Last night we went out to a local steak house restaurant to celebrate a 30th birthday and the highlight of the evening was the sunset. The last time I had set foot in this establishment was many years ago and it was pricey back then so one kind of knew what to expect. Back then you still looked forward to the evening out because it was about having a decent meal along with good company and it was more about the experience
The downside is when you charge exorbitant prices the food needs to be on point and it clearly wasn't. These days we tend to only go and eat out a couple of times per year because the food at home is in many cases far better.
If you are going to blow R3K ($170) which is considered expensive for 4 adults you may as well buy whatever ingredients you want and cook it yourself. I do roughly 80% of the cooking at home these days and my menu has grown over the years and will try cooking any dish.
My family has a food back ground with my dad being a chef so it makes sense that I have a love for cooking. I grew up in a fancy hotel kitchen and a few restaurants he owned along the way. If I go out at all to eat locally these days it will be for seafood only or a specialty restaurant.
The prices are kind of crazy with most items on the menu have risen at least 3 x ad I find it hard to justify the spend. If the food was great it would be easier to stomach, but when it is considered below par you start to wonder what is the point. There were parts of the meal I left and I noticed other plates around me were not exactly licked clean and had quite a bit left. I mentioned if you work hard and value your money then it is hard to justify paying these prices.
When I travel overseas I know the prices are going to be high if you are using Rand's and converting, but then this is expected so you are fully prepared. We had a lunch in Paris that rushed me close to € 300, but that was with 2 extra people and the quality was in another league.
In January I am off to the UK and Portugal and the Portugal leg of the trip I am looking forward to trying out some local dishes. Where we live in Johannesburg there is a strong Portuguese community in the area and he food you can find available is very different to what is considered normal. These are the families that fled Mozambique during the civil war and have now settled and grown up here. I suspect many of the dishes available in Portugal I would have already tried. The Nandos chain started about 5km from where I live and it was taken from the owners name being Fernanado. That original restaurant is still going and is very different from what you see in a Nandos today.
The next time someone suggests we go and eat out I would rather stay at home and cook because at least then you can have whatever you feel like. We could have had a lamb on the spit which can feed 15 people comfortably for what we paid last night feeding 4. I am no scrooge, but at the same time I am no idiot and you have to be clueless paying these prices for the quality you are receiving.
