Just why are you going to eat in a restaurant when you can save so much and be comfortable eating at home? Eating in a restaurant means that you have to dress up, drive and pay more for than just cooking the stuff you bought from the grocery.

People go to restaurants to have a pleasant time. If you subtract your total bill from the cost of the raw food and cooking oil, that’s how much fun you should be getting.

Reasons to Avoid Eating Out at Restaurants

No Parking Space

There are restaurants that assume you have a driver.

Why are you going to set up a restaurant with a 200 seating capacity when all you have is 5 cars worth of parking space? That could be acceptable if valet services are being offered. But if not, where do they expect you to park your car.

Parking 5 blocks away from a restaurant can surely build up an appetite but it builds up a lot of disgust as well. On a rainy, the 5 block walk will leave you drenched and will put you in the wrong mood for your date. To make things worse, you might end up seeing someone hitting on your date by the time you get to the restaurant.

Reservation Mix-Up

There are restaurants that assure you that they got everything to the tee when you place your reservation and then have it all messed up by the time you get there.

It could be the wrong name. It could be the wrong time. It could be the wrong date. It could be the wrong number of seats. Or worst of all, they might miss the reservation altogether.

One of the worst things that can happen in a date is when you merely have to settle with whatever is close by and available simply because a restaurant totally missed your reservation. To make matters worse, the receptionist might even insist that you’re the one who messed up and forgot to reserve in front of your date knowing that you are unlikely to make a scene.

Disregard

One of the reasons why anyone would like to dine out is to be served well. In fine dining, you pay a lot more for the value of what’s on your plate for that special treatment.

It is very frustrating when restaurant personnel treats you with disregard. Being guided to the corner table when there are so many available tables in the prime spot is very demeaning.

Seeing other tables being served first when it’s very obvious that your order was taken earlier is very frustrating and embarrassing. Will you complain and project a character of impatience? Or, are you going to let it pass and project the image of a pushover?

It is frustrating when you try to call on a waiter and they simply pass you by to attend to someone else or are too busy chatting with one another.

Misrepresentation

It is disappointing to be served with something that’s totally different from the way it was presented in the menu.

The plate looked standard sized. It was full to the edges. The price seemed to suggest that the order was hefty enough. It takes a while for them to prepare your order. But that’s alright; you can wait a little while longer for your sumptuous meal. Then when it’s there, you’d be pretty sure that Mahatma Gandhi ate more than what they have just served you.

Obnoxious Service

There is this Italian restaurant in New York that asked people to leave when they think that the customer has not ordered enough to compensate for their services. They won’t only ask you to leave; they will go to the extent of explaining that the value of your order is not enough to merit their services and the use of their utensils.

Then you can hear them commenting about your ethnicity while you’re on your way out.

If you are going to try to explore new dining places, it would be advisable to try them out on your own first. These horrible experiences are inevitable one time or the other. The worst that can happen is to chance upon these mistakes on a date or with clients where your composure and temper will be put to the test.

At least when you encounter these horrible dining situations on your own, you can react the way you want to without being embarrassed. You can be adamant about your value as a customer. Or, you can simply laugh it off and charge to experience.

But, for dates and other important occasions, it would be best to stick with the reliables. Take them to Longhorn Steakhouse where you are sure to be treated right not only by the restaurant personnel but by the quality of the food that’s going to be served.