Why On Earth Do People Go Out For a Meal?

[jean]

The best meals out I have had in the past ten years have been cheap picnics in the outdoors produced for me...

The most significant word in the OP if you ask me.

[Serial_Apologist]

Anyone here who 'eats out' regularly might look away now ...

Many years ago I once dined with colleagues at The Grand Hotel in Manchester and, following my meal, trooped to the toilet as one does. When I was relieving myself at a convenient urinal the foreign-accented Chef de Cuisine suddenly entered, parked himself at the one next to mine and engaged myself in some friendly chat ... worrying in itself, I thought, but I needn't have been too concerned. He then swiftly left saying it was 'hell out there' and without making the necessary and indeed mandatory hygiene precautions.

I've never been particularly comfortable 'eating out' ever since.

I was once at a recital given by the jazz pianist Keith Tippett in a posh hotel. During the break he joined me in the Gents, telling me: "This is where the big nobs hang out".

[Alain Maréchal]

Who needs antiques as a reason? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-41100226 Full marks - in this country, at any rate.

...resident Wendy Moore said she would be boycotting the cafe, and calling on others to do so.

"Can anyone tell me just what kind of town we're living in when dogs are allowed into an establishment and children are not?" she wrote.

I can - one with its priorities correct. Dogs do not interrupt enjoyment of food and coffee. Children do, except in France, usually, where they are taught to behave at table.

I recall that Seafrance Ferries used to have a "no-children" lounge.

[Dave2002]

Who needs antiques as a reason? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-41100226 Full marks - in this country, at any rate.

This from a lady, too! Nevertheless I agree.

Food I would never cook for myself at home and a quiet relaxing ambiance are two reasons for eating out; working too long and not leaving enough time to get myself a meal is another. Raymond Blanc's savoury pithivier of pheasant is not something you conjure up from what you find in the fridge.

Some restaurants - including some with a Raymond Blanc badge - favour profit over ambience. Apparently, if "customers" i.e. sources of profit - rather than as honoured guests, or people to be looked after - leave sooner because of background noise or because they can't actually converse with their companions without megaphones and ear trumpets, then multiple sittings are possible, and revenues rise. Some are deliberately remodelled to make the ambience worse - hard floors, remove soft furnishing, reduce the cosy atmosphere. Shame, because some of these places do have good food.

[Dave2002]

...resident Wendy Moore said she would be boycotting the cafe, and calling on others to do so.

"Can anyone tell me just what kind of town we're living in when dogs are allowed into an establishment and children are not?" she wrote.

I can - one with its priorities correct. Dogs do not interrupt enjoyment of food and coffee. Children do.

No - I'd ban the dogs as well. Also any other furry or even non furry beast.

[Alain Maréchal]

No - I'd ban the dogs as well. Also any other furry or even non furry beast.

Would that include the dead ones on customers' backs?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Really? For me the whole point is not to let eating get in the way of reading.

I suppose it depends on the quality of the food - but I can't multi-task and can only give full focus to the food or the book.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

(Do you similarly get regularly interrupted by news of a murder which must take precedence?)

Well - in this part of Yorkshire ...

[french frank]

Dogs do not interrupt enjoyment of food and coffee. Children do, except in France, usually, where they are taught to behave at table.

Yes, afterthought was to say 'in this country'. I'm always impressed in France, especially, when young children do eat in a hotel or restaurant. I've never known any to be noisy or badly behaved. But then, I've never seen a kids' menu with sausage, beans and chips, chicken nuggets &c. They have smaller helpings of what the parents eat.

The striking thing, to me, this lunchtime was that no one else seemed at all bothered by the noise level, whereas it made feel quite ill.

[Dave2002]

The striking thing, to me, this lunchtime was that no one else seemed at all bothered by the noise level, whereas it made feel quite ill.

These days I shouldn't wonder if a whole bunch of other patrons can't hear the background because of their headphones or earpieces, but maybe your people were actually talking to each other? OTOH perhaps they were all looking at smartphones or texting!

[Serial_Apologist]

[I]Dogs do not interrupt enjoyment of food and coffee.

Once, when I was waitering at a restaurant, another waiter was handed a large and juicy Chateaubriand to be served to a table of six. On grasping the flat with the steak on, he let out a shout of pain, not realizing it to be nearly red hot, involuntarily flipping it upwards and propelling said item onto the floor near where the customers were seated. Seeing the steak rolling invitingly in its direction, the dog concealed under a neighbouring table leaped forward, grabbed it in its jaws, and retreated with growling satisfaction to a nethermost corner of the room. That must have been quite a dog's dinner!

[french frank]

but maybe your people were actually talking to each other?

They were. That just made it all the noisier.

The thing about dogs, even Serial's opportunist mongrel, is they aren't such a nuisance to other people as children are. Parents are used to their little terrors so they've become inured to the irritation.

[teamsaint]

Though of course many parents are particularly sensitive about the impositions that their children might make on other people, so they either exercise strict control, or avoid places like restaurants because of either fear of causing offence, or out of courtesy. But the quiet , well behaved, well looked after children one doesn't really notice.
Probably just as well that bringing up children is so expensive, as this presumably helps to keep them out to of restaurants ?

Many such places are deeply family unfriendly in any case. " children welcome until 6.00 pm". That sort of thing.

[Richard Barrett]

I'm rather shocked at how down on children some of you people are! You wouldn't last a minute in a restaurant in southern Europe. On the other hand, I've never come across such a negative attitude on the part of restaurants (and not only these) towards children as in France, especially in the cities. I really don't have a problem with children in restaurants. Most children behave themselves better than a lot of adults do. On the other hand I'm revolted by the sight of a dog in a restaurant, there should be a ban on allowing the filthy things inside if you ask me.

[vinteuil]

.

... don't mind children or dogs if well-behaved. And sadly it does seem to be true that, as Sterne has it -

"They order, said I, this matter better in France..."

On eating out - I much prefer restaurants at lunchtime rather than in the evening. Not just because it can be cheaper - the waiting staff seem less under pressure, more relaxed and enjoying themselves - and it's better for the digestion (I'm at an age when late meals lead to effortful sleep... )


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