Why On Earth Do People Go Out For a Meal?

[Lat-Literal]

... the diwana bhel poori place is great. I miss the one that used to be in Westbourne Grove.

This place isn't bad -

http://www.theledbury.com/tasting-menu/

.

I haven't had a memorable Indian meal since the ones at the India Club on Strand in the eighties.

Since when it has become a little more corporate. For example, it didn't sell alcohol in my days:

http://www.strand-continental.co.uk/Restaurant_%26_Bar.html

If you could take me to Veeraswamy when it was about one of two in Britain then possibly.

Otherwise, the Indian restaurant is surely as routine an experience as McDonalds if not more so.

[MrGongGong]

I haven't had a memorable Indian meal since the ones at the India Club on Strand in the eighties.

Since when it has become a little more corporate. For example, it didn't sell alcohol in my days:

http://www.strand-continental.co.uk/Restaurant_%26_Bar.html

If you could take me to Veeraswamy when it was about one of two in Britain then possibly.

Otherwise, the Indian restaurant is surely as routine an experience as McDonalds if not more so.

This is exceptional
and in a more accessible place than those in that London

http://www.prashad.co.uk

(off to Oslo on Monday but I doubt I can afford any eating out there, just musing on whether to fill a bag with instant Miso soup, dried fruit, clothes or microphones ? )

[Lat-Literal]

This is exceptional
and in a more accessible place than those in that London

http://www.prashad.co.uk

(off to Oslo on Monday but I doubt I can afford any eating out there, just musing on whether to fill a bag with instant Miso soup, dried fruit, clothes or microphones ? )

If she survived Gordon Ramsey, she is likely to be there for the long-term.

Dried fruit - and ryvita.

Enjoy.

[Nick Armstrong]

my sense of the good fortune of growing up as one of the 'middling sort', where each encounter with 'special things' can be an exciting experience, and where you progressively advance in appreciation

... the diwana bhel poori place is great. I miss the one that used to be in Westbourne Grove.

[Richard Barrett]

... the diwana bhel poori place is great. I miss the one that used to be in Westbourne Grove.

That was a regular haunt of mine during my Notting Hill days in the mid-80s, and a case very much in point: it wasn't expensive, the food was excellent and there was no way you could reproduce it at home.

I think, Lat-Lit, you ought to try and find a way to get a little more joy out of life. Your rather prolix insistence that so many things (and people) are irredeemably mediocre is so unnecessary.

[ahinton]

This place isn't bad -

http://www.theledbury.com/tasting-menu/

No, indeed, but have you read the wine list? Impressively comprehensive - and good to see that both wines by the glass and half bottles are not the poor relations that they so often are - but boy, those mark-ups are eye-watering! Only one bordeaux red under £100 and most of the rest of the list broadly following suit. Hmmm - for the vey deep-pocketed only...

[french frank]

Most people are or were children at some point too.

But many of us weren't taken to restaurants. I was a teenager before my father took me out to eat.

I really can't believe some people here have EVER been in a small restaurant where someone else's young child screamed or shouted incessantly for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. So I forgive you your total incomprehension

[Dave2002]

You want Indian.

The restaurant here is outstanding - but it's pricey to get to - https://www.expedia.co.uk/Agra-Distr...iAAEgIqvfD_BwE

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I really can't believe some people here have EVER been in a small restaurant where someone else's young child screamed or shouted incessantly for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. So I forgive you your total incomprehension

I can normally tolerate noisy children, just as long as the parents are dealing with the situation in a responsible way. Being entertained with Muzak is a different matter.

The most perfect restaurant for me is the Pipe and Glass, South Dalton, near Beverley. Michelin starred and not excessively expensive.

[teamsaint]

I may be wrong, but I do sense in the UK a bit of a tendency to want to spend our money on stuff ,rather than other peoples expertise, or time.
Do people who have lived or do live abroad have a view on this ? I think this view may be coloured by having been self employed for 20 years. Just a discussion point.

[vinteuil]

No, indeed, but have you read the wine list? Impressively comprehensive - and good to see that both wines by the glass and half bottles are not the poor relations that they so often are - but boy, those mark-ups are eye-watering! Only one bordeaux red under £100 and most of the rest of the list broadly following suit. Hmmm - for the vey deep-pocketed only...

... actually they have clarets from £50 a bottle.

We only go there for special occasions....


.

[vinteuil]

I may be wrong, but I do sense in the UK a bit of a tendency to want to spend our money on stuff ,rather than other peoples expertise, or time.
Do people who have lived or do live abroad have a view on this ? I think this view may be coloured by having been self employed for 20 years. Just a discussion point.

... I think that's a really interesting question. Staying with English friends who have lived in Italy for the last thirty years we were discussing this recently - their view was that in Britain our focus was very much on the Home (and all the Stuff that might go with) - to impress people we invite people round to see what we've got : in Italy, an invitation to the house is rare (many still living with their parents... ) - so the place for showing off of status is in the streets - the clothes, the bella figura, the passeggiata - seeing and being seen (vedere gente e farsi vedere) - and life lived much more in coffee shops and restaurants...




.

[ahinton]

... actually they have clarets from £50 a bottle.

Apologies; on closer perusal, I see that I'd omitted to notice the Sainte-Foy and Côte de Bourg ones at £50 and £55 respectively and saw only the Margaux priced at £90, but these three are the only bordeaux reds out of 41 that are priced below £100 on that list whose mark-ups in general vary from the very considerable to the astronomical.

[Richard Barrett]

... I think that's a really interesting question. Staying with English friends who have lived in Italy for the last thirty years we were discussing this recently - their view was that in Britain our focus was very much on the Home (and all the Stuff that might go with) - to impress people we invite people round to see what we've got : in Italy, an invitation to the house is rare (many still living with their parents... ) - so the place for showing off of status is in the streets - the clothes, the bella figura, the passeggiata - seeing and being seen (vedere gente e farsi vedere) - and life lived much more in coffee shops and restaurants...

I think that's true of southern Europe in general, less so the further north you go. It surely has something to do with the climate. In the south (and I'm including my own corner of the south-east in this) it's possible to spend a lot more of your time outside the house, so it doesn't end up as the focus of one's thoughts and acquisitiveness as in the UK, or for that matter in the Netherlands, where people in ground-floor apartments famously keep the curtains open so you can see how neat and beautiful their place is.

[Pulcinella]

... I think that's a really interesting question. Staying with English friends who have lived in Italy for the last thirty years we were discussing this recently - their view was that in Britain our focus was very much on the Home (and all the Stuff that might go with) - to impress people we invite people round to see what we've got : in Italy, an invitation to the house is rare (many still living with their parents... ) - so the place for showing off of status is in the streets - the clothes, the bella figura, the passeggiata - seeing and being seen (vedere gente e farsi vedere) - and life lived much more in coffee shops and restaurants...

I'm sure that's true, but we buy our stuff not only to impress but to reward ourselves: the odd CD here, book there, handbag or new shoes (as the case may be!), thinking of food as merely a transient necessity (hence the propensity for fast food outlets?) whereas others treat a meal out as a real occasion to socialise with friends (sometimes even including their well-behaved children! ).