Always order the same thing or usually try different things?
We have out-of-town company coming in next week, and we will be taking them to our favorite local restaurants. I have my “dish” that at I order at each of these places. Honestly, I kind of settled on my choices early on. It’s not like I cycled through the menu until I found my favorite. Typically, I order something that sounds appealing, and then just keep getting it when we go back. We go to trivia every Tuesday in our local pub, and I get the same exact meal week-in and week-out. I was just curious if I am alone in doing this and wondered how common it as. I imagine most people are in the middle - sometimes ordering a favorite but sometimes trying something new.
I might be boring. I’m definitely a creature of habit.
I love trying new dishes, so when visiting a new restaurant I will try something different every time we go, until I settle on the dishes I prefer. If after experimenting I find that I very much prefer one or two over all the others I’ve tried, those will be the ones I order going forward. For example, at Pho Boston I always order #17.
We don’t eat out very often, so I want to know I’ll enjoy it when we do go.
If I haven’t been to a restaurant in a while and I have a favorite dish I will often order it but if I’ve been there more recently I like to try new things. Also depends on the specific restaurant and their menu. Mostly I like to try new dishes and not just have the same things every time.
Generally some people thrive on novelty and some on familiarity. Some go wide and some go deep. They are often called “foxes” and “hedgehogs”, after Isaiah Berlin wrote a book on two types of thinkers. Neither is wrong and the world needs both. As with any classification, lots of people fall somewhere in between. I’m very much a fox and if I go to a restaurant often I’ll eventually try almost everything on the menu (and I’ll prefer to go to a new restaurant anyway). My husband is more of a hedgehog. It’s not always easy but we make it work.
I’m not an adventurous eater and DH is a picky vegetarian. So not only do we have only one or two items we choose from when we eat out, we only eat out at places that are sure to meet both our criteria.
My H and I tend to go to a handful of restaurants on a regular basis. At most of the places we order the same item. Or we have 3 or 4 items we have discovered we like and pick between those items. We should try new things but we don’t. At a couple of the places we will order two different entrees and split them.
We have two special occasion places we go that change their menu like @BunsenBurner favorite place. At times it can be disappointing to go and find the item you loved last time is no longer on the menu. The positive is it forces us to go out of our comfort zone and try something different.
Like the OP, I tend to order the same things I liked before. I get quite annoyed if the menu changes. Perhaps this shows inflexibility of mind. I’m definitely no thrill-seeker.
At a local pizza place, the waiters know what we would order without asking. So we are usually greeted with, “Hello! Glad to see you! Mushroom pizza and signature salad? Two glasses of zin?” Their menu rarely changes.
I started (again) a serious attempt at weight-loss 3 months ago. I travel almost every week for work, and I’ve noticed that since I started trying to eat healthier, I’ve ordered the same things at certain restaurants every time. Part of it is identifying a healthy option that tastes good, and sticking with it (some times there aren’t a multitude of healthy options). Prior to my current diet (and part of why I am on my current diet!) I loved to try new things all the time.
I don’t care for salmon, and my H loves it. Almost every time we go out, he orders salmon.
I tend to order the same thing. Usually I go there because I’ve found something I love. @college_query But if it isn’t a place where I have a favorite (or it is a new place), I usually get the salmon!
Just depends on the restaurant. Some menus have a wide variety to choose from, others not so much.
I have breakfast at one restaurant at least once a month. I order the same thing every time. The wait staff has been there for years and “tell” me what I’m ordering. I’m always amazed that they remember, but I’ve been doing it for 7 years.
When I was a child, I decided that I would try unfamiliar dishes in restaurants when we were at home because if I absolutely hated it, I could make a meal out of what was available in the kitchen when I got back to the house. And trying something new in a restaurant was a good way to figure out whether I liked it. But when we were on vacation, I always ordered familiar foods in restaurants because there was a lack of alternatives back in the hotel.
I usually order the same thing. We most often choose our restaurant because they have menu items we like. We go infrequently enough it becomes a “I want X” so let’s go to this restaurant. Perhaps if we were eating out more often we would want more variety. A why give up favorite dish X to try Y and miss out on it for a long time? Even for my lunch fast foods I choose the restaurant based on what I want to eat that day, I do not go through many items at the same place. I get into food likes and may change them many months later.
I used to have a little cafe lunch place, 30 years ago, and so many people had their meal, same thing every time. I had previously thought it was just me. I will try new stuff, but once I’ve found a favorite, why switch.
