Eating out...Reasoning the Restaurant Experience

I think the main draw to eating out for me is the company with which I go. While I do enjoy the solo-dining experience on occasion, I am more likely to go out for a meal with another. It seems to be one of the occasions when I have the acceptable undivided attention of the other person and no excuse or distraction from the conversation—except the food, of course!

Growing up, going to restaurants was a special occasion kind of event for my family. My parents are great cooks and love to do it, so it was always a kind of thing that we only would splurge for the really excellent restaurants, specialty, exotic food, or those nights we were especially lazy. Now that I am on my own, I eat out a lot more. Partly because I don’t always have the best place for entertaining, partly because I don’t yet have my parents’ cooking skills, and mostly because I always seem to be especially lazy…

Last week, I was on vacation and therefore eating out a lot—mostly for necessity’s sake. As I walked away from a recent meal with good friends in a sub-par location, I asked myself: do we care more about the company or the food? Like anything, it really does depend on the situation—and the expectations of the place, for that matter. If I am going out to order something specific, accompanied by a friend or not, I want that meal to be at least decent. If my aim is to spend time with a person, I tend not to worry about the quality of the restaurant as much.

The meal that brought these thoughts to mind took place on Saturday when I went out to brunch with some old friends at a restaurant that I thought looked rather nice. A few hours later, we had played many rounds of cards as we waited for the waitress to take our order, we finally received our food after we watched it waiting on the bar getting cold, there was excessive amounts of cheese smothering the under-seasoned potatoes and my omelet was stuffed with under-cooked vegetables (at least the eggs were cooked through!), the juice was too sweet, the toast too buttery and our waters finally showed up with the check. Does this sound like complaining? Needless to say, it was a pretty shit meal with pretty shit service. But you know, I didn’t mind it. I enjoyed the company of my friends and even though I lost at cards, we had good conversation and few laughs. It was the kind of brunch my hung-over body and fried brain called for at that moment.

So maybe sometimes we do want the classic dining experience with the bells and whistles to enhance the hopefully tasty food. But sometimes, spending that extra dollar in a restaurant is really just an excuse to spend time with others and possibly to drink more… without feeling the guilt of a morning bar trip!