We do have a favourite restaurant nearby, and the food there is always excellent. We know the owner and chef as well as all the wait staff. They take reservations--a must for me--and they will make alterations to any dish (don't like arcadian greens for your salad? they'll sub romaine; prefer no garlic? they'll leave it out). They have a weekly menu of special appetizer, soup, salad, fish, and meat or pasta entree. It's a wonderful place, but pricey. Rick would go there every single week, but I am the rain on his parade.
Here is a list of my
Picky Restaurant Behaviours
1. I do not eat outside.
2. I cannot be seated anywhere near an air conditioning vent.
3. I will not sit at a banquette.
4. I will not wait longer than 15 minutes for a table.
5. I will not order anything that I can make easily at home.
6. I generally do not get beef.
7. I do not sit at the bar.
8. I do not and never will order the salmon.
I feel like so many of these are things you already know about me or can intuit from reading me all this time. My aversion to camping should make #1 clear. I'm not about to pay money for a meal and then fight the elements to enjoy it. I'm also not going to sit at a long bench and share my meal with strangers. Banquettes are the picnic tables of the restaurant industry. Same with sitting at the bar.
There is a steakhouse in the area that does not take reservations. It has something called Call Ahead Seating, which I have no understanding of. People show up there and wait as long as an hour or more just to eat. I find that preposterous. Nothing is worth that. I detest waiting for anything, especially if I have an appointment time.
Sometimes we go to our favourite restaurant--after making a reservation and asking for our favourite server, Lynn--and for a meal I get an appetizer and a salad. And a French 75. And then a creme brulee, because they serve theirs warm, which is so lovely. I try not to add up my part of the bill in my head and get crabby because that ruins the evening for me. Especially if I remembered to bring a sweater.
Am I crazy, or do you have some picky restaurant behaviours, too?
I think your list sounds quite reasonable... and I doubt you're a bear about anything if it's not to your liking. I don't mind communal seats at restaurants (A detests them), but I too wouldn't be able to abide having to wait to eat... plus I would get so hangry!
ReplyDeleteHave you seen a film called "The Menu," which is about restaurants that take themselves oh so seriously? That said, we have a date marked on the family calendar so we can try to get reservations at a restaurant that makes them available just two weeks in advance, and they reputedly go quick. They won best chef NY state from the James Beard Foundation in 2025, so I guess they're entitled to do what they want!
I love a list of quirks!! We rarely eat out and that was the case even before we had kids. Now we eat out even less frequently. I eat out quite often when traveling for work, so when I am home I want to eat simple things prepared at home. Plus I have a gluten intolerance so I can rarely order what I truly want off the menu. I also nearly always factor the price into my decision.
ReplyDeletePhil is a ‘cost/bite’ maximizer kind of person. I will eat at fancier places that have a high price point since we eat out so infrequently. There is one more upscale place that we both love. It’s where we went the night we got engaged and where we tend to celebrate our anniversary. Except that never happened this past May so we are finally going there in December with another couple!
I don't go out to eat very often, unless we are travelling, then of course we do. I also like to order things I wouldn't normally get, but it depends what the veg options are in a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI can say that I agree with everything on your list, except I've never paid attention to the AC vents, but I probably should add that to my list. Around my area, restaurants tend to be very inconsistent - great one time, horrible the next, so I rarely go out to eat because of that.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have some picky restaurant behaviors, and I agree 100% that a banquette is unacceptable. I do not want to eat with strangers. One of my restaurant pet peeves is places that have paper towels at the table. No. I want a napkin. I feel like those paper towel rolls must be swimming with germs. I also refuse to eat at places that serve food in baskets or trays. I do not have faith that anyone washes the baskets or trays; my guess is that most people think the paper lining they throw under the food is enough of a sanitary procedure. But I disagree. I also hate sitting at high top tables. I like my feet on the ground, thank you. The other night my husband and I went to a restaurant and they seated us at a high top -- and it was the only option. Even though we had a reservation. I was irritated. I even had to switch spots with my husband because the bench I sat on was so high my feet were dangling. I cannot eat with dangling feet, Nance! I can't do it and I won't!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big restaurant fan either. If we aren't eating in (at home), we usually get takeout. I don't love other people. 🤣
ReplyDeleteYou're favorite restaurant looks lovely, though- like somewhere I'd actually enjoy going out to eat. And creme brulee is my favorite dessert.
I like a woman who knows what she wants, and you clearly do. I am a big fan of an appetizer and a salad for dinner. I went and checked out your restaurant, and I want the first three appetizers, so that’s going to be hard to figure out. Is the Caesar salad good? I love a good Caesar salad, but a mediocre one is so disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI do not share a lot of your requirements. I love to sit under the a/c if it is remotely hot out, because I overheat easily. I love to sit outside if it’s nice. I don’t like waiting for a table, and certainly will not wait longer than 10-15 minutes. I rarely eat beef at a restaurant, it’s so expensive and I can make it at home. But sometimes I will, and Ted almost always does. I have my own nitpicks though. I hate when they ask you to keep your silverware between courses (though I understand that it’s ecologically better to not wash twice as many sets of silver, I still don’t like it.) I want a cloth napkin. I don’t like high top seating. Mostly I don’t want to sit at the bar, though Ted and I had an experience lately where we really enjoyed it. I don’t want them to say ‘no problem’ to me about anything. I have more, but I can’t remember them right now.
I’m with you on every single one of those restaurant rules, especially these:
ReplyDelete— Being directly under the AC vent: TORTURE. I used to carry a “restaurant sweater” for things like that, but eventually just insisted on being seated elsewhere. (Pretty sure that’s something that would trigger one of your awful migraines, Nance.)
— I hate banquette seating. The curvy semicircle ones make me feel like everyone is seated around a trough.
— Waiting to be seated: Yes, anything longer than 15 minutes has me antsy. If I really, really want to eat at a popular restaurant, I just make a reservation which usually gets us seated right away. I find it so ironic that people will wait for almost an hour to be seated, and then spend another half an hour devouring the contents of a bread basket, followed by wolfing down the main course + dessert in less time than it took them to eat all the bread. Which caused them to get a take-home box, a.k.a., the infamous doggie bag. Dining out should be leisurely and as elegant as our purses permit. Also: Any time you need a doggie bag, it usually means they serve voluminous portions to compensate for inferior food quality.
To your list, I would add:
— I will not order sophisticated wines in a restaurant. If I want wine with a meal, I order the best deal on a white wine that I trust. It’s cheaper than red wines (which I also really like) and I refuse to pay their ripoff prices for a large, elegant glass that’s only about 1/4 full. The price of a couple of glasses in a restaurant sometimes rivals what a whole bottle of the same wine costs if you bought it to drink at home. I’m interested in your thoughts on this: not sure if I’m preaching to the choir here or what your preferences are when dining out. Being the wine connoisseur that you are, you would know a whole lot more about how to get the best deal in a restaurant!