Eating out - how do you decide where to eat?

[Quinn]

.

[Vilgan]

Wife does most of the research because she gets really excited about it, but we both base our decisions primarily on Yelp reviews.

[markbrynn]

For choosing what type of food we usually go for things that we can't cook well at home or that is a good value (not too much more expensive than at home). The first category covers sushi (can make at home, but is tricky to find good fish and to prepare properly), sometimes Indian (making curries is not too tough, but I haven't figure out how to make good naan or roti at home) and maybe a few others. The second category covers things like Chinese food (can be very inexpensive).

For finding good places, especially out of town so you don't know the area and might have less word-of-mouth options, I often use TripAdvisor. If I'm really concerned about getting a good place then I'll use the local version of something like Yelp. We don't eat out that often and I'm not that big of a food person, so often the location or atmosphere of the place we're choosing is as important as the food. That's easier to do by walking around and going by look and feel. Only really works in walkable places, of course.

[Rural]

There are two places locally with decent health ratings that we both like. Three if we want to drive a little further and pay a little more for Italian. So, we ask each other if we feel like Chinese or Mexican if we go out. Done.


Haven't eaten out in a month or so, come to think of it.

[Friar]

Generally if we do go out to eat I like it to be within walking distance. Fortunately, my partner and I live near the centre of our town.

Secondary to that it will either be somewhere we have tried before (and loved) or somewhere new. There are plenty of new-to-us places as we only go out to eat every couple of months.

I will admit I am a sucker for KFC though and would take this over almost any restaurant meal. Could I make fried chicken at home? Potentially. Would I be able to replicate the 11 herbs and spices goodness? Never.

[Rural]

Just got that the OP is traveling. On a business trip, I focus on things I can't get at home and can't cook, or cook well, myself.

[Frankies Girl]

I might read the Yelp reviews, but they're kind of tainted to me since I know they manipulate the review process. If I'm traveling, I'll rely on word of mouth, but mostly just go someplace that looks interesting, has the kind of food I like to eat, and seems to be popular - if they have people waiting to get in or it has lots of regulars eating there, it usually is a good indicator that the food is good and they aren't making people sick! :D

Oh, and I don't go to big chain restaurants if I can help it... especially when traveling.


(so I guess my "method" is kind of old school, but still works).

[KungfuRabbit]

Chipotle is the best quality per price. Period. It's real food, fresh, high quality, and amazing.

Aside from that we go Indian or Thai because we like it and aren't good at making it ourselves.

I refuse to go to some crappy American place like Applebee's that charges $15 for an overdone burger and 10 pounds of low quality fries I could make better and healthier for $3.

[NewReality]

Agree completely with KungfuRabbit about Chipotle's value and that of Indian and Thai restaurants.

In this way I sometimes wonder if my love for Indian food is not a curse. I have managed to make a barely passable facsimile of naan, a couple daals and channa masala at home, but at great effort. To make a real meal of several such dishes--which is how Indian is best enjoyed-- is simply time- and cost- and skill-prohibitive.

[Jouer]

When travelling we usually stay at apartments from AirBnB instead of hotels so we can cook our meals, typically using fresh ingredients local to where we are staying. But we will go out for one fancy dinner per vacation. We usually google "best restaurants in [place we are going]" or maybe even get specific like "best lobster roll in Boston". From there we check the yelp reviews to see what people are saying about the place.

Agree with others: do not go to a chain restaurant. Friends of ours who are even more frugal than us tend to go to crappy restaurants because they are less expensive....but then they complain about how crappy restaurant food is. They just go to the wrong places.

If you are staying in a hotel, you can always ask the concierge. They are on the take from restaurants they suggest...but they will suggest good ones most of the time.

[FIRE Artist]

Since picking up on mustachianism, I only eat out but a couple of times a month during social gatherings (except of course company expense travel) which now tend to be on Saturday lunches for our middle aged selves.  Turns out you can dine and drink in a nice restaurant for reasonable cost on the lunch menu.  The ladies who lunch were on to something.

[GuitarStv]

This one's easy!  We don't.

[Slowdown]

- Walking distance from the place where I am hungry.
- Tables in a garden or a yard when the weather is fine.
- Menu in front of the restaurant's entry: not too many different meals on it: If they offer too many different things I suspect them to be convenience food, right out of the freezer.
- Menu  in front of the restaurant's entry: Reasonable prices. Not too low (then it's usually not good) but more important: not too high. I am not willig to pay for a nice interior, an expensive location, a location near to a tourist attraction or anything. I just want to pay an honest price for good food and service.
- Free seats. I do not want to wait near the door or at the bar to be seated.

[I'm a red panda]

I weigh the kind of food I want and how much it will cost.

[mveill1]

chowhound - read existing threads or start one. Was never disappointed. To my mind it's better than tripadvisor because it attracts people that are primarily interested in food and cooking.

[asauer]

We eat out maybe once per month so, because it's rare, we are picky.  We choose farm to fork/locavore/ pasture-rasied/ organic (could I use anymore foodie buzzwords!?) that are a little more expensive.  Not necessarily an upscale place in terms of ambience.  We don't give a crap about that- but people who use really fresh ingredients.  Those things are really important to us and I find word of mouth from like minded people to be the best source for recommendations. 

[Noodle]

I totally admit being a geek about this...

For traveling, I think the "100 Best Restaurants" type of lists can be very helpful, if done by a local press outlet. (NOT the ones in travel magazines...those writers don't knot the local food scene.) There is usually a lot of variety in terms of price and formality among the various recommendations. Also, I will sometimes look at the Chowhound message boards--pretty frequently someone will post a message requesting recommendations for travelers to various cities.

At home, I subscribe to a few food blogs and will often use Urbanspoon to help me pick something for a given occasion. I like Urbanspoon because you can see published reviews, blog reviews and user reviews all together, which balances out the "cranky customer having a bad day" factor. Urbanspoon just merged with another site, though, so don't know how easy it is to use now.

Between the cost and the calories, I want a restaurant trip to be worth it!

[mathlete]

We do Chipotle or Panera probably like once a week. Pretty boring I know. We have a couple of nice local sit down places in our rotation for special meals 2-3 times a year.

If traveling, UrbanSpoon or Yelp is nice.

[Retired To Win]

When you decide to eat out, how do you decide where to eat? Word of mouth? Blogs? Yelp? Online lists of 'top restaurants'?

Since we mustachians are careful with our spending, how do you pick where to eat?...

Any time that we eat out it is as a treat, rather than just a meal.  But even then our frugality mindset has full play.

A lot of the time, we eat out for lunch.  Much the better deal. Like yesterday: a scrumptious Indian food lunch buffet for a fraction of their menu entree prices.  This was a "free day" treat we gave ourselves after doing a challenging 2-plus hour hike.

Also, we won't make a special driving trip just to go to a restaurant.  So proximity to home, or to wherever else we are going, definitely plays a part.  (Frugality gasoline use at work, you know.)  Finally, we often manage to have some coupon or other (from Groupon or the local newspaper) that cuts our restaurant cost even further.

[The_path_less_taken]

Thai food is my weakness. I can make a passable green curry with the right imported ingredients but it costs way more than going out.

Really fresh fish: things like oysters and swordfish...a really good seafood place will have almost sushi caliber food...and once in a while, I go.

[Mesa]

I travel a lot for work and use the Around Me app all the time to help decide where to eat.  It uses GPS to show what's nearby.  You can then check out restaurants in the area that look interesting.  It will also show nearby groceries if you just want to grab something simple, as well as other useful categories for travelers (pharmacies, etc.). No affiliation with Around Me--just a satisfied customer.

[Tetsuya Hondo]

I third (or fourth?) Chowhound. I've found some real gems through it.

Yelp is terrible ("The Indian restaurant didn't have cheeseburgers! The tapas place only had small plates!").

I see that you'll be in DC. I strongly encourage you to seek out an Ethiopian place while you're there. DC has one of - if not the largest - Ethiopian communities in the US and is a great place to try that cuisine. Check out the Washingtonian Magazine's website. They have great restaurants lists including their Top 100 picks (however, many are $$$) and a cheap eats list for more Mustachian meals. 

[laughing_paddler]

I found this piece/video by the economist Tyler Cowen to be interesting and with some counter-intuitive ideas.

"Six Rules for Dining Out"
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/six-rules-for-dining-out/308929/

[Zikoris]

The majority of our eating out is snacky type stuff once a month-ish (getting a donut at a fancy-pants bakery, or fries or whatever). For those we just go with the places we've been to before and know are the best. For actual restaurant meals (2-3 times a year) we usually look up to see if there are any new vegan or vegetarian places that have opened, or that we just haven't been to yet, and go there.

[2lazy2retire]

Walking distance and Happy Hour

[Kris]

We do not consciously police our eating out (as in, we don't have a restaurant budget), but our frugality/mindfulness comes out this way:

1) We don't eat at fast food places, chains, etc. ever unless we are traveling and find ourselves in the middle of nowhere with no other options.  Why?  Because we find those kinds of places to be "mindless" eating.  There's always better, tastier, healthier food available for the same price. 

2) My husband is a fantastic cook, so generally speaking, we don't eat at places where he could make better food at home. 

3) As a general rule, we don't eat at restaurants as a "quick" option.  If we eat out, it's because we want to go enjoy the experience.  If we're short on time, we'll make something quick at home before heading out to our activities.

So, the restaurants we go to tend to be either places we know and love, or restaurants that sound fantastic and we're excited to try, or ethnic food that we like but that we don't have the time/ingredients/inclination to prepare at home.

[Ricky]

Chipotle is the best quality per price. Period. It's real food, fresh, high quality, and amazing.

Aside from that we go Indian or Thai because we like it and aren't good at making it ourselves.

I refuse to go to some crappy American place like Applebee's that charges $15 for an overdone burger and 10 pounds of low quality fries I could make better and healthier for $3.

+1 Chipotle changed how I look at eating out. I'm not comfortable spending over ~$7 on a meal ever again.

[fishnfool]

Yelp as already mentioned and I also like tripadvisor reviews too!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

[Erica/NWEdible]

+1 to Chowhound over yelp.

+1 to a good Indian buffet.

-1 to Thai in preference to (+1) for Vietnamese. I dunno if it's just the Seattle area, but I feel like a casual family meal at a Thai restaurant is $80 and a casual meal at a Vietnamese restaurant is $30. In general, I just find Vietnamese restaurants to be a superb value.

Beyond that, it's all about the local recommendation. Ask your FB community. When some guy says, "the extra $400 for the foie gras omelette was totally worth it," ignore that dude. Otherwise, crowdsourcing is pretty effective.

[piccione88]

 I drive truck for a living, so it's sometimes hard to find a place that's worth splurging on. I generally only eat out on the rare occasion I am parked near somewhere famous. Last month, while passing through Amarillo I stopped by the big Texan steak house.
 I'm guessing that's not a great help though, as you have the ability to park anywhere. I have had great luck asking people. If I have a day somewhere, and want to treat myself, I ask the locals. Generally younger people won't know, or like expensive trendy places. Try to look for older hipsters, they know all the great places that no one has heard of, it's kind of their job

[southern granny]

When traveling, I always use tripadvisor.com.  I have never been disappointed by a restaurant that has mostly good ratings on that site.  After I pick a few places on there, then I will go online and see if they have a menu posted. 

[gomike]

I like Chipotle but have a hard time spending $7.88 on a burrito

[Bajadoc]

I really dislike eating out but I must at times to please the wife. She usually decides where according to friend recommendations. I smile and pretend to enjoy myself. The wife has been really good with my frugal ways over the years so she is entitled to occasional extravagance. She sometimes enjoys seeing me squirm at the sight of $10 dollar drinks and $30 dollar plates of mediocre shrimp. On the other hand, I made dinner last night and she loved it. It was Top Ramen with sliced zucchini, frozen peas, hard boiled egg and some left over grilled chicken. She almost admitted it was better than $30 dollar mediocre shrimp. That is love.

[Cookie]

We go out eat if we are getting something we can't make at home. We enjoy going out to eat, having an amazing dish, then perfecting it at home and not having a reason to go out for that meal anymore. We spend months working on a dish, so I guess its kind of our hobby. We only recently got fried rice down to where we like eating ours better. We've worked our way through many dishes and now we only go out for pad thai. 

[chouchouu]

I usually go for recommendations or use my intuition. I grew up in the industry so I kind of know when a place can be good. I'm not sure how to explain it, I'm sure if I did a study I could come up with something but for now I'll just call it instinct. Of course you can see if a place is busy and clean, those are pretty good cues and looking at the menu obviously.

I like Union Square Cafe in NYC, it's been a few years since I've been though.

[Sam E]

I just go by word of mouth. If I'm out of town I'll strike up some small talk with someone local along the line and say "I'm looking for a place to eat. Where do you like to go?" It's just more fun that way, you get to show up and read the menu and ask about the food. Doing heavy research on things like this tend to make the experience more dull and less adventurous (which I can afford to be since I'm already splurging by even considering going out for food, so why not just have fun with it?).

[GodlessCommie]

I'm surprised pho hasn't been mentioned. Great value and tastes super.

[KBecks2]

I totally know what you mean about wanting a nice dining experience for your money when eating out!

We found a great place on Yelp while on a road trip recently.  But the next place we found on Yelp had wonderful reviews and it was nice but the prices were high for what we got.  I started to dislike eating out.  :(

So anyway, Yelp can be useful sometimes.  Maybe you want to pack some snacks or have some easy meals on your own in addition to eating out to spread out your restaurant visits a little.

I like going out to very fancy restaurants ($$$) for the whole experience and good food,  I like going out to sushi restaurants because I don't know how to make sushi, and I like indian and thai restaurants too.   Also I like little diners and bar restaurants, but sometimes they can be awful.  You just take your chances.

Good luck!

[ChaseJuggler]

Do we have a coupon? Can we keep it under 25 after tip? If both of those are a yes then we go.

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

[aceyou]

3 types of going out for my wife and I:

When my wife and I actually get to choose. We usually go to Indian or Thai or non-chain mexican.  My wife and I generally find that if the place looks a little run down and if the employees aren't speaking English in the kitchen, we're probably going to get a delicious meal. If the ambiance sucks, and the cooks would likely have a hard time finding employment outside of the restaurant, they must have a pretty high incentive to make a damn good meal, right?

Birthday/family celebrations.  My immediate family has a thing where we go out to eat anytime one of them has a birthday.  So my mom, dad, brother, two sisters, their spouses...this accounts for about a dozen trips a year.  Chains like "On The Border" or The Olive Garden usually get chosen.  I'm not a big fan of the food, because I can make better food at home in less time and for 1/10 the cost, but that's ok.  There's worse things in life than having a close, loving family who likes to share milestones at chain restaurants:)

Gift gard usage  I'm a tennis coach for two varsity teams.  A few times each year I will generally get a generous gift certificate to fancy restaurants, where a typical bill for two people is around $75 assuming you each get just one drink.  I really enjoy and appreciate these gifts.  I would NEVER spend this kind of money on dinner, but I do find the food awesome.  I love to cook, and I often leave with a new thing I want to try in the kitchen.  The wait staff at these restaurants typically know their stuff, and cooks will almost always come out if you have a question for them.

[mm1970]

When we vacation (which is rarely), I tend to go online to buy guide books. Like the few times we went to Hawaii, I bought these hawaii guide books that reviewed all of the restaurants.

For the most part, we eat in our rented condos, but with one meal out a day.  So depending on what we were doing that day, it would be lunch or dinner, so I'd look up restaurants close by in location, and choose those.  I considered that to be pretty successful.  I vacationed once with my spouse and a really good friend, and the friend was more of a "grab a burger from McD's" for lunch and dinner, and I drove her crazy with the guidebook.

However, the WORST meal was when we just went next door because it was easy.  And every  meal I had was great (whether a burger or a nicer meal).  When we went to the Thai place that supposedly had good Pad Thai, that's what I ordered.

We went to a Asian-fusion style restaurant and she and my husband didn't like the food.  Well, he ordered fried chicken and she ordered Jambalaya!!


Anyway, locally when we eat out, we look for easy places with the kids, discount coupons, etc.  We tend to go to the same places when we do (once/twice a month).  I like to eat fairly healthy too.

[Exhale]

Rarely do this b/c it'd derail my budget. But when I do:

1) Local indie place (no chains)
2) Happy Hour if available
3) Yelp, word of mouth etc. to help choose

[HipGnosis]

Eating out locally and while travelling are vastly different.

Locally, it's either a known good place of the cuisine and/or value/ambiance I want or need (ie, special occasions)  or an interesting new place to check out.

Traveling, my first criteria is any local or regional specialties.  If there isn't a specialty, I seek out cafes and diners and/or the most popular restaurants on yelp and Tripadvisor.

[Wilson Hall]

We'll try a new place once or twice to see if it's worthwhile; if it doesn't knock our socks off, we don't go back. Otherwise we go to one of a few local places that have good food for the value, know us as regulars, and give us a extras at no charge. 

[zataks]

While in Vegas, if you like Thai food, go to Lotus of Siam. 

Google it, Yelp it, etc. 

Best Thai food I've ever had.  Order from the Northern region of the menu.

Bordaine went here on a "Parts Unknown" that I just watched a couple days ago, too. 

[Vanguards and Lentils]

I don't look at yelp reviews for deciding on restaurants because usually I find that either:
1) the place is in high demand, and the restaurant's prices have already adjusted to reflect that, or
2) people rate based on petty things, e.g., "our waitress didn't seem genuinely interested in talking with us!"

In fact, I prefer to have the price of my meal mainly going towards the food- not towards a pretty interior, or personable waitstaff. To me, no seasoning is better than dingy chairs, being rushed/treated rudely by the staff, or having to retrieve the food by myself after hearing "order number 26? NUMBER 26!?!"

Also +1 for chipotle. It goes without saying that I'll get chicken, no guacamole, and water. And it is my personal policy to embarrass any friends who are with me by asking for more of everything.

[Thegoblinchief]

Almost never eat out except when on vacation with ILs, so we don't have any system. Hard to beat scratch cooking from fresh market produce and bulk purchased humanely raised animals.

[dividend]

While in Vegas, if you like Thai food, go to Lotus of Siam. 

Google it, Yelp it, etc. 

Best Thai food I've ever had.  Order from the Northern region of the menu.

Bordaine went here on a "Parts Unknown" that I just watched a couple days ago, too.

Seconded.  It's gotten a little more expensive since I first went 4 years ago, and a little more crowded.  But still delicious and legit.  One time I was in line waiting to be seated and struck up a conversation with the guy in front of me who told me that he had traveled all over SE Asia and Lotus had better authentic food than a lot of the places he ate over there. 

[Retired To Win]

Almost never eat out except when on vacation with ILs, so we don't have any system. Hard to beat scratch cooking from fresh market produce and bulk purchased humanely raised animals.

Even then, sometimes I enjoy eating a dish that I am extremely unlikely to prepare myself (or extremely likely to botch it up) and/or that it's actually more efficient to eat out somewhere rather than buy all the ingredients it would require (and then store the unused excess for who knows how long.)

:O

[iamlittlehedgehog]

While traveling we rely on several top 100, top 10 lists and cross compare. If it has made it on several lists then it may be worth checking out. Word of mouth is also worth its weight in gold too so don't hesitate to ask around!
At home we rotate between maybe 5 cheap restaurants. We eat out maybe once month.