i have many. having worked in the restaurant biz for ever, knowing what the mark ups are, it's tough to eat out at all. we almost exclusively go to places where we don't know how to make the food. (indian and whatnot)
and i won't buy coffee or water anywhere. ridiculous.
I work in a restaurant and I go out to eat maybe 3-4 times a year. Usually only go to a local joint I like as an excuse to leave a big tip.
I'm no 5-star chef, but my job is to prepare good food on a budget for a living. Going out to eat, for me, makes as much sense as carpenter paying someone to build their deck. Certainly with you on the Indian food thing. I can do something passable, but I'm happy to pay a pro for some delicious Indian food.
The in-laws, God bless'em, do invite us out to dinner from time to time. Always some stupid chain. I'm very good at making excuses to get out of it. On the times I cave, it's just absolutely miserable. People literally waiting 30, 45 minutes, an hour just to get a table to eat some horribly overpriced crap from a chain just blows my mind. On the rare occasion I get roped into that, all I can think is we could have swung by the grocery store and be drinking beer by the grill making something awesome in half the time.
For the markups, that's why I only go to local places. I believe there are basically only 2 ways to make money in the restaurant industry.
A chain going for scale where they generally underpay employees, overcharge customers, and use their weight to squeeze suppliers. They have big ad budgets that allow them to get away with this.
If a restaurant can hire new 18 year olds every week to pull this off, that's a pretty sweet business model, but I ain't eating there.
The other way is a local joint where the owner (in a lot of cases, the whole family) is in the business working their ### off to provide a great service at a great value. That's where I spend money when I do.