OT - Why do you dine out? What do you seek in dining out?

[Cincydawg]

Kroger potatoes run about a dollar here and asparagus was $2.99 a pound.  It drops down in season a lot.  The filet was on sale for $13 a pound, but it was not the same quality as the butcher's in our opinion, it was still quite good.  I am assuming a good steak house is getting good beef, I'm not talking Longhorn.  Kroger prices here are the same as they were in Cincy, though wine is a LOT less here, probably 60% the retail in Ohio.

The French restaurant we dine at offers things I can't cook at home, at least not without considerable bother.  We can all grill a steak.

[FearlessF]

Brutus might have trouble grilling a steak.
because of lack of interest

I have a handful or so of friends that enjoy coming to my kitchen for steaks.  They will bring the steaks or the drinks.  I'll prepare some easy sides, salad, vegetable, tater.  Quick, easy, little mess, 20% of cost for all.  Entertaining.

I enjoy cooking for friends.  I may have inherited this from my grandmother, who lived through the great depression, ALWAYS offered any visitor to her home something to eat.

Beer, wine, drinks are expensive dining out, but there's not many times I'm willing to opt for the free water while enjoying a meal

[betarhoalphadelta]

Probably much less than 20% for a pasta dish with chicken at Olive Garden for example.

The wife and I have started making our own pasta. So a cup of flour, 3 eggs, and half of a Costco pesto container, and we have 2 big plates of fettuccine with pesto.
I'd say that was less than $5 for 2 dinners, with ample portions.
(Obviously no meat in there, but adding something simple like chicken is extremely inexpensive.)
Another plug for Costco BTW... We buy the frozen individually-wrapped fish and chicken there. Pretty much anything you buy "fresh" at the supermarket is previously frozen, so I'd rather buy it frozen and defrost it under my own conditions. I think we get salmon about $25/3lb, mahi about $27/3lb, cod about $18/3lb, and I don't know what the chicken costs but my special needs son has become a chicken aficionado, so the ability to just pull out and defrost a single chicken breast for him is SO easy. But on weeknights, the wife and I can just defrost some fish, throw together dinner with some vegetables, and it's easy and quick.
For those of you who say you don't like to cook, things like this are easy, delicious, and inexpensive relative to eating out.

[FearlessF]

one of the downfalls to living in the middle of nowhere

nearest Costco is 90 miles

[Cincydawg]

I learned to cook simple quick things having to feed three kids back in the day.  I focused on meals that minimized clean up.

That serves me well right now as we have no functioning kitchen, no stove.

The folks redoing the kitchen have pretty well botched their scheduling, every step is delayed and takes a week to get something small done.  I'm not impressed with them.

The wife wanted to go with a private contractor instead of a Lowe's.  Big mistake.

[betarhoalphadelta]

one of the downfalls to living in the middle of nowhere

nearest Costco is 90 miles

Yeah, I probably have 10 Costcos in a 25 mile radius. 

[Cincydawg]

We have three about equidistant, maybe 8-9 miles.  One has liquor, but their prices are not exceptional for liquor.

Looks like there are 8 in the metro, but one is labeled Costco Business Center, so it might be operations only.

[GopherRock]

We have three about equidistant, maybe 8-9 miles.  One has liquor, but their prices are not exceptional for liquor.

Looks like there are 8 in the metro, but one is labeled Costco Business Center, so it might be operations only.

There's a Costco business center that opened last fall in NE Minneapolis. The stock there is basically all restaurant and office supplies. Also, there's a large cage of cigarette cartons that represents the most cigarettes I've ever seen in one place. Unsurprisingly, it was under lock and key. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Costco business center can be a great place to get big slabs of meat that aren't easy to find elsewhere. I.e. Bone in prime rib I can only find at the local Costco in December. I think the business center will stick that sort of thing year round. 

[Cincydawg]

I doubt we'll go, it's a fair drive south.  But thanks for the info.

I've had good luck with beef from Costco, but their fish has been a more variable experience.  The last steelhead trout I got there was very good, but often it's in amounts we can't really use.  The wife really likes that "trout".  It's less greasy than the Atlantic salmon they farm raise.

I used to do pork tenderloins a lot.  Kroger would have them at $2/lb at times and I'd do them on the grill with offset cooking.  That was a great way to feed a slew of folks.  My little electric grill just has a coil that covers the entire area, so it's only good for grilling.  It does a surprisingly good job.

[utee94]

Restaurant Depot is a great place to get meat like that as well, if you have one in your area.  Beef short ribs off the plate are relatively hard to find even here in Texico (beef short ribs from the chuck are far more common), but Restaurant Depot just about always has them.

Really good butchers can get them for you, too, but it can be prohibitively expensive.

[FearlessF]

I regularly get boneless pork loins for less than $2 per lb.

Iowa slaughters more hogs than any state.

I usually grill chops, but this time of season I like to put a loin roast in the crockpot

[utee94]

Yeah pork loin is a really good value.

And I especially love to BBQ pork tenderloin as well.  Relatively inexpensive, quick and easy, and people go crazy for it.  

[MrNubbz]

one of the downfalls to living in the middle of nowhere

nearest Costco is 90 miles

Well in 10 years you'll have one near you along with a StarBucks and a Wal-Mart.Provided you haven't skedaddled to Austin already.I hear they're welcoming new residents,left and right down there