Restaurants you don't like but your friends do!

[lulu]

Last night I drove to London to meet with some friends for supper. Restaurant was someone else's choice somewhere I'd never been. It was chosen on being cheap (in all it came to a staggeringly cheap £30 per person) and the decor and ambiance was fun, if incredibly contrived. But the food was not good. Greek/Turkish style starters (which I would guess were brought in)were the best thing about it, oh and the fresh fruit for pudding...and they had nice enough looking baclava which I didn't have....but the main course menus were so randomly confusing in origin and TBH, pretty poor in quality.

So I kept quiet and smiled while my non-foodie friends raved.....

how do you guys act when every one else likes a meal you don't like? And how hard to try to get them to spend £10 quid more next time for a vastly superior meal with less added glitter!

 

[Andy M.]

Smile and keep your mouth shut in most situations. Then suggest something different next time.

 

[Bilby]

I don't usually say I didn't like something unless I really didn't like it -but that is pretty rare. Normally, I would say this was good and that was good but they could have improved on x. And yeah, suggest somewhere else next time.

My friends and I are very critical of restaurants, as we often write reviews of our experiences. In doing that, you look at restaurants through slightly different eyes. As our reviews are published on the web, other people can comment, as can the restaurants themselves. That also helps to look at restaurants differently. Sometimes there is more to a restaurant though than just the food it serves. People's judgements can be swayed by a good or memorable time that they had at a restaurant, and think that everything about it was good. (Over here we have a lot of mediocre restaurants that do large cheap cocktails and it is amazing how great the food is then to some people! When they go again and don't drink they still think the food is good but not as good as they remember it. Those people will often take a few attempts of below average food to give up on the place. Holding on to a memory.)

Another option when you just have to go there again is it might be possible to chose dishes that are perhaps just very basic dishes that the restaurant is less likely to stuff up, and so you may find them more attractive to you. And if a simple dish fails in front of your friends, they might see the restaurant for what it is.

 

[suziquzie]

Sorry, but Applebee's. We always end up there and I have a salad 'cuz the menu is so boring.

 

[Jeekinz]

Andy, the squeaky wheel always gets greased.

Say you got sick from dinner last night.

 

[Robo410]

well dining out with friends can be a compromise, try for variety of places, new places, and even plan for "splurge night" at a fancy place

 

[jpmcgrew]

Andy, the squeaky wheel always gets greased.

Say you got sick from dinner last night.

Yes,but if the squeaky wheel is too squeaky it gets replaced.

 

[Andy M.]

Andy, the squeaky wheel always gets greased.

Say you got sick from dinner last night.

It really depends on the circumstances. If going to dinner together is a frequent occasion, I'd say something so I wouldn;t have to go back. If it's an occasional thing, I wouldn't, on the basis that it probably wouldn't come up again as a choice.

I wouldn't lie about getting sick to get out of it.

For example, my two daughters took me out to dinner Wednesday night. I had a less than enjoyable meal but said nothing since it's one daughter's favorite restaurant. I can suggest a change of venue next time or order something I like better.

 

[kitchenelf]

I usually have "issues" with the larger food chains. Some are surprisingly wonderful....just not all of them.

 

[ChefJune]

I'm afraid I'm terribly critical of restaurant food. Where I wouldn't ever comment at dinner at a private home, I'm of the opinion that any place at all that offers food for sale, be it hot dog joint or top tier restaurant, owes its patrons the VERY best whatever it is. EVERY day it's open for business, every single meal. Anything less than their very best is just not acceptable.

I held myself to those same standards when I was cooking for customers, as well.

I do compromise when dining out with friends, but if they suggest a place I know I don't like, I'll suggest another in the same genre, or ask for a rain check. Been to Red Lobster once, won't ever do THAT again!

 

[*amy*]

I'm open to new restaurants. If a friend liked it and wants to go I'll give it a shot. If it's an inexpensive restaurant (cheap I think you called it), may depend on the dish you order - that you like. I have a problem with expensive new restaurants that open in Beverly Hills, & such small portions, crowded & bad service (on occasion), that may be the only time I might converse w my friend & ask what he/she liked about the food or dishes to recommend. Mostly I keep my mouth shut if it's a place my friend likes -- or discuss later. No point in killing the meal, experience or friendship.

I remember one occasion a friend insisted on going to a specific expensive deli. I wasn't in the mood for deli, but I went. When we got there, she ordered an omelette. Enough said!

 

[Uncle Bob]

I'm afraid I'm terribly critical of restaurant food. Where I wouldn't ever comment at dinner at a private home, I'm of the opinion that any place at all that offers food for sale, be it hot dog joint or top tier restaurant, owes its patrons the VERY best whatever it is. EVERY day it's open for business, every single meal. Anything less than their very best is just not acceptable.

Bravo!!! I dropped 3 bills for a party of 5 about 3 weeks ago! I got very critical (and loud) with Management!! The next evening I called and was critical to the owner!!! Grrrrrrr! He offered to Comp the next visit!! No thank you sir, I will not be back! I would have been just as well off to go Red Lobster!! At least the little cheese biscuits are/were(?) good!!

If I am with friends/family, then I must be an Officer and Gentleman! Being courteous and well mannered is the order of the day! Especially if they are picking up the tab!!

 

[buckytom]

Been to Red Lobster once, won't ever do THAT again!

omg june, red lobster entrees are nothing short of a salt lick floating in a pool of cheap butter.

i was draged there recently, twice, by my wife and son. it won't happen again.

i can't wait 'till we can start going to decent restaurants again.

 

[lulu]

I love on mainland Europe that families are always welcome. Makes for beautifully behaved kids. At DH's office party in a private room in a disco/club last year there were even kids of sme of the lawyers...I did find that a wee bit odd, but it was ok.

I ate the most simple thing on the menu: salmon (overcooked with the odd bone) with champagne sauce...that looked disarmingly like cottage cheese. The texture was ....odd..but to be fair the taste of the sauce wasn't as awful as I was expecting!

 

[college_cook]

Unfortunately, my fiance loves Red Lobster... whenever her parents come to town and want to take us out for dinner that's her default choice... that or Cheeseburger in Paradise. I'll give CiP credit for making some really tasty alcoholic beverages, but RL, as someone said is the place to be for overcooked fish floating in cheap butter.

It's places like those that make me confident that perhaps I could succeed at owning a restaurant one day. I'm not even a chef, and as far as professional cooking goes, I'd say I'm a line cook of about average caliber. However, I DO know how to make a good hamburger, I do know how to get the temp correct on it. I also know how to cook seafood properly, and moreover, season it properly.

The restaurant I work in doesn't do anything particularly fancy, but we do it well, and we do it the way it should be done. Our duck is served with crispy (not burnt) skin and at MR or med. Our sauces are all made from scratch, with stocks made from scratch, our poultry and fish all butchered on site, and all of our steaks cut and trimmed on site.

We offer daily fish specials with really nice, really fresh fish.

Anytime we serve pasta with our fish special, we make it about 1 hour before service, from scratch.


I can't wait until the day comes when I move back to NW Indiana, lovingly referred to its inhabitants as "The Region". A 45 minute drive puts me in downtown Chicago, and while the first few trips I'll probably be obliged to make some obligatory stops like Big Bowl, the Grand Lux, I'd like to get to the Blackbird, Tru, maybe Allinea and Trotter's someday, and a little tiny pizza joint that I hope remains a secret. CPOG- Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders, where the 80-something y/o owner seats you himself every night, and remembers you by name rather than using a guestbook.

 

[buckytom]

college cook, are you close enough to chi-town to be considered a suburb? ya know, do people commute into the city from there?

populations aren't getting smaller, so it would be a good place to open a restaurant. either those on the edge of current day suburbia, or gentrifying areas.

 

[GB]

I am very lucky in that my friends all have the same sort of taste in restaurants that I do. None of my friends would ever suggest The Olive Garden. Rather they would say "Hey want to try that new Ethiopian place that just opened up?". I can not remember a time when we went somewhere and I was the only one disappointed while everyone else loved it.

If I were in that situation though I would try to keep my mouth shut unless asked. Then I would speak the truth, but as gentle as possible. The next time that restaurant is suggested I would suggest another one right on the heels of the first suggestion. "How about we go to The Olive Garden" "me: Or what about La Cantina?"

 

[VaporTrail]

Thirty pounds per person is 'staggeringly cheap'? Is my sarcasm detector borked again or were you serious?

If you were serious I'd love to have your resteraunt budget... roughly $60 US per person is up there in the 'once a year... maybe... if I'm good and do all my chores...' bracket for me.

Staggeringly cheap would be on the order of $15-20 per person for a nice restaraunt and good amount of food.

 

[ChefJune]

college cook, are you close enough to chi-town to be considered a suburb? ya know, do people commute into the city from there?

populations aren't getting smaller, so it would be a good place to open a restaurant. either those on the edge of current day suburbia, or gentrifying areas.

Bloomington, Indiana is closer to Indianapolis than Chicago. I can't imagine a daily commute to Chicago from there! Unless, that is, you consider flying your own plane.....

However, I''d imagine the Indianapolis area's restaurant scene is enlarging and becoming more sophisticated, as St. Louis' has...

 

[LEFSElover]

First thought on this was Del Taco.
Started in Barstow California and it could have stayed right there and only there for as much as we dislike it. Yet others are hooked.

Another is Olive Garden. My DH and I have yet to have a meal worth eating at any one we've ventured in to. Yet others rave.

Oh, just remembered this after reading above. There's a place on Ventura Blvd. in Encino called Prezzo. It's the hip place to eat and be seen and have cocktails hoping an actor will bop in [for one too] and sit next to you and start up a conversation. At my x best friends suggestion, we went there. She ordered ''x y z'' and I ordered spaghetti.
Her's came, the bread/salad/wine/appetizers, then out came my huge bowl with a dollop of pasta and red sauce. Nothing else was presented to me. I could not believe the lack of food there on the plate, but ate it in mediocrity.
The bill came and she said, "let's just split it, okay?" It was upward of $200, my spaghetti for the spoonful I received was $25. aRgh. My sisters x fiance asked me to join him there one to discuss their situation. He ordered all of the above but I was covered, he'd asked me, right? Wrong, left his wallet in their townhouse, who got stuck with the bill? < Yep, me again. aRgh

Mental note to self, never go there again and if you do, take mucho cash.