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Eating out for me is going to the deli at Von's or some grocery store and getting a sandwich made to order or some salads/hot food to eat together at home. I get a few bakery items from Starbuck's or Panera Bread but I eat home cooked food most of the time.
Just as Walmart has brought 'cheap' to the retail world, so have the chains brought cheap to the food world.
The mom and pop retail stores which sold quality are gone, and we accept 'price' at Walmart as the arbiter of our purchasing decisions. Somehow we rationalize that a 'folding chair' is a folding chair, whether you pay $14.95 at Walwart or $29.95 at the local hardware store--even though there is a HUGE quality difference in most cases.
But when we go to a restaurant, we somehow perceive 'food' is 'food', and if Olive Garden can produce a pasta dish for 14.95 then it ought to be just as good as the 23.95 dish at the private Italian Restaurant.
It is likely that Olive Garden uses such cheap ingredients that it makes more profit at 14.95 than does the mom and pop place at 23.95. We aren't satisfied with the 14.95 meal because it tastes like crap, and we are stunned at the 23.95 meal because it 'must be a rip off'.
Bottom line: Chains have driven quality and price to a level where customers are turned off by the 'dining experience' which they sell. Even at the lower prices you can easily make a much higher quality meal at home, know a little more about what you are eating, and save at least 50% of the cost. Spring for a $12 bottle of wine and you are still under the chain restaurant price for the same meal.
And yet, more than half of all food dollars are spent on meals outside the home. People just don't learn quickly.
Ted Bear, dining out isn't ONLY about the food. It's about the atmosphere. The experience. The being waited on. The fact that we don't have to cook it, clean it, cut it up or worry about burning it. And some people just hate cooking (I'm not one of them, except for baking.)
And sometimes, I want to enjoy the company of the people I am dining with rather than worry about cooking a meal, and serving it, and cleaning it up.
I cut back on fine dining due to price. Cannot afford it these days but when we could we would go out to fine restaurant's 2 times a month. Now it's once a year. I still get, pizza, Chinese or Greek take out though. I don't eat out at chain restaurants.
We eat out a lot bc we are not good cooks and to save time. We always yelp and urban spoon before we go, but were lucky to live in a place with lots of local restaurants and food trucks. The only chains we go to are McCormick schmicks, glorias, places like that
we are on a food forum, most of us are foodies- yes, i agree we can cook delicious meals at home,,,much less expensive too...
but restaurants, do employ alot of people,, many of us (or friends/family) may have worked at restaurants at one time or another... even tho i dislike the trend thats happened-even up here in rural maine-the chains have taken over
I am kind of ambivalent about the chains. They generally pay better than a lot of independents. They actually PAY the employees (most of us who have worked in the industry have lost a paycheck due to a sudden closing), and many offer benefits, including medical. Most of the locals - even the very PROFITABLE ones - have few benefits, even for long-term employees.
I have been eating at home a lot more because my wife and I go out. I will ask her what she thought and she'll say, "you could have done better than that meal." When I drop $40 on a meal that I could have made for about $8 at home, I am starting to agree that I would prefer to stay home.
Wait staff: What can I get for you guys. Are you guys doing O. K. You guys come back.
Me: When you learn to address us in a respectful way, you may see us again or when we get the next gift card and need to use it. I would do it weekly; but I am not a guy, never have been a guy, never will be a guy and don't want to be called a guy.
I like to try new food and don't mind paying for it; but it ruins my meal when I am called a guy. I have mentioned what the word means the the wait staff thought I was joking. They laughed and kept calling me a guy. So rude.
Also so many of the wait staff do not behave in a professional way. Sometimes you get the feeling they may be on drugs.
Having been a server for 5 years I understand what you guys are talking about service wise. I guess that's why I made so much money as I was a very good server. To be honest with you, its not hard to be a server. You just need to be able to multitask. However, it's hard for me to go out to restaurants and not be judgmental against the server.
YEAHHH I stopped doing restaurants years ago. Like 2 or 4. I used to love outback steakhouse around my way until the food that used to be better than sex started to taste like a55 instead. I think its all the cheap labor that's being hired and replaced by the really good chefs that actually had schooling. The cheaper labor doesn't know how to REALLY cook the food.
PLUS I'd always get sick, food poisoning or something by the 2nd or 3rd place. Thats why I actually cut down to little to none years before that.
And after seeing shows like Kitchen Nightmares where a lot of restaurants serve decayed or stale food and how bad they keep their kitchens nasty. And on top of that just seeing how every single chef on TV cooks, stirs, rolls, flips, and massages most if not all of the food with their hands instead of utensils. I totally quit. I'm too much of a germ-a -phob for that crap. Definitely why I was getting food poisoning 1 out of 3 times. You know most people aren't washing their hands at all, and even if you did, there's no way you're getting the crap up under your fingernails before you just hand molested my meatballs. Just gross. I dont even touch my own raw meat before I cook it. I use tongs.
Nah Im good cooking organic and natural at home. The healthiest I stayed back to back in years.
Now my sister and bro in law eat out every single day. She doesnt have time to cook. And she stays sick.
Plus like you said not that healthy with all the salt and dont know what's in it. Chemicals from seasoning. Might be a pain in the ass to cook your own stuff but in the end better for u.
Maybe you shouldn't expect to pay $9.95 and have the Earth revolve around you? Just a thought.
Also nobody in the free world says 'Supper'. I'm embarrassed for you. Clean it up.
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