We go out every Tuesday night. About 1/2 the time, it's a local bar and grill where they know us. Burgers, cheesesteaks, salads, fish and chips. We see neighbors there all the time. We also like the local BYOB Italian places, more than just pizza. There are three that we usually rotate on. And once a month we have a BYO wine dinner with a friend, trying to use up some of the good wines that have languished in the cellar. Those dinners can be at one of our favorites, but we're always looking for new places. Have had some wonderful meals. Most entrees at these places are $20-$25, but we share salads (some places have enormous salads meant to be shared) and appetizers and desserts.

And we have lunch out at least once a week (sometimes breakfast), sometimes twice if we have other errands, etc. McDs or other fast food maybe 2 or 3 times a year, the rest of the time at Chinese or Mexican or a local diner. And Costco hotdogs every so often, too. And then on Sundays, we've developed a pattern of getting Wawa hoagies.

We have few options for eating out in our small town. Actually, I should say, we have few _good_ options.

However, where DH lives during the working week in the city is in an area of many good restaurants. And during the drier months, every Monday night is a four block street food van festival about three blocks from the apartment. We bought here for the food as much as proximity to DH’s work and ease of access. :-)

So when I’m visiting DH we eat out a lot :-)

Regularly go out with friends every Friday night and always to the same place....it's our Cheers. It's not "fine food", steaks, pasta, fried shrimp, wings, assortment of great burgers...mostly mid range...$10 to $20 per dinner entree.
and sometimes go out for lunch....there are a couple of nice lunch places in town.
I also live in a small midwestern town that 10 years ago lost it's major employer and with it the high earners who supported the Country Club and a couple of nice dining places.....so the choices are very slim. When the club was there I regularly went out to eat 2 to 3 times a week, the restaurant was very good and a good value ( our dues made up the difference....and the bar tab!)....but all that went with the employer.
Never ever eat at Micky D's or Burger King or their like, but we do have 2 non chain Mexican places that are good and a wonderful BBQ joint that does all smoking on site and a couple of soup and gourmet sandwich type of places where I will occasionally meet friends for lunch.
For me, going out has never been about the food...well maybe occasionally when I want Chinese with all the choices....but it's about socialability...I cook better than almost any restaurant. Unfortunately it's hard to get motivated to cook for just myself, so I end up with mostly steaks, chops, chicken breast or hind quarter on the grill...or soup from the freezer from the time I made a big pot of "something".

The older I get the more I hate to cook, not sure what's up with that, but it is what it is. UGH! We eat out at least once a week, sometimes twice. Usually something buffet style though. We have very few affordable good choices any more though. All the good places seem to be closing down or the owner got old and retired so the restaurant is now gone.

DH and I prefer not to eat out at all. Lately we've had every meal as a 'to go' or 'pick up' due to remodeling and no kitchen, which is miserable for us (ha ha).

I'd enjoy dining out a couple times a year, but our area restaurants are aimed toward tourists and basically the food is overpriced and not worth the plates on which the food is served. The only meal I've enjoyed was on our honeymoon 2 years ago, and I could have prepared it for less than half the cost. I actually cooked all other meals for that trip : )

We prefer home cooking, and the fact that it's far more reasonable.

We go out probably twice a month for dinner at the most, maybe once a month for breakfast and rarely for lunch. We live in a small community with hardly anything besides the usual Micky D's, etc. The nearby neighbor community is more populated and has more options but it's mostly the major chains. (Same ol' same ol'.) Our main reason to go out at all is just to get a break and get out, not too much for the quality of food. I rarely cook seafood or fried foods at home so when we do go out I'll generally try to get one or the other of those but I'm really leery of seafood at most places. DH loves pancakes so that's usually why we go out to breakfast. I can make them but I don't eat them so I'd rather he gets his fix out.

I was running a house by the time I was 11 so for me, 56 yrs is enough, thanks. I still cook, but that's because DH prefers my cooking - and since he's diabetic it's a little easier to control himself at home than when we dine out.

If it weren't for him I'd dine out even more. We live in an area that abounds with great restaurants at every price point: San Francisco Bay Area, Northern CA.

We dine out about 250x/yr, on average. About 45% of those are new-to-us restaurants; the rest are repeats.

I enjoy dining out for foods I wouldn't bother to cook at home, or for creative new ideas.

If not for the fact that I'm single and don't want to rustle up a date as often, I'd eat dinner out nearly ever night if I could. Lots of good choices here and nearby. As it is, I probably eat dinner out once a week.

Went to a very fancy restaurant last week. I ordered steak, prime dry aged beef.

I am glad I did. The steak I ordered was very good. But It gave me a chance to realize and recognize that I can make steak equal to or better than expensive steaks in restaurants, using cheap cuts of beef.

I try not to eat out. Too much salt, fat, cream, butter, sugar and MSG. Yes, they all use MSG, not just Chinese restaurants. Salads? too dirty.

dcarch

We eat out very seldom, and when we do, we're usually disappointed. A few months ago we grabbed two Teen combos at A&W and it was over $25. We were so mad at ourselves paying that kind of money for something that we were still hungry after.

We have gift certificates for The Keg, a local Italian restaurant and another nice restaurant. We haven't used them yet.

There's a local drive-in type restaurant called Sonny's that we do like to split a 2-piece fish and chip meal. There are more than enough fries for both of us. It's about $15. That's all we like to do. We both prefer my cooking than eating out.

Rare for us to eat out. With my daughter and raising two young grandsons eating out isn't a financial option. We do save and manage to eat out about 5 Times a year. Usually always in Pittsburgh after a trip to the Children's hospital. I justify it by reminding myself its important for the boys to experience other cultural dining and the socialization that comes with eating in a room with strangers.

Once a month the boys each bring home a strip of McD. **Free** food coupons. None of us like McD so the coupons pile up. Because they are issued for schools to pass out there's no experation date. When things are very busy at home I'll call ahead and order the free coupon stuff. It doesn't need to be ordered but they appreciate it since its usually 12 reg burgers, 6 small fries, 6 gogurts, 6 pks apple slices, 6 bottled waters, 6 cones that they kindly but in a cup with a lid, ohhh and 6...6 piece nuggets. We do this about 4 times a year. Not good or healthy but its free. Lol

I am not fond of cooking but I can cook tasty meals and certainly cheaper than 5 people eating out.

I do eat out a couple of times per month, socially. I'm often disappointed with the food. There's a lot of legitimate fine dining in my area, and a couple of places that get repeat business for having good parking/valet and fairly reliably good food. It frustrates the heck out of me when I know I could cook the same thing much better. I prefer to order something I wouldn't cook. I try to avoid the roast chicken for that reason. It's the same grower, and plain, because it's on the menu for grannies and dieters.

I don't care to order red meat in restaurants because just the sight of med-rare makes me want to barf (I was at a dinner party recently, served semi-family style, and I was stuck next to the host who was serving the meat, and I had to look at that platter through the whole meal. Bleeech. I don't understand this desire for squishy meat. Americans have arguably the best teeth in the world but they don't want to employ them! This same guy was able to provide me with better done meat (he knows my tastes and had it ready) but managed to still make it squishy. At a party, one is thankful for having such good friends who try to be pleasing. At fine dining, where the line cooks rarely learn other temperatures besides med-rare underdone (so if they get it wrong they can cook it more and not have to throw it out), I never order red meat, unless it's ground (they have to go med-well unless you order it less cooked) or a braise (by definition cooked through).

I'm allergic to fish that isn't today's catch (the proteins degrade and become a problem). I don't care for most pork or veal.

So... Find me a special dish? I'm happy with old standbys like chicken marsala, or newly invented nice things with a good sauce. Other poultry. Braises, as I said. Seafood. I'm happy with vegetables if they're well chosen. The vegan fine dining places I've been to have delicious food, but rarely nutritious food. There's a small chain of vegan family restaurants that closed their place in my area, that has wonderfully tasty and nutritious composed food. There's also a vegan gastropub with great food where you have to pick and choose a little to get sufficient protein, but it's possibly and more on the satisfying side than the twee. Another place is more fast casual but has great tempeh that they don't try to pass off as faux meat. I'm happy to go to any of these except the couple of twee fine dining ones.

I'd much rather go out for "ethnic" food. I don't have any of these issues with Indian, Lebanese, Persian, Greek, Mexican, Brazillian, Japanese, Thai (if they have things without fish and coconut, to which I'm allergic) etc., etc. A few of these might be available in fine dining. Most are moderate, family restaurants, which also makes them more available to many of my companions. Unfortunately, one of my more regular companions is impossible to feed and won't eat anything with a sauce.

We eat a lot of takeout, but never go sit and eat in places. For the most part, we both prefer my home cooking. But as we both work so much, those nights when i work are usually, but not always, take out nights. I will go pick up something for the 2 of us before i go to work, drop off his food at home for when he gets off, and take mine to work with me. On the days i am off, i do try to cook every meal. I cook breakfast for him everyday,work or not.Neither of us really like fast food. we tend to get to go from regular sit down restaurants. Very occasionally i wake up early enough to cook us a meal before i go to work.

Today i stopped on my way to work and got a calzone from a small local pizza place, with pepperoni, onion, and green olives. SO didn't want anything, and will most likely stop somewhere on his way home and pick something else up.

Single here and cooking for one is a PITA. I eat out several times a week, usually for breakfast or lunch. And if I eat out at lunchtime, I can skip dinner as I am not hungry enough for it so just have a light snack. I do go out in the evenings now and again with family or friends.

I live in an area with a lot of really good restaurants so high quality restaurant food is not hard to find but when it's just me I usually go to more middle of the road places - 2 local diners do great breakfasts and lunches and there are a few other places I frequent that I often order a meal to go (no more than 10 minutes from home). And I do a lot of take out. A local grocery chain does all manner of both hot and cold prepared meals and they are as good as any homemade meals

I usually do cook a full dinner at least once a week but it has to be something that I don't mind the leftovers of so that limits things. I have very little freezer space so most things need to be eaten quickly and I just can't stomach leftovers for days in row. A roast chicken, meat loaf or turkey breast is fine but a casserole - unless it is a small one - will mostly go to waste. I even have trouble with homemade soup....hard to make a small batch! But the same grocery that has the prepared meals also has 6 different homemade soups every day. And a marvelous salad bar!!

2Many, I get that “being disappointed when you pay a small fortune for a meal you could have cooked better and cheaper at home” feeling. We don’t often do fine dining; when we eat out it’s generally somewhere cheap and cheerful but with excellent food, often in a cuisine I can’t be bothered cooking myself or with a dish that one or the other of us likes and the other one not so much (DH loves “fishy” fish, I don’t; I love organ meats, he doesn’t, for instance).

Olychick, just go out. You don’t have to have an eating partner :-). I take a book sometimes :-)

Fridays I don't cook! It's been that way since the kids were little (pizza day!)

Well, they've been out of the house for about 20 years now, but that's still my thing!

I'm pretty much the main cook in the house, though my DH is great on the BBQ and occasionally trashes the kitchen with some delicacy!

We don't get pizza much anymore on Fridays, but since moving within walking distance to downtown, we've been trying different places (not all the best!) for our Friday out.

We do, however, go to superburger once a month and split a McDonald burger and small tots! The small tots are enough to take half home for a dinner side! (BTW we recently move to McDonald Ave where the burger was named for!

I have been making extra and freezing with my foodsaver so I can eliminate another day of cooking.

So Wednesdays are freezer days! Make a salad and you're done! Nancy

Since the kids are grown up and moved away, and with my DW out of town most weeks for her job, we tend to dine out ... usually on Sunday, after church with a group of church folks. Not a lot of local choices, but we 'rotate' it. I usually do the cooking so it's a function of 'oomph'.

I'll grab a sub perhaps once a month, and drink a LOT of coffee with the guys, but usually all we chew on is politics and city/county gov't ... which is pretty droll. Usually we just gather for the banter, the Joe and the terrible jokes.

I've always been the one to say, 'let's go to the store and get something to cook.' Far cheaper than dining out ... but DW doesn't always want to wait. I'm happy slapping something in the crock pot and having food for most of the week. I usually stay away from red meat and cook a lot of chicken, salmon ... and pork, especially on the grill/smoker, and still have grub for days. I'm partial, of late, to the 'Canadian bacon' recipe on these CF threads.

I do a lot of comfort foods: lasagna, chili, soups and stuff. The kids call me 'Martha' on the holidays, but they're catching on and calling me 'Emeril' now, although most stuff is done Sandra Lee-ish.

I've always liked to cook and would like to have a restaurant, but don't want to be married to it ... so that's out. Being newly retired, I try to do one thing a day ... and little more. Most of the time is in the garden ...

dcarch, you are right about the MSG! My husband is very sensitive to MSG, even a little bit will break his face out in pimples! I have to be very careful at home too because anything prepared can have MSG, not just soups. I wonder when this trend of putting MSG in food started back up again because I thought that they were trying to do away with it but now it's in everything once again! We discovered this because after we would eat out at the Chinese buffet, his face would break out. Now, we can tell if he eats something with MSG because his face will suddenly break out.

I eat out occasionally. I am still in the process of getting my house ready for the market down in CT and all my kitchen is up here in MA. So while I'll roast something small in the oven (or if I'm spending the night, I might use the grill that will be trashed shortly) I'm not really cooking when I'm there.

I'm out for breakfast at a local diner or deli - an omelet or an eggs Benedict isn't too pricey. I may drop by a local Asian place where I order hot and sour soup and an appetizer for not very much. They make a killer avocado salad with the whole avocado, not a blemish on any slice! (A ramen place just opened up there, too...) BLT's are my standby at diners for lunch or dinner.

Up here in MA restaurants are a bit further away. If I'm in one town for errands I might stop in for a $7 bowl of Vietnamese pho, or in the other town, I hit up a lettuce wrapped burger at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. However, the closest places are just not very good.

Driving back and forth between MA and CT I may stop in for a $2.50 slice of pizza, which they heat up and I can eat quickly, no muss, no fuss.

There are occasions when I dine out with others - a friend may make a suggestion, and off we go. My book club meets at restaurants once a month, and usually we go for "ethnic" foods, and I'll try something unique on the menu. If I like it, I may try recreating it at home down the road.

If I lived closer to NYC, I'd be eating out in the Chinatowns, Koreatowns and other enclaves of great world cuisine, often.

Once I'm fully settled into MA, I'll probably only be eating out at restaurants once or twice every other week. If that.

I LOVE home cooking! I do wish western MA had more quality seafood at grocery stores, so I am usually bringing some up from CT when I return here.

(This isn't counting the local community center, which serves up food twice weekly by donation, and which I go to about once a week, essentially to meet my neighbors and get to know them better. If the meal is something I dislike, ie, meatloaf or turkey breast, I'll have a simple salad and maybe a veggie and a glass of water or unsweetened ice tea.)

arkansas girl, thank you for that MSG info! My DH loves Outback for his birthday and every time I come home to an allergy attack! Also the salt is over the top!

I did learn to ask for no finishing salt which tones the salt down a bit!

Most of the places that I get allergy symptoms are chain places. Now I ask for no salt or MSG and the local places are fine with that. Nancy

Tonight I ate with Mr. Picky at a chain restaurant that has seen better days but has good parking. :) I had a patty melt. The bread was very greasy from the grill, but it tasted good (if I'm stuck with greasy, I don't mind so much if it's a hamburger). The trick to eating there is finding where they hide the vegetables (they do have them!) and trade most of the carbs for them.

When we lived in the city, NYC, it was a rotation of favorites every Sunday with friends...sushi, MiracleGrill, LesHalle, and maybe a new adventure something 'talked about'. having food friends. We were younger and had 'needy' friends. All fun.

We have not been out since we moved North 'in the forest' for a dozen years. Never been to a chain restaurant ever. Or fast food. (DannyMeyers ShakeShak exception)

Our work has taken us into the best of the best so we get that 'jones' every day.

And some client meetings often.

We both spent so much of our youth working in restaurants during our university years we would rather eat glass than sit at a table having bad service...Not at all fun.

We so enjoy our own prep together and creating meals ....such therapy gardening and making meals together.

We are tickled pink about this weekend....home at 2am and off to the Catskills in a few hours to tend the garden for garlic planting and final harvests. After crossing CentralPark, TimesSquare, jerk drivers, a day on a city roof...then the 50th floor of another...crossing the RFK and the GWB bridges daily....

Just a spit above NYC is mountains where one car may pass by all day Sunday.

Crazy that I just left this...TimesSquare down on the right.

So many different lives we live. NYC is a world of small towns where so many have a few blocks of their own small town village very connected. A city like no other. I am fortunate to be connected to something so remarkable.

Last week I spent three days on a LongIsland farm...

I eat out several times a week, either for lunch or dinner, but mostly for some company and conversation. We have great restaurants here and so there are lots of choices as to both variety and price. I do understand about the salt issue and I too don't understand the need for adding so much salt.

I like just about everything but rarely go out as the food tends to be unhealthy, at least where I live anyway. I prefer meeting friends for walks, hiking, kayaking than food but sometimes we do.

I am taking a trip to Scottsdale and Grand Canyon in a few weeks and have been researching restaurants.

As far as budgeting, not much, I make organic high quality food a priority much of the time. I'm not wasting calories on foods I don't want to eat!

For the first time ever, I bought a pound of smoked brisket at a local bbq restaurant( I live in the heart of bbq ) because Whole Foods stopped carrying smoked brisket and I have missed it even if it was only very occasional.

I ended up throwing 3/4's of it out, all fat. It was terrible and I did not like wasting that money! I am going to try making my own, it seems.

We very seldom eat out unless we are traveling or on vacation, but we do that frequently enough. We will sometimes go out with friends visiting from out of town. I'm trying to stay on a very strict diet, and that is much easier if I do not eat out. There is not shortage of restaurants here that I like, however, and my favorites include Ethiopian, Japanese, Thai, Greek, Lebanese, Indian, Brazilian, Korean, and Persian. However, I've learned to make most of the dishes from these cuisines that I like, except for the Ethiopian - I've never masters injera, but I've got the rest of the dishes down. I guess I should practice more on the injera. I might try this recipe, but it takes two days:

I much prefer seafood that I cook myself than what I get in restaurants, but we do go out for sushi occasionally. Mostly I'd rather make that myself as well.

Maybe I need to buy some teff flour in order to make injera.

Lars, I just found a Mediterranean market that makes injera daily, and I buy it there. I like Ethiopian food very much. I do like the vegetable dishes better than the meat dishes, so those are healthier anyway. I've made injera, but don't use as much teff as stores want me to buy and it's not always available in the bulk food sections.

Annie