Usually by the time I drive to a restaurant, get seated, order, wait for my order, eat, wait for the check and pay… I could have whipped up an amazing meal and enjoyed myself more in the process.

Then there is the issue of food quality. Cooks at 90% of restaurants really don’t give a damn about how much effort they put into your meal. Its just the facts. They are pressed for time, limited to crappy ingredients and most of them are paid like poop. I realized something interesting the other day when I had to go to a business meeting over lunch at a restaurant. How often have you gone out to eat with someone and heard the question asked “How is yours?” How often has the response been “Its ok” or “its alright” or its “so so”? This just isn’t something that has happened to me since not eating out anymore. The food is always excellent or phenomenal and if it isn’t… its my own darn fault.

Then there is the issue of cost. A meal at a half decent restaurant for just the wife and I always seems to put me back at least $30. I can cook whatever I want, grass fed, top shelf and organic for way less than that! I always leave a restaurant feeling a little like I just got robbed.

Kind of tying in with that is the issue of service. How often do you really get good service anymore. Admitted I do get better service when traveling than I do here locally (you other Albuquerque locals can probably vouch for this as well) but you just don’t get decent service anymore. It seems tipping has become a given requirement now and no one feels that they should have to work for it. I am not kidding… the last 3 times I have gone to a restaurant, I have had to stand up, track down my waiter/waitress and demand a refill on my water. When I get good service, I am a generous 20% tipper but it seems that never happens anymore. It is a “gratuity”… it iss meant as a gracious gesture for me to show my gratitude for being taken well care of during my meal. A lot of restaurants these days have even started automatically adding the gratuity to your bill for you thereby deciding for you exactly how much gratitude you posses for your meal.

And then there is… you know what? Never mind. I am just getting myself aggravated.