Am I strange? My wife loves to go out to eat at fancy, high dollar places, and I almost always do not like?

Question

the food I am served. Sure the places are very nice and the waiter is very helpful, but the food is usually not as good as at Long John Silvers or Burger King! What is wrong with me! Have any of you also had this experience?

Answer 1

I'm with you. I like more family-type restaurants, not the high-class places, where you have to make sure you're using the proper fork! I don't necessarily mean the type of places you mentioned, but someplace in between suits me just fine!

Answer 2

It's not about the food, it's about the dining experience.

Some people really like the experience of sitting in a nice environment and being waited on by pleasant people. Think of it as something you do for her as a (romantic) treat.

I don't eat at fast food places because I don't like the food. I avoid places that are noisy or feel hectic because I don't find it relaxing. I'd rather fix myself a sandwich at home. But a sit-down restaurant with atmosphere makes me feel special.

Answer 3

no ur not strange
id rather have fish and chips then some fancy dish
in my case its a sense of how big the meal is for the money you are paying
fish an chips you get quite a bit of food for £5
that fancy place down the road gives you a small piece of meat that's still raw , a couple of slices of a vegetable and a little ring of oil mixed with a couple of spices then they charge you £25 for it
give me the fish and chips any day
nothing is wrong with you you just like value for money

Answer 4

I've been to restaurants all over the world and I'd prefer a good family restaurant over some fancy place any day.
Just take turns on picking a place. That way you're both happy.

Answer 5

I think it's better to eat at a restaurant where you can feel comfy. You should go to those high class places only for special events. I think she likes those places because she can dress up and look glamorous...

Answer 6

i agree! this past april my french class went on a trip to montreal canada. we went to thsi fancy french resteraunt and we only had 3 options and the only veggeterian option was this nasty pasta with mushrooms and i hate mushrooms the food taste like crap. i perfer my fast food anyday

Answer 7

No you are not strange. I dont like the fancy crap they serve either. If i dont know what it is i aint eating it. And the prices.

Answer 8

My first date with my husband was Applebees. That's still his favorite place and I like it too.

Answer 9

My husband and I have this problem as well. In our case, I believe a lot of it has to do with how we were raised, among other reasons. My parents raised me to try a new food before I decided if I liked it or not, and they made sure that I tried many different and exotic foods as a child (I still remember the first time I tried escargot and found out I liked it - I was 6 or 7 at the time). I also was allowed to have only a couple of foods that I could absolutely refuse to eat if they were served. Everything else I had to eat at least several bites of.

My husband, however, was allowed to eat pretty much only what he wanted to eat (which, of course, included a lot of fast food later on) and was not encouraged to try new things (fortunately he decided that he loves vegetables!). His parents also did not cook very much so much of what he ate growing up was take-out from the same few inexpensive places. He's relaxed since then, but he still has the habit of deciding if he likes something merely because of how it looks or his impressions of the food that he's picked up from friends and the media. He also still retains the habit of prefering to eat the same few foods most of the time since this is what he did as a child.

Another reason he had many problems trying non-fast-food food is that he was addicted to having a lot of salt, grease, MSG and sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup) in his food (four primary components in fast food - he lived off of the stuff before I met him). It took a long time of weaning him off of these items before he regained the ability to appreciate other flavors and textures (for example, he found out that he actually likes several different types of sushi and other japanese foods! He's still not crazy about French food, though - but I'm trying :-) ). The good news is that now he likes his food best prepared simply with a minimum of salt and seasonings - a style that is easy to find in most high-end restaurants.

My suggestion would be to

1) Work to wean yourself off of salt, grease, MSG, partially-hydrogenated fats (trans-fats) and sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup) in your food. This means eating more fresh foods and simply prepared foods at home rather than eating pre-prepared foods (frozen dinners, boxed dishes like Hamburger Helper, etc). It also means reading labels like crazy. The good news is that if you have stomach and/or intestinal problems, these should become much milder or go away entirely as you wean yourself off of the highly-processed foods.

2) Resolve to have fast food only a couple times a month, as a treat, and find places that use healthier methods to fix your favorites. Once you've weaned yourself off of salt, grease, etc. you may even find that you don't like a lot of the fast foods you used to crave.

3) If you smoke, stop (or at least cut WAY down). Along with all of the health issues, smoking dulls the senses of smell and taste so that foods with subtle flavors taste bland or down-right awful.

4) Go slow. Resolve to TRY a dish before you decide you don't like it. You may want to first make the dish at home so that you are familiar with the flavors that go into it and so that you can play with those flavors and find out what you really like and don't like. It may be that the dish itself is fine - it's just one (or a few) of the flavors that go into it that you don't like. If these aren't necessary to the dish, you may be able to ask the restaurant to go easy on those flavors or omit them entirely (for example, I can't eat hot peppers anymore. Any restaurant I've gone to is quite willing to make a dish mild that is usually quite spicy if I ask, or tone down the heat). Something else you can do is if there is a dish that your wife likes and wants you to try, you could order that dish and she could order something you like. You can try your dish and switch if you decide you don't like it - a safety net, as it were.

Good luck!

Answer 10

Compromise ... Eat at the airport ...
She gets the high prices, and you get burgers