Don

WE can also prepare wonderful meals ourselves at a fraction of the dining-out cost and we enjoy the creativity and challenges of cooking, baking, grilling, smoking etc.

So why so we dine-out....

1. to get "cheap eats" because we were kayaking or doing something else alll day and just want a reasonable meal ( survival food)  as we have no time to cook ( De Novos, Taylors, Southside Deli or the Chinese restaurant work...reasonable food, service at a reasonable price and generally quick)

2. with friends...so atmosphere, menu/food quality, service quality and price representative of food quality appropriate.  Unique menu items are critical as you need to remember WE CAN COOK and we can be FOOD SNOBS because we know so much about food preparation.  Also as a result we can really appreciate something special.

3. Sometimes celebrations...but again I'd rather buy 10 pounds of lobster or some prime meat and fix it myself.

In a restaurant...

I like to be greated promptly ( which is why we walked out of the Village  Inn  the other morning...no one in sight) and I like to feel that my business is wanted (smiles help) and I'm not distrubing a hostess from a cell phone conversation ( another story). 

I like a skilled wait staff that makes us feel like we are his/her only table even though we know and understand they have 10 others.

I like things to be clean.

I like  food served in a timely manner, in the appropriate order with the appropriate time between courses. Don't rush me and don't delay the meal without offering bread, crackers or something...I like the water glass being automatically refilled.  I like the wait staff checking on our needs..or at a minimum being visible and glancing over at the table once in a while ( really get annoyed when the wait staff hide in the kitchen and I have to get another server to get my server)

I like creative food presentation/plating.

I pretty much hate all chain restaurants....food, service, atmosphere...unless I need "cheap eats/survival food"

I can identify most Sysco products on a menu...so try not to order things that come prepared/frozen to the restaurant.  I enjoy fresh cooked food.

I've never been excited by the food/drinks at the Yacht Club.  I do think it is a nice place to sit outside on a nice summer day/evening but it has nothing on the menu that I want to eat.  (Heck I love the $5.00 lunch specials at The Shark in West OC...creative and fresh)

I would think that with the increasing number of "Foodies" out there..those of us that are accomplished cooks and/or "recreational chefs" , that restaurants indeed have to work harder to satisfy  customers. .

M/R