In general how often do you eat out?

2 or 3 time per month. I usually use a coupon groupon.

My sister came down from Portland tonight. We went out for pizza. That was the first time I have eaten out in a few months.

I am not trying to be all I am awesome and eat great. I normally eat frozen diners and a few salads a week.

For the past few years, almost never. I mostly ate directly from my garden, livestock and what I took from the sea. But that was from a lack of nearby restaurants. If room service counts, for the past few weeks I’ve been eating from the hotel kitchen for every meal. They are very proud of their local cuisine here. It’s a delicious bastardization of classic French cooking, mostly fresh seafood. It’s fuckin’ heaven, bra.

Twice a week, but some weeks it’s only once. I should mention that sometimes the food I eat at home is prepared supermarket food, so that is kind of like eating restaurant food I guess? I’m not counting that in the restaurant count.

Eating out tends to be unhealthy and makes me fatter. That and the cost are the two biggest downsides for me. Then add in wanting to be in my jammie’s in the evening, watching my TV shows, and eating my dinner. The best part of restaurant eating is I don’t have to clean the kitchen.

It varies, but if we’re not away from home, but often about once a week or fortnight. However, over the last year we’ve not eaten out much at all when at home. Unless there has been a special occasion such as a birthday or something, we’ve eaten at home.

does the university cantine count?
what about fast food outlets?

Couple of times a week, this area has got sooo many good places to eat and competition is stiff. It usually ends up not costing too much more than eating at home.

More than I should, both because of the expense and my penchant for eating stuff that’s not so good for me.

But I’m a bachelor, I’m a lousy cook, and I’m lazy.

I’m writing this while waiting for my favorite breakfast order at my favorite cafe.

Very infrequently.

I do a book club Meetup once a month at a local Panera restaurant, and sometimes, from month to month, that’s it.

Other than that it’s mostly salads five nights a week (and sometimes seven), and I’ll make something else to take to lunch at work.

A few times a month.

About 5/7 dinners and 1/7 breakfasts. So, 6 times. I just don’t have time to cook most nights.

I grab fast food on occasion, maybe once or twice a month, mostly tacos, burgers and fries rarely. I love KFC cole slaw and grab a container of that now and then to go with dinner. and the occasional chinese takeout. Usually my daughter and I go somewhere middle of the road to eat every couple months like Strings pasta or Chili’s, etc. Infact, today we are meeting for lunch then coming back here to hang out for a few hours.

I am craving the shrimp enchiladas from Chili’s in a bad way. haha

I’d say 1–3 times a month. The majority of which is Culvers :p

Once or twice a month, usually when I’m out shopping and too tired to go home and fix a meal.

Bloody hell, I miss Sunday breakfast at Perkins or IHop in the States. Three eggs over light, a medium rare T-bone or a big slice of Hawaiian ham with slices of pineapple, hash browns with ketchup and a stack of pancakes with lots of butter and maple syrup for dessert. A tall milk, orange juice and an urn of coffee. Or a double order of biscuits and thick sausage gravy. Mmmm. Or grits mixed with brittle fried bacon, gooey eggs and black pepper. Then drink coffee and read the NY Times. Then go to the gym or body surfing on the beach. I really miss Sundays in the States.

Eat in restaurants – 2 to 4 times a week. Food to go (lunch week days from deli or Italian place ) – additional 5 times a week.

@ragingloli Sure both those count. Since you didn’t make it to eat at home.

@Espiritus_Corvus I love Ihop but how on earth do you eat all of that? I remember going there in high school back when they had all you can eat pancakes. My max was 10¾ pancakes.

@dxs I’m just a big eater, especially when alone in a restaurant. I take my time and sit through a couple of turnovers and tip accordingly. I try to make sure and establish myself with the waiting staff in the restaurants I choose to frequent. New waitstaff tend to get nervous when they see a guy order more coffee and open up the Times in the second turnover. I’m mindful that they might worry that they are losing money by not turning over their table on a busy day. So, tipping accordingly is appropriate, like paying rent.

Ha. When out at sea, the portions are necessarily small and the variety of foodstuffs can be limited. Sailing is about sailing, not eating. So, when I get back from 3 or 4 weeks at sea, I am bloody voracious. Once I get cleaned up to go into town, I’ll pick out one of those blue plate special, ma-and-pa diners, hopefully during a slow period. Their food is more like home cooking and the waitresses, especially the older ones, aren’t afraid to show a little personality unlike those in the corporate franchises. They don’t hold back. Being a good corporate robot isn’t in their job description. They will even tell you what not to order that day. The best take care of their customers because that’s where the money is and the very best think the boss is lucky to have them, which he usually is. I love a good diner waitress. They are also a good way to learn about what’s going on in the town.

But I’ve totally freaked a couple out with my post-voyage appetite. I’ll go through three standard entrees back-to-back over a couple of hours, drink tall glasses of ice-cold milk and coffee. I rarely do dessert unless it’s fresh-baked apple or some fruit pie, warm with a scoop vanilla ice cream on top. Can’t pass up a good fruit pie. I’m really hungry when I get back from a sail and I like eating anyway. And they talk to a happy guy who eats like that and I learn about the place. But if you eat like I do on land, you absolutely must do gym-time and be very active to turn all this food into something useful like muscle, or it will surely settle into fat. And I enjoy the gym, too, so… it works for me. The long stretches working a boat at sea on small portions keep me fit as well.

If I’m with other people, I’ll pare it down a bit so we finish all at the same time. I don’t like people sitting at the same table watching me eat and twiddling their thumbs. And it’s not polite of me to test their patience like that. At home, I don’t eat as much. I’m not crazy about all the prep and washing up, unless there are guests.

Sorry about the length. I get a little carried away on the subject.

Two or three times per month. I prefer eating at home, even if I stop and pick up the food already prepared.

@Espiritus_Corvus Wow. You must be a superhuman.

^^No. I just take care of myself in order to do the things I like to do. I rarely drink alcohol, for example, because it would sap me. Many sailors hit the bars when they get ashore and consume at least as many calories in alcohol as I do in food. However, the calories I consume are usable, theirs aren’t. And I’m good the next day and in a much better mood.

^ yes, one of the sucky things about getting a little older is that having “fun” with alcohol, carries a triple payback the next day. I too am limited in my indulgences, I do enjoy a few cold beers in the summer but winter I rarely drink, maybe some Baileys in coffee, that’s about it.
However, I am up for champagne at any time. haha

I rue the day I will have to give up coffee. The last vice is the hardest to shed.

^ I will never give up coffee, they will have to pry my cold, dead hands from my cup. ;-)

@Espiritus_Corvus I would love it if I could eat three entrees in one sitting. If only I weren’t so small.

@dxs
Should not be a problem if you just skip the main course.

@dxs Well, it’s probably not a good idea to force yourself to eat like that. My hunger is really genuine, though. It comes from long periods on small rations. It is a hunger that is not easily satisfied.

It shocked me as much as the waitress when I got back from a trip down the Florida coast coming back from a dive trip to the “Gardens” about 80 miles southwest of Galveston in November, 2012. I had been out 8 weeks and was down to oatmeal and water—no sugar, no nothin’. I remember reading the threads here on what everyone else was having for dinner that Thanksgiving night and I finally had to walk away from the laptop. It was too much to think of all that food.

I had anchored that afternoon in a gulf hammock about 40 miles north of Tarpon Springs, Florida, my home port. No fish in the water at all. I attributed that to the fallout from the BP oil rig disaster of a few years previous. There were black patches of tar still laying on the bottom.

A couple of days later I hit Tarpon like a tsunami. I ate my way through half the menu at one of their Greek restaurants near the docks. I think the Greek lady who owned the place wanted to marry me. I was there so long that she told me to bring a sleeping bag next time. Since then, that hunger returns whenever I’m out for more than 3 weeks.