love that website

We had a great holiday in France this year. 10 days without cooking a thing. Breakfast was in the hotels and other meals were dined out! We had full-board at Disneyland Paris and went for privately owned restaurants for the other days. You don't see many of these in the UK which is a pity. Everything seems to be franchise.

Very rarely eat out for several reasons:
-lack of places I can afford
-ditto that cater for my own awkward dietary choices
-current obsession with weird ingredients (harissa paste, ras el hanout or the inevitable bloody chilli in everything, even chocolate!)
-prefer to eat mid day and most places here are only open evenings.
Happy to eat at home where the hours, food and costs suit me very well!

Why do so many people think eating out and enjoying cooking at home are mutually incompatible?

I enjoy my food and cooking, I used a new recipe this lunchtime to make a chestnut and spicy sausage risotto, lovely and warming on a cold day, definitely one to go i nto the repertoire.

But this doesn't stop me enjoying eating out. I go to my local bakery cafe and have their red onion and cheddar quiche with salad and six large chips for lunch and then buy the same quiche to take home and eat another time. But the overall experience is entirely different. The cafe is a lovely airy building, there are lots of other people there, we often meet people we know - and we usually finish the meal with one of their cakes or scones.

At home I will eat the same quiche with salad in the warmth of the kitchen and with the radio on in the background,enjoyable, but an entirely different experience.

There is more to a meal out than just the food.

We have a wonderful Tapas restaurant near us & I love going there but usually I like to cook.
I have always loved cooking & love the feeling of dishing up a good home cooked meal.
However when we are in Greece in the summer I thoroughly enjoy eating out every night ( & then when I get home I try out all the things we eat there!)
Win/win for me either way.

I hate foreign food unless it's Italian pasta (no meats) or Indian vegetable samosas, both of which I can cook myself exactly as I prefer.

Love it! So many restaurants and good pubs to try and do little time!

Jane10
Care to share the name?

I'm another eating out devotee. Love it. I'm particularly blessed to be within a bus ride of a large city which spoils me for choice. More importantly I have a reasonable circle of friends who all have different tastes and wallets. My particular joy is trying somewhere new that I've read about in some recent cafe culture magazine or current newspaper review. Re the smaller portions, I find it is ALWAYS advisable to ask. Many establishments will accommodate but don't go out of their way to advertise same. Skewed logic methinks but this has been my finding. My pleasure is lunchtime. Evening eating doesn't lend to good sleep for me nowadays. Jane10 if you would be willing to mail me with your fish mention, please?????

Not any more. The people who used to accompany me on these gastronomic and wine filled experiences are, sadly, not around any more and no fun in going it alone. Too many memories.

Definitely one of my favourite things to do. We have a good choice of cafes, restaurants and bistros on our island but they get too busy during holiday season. We tend to entertain at home during summer, always easier with bbqs and salads. We meet up with friends for lunch out in winter and try to go somewhere different each time.

Love eating out. Obviously some places are better than others. Different prices, portions, menus etc but on the whole I enjoy it. We eat out about 2 - 3 times a week now retired. It’s not always ‘fancy dan’ but we like where we choose to go so it’s one of life’s pleasures in my opinion.

I’ve always loved eating out! I have become a connoisseur of afternoon teas over the past few years. Going for one tomorrow with DIL, her DM and my DD.

I enjoy taking myself for lunch when I am out shopping...a pleasant experience.

I don't mean to sound boastful but I'm a good cook. And if restaurant food isn't better than I can make then I tend to be disappointed and it really puts me off eating out.
I'd imagine if I had the finances to eat at higher end establishments I may be less frustrated?
I have found an amazing Chinese restaurant. It's off the beaten track, you could pass it and not know it's there. They don't use MSG (which makes me very unwell) , everything is cooked fresh, and it's very small, so not loud and rowdy. If I do have funds, I go there. Never been disappointed yet. ?

Apart from Prezzo, we rarely eat out in chain restaurants. We live in a highly populated rural area and round us there are enormous number of pubs serving really good well prepared and cooked food at every price level and every cuisine from French through Indian to Polish .

Our village has for some years had a very good artisan bakery. A recent sale of land for housing has enabled them to build a new bakery/shop/cafe. They do a range of light meals based on their bakery output, which changes weekly. We have to ration our visits, otherwise we would be there every day, and on Saturdays we need to book in advance to be sure of a table.

I have always preferred my main meal at lunch time. Which is possible now we are retired, so most eating out is done at lunchtime. The one exception is where some of the better restaurants, like a local French pub we use for high days and holidays, where the full menu is only available in the evening.

dragonfly, I've pm'd you!

That's why I have to attend weightwatchers! Gold member since 2009 but a constant struggle with piggy nature.

Inishowen I love hotel buffet breakfasts! Used to visit friends in Bolton and stay at Whites and fain 3lbs over a weekend. I am a pig and would begin with cereal and fruit juice and go on to bacon and sausage and egg and then croissants and danish and toast. Lovely!

I love eating out. Today it’s a pub lunch with girlfriends and on Friday its a very expensive lunch at a Michelin Star restaurant with daughter. I love being waited on in a really first class restaurant. I also run a Fine Dining group at my local U3A so get to experience all types of cuisine monthly.
Unfortunately my waistline pays the penalty but hey ho, who cares!

I'm finding the portions at restaurants overwhelming. We stayed in a hotel last week and I asked for scrambled eggs for breakfast. There must have been 3 or 4 eggs in it. It was an unappetising mound, and slightly cold. This was a 5 star hotel and I was disappointed. Dinner was chicken with a lot of different purees vegetables. I immediately thought "care home" food!