I’m Losing Interest in the Dining Out Experience

And my cooking skills are improving because of it.

Well, last night provided one more nail in the coffin of one previously important aspect of my social life.

My husband and I are happy to boast a pretty wide number of friends we enjoy socializing with. One of our favorite venues for sharing time with friends has always been an enjoyable meal in a restaurant.

Over the years we have probably over-indulged in this delightful pastime. Good food, a glass or two of nice wine, good companions — all in all, a pretty good evening if you ask me.

At least — that’s the way I used to feel.

Slowly, almost insidiously, that all started to change.

You might blame it on the restrictions of the pandemic era. I certainly am willing to throw at least a little bit of blame that way.

Supply chain shortages, difficulty in hiring and keeping employees, rising prices, complete shut-downs of some establishments — all of this has crept into the basic fabric of the food industry.

I first started to see the writing on the wall during those pandemic years. Entrée selections that may have been my previous go-to’s started to become less appealing. We were forced to prepare many more of our meals at home simply due to a lack of accessibility to some of our favorite dining venues. And in fact, on a positive note, our previously decent cooking skills did take a significant jump up because of this.

My husband became such a master at the grill that I decided to generally forego ordering a steak out because he could deliver an excellent filet mignon for a quarter of the price of dining out at a steak house. I now lay claim to an impressive list of homemade soups that never fail to receive accolades.

And then, there was my ultimate favorite — salmon. After several disappointing meals at various restaurants where the salmon was left to overcook to the point of resembling the bottom of my shoe, it became clear to us that we could produce a fine salmon dinner at home, much more to our liking, at a price point that left us some breathing room. Clearly, the writing was starting to appear on the proverbial wall.

Of course, the insult of insults for me has been the ridiculous increase in the price of adult beverages in restaurants.

In recent months, I have watched the price of a single glass of wine exceed what I would normally have paid for an entire bottle in my local wine and spirit store. And, somehow, the pours in those glasses has been impacted negatively, as well.

We have also noticed a marked increase in the number of surly wait staff who somehow feel they are doing their customers a favor by waiting on them at all. We sometimes feel that they are more interested in turning the table than they are in providing a delightful experience for the table they are currently serving. I will say, my husband has no problem whatsoever in matching the tip to the quality of the service.

This all leads me back to last night’s meal.

Of course, we still have friends we enjoy spending an evening out with. In some cases, neither couple particularly wants to be in charge of the culinary duties for the evening. Or both couples are coming from a distance, so it makes more sense to meet somewhere in the middle. In that case, naturally, we do still venture out into the murky waters of restaurant dining.

Last night’s meal was at a restaurant the four of us have frequented many times. In fact, it used to be counted as one of our absolute favorites. We were overlooking the fact that the last time we were there, the wife of the other couple received a dish of honey salmon that was so cold we questioned if it had even seen a skillet or a grill at all. She sent it back, of course, but that only served to throw the whole table off since the rest of us began eating rather than end up with four cold dinners.

We were willing to accept that errors do occur — it was a fluke — whatever — we were still hanging onto our former good memories and looking forward to enjoying some of our favorite menu selections.

And so, we were willing to return to a restaurant that, overall, holds good memories for us.

We called for a reservation, arrived for an early dinner and looked forward to being seated in one of the booths in a favorite section of the restaurant as we had requested when we made our reservation.

We were greeted with an indifferent expression from the host at the front table who, at first, denied even having a reservation for us (even though we knew he was the person we had spoken to an hour earlier when we made our reservation). After some impatient shuffling of papers, he seemed to “find” our reservation but said there were no booths available in the section we had requested. The husband of the other couple walked a few steps into the restaurant and pointed to an empty booth situated exactly where we wished to go.

“Oh, do you want to sit there?” He asked after we pointed out the obvious.

Once seated, we were quickly greeted by a pleasant enough young waitress. She was totally competent, attentive and, quite possibly, the high point of the entire experience. At the end of the meal, she took care to explain to us that there were two different prices for each of our two glasses of wine — one at the happy hour price and one at the regular price. We appreciated her openness.

The meal itself, however, was beyond disappointing. My husband and I each ordered a $9 bowl of vegetable soup as an appetizer. Between the two of us, we would have been hard pressed to come up with a tablespoon full of vegetables floating around in a murky, watery broth. Oh, and did I mention that this totally inadequate offering was $9!

I ordered a steak sandwich (I’m still asking myself what I could possibly have been thinking). I can honestly say I have never even seen such a poor excuse for a steak, let alone subjected myself to eating it.

It was the chewiest, stringiest, most fat riddled piece of meat ever. It was ragged and pulled apart. My steak knife could not cut through it without significant effort and a great deal of bobbing and weaving around fat and sinew.

As for the pepper and onion that were supposed to accent this sorry excuse for a steak, I counted exactly one thin strip of red pepper buried deep into the bun.

And this is a restaurant with a 4.4 rating on Open Table and a 4.5 rating on Tripadviser.

I could easily rattle off half a dozen or more examples of poor service, poor quality and sky-rocketing prices, but I think you get the idea. I know the prices at the grocery store have climbed as well as those in restaurants, but I am still ahead of the game. My credit card statement and the overall state of my health are benefiting greatly from this new awareness.

And so, in light of innumerable disappointments in the restaurant arena, I have dusted off my beloved collection of recipe books and downloaded some new cooking apps.

I can’t say I’m completely unhappy about that turn of events. All of our friends are happy to come to our home for a relaxing evening (and reciprocate) — good food, a glass or two of nice wine, good companions. All this and no one trying to rush us through our underwhelming, overpriced meal.

If you enjoyed this article, perhaps you would like to check out a few of my other thoughts on living and growing in a rich, full, vital life.