People are often surprised when I don't find the idea of going to a restaurant with them too appealing. ("Let's go over there! What, no?"). I think I can come up with quite a few reasons why I dislike having to go over to those places on order just to have myself fed.

1. Restaurant food is on general quite substandard and disappointing compared to the way it's been advertised and written in lifestyle-magazines etc. And it doesn't in reality get better just because you're being a lot of money for it.

2. Yeah sure, there does exist excellent restaurant food at those fancier places - but it's not like most people could afford it. And it's just stupid to pay that much for a meal, seriously. When you can eat for a week or two for the same price, it's bordering on absurd. It's just food.

3. As a vegetarian I find the vegetarian meals at regular restaurants quite odd and clumsy. They're trying their best to be imaginative, but usually have no idea what vegetarians on the general like to eat. Again, not worth the price.

4. It's not the most comfortable feeling for a vegetarian to sit for hours in a place that reeks of meat. Most people don't realize it, but as the vast majority of people at restaurants like to order somekind of a steak the whole place is bound to reek of it. And if you haven't eaten meat in ages yourself you must be aware how revolting that smell can be.

5. How can anybody's job still in the 21st century be carrying food from the kitchen to the table for a paying customer? I mean what's the point really for anybody to make a living out of something as unnecessary as that? It's a strange form of suppressive social class-dividing luxury that somehow got carried along to modern times from aristocrat lifestyle. Yeah sure, these days people with smaller salaries can go out as well once or twice a month and pretend like they actually could afford to demean those who are there to serve them.

6. Having lived in London for sometime I really realized how exploitative the catering business really is. It takes advantage of immigrants in a very barbaric way and only emphasizes the social-class divisions pointed out earlier. The people also live mostly in terrible conditions, yet have to pay huge rents as well to be able to live anywhere nearby where they are supposed to work (and this is something most don't realize). Yeah, they sure should be just grateful to "get the opportunity" to start a new prospering life in a new civilized country. And remember, having to work as a waitress is just "temporary", you can advance to greater things in life "later on".

7. Tipping. I wouldn't mind to tip (actually I don't have to do that over here), but I really do not approve of a social practise as such. If you tip somebody in Northern Europe it's considered even somewhat rude and demeaning. And it really is. It's not about making ends meet, the legislation should guarantee everybody a decent living and a minimum wage. Pay your damn taxes.

8. I can cook myself, thank you very much.

Have a nice day all, and avoid those satanic restaurants during your lunch-break!

I would rather cook a nice dinner at home, thank you very much
I LOVE to cook. And, i'm a germ freak so I don't eat out much.

I work at what you call a Satanic restaurant lol. It's a small family owned place where pretty much everything is homemade. I also take a lot of pride in my job. But I guess being served by people working in a satanic restaurant is not for everyone

Oh Nova, you forgot to mention how eating out gets ya FAT! ..

Nova is right.

But go to a real italian homemade kinda restaurant. Where they have these HUGE entrees , and they keep bringing food out to u. And its pretty reasonably priced.

And you'll feel like a Roman Senator rather than a devil worshippper.

BBC London
The £85 sandwich
'Most expensive sandwich' on sale
Will the bacon sarnie ever seem the same again?
Hungry shoppers are being offered the chance to eat a gourmet sandwich, but the £85 price tag might be too much for some to swallow.
The McDonald sandwich - named after its creator Scott McDonald, the chef at London department store Selfridges - is said to be the world's most expensive.
Its cost is down to the Wagyu beef that makes up most of the filling, packed in a 24-hour fermented sour dough bread.
There have been at least five advance orders placed for the 21oz (595g) meal.
Wagyu cattle are one of the most expensive breeds in the world.
The Japanese cows are raised on a special diet, including beer and grain.
They are supposed to be regularly massaged with sake, the Japanese rice wine, to tenderize the flesh.
Mr McDonald denied his creation was a "sandwich for snobs", saying its beauty was in its simplicity.
"The flavours marry, it's not complicated - albeit a little bit rich," he told BBC London.
Food and catering director at Selfridges on Oxford Street, Ewan Venters, who commissioned the sandwich, said they expected it to be a hit with local "foodies".
"I think if you are a food lover, this represents great value for money," he said.
"Some of the finest ingredients from around the world have been used to create this fabulous sandwich."
The ingredients of the sandwich are: Wagyu beef, fresh lobe foie gras, black truffle mayonnaise, brie de meaux, rocket, red pepper and mustard confit and English plum tomatoes.

You would LOVE California I go out w/ my veg friend all the time & it's never an issue - we can always easily find places to eat (actually it's not even a thought, there's just always good veg stuff on the menu) & the places usually don't smell like meat

hmmm ermmm .. ehh ... well ... nova ... i had to look at how old you are .... and then i was like ....

when i was 26 ... i was all into gettin laid ... women ... etc .... and i hung out with a 40+/- yr old dude ... who taught me alot about life, and work ... etc .... we were in sales together and this guy was a natural SALESMAN ... u know the kind ... the one that everything he touches turns to gold .... and ... he could sell swampland in FLA ... etc ...

well --- i was always talkin about girls ... dating ... etc ... and he was always talking about FOOD ... and restaurants .... and i was like ... oh my gott ... is this what i have to look forward to ???

now that i am 40 ... well ... i still think about women alot ... but i .... well .... can understand alil better ....

There must not be any good restaurants where you live.

generally speaking, i prefer to cook my own meals, but every now and then i gotta have some chinese take-out ora good falafel sandwich with grape leaves. eating at restaurants all the time is a bad habit to fall into, and you're always playing russian roulette with food poisoning/contamination.

catpark said:

I read about this yesterday...

I don't care how rich or successful you are, how much disposable income you have... when there are people starving outside the very place which is selling these, £85 on a poxy sandwich is disgusting.

Sometimes it seems like it's more expensive to go out and buy all the ingredients to make a certain dish, than to just go to a restaurant and order it. I cook for myself 9 times out of 10, but it's mainly the same old plain jane food. Once in a while when I wanna cook something I saw on FoodTV for example, by the time I go buy all the stuff at the grocery store to make it, I just dropped like $60, and I probabbly won't use the stuff again so it goes to waste. Like I'm really gonna need oyster sauce or rice wine or capers...

I guess it's different in other countries, but in the US, tipping isn't just a courtesy, its the server's wages. It's kind of irritating though that restaurants can do this (pay people like $2 an hour) and leave it up to the guests to pay for the service themselves. There's too many cheapskates out there who love to find an excuse to avoid leaving a tip. They ought to just up the menu prices a little and pay the servers a reasonable hourly rate.

Then you have people who go into restaurants and complain about everything, but for some reason they still keep going there to eat.

Tom said:

oyster sauce: any chicken dish...

rice wine: I was thinking cucumber salad but that's rice vinegar, huh?

capers: excellent on a bagel w/ cream cheese


Just playin' devil's advocate

Tom said:

screw food tv! it's good cooking porn, but i wouldn't use it as a guide to sensible home cooking. there are lots of good cookbooks out there that have tons of recipes that require a minimum of ingredients. in fact, one that i really like is called "healthy cooking for people who don't have time to cook". it has a north african stew recipe that i swear by, and all the ingredients cost a total of about ten bucks.

and as for people who try to get around tipping, i gotta say it: IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO TIP, YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO GO OUT. period. end of story.

Novabreaker said:

you forgot something:

when prepared and served by strangers, your food may contain a little something extra, like e-coli etc.

My Uncle Dennis NEVER eats at any kind of resturant either. In my whole life, Ive never seen him eat at one. I understand why one would be concerned, but gee wiz.

You just don't want to give anybody a tip, that's your problem.

Anx said:

[Edited 4/12/06 21:58pm]

wow.

i can honestly say i've never heard anything like this before! not that its a bad opinion or anything like that, its just...well, very different from anything i've ever heard.

i think i go out for sushi 5 times a week, if not lunch then dinner. sometimes i even get it on my way home from the gym just as a snack. i also love to go out for ethiopian food and indian cuisine! then there's some really good moroccan food or some delicious senegalese...mmmmm! let's not even talk about the delicious (and vegetarian/vegan) chicago diner!

now all of that is stuff that i just don't know how to make and, quite frankly, i like to pamper myself with a nice dinner out. its all relatively cheap so money isn't really a concern. i'll admit i have a problem going out for italian because i can make it at home (usually better) for a fraction of the cost but even then, if its an especially reputable place, italian is not out of the question.

i just LOVE to eat and i love to eat out.

2freaky4church1 said:

Please do some research on other countries other than your beloved USA, before putting forward your usual crap. There are no tipping practises everywhere. Tipping is condsidered DEMEANING over here. in fact if the personnel's monthly income would depend on something like that the workers' unions would seek out ways to close down such places here. Like I said, things like that should go into taxes, you shouldn't make more money than the other waitresses at your work place just because you have bigger breasts than them.

Novabreaker said:

i wait tables...well, for 3 more days but nonetheless...and i don't have breasts. i do very well for myself because i work my ass off, not because i have some feature people like.

tipping, by the way, is most certainly not demeaning (in the states) and because a culture doesn't tip does not make the act of tipping somehow degrading nor does it make the society that does tip somehow less civilized. that may not have been what you meant but that's how it came off.

in two days worth of work i make almost as much as my boyfriend does all week. he is not underpaid and i am not in a fancy restaurant (the average bill for two people is about $25). last month i made about $2000 and i only worked about 13 days. i don't get a paycheck because that money (3 something an hour...to be honest i don't even know my hourly wage because its irrelevant) goes towards my taxes. yes, waiters in the states pay taxes.

i don't mean to come off harsh and if i do, i apologize. sometimes i just get easily annoyed when people talk about service jobs and don't know what they're talking about.

sallysassalot said:

Well, my experiences come from observing immigrant workers in London for several months of living in hostels and other forms of lousy accomodation. You'll certainly realize there what type of an exploitative business the catering industry is. I couldn't believe my eyes (or ears) when I saw what kind of treatment those people would have to go through. How they were living and how often they didn't get payed like they should had. I don't think there was anything funny with that, and certainly my attitude towards the whole walk of life come from those days. Where there is demand for work-force the employees get paid better (depending on the location), however, when there are hundreds of thousands of undereducated people seeking out for a better life it's easy to take advantage of them - and most certainly people do.



Well, sorry I don't agree. It's just one form of medieval commerce that was preserved in some areas around the globe in order to maintain social-class divisions. Do you know for instance why they still drive on the left side of the street in many countries? Or rather why it was originally arranged so? It's because centuries ago the noblemen could more easily slash the peasants on the roads with their swords while riding on their horses. Maybe a bit harsh and a redundant example, but societies are still filled with all kinds of marks from them "good old days".

I'm glad you can make your ends meet, but this is not the case everywhere in the world or not probably even at all the places where you live. Sure, I've come across people who've made a decent income this way too (in fact a lot of young girls seem to be ecstatic about the money they've made from tips) but that's not speaking of the phenomenon structurally in a satisfactory way. Dunno, maybe there's a marxian communist living inside of me, but the reason why there has been a huge increase in services like the catering industry or the nightlife industry over the last decade is because somebody obviously realized they've got to harness the central areas of the city to become more profitable 24 hours a day. You don't want to leave the city streets empty even when people were supposed to be sleeping or with their families - and why let them make their own meals when there is more money to be made on the whole if you add up several more people in the process and include the extra costs at every step? All the magazines, TV programmes etc. are promoting this "out-going" lifestyle on full-force and with what outcome? People haven't got a slightest idea what to do with their lives anymore. When people think it's "fancy" or that it will make them seem more prestigious in the eyes of others to have someone else preparing their food for them and paying a little bit of extra also for a third person to carry the meal the several meters from the kitchen to the table for them, something is seriously wrong with the way societies are organized. Paying more for better tasting food than you can make on your own I can find understandable, but something is very fishy about the whole phenomenon when observed a bit more broadly than settling for just having to work only three days a week and getting more money than a boyfriend.

Like I originally said, I'm rather alone with my views. And the thread was meant to be humoristic from the starters anyway.