Are you ashamed to do it?
It seems like a strange question to me. I don’t like eating out alone, but not because I think there’s any shame in it. I don’t like eating out, period. It’s expensive, it’s hard to eat healthy, and I don’t like people serving me. The only time I eat out alone is when I’m traveling alone. Eating out is something that I tolerate at best, not enjoy, unless I’m with good company, and then I’d still prefer to be eating a meal at home with them.
I hate going out to eat alone. To this day, I don’t know why; but unless I’m on a road trip, I order to go.
It’s not as bad now that I have a phone to entertain myself. I guess it’s just kind of boring to sit there and eat with nothing else to do and no one to talk to. But it has nothing to do with shame.
No.
Good company is good, of course, but I eat out alone several times a week. I actually think it is no more expensive than eating at home. Wellington is full of Malaysian, Thai, Indian, Chinese places where you can get a good meal (including plenty of vegetables) for US$10 or less. Many pubs and other places have $10 (US$8.50) “lunch specials” which have more traditional vegetables or salad than the asian food usually has.
If I’m cooking one meal for one person at home, it’s pretty hard to go into the supermarket for fresh ingredients and come out having spent less than $15. You have to buy a whole head of broccoli, a whole red pepper, a whole carrot. It adds up. And then you’re likely to have wastage.
Because of that, in fact I usually cook a larger quantity and then eat the same thing at two meals every day for three days. That can be more like $5 a meal, but it’s not very interesting. So I break it up by eating out sometimes.
There are benefits to eating alone in a restaurant. You get your order taken more quickly. Very often you get your food before groups of people who ordered before you.
On a similar theme, I don’t go to the cinema very often. Few movies are worth paying that much to see. But when I do, it’s usually by myself and on a Tuesday afternoon and it’s nearly empty. Awesome!
On the other hand, I often have groups of people watching movies in my living room, so I’m not a total misanthrope.
You need to learn low-cost cooking from Auntie Fee, whose cooking videos have gone viral.
Sweet treats for the kids
How to feed seven people for $3.35
It’s one of those videos you just can’t stop watching.
Wait… I’m supposed to feel shame for eating alone? Geez, I’ve been doing it wrong for decades.
I love doing it. It gives me the opportunity to ask the waitperson for separate checks. How they field that question determines their tip.
Are You Ashamed to Eat Out Alone?
No, of course not. What a silly question. I’ve done it thousands of times; far more than eating with somebody else.
At least I don’t have to deal with somebody talking with their mouth full, which makes my skin crawl. I simply cannot tolerate it, and must leave the room immediately.
“Are You Ashamed to Eat Out Alone?”
Negative.
I enjoy eating out whether alone or with people. This is because I go to places that serve interesting things that I cannot get at home or haven’t learned how to make. I’ll try things that sound, on the face of it, off the wall. For example in Strasbourg, I ordered Duck on a bed of saurkraut. When I first saw that, I figured it would be ghastly. It wasn’t; it was outstanding. My error was in imagining the dish using the saurkraut I grew up with – hideous stuff from a can.
Sometimes alone is MUCH better than with people depending upon the people you’re with.
I usually read when dining alone. Or write. Or people watch. Dining alone in Paris or Strasbourg while people watching is a fabulous experience.
I only do it when travelling as I am a tight wad. Then I usually go to lower class places and sit at the bar so I can watch some sports and drink a few beers. I never order wine though, beer is better bang for the buck.
At home I take the family out a couple times a month.
I bring a book.
I’m not embarrassed to eat out alone, it’s just… boring. I like eating at nice places with other people; it’s just such a pleasure to enjoy good food and good conversation. $35 for a good meal and an hour and a half of conversation? Sure! But the same price for a quiet, 30 minute meal solo at the same place? No. When eating alone, I end up at much less expensive places; all I need is calories in something appealing to my palate at that time.
I guess, the presence of welcome company adds even more value to the meal than the food itself, maybe up to twice as much, if I had to place a value on it.
Once, when eating alone near work in NYC many years ago my boss showed up with a crowd. He was ashamed for me! No, they didn’t invite me to join them even though my boss and I often went out to lunch together. Is dinner different?
Dinner can be different, yes.
Of course, if you live in an area where “dinner” still refers to the mid-day meal, as opposed to “supper”, which is the evening meal, and then dinner might not be so much different than lunch.
Imagine my confusion when I got done working around noon and my boss asked me if I wanted to stick around for “dinner”. I hemmed and hawed for a bit, thinking that I needed to my other job by 3 PM. We went inside to wait and ended up sitting down to eat within 15 minutes. I was very confused at that point, but finally figured it out soon after.
Am I the only one who immediately thought of the “table for one?” scene in Steve Martin’s “The Lonely Guy”?
I have done it several times when I travel. Some times you can even pick up a conversation with random people who are also eating there. It is not like you have a lot of choice. You can’t exactly cook your own meals in most hotels even if you wanted to. I don’t want to.
I also did it when I worked far away from home. Sometimes I ate with colleagues, or other people I knew at work, sometimes I just ate alone. Other times I brought a lunch box and ate at a nearby park. Sure was more fun than eating at the kitchen in the office.