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Have you changed your habits on eating out? (1 Viewer)

Chadstroma

Chadstroma

Footballguy
Chain restaurants are dropping like flies or at least closing tons of locations. It seems that less people are going out to eat these days.... I am sure inflation has a lot to do it with it. I mean, the cost of a meal and then expectation to tip at places that you use to never have to tip out is crazy.

I know we have lessened how much we eat out.

What about you? Less? About the same? More?

Why do you think all these eating places are shutting down?
 
Food got good, chain restaurants aren't good enough. If I'm eating at a restaurant, it will be something more interesting - the local Thai, Korean, Lebanese, or Kebab spot.

Also, we eat at restaurants less. Takeout fast food if I need something while out, otherwise home food. Occasionally an interesting local ethnic cuisine.
 
Personally, do take out 2-3 times a week. Go out once or twice every two weeks.

We are very happy eating at home in pajama and not worried about driving if we have some drinks (which is not often these days).
 
We go out substantially less than we used to. The change is mostly post-covid and is somewhat attributable to getting used to not going out coupled with a desire to eat healthier. So we cook most meals at home but usually go out for Saturday and sometimes Sunday lunch. None of it is economics driven.
 
We eat out more now because unlike when the kids were small we have disposable income. Our choices haven't changed though- we didn't go to chains then and we still don't for the reason Tick cited. If we're paying for restaurant food it's for something good and we want to keep our $ local.
 
For the last three years, we have been stationed in Japan and our eating out/ bringing in habits have significantly increased due to the weak yen rate(¥150 to $1). On 6 June, we transition back to the US and I suspect our eating habits will change. Although, I still expect us to probably eat out/bring in at least 3-5 times a week. It just won’t be a couple meals per day anymore.
 
idk, went out to eat at a place last week, was less than a quarter full, but, still had a 40 minute wait for food because they had 50 doordash and uber eats orders... line of guys waiting to pick up was out the door. :loco:
 
Rarely eat out anymore. As for tipping, the US needs two big culture changes IMO.

1) pay the employees a higher hourly wage and get rid of the tipping. I've stopped tipping except when there is table service. Service is fine in Europe where there isn't tipping. Managers can simply fire someone for doing a bad job if someone gets lazy from it. It's called managing your employees. Maybe US restaurant managers should make an attempt at it.

2) ditch the imperial measurement system. There's a reason other countries kids learn math easier. It isn't hard to multiply by 10, 100, 1000. Instead our kids are spending elementary school learning how to convert ounces to gallons and yards to miles. Is there anything less meaningful? Meanwhile kids in India and China use those early years to learn calculus. US, Liberia and Myanmar are the only countries dumb enough to use the imperial system. Why we make it harder on our next generations is beyond me. It's so f'n stupid.
 
I've reduced eating out over the past 5 years due to improvements in tracking my health and my spending. Restaurants don't help either.
 
We've definitely curbed our spend with restaurants. We typically get something after church on Sundays and cook the rest of the week. We used to be on a 2-4 day a week restaurant rotation but in the last year? 2? prices have gotten rather ridiculous and it's just not worth it. Last Sunday picked up Chipotle for two. Two bowls, two bags of chips, side of salsa. With tip, $33. Used to be under $25.
 
We eat out, or take out, more now than we did a couple of years ago. Try to stick with local, non-chain, restaurants where we live and when we travel.
 
I eat out about twice a week, but never at a chain unless you consider a place like Capital Craft a chain. Have a place for mexican, japanese, korean, afghani and american (Capital Craft) that we rotate through. All between 40-80 total for two of us (no drinks aside from $3 modellos at capital craft). This is all new to me now that I have a lady friend and I'm at a stage in my life where I've gone from super saving to indulging more and more.
 
Eat out the same but since the cost of fast food, chains, local are all about the same now you might as well go to the better places for a marginal difference in price.
 
Brunell4MVP said:
2) ditch the imperial measurement system. There's a reason other countries kids learn math easier. It isn't hard to multiply by 10, 100, 1000. Instead our kids are spending elementary school learning how to convert ounces to gallons and yards to miles. Is there anything less meaningful? Meanwhile kids in India and China use those early years to learn calculus. US, Liberia and Myanmar are the only countries dumb enough to use the imperial system. Why we make it harder on our next generations is beyond me. It's so f'n stupid.
Click to expand...
I agree with the overall intent but the imperial system doesn't have anything to do with learning math easier or harder. Unit conversions were not a big aspect of the math curriculum as far as I could tell so I really don't think it is prohibiting Americans from learning math "easier".
 
Gally said:
Brunell4MVP said:
2) ditch the imperial measurement system. There's a reason other countries kids learn math easier. It isn't hard to multiply by 10, 100, 1000. Instead our kids are spending elementary school learning how to convert ounces to gallons and yards to miles. Is there anything less meaningful? Meanwhile kids in India and China use those early years to learn calculus. US, Liberia and Myanmar are the only countries dumb enough to use the imperial system. Why we make it harder on our next generations is beyond me. It's so f'n stupid.
Click to expand...
I agree with the overall intent but the imperial system doesn't have anything to do with learning math easier or harder. Unit conversions were not a big aspect of the math curriculum as far as I could tell so I really don't think it is prohibiting Americans from learning math "easier".
Click to expand...
The Imperial system is never going to be changed in the US. I laugh at folks that think otherwise. Not happening.
 
beer 30 said:
Gally said:
Brunell4MVP said:
2) ditch the imperial measurement system. There's a reason other countries kids learn math easier. It isn't hard to multiply by 10, 100, 1000. Instead our kids are spending elementary school learning how to convert ounces to gallons and yards to miles. Is there anything less meaningful? Meanwhile kids in India and China use those early years to learn calculus. US, Liberia and Myanmar are the only countries dumb enough to use the imperial system. Why we make it harder on our next generations is beyond me. It's so f'n stupid.
Click to expand...
I agree with the overall intent but the imperial system doesn't have anything to do with learning math easier or harder. Unit conversions were not a big aspect of the math curriculum as far as I could tell so I really don't think it is prohibiting Americans from learning math "easier".
Click to expand...
The Imperial system is never going to be changed in the US. I laugh at folks that think otherwise. Not happening.
Click to expand...
Agreed. If it hasn't happened by now it will never happen.
 
beer 30 said:
Gally said:
Brunell4MVP said:
2) ditch the imperial measurement system. There's a reason other countries kids learn math easier. It isn't hard to multiply by 10, 100, 1000. Instead our kids are spending elementary school learning how to convert ounces to gallons and yards to miles. Is there anything less meaningful? Meanwhile kids in India and China use those early years to learn calculus. US, Liberia and Myanmar are the only countries dumb enough to use the imperial system. Why we make it harder on our next generations is beyond me. It's so f'n stupid.
Click to expand...
I agree with the overall intent but the imperial system doesn't have anything to do with learning math easier or harder. Unit conversions were not a big aspect of the math curriculum as far as I could tell so I really don't think it is prohibiting Americans from learning math "easier".
Click to expand...
The Imperial system is never going to be changed in the US. I laugh at folks that think otherwise. Not happening.
Click to expand...
Also, the imperial system has nothing to do with tipping or restaurant prices. I admire the "metric system or bust" shtick, but it's being misapplied here.
 
Tend to eat out more, usually drive through or delivery apps due to schedules and convenience. Plus buying groceries isn't saving much money either.

Plus from what I have seen, the places closing are the mediocre chains that do not offer anything special or different than the next one. Especially when they have several within a short distance of each other.
 
Prefer to eat at home mostly and prepare my own food. We might take something to go from a local place maybe once a week. Dining out is less than twice a month and often not at all. Nothing has changed for me in many years.
 
Ron Swanson said:
We go out substantially less than we used to. The change is mostly post-covid and is somewhat attributable to getting used to not going out coupled with a desire to eat healthier. So we cook most meals at home but usually go out for Saturday and sometimes Sunday lunch. None of it is economics driven.
Click to expand...
This is me, although SOME of it is economics driven. Seeing dinner bills now and the quality/amount of food received and I just can't justify spending that much money other than every once in a while. Back in the day when the kids were young and we always had multiple activities going on all over town, it was super convenient to go out 2-3 times per week and the dinner bills were generally in the 40-75 buck range. Now, it's easily more than that for 2 of us and I just would rather eat at home most all of the time. I completely understand I'm frugal cheap when it comes to food as I'm more of a eat to live kind of guy than live to eat. I'll shoot the locks off the wallet on experiences and restaurants these days are not that.
 
Osaurus said:
Prefer to eat at home mostly and prepare my own food. We might take something to go from a local place maybe once a week. Dining out is less than twice a month and often not at all. Nothing has changed for me in many years.
Click to expand...
We are not as hungry in the evening as we used to be, so dinners are lighter and sometimes we just do leftovers or quick things that ware around the house.

so on weekends, we might go out for lunch and do that for dinner
 
Brunell4MVP said:
Rarely eat out anymore. As for tipping, the US needs two big culture changes IMO.

1) pay the employees a higher hourly wage and get rid of the tipping. I've stopped tipping except when there is table service. Service is fine in Europe where there isn't tipping. Managers can simply fire someone for doing a bad job if someone gets lazy from it. It's called managing your employees. Maybe US restaurant managers should make an attempt at it.

2) ditch the imperial measurement system. There's a reason other countries kids learn math easier. It isn't hard to multiply by 10, 100, 1000. Instead our kids are spending elementary school learning how to convert ounces to gallons and yards to miles. Is there anything less meaningful? Meanwhile kids in India and China use those early years to learn calculus. US, Liberia and Myanmar are the only countries dumb enough to use the imperial system. Why we make it harder on our next generations is beyond me. It's so f'n stupid.
Click to expand...
If you really think the Imperial vs Metric system is why US kids are behind most of the world in math..... I don't know man.... that is wild. There are at least 100 other contributing factors as to why the US struggling before you even get to the debate of whether this is even a factor or not.
 
We mostly grab the kids a burger or whatever running from sport events, etc. other than that, we don't really eat out. It's expensive, not healthy typically, and often the quality is not there. I enjoy cooking at home anyway.

There was bound to be a retraction with inflation. Consumers money just doesn't go as far......also, it's hard for restaurants to find dependable employees.
 
Drunken knight said:
Osaurus said:
Prefer to eat at home mostly and prepare my own food. We might take something to go from a local place maybe once a week. Dining out is less than twice a month and often not at all. Nothing has changed for me in many years.
Click to expand...
We are not as hungry in the evening as we used to be, so dinners are lighter and sometimes we just do leftovers or quick things that ware around the house.

so on weekends, we might go out for lunch and do that for dinner
Click to expand...
I didn’t imply that I ate large meals at night. More like salads and lighter fare in general.
 
Manster said:
There was bound to be a retraction with inflation. Consumers money just doesn't go as far......also, it's hard for restaurants to find dependable employees.
Click to expand...
One thing that I have been doing is eating more and more at the bar area at restaurants when it's just me and my wife. Servers tend to rollover quite a bit and nothing ruins a meal faster that poor service. However, bartenders tend to be at their job longer and are much better servers. Just my experience, but it's been pretty consistent the past few years.
 
Osaurus said:
Drunken knight said:
Osaurus said:
Prefer to eat at home mostly and prepare my own food. We might take something to go from a local place maybe once a week. Dining out is less than twice a month and often not at all. Nothing has changed for me in many years.
Click to expand...
We are not as hungry in the evening as we used to be, so dinners are lighter and sometimes we just do leftovers or quick things that ware around the house.

so on weekends, we might go out for lunch and do that for dinner
Click to expand...
I didn’t imply that I ate large meals at night. More like salads and lighter fare in general.
Click to expand...
i didn't interpret it that way. just talking about our habits (y)
 
During Covid we ate out a lot more, when allowed, to try and help the restaurants/bars stay in business and tipped 50-100% for the employees.
Then slowly went back to normal.
Now with inflation and higher costs we still eat out about the same, we've just gone to cheaper restaurants during happy hour more often.

~2 times a week.
 
i only have vague memories of bob's big boy from when i was about 10 yrs old. did they do a decent corned beef sandwich at the time?
 
Gally said:
Chadstroma said:
Funny thing.... Bob's Big Boy was like one of my favorite places as a very young kid (like 4 or 5ish age). And for whatever reason, I loved salad there with blue cheese dressing.
Click to expand...

That stuff is great. You can still get in the grocery store, but I see you hate it now so nevermind.
Click to expand...
Did Bob's have a special blue cheese dressing? I wonder if I really liked it because it was awesome or if I just happened to like salad with blue cheese and wanted to go to the place with the big statue outside of Bob's Big Boy.
 
Wife and I both work, plus kid has baseball mayhem this time of year so we have less time to cook dinner. Results in more takeout, not necessarily more in store dining.
 
We will eat out a couple of times a week, but don't eat at national chains too much anymore. The main reason is most of them have declined over the years. For the most part, portions and quality have declined while prices have increased. Not a good combination.
 
A little less but we never ate out that often anyway. Pizza on Friday nights, plus maybe 2-4 times throughout the month. Mostly for birthdays or a date night.
 
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, lunch and dinner, sometimes breakfast. We used to go out on Thursdays too but I usually cook on that night now. Most of the times, we'll have a big meal that covers lunch and dinner and get appetizers or something small that day if we're still hungry. All local places, no fast food. Depending on the place, we'll try to just have glasses of wine instead of a bottle. As long as it's only 1 glass each. Or I try to stick with just 1 beer but that rarely works. We also split a lot, get wings from the appetizer menu and split a sandwich. Portion control helps not only with the weight but the wallet. I keep a good happy hour list too and some days we'll just walk around the city hitting up a bunch of spots.
Most meals that used to be around $75 are now like $100. New normal I guess.
 
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