I’m with you abasket and doschicos! I love to try new things and I love small plates places so I can try more different dishes.
Depends on the place. We tend to favor trying new places over going to the same ones except for BBQ. With BBQ you figure out if they are best at ribs, brisket or pulled pork and then order the same thing every time. It’s comfort food.
I do often order fish or duck because it’s troublesome to cook. But I also often opt for vegetarian small plates if it’s a place where those look good.
I tend to vary between favorite things on the menu. I like to order the chefs special if it sounds appealing. I try to not order anything I make at home.
If something has lemon and garlic I’ll probably order it and something with olives, mushrooms and peppers I’ll avoid.
Why be surprised- post #39? When we go to a restaurant it is a not an every day event so we do not want to spoil it with missing out on a favorite we can’t get at home/elsewhere by trying something. I know we more often decide on the restaurant based on the food we want than choosing the restaurant then its options.
I always order the same thing at my favorite breakfast restaurant. But, in my defense, how many restaurants invite your dogs in or offer to serve them bacon while left in the SUV ?
@wis75 , I’m surprised because that type of thought - missing out on a favorite dish - is just different than my train of thought. We don’t eat out often either. So for me, that’s more reason to try new things and develop new “favorites” - something can still be a favorite, but not ordered most every time!
That’s part of the reason we share dishes - if there are three of us we might get a tried and true favorite and then try two new menu options - this way, we get a portion of a known favorite and additional portions of new dishes to try.
Nothing would make me more happy than to be able to walk around a restaurant stopping at each table and seeing what people ordered and get a visual description so I can order something new and different!
@abasket I wish I could walk a restaurant with a fork and taste everything! Tasting menus and small plates places were made for people like me. I don’t want a lot of anything, I like a bite or two of a lot of things.
I love to try new things! Years ago, I used to go out to dinner with a local restaurant critic, and the deal was we all had to order something different and share, so the critic could try everything. I’d love to do that now, but nobody I know would go along with that, haha. But some places are favorites because they make that one thing that I love, so that’s what I get.
@ABasket, @HotCanary, @eyemamom Too bad we don’t live in the same area - we could eat out together and share!
There are a couple restaurants I really like in Philly where you can order a multi-course meal and each person can choose different items so when we go and there are say 4 of us and we share, by the end of the night you’ve tasted 25-30 different things. It’s great!
We rarely go out so when we do, we end up at a favorite place and order our favorites dishes.
I do enjoy small plates and ordering various dishes and sharing if I’m with friends who are willing.
Going out with my S recently while visiting him resulted in me trying many new-to-me dishes. I love that he is more adventurous about food than I was at his age.
DH and I eat out more often than we used to. Its good (no cooking) and bad (more calories and $). One thing I almost always do is order the same type of entree and then decide I like what DH ordered. He’s not always happy to share.
I’m always happy to share tastes and also prefer small plates. At fancy places we often go for the tasting menu. I can always count on my husband to order the weird stuff on the menu, that I am too chicken to commit to.
I also like to order things that are too troublesome to cook at home and/or seem to be much cheaper per pound at restaurants than in the grocery store. (Fish)
^^That’s why we frequent sushi and pizza places. 
I found this article by Frank Bruni illuminating. Especially the illustration, lol.
H is a more adventurous eater than I am, and loves to try new places. I like to go out less often and don’t get so excited about new places as H does. Still, we eat out alot! Doesn’t make clothes shopping easier…
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/opinion/sunday/best-restaurant-over-50.html
Love that quote, greenwitch. After reading it recently, I was trying to figure out how much I care about that new place, the new dish. In my dreams, yes, of course, but don’t go out for adventurous eating while home. My city has some fairly good places. But ideally? Ethnic food in country of origin makes me happier, and want to try it all. Well…much of it anyhow.
But here in town, I avoid bread, and focus on vegetables, so tend towards salads with protein and fun appetizers. A range of salad choices makes me quite happy, rather than one preferred choice. I like small plates, but tend to equate small plates with high bills. Asian friends and family are enjoyable dining partners as they also like to share food.
I tend to order the same things at our favorite places. I also try to order stuff I don’t make at home. I rarely make shrimp or veal, even though I love both. I will often pick an entree with those.
Living in a tourist/destination spot (Florida) we have an awful lot of visitors. On Thursday, our tenth set of company within the last 12 months is arriving. Dh and I don’t eat out that often in general because we know we wiill when we have visitors. Our guests always wants to dine out multiple evenings and have lots of seafood. So, we have kind of determined the best of the best places for seafood at different price points to have as tried and true suggestions. We certainly don’t want to take guests somewhere that we haven’t vetted, and I have definitely found my favorites at those five or six places. So, that is my excuse for not trying new restaurants. However, there is no reason I can’t branch out a bit within the menu offerings at those places. We’ll see what happens this weekend! Ha ha! I’ve enjoyed reading about all the different habits and preferences of folks.
I usually order the same thing until I see other tables ordering something that looks nice and tasty, I’ll ask them what dish it is and order it depending on the price.
Question: I wonder if those that eat out and choose the same favorite or two correlates at all with being someone who eats out because they don’t like to cook? And if those that choose new dishes when they dine correlates with those who like to cook - and do - so when they eat out they are interested in a broader sense of exploring ingredients, technique, etc.???
I do cook a lot. Love cooking as long as I have time. We don’t eat out much. A couple times a month maybe. I tend to try new things and share plates.
I was bamboozled by your elaborate question but I think that people who do cook probably look for different things in the cooking to learn from than those who don’t. For example, if you cook you might look at how the restaurant incorporated a certain ingredient and you might try to learn and integrate it into your own cooking.