Salads, sandwiches, sodas - all better out.

Steaks, Pasta, Seafood - ALl better at home.

I've never understood why. Maybe its cause I'm not patient enough to prep all the salad and sandwich parts individually. I always run with wet lettuce.

But I've NEVER had a steak at any establishment that is better than one I can cook at home. Steaks are a very dubjective thing, hell some folks like em well done for crying out loud. I like mine Kentucky Blue, THat's hard to mess up, yet it happens over and over. Just seasons it, sear both sides and send it to me.

Maybe I've never met a REAL chef, but I do try to eat at nice places and I've travelled enough at this point to try many different versions.

Pasta and seafood are they same, you can't get a good Cajun boil if it aint in someone's backyard.

For the most part, I agree with you. Especially things that rely on the quality of the prep of a single or a few main ingredients. Steak, fried chicken, etc.

What comes into play at a restaurant is specialization and economies of scale. For example, a fine restaurant might have a person who's entire day is spent just making a sauce. Hours of roasting bones and aromatics, clarifying stock, sourcing unique and interesting ingredients, etc. The efforts of the saucier might result in just a spoonful of sauce for a plate, spread across many plates served in an evening. A home cook couldn't invest the time to do it the way a restaurant does and still have time to make the main course.

I can make a better salad than anything I've had in a restaurant, but I'm getting a lot of practice these days. Since getting diagnosed with da beetus, sandwiches and sodas are off the menu for me, as are large quantities of other carbs that used to be staples like rice and beans. So I've learned to build all kinds of things into salads.

Honestly, I haven't eaten out all that much since Covid, but even before I had to change my diet, I just really wasn't impressed. Restaurants have gone downhill in recent years, at least around here. Regardless of what I ordered, I usually left thinking that I could have eaten better at home for a fraction of the price.

The one exception are certain ethnic places. We have a great taco truck in town owned by a Mexican family that make fantastic tacos and burritos, and there's a Palestinian place in Pensacola that we like to go to when we visit my in-laws that is just incredible. I've tried to replicate it, but it's just not the same.

I can make anything I want at home and have nil need to go out to eat. I’m an expert at making fish. Halibut, Mahi, COD, Tilapia, and Salmon. That’s my primary meat source, fish, with some chicken and the occasional beef. I don’t eat nightshades so bakes sweet potatoes are my bag, along with lots of steamed rice. Few if any restaurants have fresh fruit and I often like to have a kiwi, tangerine, or Dragon fruit for dessert. I decided many years ago, 90% of my food is made in my kitchen or on my griddle outside. The money I save by NOT eating out (sans a once a week $7 pick up meal like say Tacos) pays for many other things. Same thing for a bar, just no. I can relax on my porch with a cold one, on occasion, with music playing on my patio speakers changing stations, albums, etc, on my phone. The older I get, the more I invest in home supplies and electronics to really enjoy the house. Leaving the house for fun is motorcycle riding and PWC riding and soon to be 6MT car driving again. Just had it with rude fuckers out at establishments barking on a speakerphone or interrupting a film at the theater with their phone. No more.

I don't eat salads so I wouldn't know about getting one out or making at home.
I used to eat out quite a bit but haven't in a long time. Started when Covid hit and they shut down the restaurants.
Now it's cooking at home pretty much 100% of the time.
Steaks, burgers, chops, seafood and more all in cast iron or carbon steel. Occasional Weber kettle or natural gas grill but it's been snowy and cold lately. Warms up and it's grill season.

I think some things are better eaten and tastier in a [finer] restaurant, i.e., NOT Applebees or TGI Fridays or Olive Garden, because they have the proper kitchen setup and equipment. I don’t…

We are fortunate to have a couple old school diners in town where everything is home made. I can't produce a breakfast as good as either place. Hash browns are perfectly golden on the outside and perfectly creamy on the inside. Scrambled eggs are perfectly done. At one of them you can sit at the counter and watch the lady run the griddle. She can have eight different style breakfast going at the same time and they all come out perfect. Just amazing to watch her.

And for around $10 I'm not going to mess up the kitchen at home for breakfast. Other than that I won't eat steaks, fish, seafood or any type of BBQ out. Those things are my strong suit. So if the wife wants to go out it's either Mexican or Chinese. Otherwise I'll look for a pasta dish on the menu which is something we don't make much of at home.

my curse is -- my wife is a very good 'cook'

breakfasts, apple pies / cakes, pastas, sandwiches, salads, homemade pizza, crock pot, etc -- she is outstanding

i do all the grilling pretty well

so i am usually disappointed when we go out and spend $100 on a meal that i KNOW we could have made better for $30 in ingredients

but she does enjoy going out but its usually not worth it to me

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I think steaks and seafood fare better with simple preparation rather than fancy sauces and toppings. That leaves the quality up to how well it is cooked and quality of the meat.

Pasta, especially red sauce can be very individual based on what your mom made. At least for me, red pasta sauce is never as good as I can make.

Sandwiches and salads can really be improved by innovative chefs. But sometimes it’s just simple things like extra salt when eating out. Or a great example to me has been Italian subs. They were never as good at home until I discovered deli dressing. Hard to find but the oil, vinegar and herbs make all the difference.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

The one exception are certain ethnic places. We have a great taco truck in town owned by a Mexican family that make fantastic tacos and burritos, and there's a Palestinian place in Pensacola that we like to go to when we visit my in-laws that is just incredible. I've tried to replicate it, but it's just not the same.

Yeah, a good ethnic restaurant not only fills in the skills gap (because I can’t make a good Jamaican meat pie) it also opens you up to what is possible that you may want to attempt yourself.

I posted a few weeks back about getting a vacuum sealer. I ended up getting one and its been a game changer. A few coworkers buy meals from a meal prep place here in town. They're about $9-10 a meal. I looked at the ingredients and thought I could make those for less money. So far I've made big batches of stir fry veggies with rice and ground turkey and honey sriracha turkey meatballs with rice and steamed veggies. Both have been phenomenal after being sealed and frozen. With the price of groceries I'm not sure how much money I'm saving though. The big think for me is knowing how much crap (preservatives and chemicals) is going into my food when I cook it myself, and my daughters have been helping me with the meals- this means I get to spend time with them and pass on what little I know about cooking.

Sometimes though the convenience of eating out outweighs that. When we do go out I go into it not expecting to be blown away by the food or service (except Chik Fil A, it's always good).

Steaks and BBQ are way better at home, and cheaper.

However, sometimes it's nice to pay a premium to not have to prepare it yourself. Especially on something like brisket, which can easily take 16+ hours.

Of course there are plenty of great restaurants that can do better than home cooking.
However, in general or on average if you can cook then you can do just as well over a LOT of restaurants.
If I put my mind to it I feel I can do as good or better in many cases no matter the cuisine.

I've hat a few meals at Peter Luger's that beg to differ.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Steaks and BBQ are way better at home, and cheaper.

However, sometimes it's nice to pay a premium to not have to prepare it yourself. Especially on something like brisket, which can easily take 16+ hours.

In general I find this true, but if I go to some of the better restaurants, I find they do it as well as we do at home.

Also, I tend to eat things at restaurants that we just don't make at home, like Italian food and Mexican food and Chinese food.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

I tend to eat things at restaurants that we just don't make at home, like Italian food and Mexican food and Chinese food.

Good point.
Although I love and make a lot of Italian food, also some items are much harder to make or with ingredients not normally used at home.
One area not limited to restaurants is baking - something than can get complicated and time consuming.
So I/we don't bake much at all (except home made Pizza ).

There's a lot of good restaurants in the region I'm located, there's also quite a bit that are worth returning and recommending even if they don't have a Michelin-star or listed in a dining guide, just go to where the chefs eat out at. I'm lucky in that there's an abundance of fresh produce year-round, there's a large population that enjoys eating out which drives demand and there's a big variety of cuisines type one can choose from. Fast-food and thematic-chains exists but, nowhere to the extent I've seen in other parts of the country.

That said, I cook A LOT at home, I like to making good, interesting dishes along with the classics. Going to restaurants, I can see how certain dishes/cuisines are executed, what flavors are there or, should be there, what I need to work on and just be inspired. Eating out stimulates my senses for what I can create at home.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: corsair,

Very few restaurants are cooking their steaks over charcoal, if they grill them at all it's an indoor gas grill or seared in a pan.

That has a lot to do with it.

I grew up in a small mining town in Az that is known for its Mexican food. At an early age I paid attention, asked questions and would help make the food at my friends houses. Not only can I cook, but I'm good at it. I despise going to restaurants. You pay a lot of money for food that just isn't good. Not to mention that I find cooking relaxing and a great way to bond with friends and family.

I agree. I think with the salads and sandwiches, it's impossible to get all of the same ingredients or combination and find the same freshness with like bread/sub rolls and they are always better out.

But yeah, I find the steak, seafood, and other meals I do at home are better. Especially lately, seems like all restaurants, the food taste/quality has taken a step down since covid. If I go out for dinner, it's usually for something I can't do at home easily or at all.....sushi/hibachi...... certain mediteranean dishes.......