What kind of food place do you usually go to when you eat out? Do you go to a diner, a fast food joint, or a classy restaurant? Most of the time I'll eat either at a diner or fast food joint since it's more cost effective. I only go to a classy restaurant when I get a bonus for thay month.
Both are a big ol' waste of money for me. First, fast food is off my list completely.. I have a rule where I only feed myself and my family actual food lol. Fine dining is the same.. if I can find one that only uses real foods, I doubt they'll make it in a healthy way. If they do, I'd still rather eat at home where I know exactly what's on my plate.
I honestly enjoy both. I like to treat myself to a nice fine dining experience on occassion, but I also enjoy fast food. I have signed up for several different resturaunt e-mail clubs. They often times send discounts or coupons. (Just visit your favorite resturant on-line and see if they offer an e-mail club.) For example, Chili's resturaunt gives you a coupon for free chips and queso just for signing up! I do not like to eat out often, as it can be incredibly expensive. When you can combines discounts and coupons, it can really help! For Christmas, my husband and I received several gift cards to some of our favorite resturaunts. We plan to combine the giftcards with the coupons and discounts we receive on-line. While we do not eat out very often, it is important to us to save money when we do. Another thing my husband and I do when eating out, is sometimes we share a meal. Today's portion sizes are huge! We sometime split the meal and just order an extra salad. Many places offer complimentary bread. We noticed that we fill up on bread and then cant finish each of our meals. We have found when we split a meal, it is just enough food that we are not completely stuffed. When visiting fast food resturaunts, I usually bring my own drink. I know this sounds silly, but I almost always have a bottle of water on me anyway. Why pay $1 or more for something I already have? Or I ask for a cup for water which is almost always free. I also usually order off of the dollar menu. Yes, I sound cheap. Well, I am. I just like to save money.
I absolutely love diners, especially when it comes to breakfast - I'm a sucker for home fries, and will sometimes order an extra side of them. If I get fast food, it's usually through the drive thru. The dining rooms in most fast food places are usually gross and pretty pathetic. Plus, unless you're thin as a rail, the seats are so small and close to the table, I can barely sit in them. Personally I love to enjoy fine dining as well, but I don't get to very often because most of my friends are super tightwads and never want to go. If they do once in a blue moon, they spend the whole evening bitching about it.
I will pick fine dining anytime. Fast food is just nasty. There's a reason why it's cheap and it's because it's not good for your health.
I'm not a big fan of eating out and I avoid most fast foods. Well, there are a few exceptions, like a baked potato from Wendy's, or a salad from Subway. I don't like fine dining places that serve food that I can make easily at home. If they serve food that knocks my socks off, then I think it's worth the money. But I've been cooking for so long that there are very very few places that I think make better food than I do.
I usually don't go to a fancy restaurant, I usually go to a small cafe or fast food. Just like many here, it's a lot more cost efficient. Though, the only fast food that I go for is usually just Subway because I'm a vegetarian and their offers are a lot more healthy than the other chains out there.
As far as saving money goes, I would definitely stay in. Fast food is just a waste of money and so unhealthy, so I don't even bother there. If I'm on the go, I'll grab an easy open can of soup from a grocery store or gas station and eat it. Otherwise, fine dining is the way to go! This is obviously in great moderation and assisted by livingsocial.com or Groupon
I usually go to fast food joints, fine dining is quite expensive and I can't help thinking that the money spent there can be purchased on something that will last longer like clothes or other things. Fine dining is ok though if you want to impress someone on a date.
It just depends on my mood. Even when I do have more than enough money, I'd still sometimes pick fast food or less expensive restaurants to eat at just because I prefer to eat something less fancy and refined. I suppose it has a lot to do with what I grew up with, and it somehow comforts me to eat non-fancy foods and at non-fancy places most of the time. However, there are also times that I'd feel the reverse of this and those are the times I'd rather go to fine dining restaurants where it's quiet and the flavors of the food are a bit more quaint, but admittedly this doesn't really happen all that often. I'd guess it's mostly because of the smaller portions you usually get at fancy restaurants, which I consider okay sometimes, but usually I'd opt for a fuller meal.
I absolutely hate fine dining restaurants. Feels so pretentious to me... I don't feel comfortable in a place like that. Just not my thing. If I eat out (which I do quite rarely these days) then it's most likely a diner or a pub. Something that feels cosy, serves good food in large portions and isn't too expensive.
It is all done to the occasion. If I am just going out to get some food to eat I go to a restaurant like Burger king or just a local food joint. If I am going on an outing with my girl on our special night, of course it is going to be fine dinning, somewhere classy and tasteful with a nice ambiance! So it all boils do to the occasion and the spending money too! lol
If I am trying to save money, we don't go out to eat very much at all. I can save much more money by sale shopping and cooking a good healthy dinner at home instead of going out and paying 30 dollars for a fast food meal that doesn't fill up my kids. Fine dining we don't take the kids out to since they are still young anyway, and it would be for a special occasion for us like and anniversary or holiday. We have small food joints here that give good value for your money. You get a plate full instead of 3/4 of the plate full of fries to make it look full. We tend to eat at those places the most since they usually have a good variety on the menu as well.
Fine dining is definitely more for me. The places in which we go use a lot of organic, local produce. Some of the restaurants have their own gardens around the side of the restaurant where they can pick all their herbs and vegetables. You will pay more going out to eat, but it is a treat for my husband and I. When we go out, I would rather eat a good quality meal.
Fine dining. No contest. I'd forgo fastfood for 4 weeks just to have one nice meal a month. I can't stand fast-food, for one thing. It just makes me feel sick. And the best part about eating out, to me, isn't necessarily the food, it is the service, and someone else cleaning up for me.
Now that my family and I have been undergoing our journey towards a healthy lifestyle, I would definitely say that I prefer fine dining now. I used to go to McDonalds very often, but I haven't been there in quite a number amounts already. My friends and I also prefer fine dining in popular restaurants around my country. It seems more homey and comfortable. It isn't as noisy as it is in fast-food restaurants, and the food is equally as good (even healthier). So I prefer fine-dining and casual-dining restaurants!
