Poll: Patrons' Pre-meal Preference Probably Pertains to Poverty; Porters Pissed.

Man, some of us order appetizers because they're the size of a decent meal already, while the entrees have 3x too much food to justify the 3x the cost.

Though yeah, it's bad form to do that all the time in a restaurant I suppose.

/eats at home

itazurakko: Man, some of us order appetizers because they're the size of a decent meal already, while the entrees have 3x too much food to justify the 3x the cost.

Though yeah, it's bad form to do that all the time in a restaurant I suppose.


Completely agree. What's the deal with people thinking quantity is the key in judging a restaurant? I often order only apps. Bad form? I know plenty of people who work in restaurants and they don't care what I order.

I tip well based on the cost. And I make up for it in drinks, so its all a wash in the end.

Most appetizers are a rip-off anyway.

i order appetizers in place of a meal for variety. and as was stated already, many of the appetizers are already big enough to serve as a decent meal.
i've taken home leftovers just from two appetizer plates.

So you want me to eat an entire basket of chicken strips and then order a bacon cheeseburger? STFU and refill my Pepsi.

Man, I was coerced into going to Applebee's a couple of weeks ago. The only worthwhile food they had was on the Appetizers menu.

I just ordered from there, whilst everyone else got crappy dry burgers & wilted lettuce with luke-warm slabs of chicken on them...

They all envied my decision & the coveted my potato skins & boneless wings.

I'm sort of the opposite of most of you in that I order a meal - but I'll skip the appetizer. Appetizers can in some cases double the cost of your meal, which I think is ridiculous.

itazurakko nailed it. I don't go to a restaurant to bring food home. I associate excessively large portions with low quality.

Fuggin Bizzy: I'm sort of the opposite of most of you in that I order a meal - but I'll skip the appetizer. Appetizers can in some cases double the cost of your meal, which I think is ridiculous.

This. If the entree's not enough for you, you're probably going to end up having to be removed from your house by crane.

I usually order a few appetizers instead of a whole meal. It works out to be a little more expensive usually, but I'd rather taste a few different things than just a $17 bowl of risotto.

Not since 9/11

WTF? Is 9/11 the neo-Godwin?

You are Abe Froman? The sausage king of Chicago?

danielr: You are Abe Froman? The sausage king of Chicago?

I weep for th3e future.

There's a restaurant called Aladdins, I know there's a couple in the Pittsburgh area and some more spread across the country, but their appetizers are meals in themselves only they are (in my opinion) better to eat and notably cheaper.

I didn't even realize I had been eating off of the appetizer menu until probably the second to last time I'd been there.

If restaurants want people to order entrees instead of (or in addition to) appetizers, they should make appetizers that cannot be mistaken for meals.

downstairs: itazurakko: Man, some of us order appetizers because they're the size of a decent meal already, while the entrees have 3x too much food to justify the 3x the cost.

Though yeah, it's bad form to do that all the time in a restaurant I suppose.

Completely agree. What's the deal with people thinking quantity is the key in judging a restaurant? I often order only apps. Bad form? I know plenty of people who work in restaurants and they don't care what I order.

I tip well based on the cost. And I make up for it in drinks, so its all a wash in the end.

I guess I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum - I eat. A lot. I'm not fat; I just have a high metabolism. I hate paying $50+ for a meal and leaving hungry.

Forced to take the appetizer over the entree. This is our great depression.

itazurakko: Man, some of us order appetizers because they're the size of a decent meal already, while the entrees have 3x too much food to justify the 3x the cost.

Yeah, this.

Sometimes I just order the appetizer because "appetizers" these days are humungous.

And people wonder why Americans are so fat. Go to a restaurant, and the appetizers are the size of a full meal, the "entree" is the size of two meals, and then they try to push a ridiculously over-sized dessert on you.

Restaurant portions are no longer human-sized. When a supposed appetizer is large enough to be a filling meal in itself, something has gone severely wrong.

I either get an appetizer or a meal, depending on hunger/taste. Never both. I've never even considered the price difference, because it's usually on the same scale as the entrees. If there are $15-20 meals, the appetizers are probably $6-10, which isn't really being cheap in my opinion. And I'd like to think I tip the waiters as much or more than someone who ordered a meal.

vlakorados: So you want me to eat an entire basket of chicken strips and then order a bacon cheeseburger? STFU and refill my Pepsi.

Yeah. When your deep fried sustenance comes in a basket it probably isn't called an appetizer. Rather, the laminated menus you order from likely call these things "starters."

Likewise, entrées don't come with fries and a pickle spear.

chrismac: There's a restaurant called Aladdins, I know there's a couple in the Pittsburgh area and some more spread across the country, but their appetizers are meals in themselves only they are (in my opinion) better to eat and notably cheaper.

I didn't even realize I had been eating off of the appetizer menu until probably the second to last time I'd been there.

If restaurants want people to order entrees instead of (or in addition to) appetizers, they should make appetizers that cannot be mistaken for meals.

If you think Aladdin's is good, you really ought to make your way down to Khalil's on Baum Blvd. if they're still in business

/haven't been there in 10 years
//but I still wish I could find hummous as good as Khalil's
///try the mejadra
////and the medamas (this is NOT foul medamas - it is a hummous-like paste made with walnuts and sumac, and I have literally never seen it anywhere else. And it's really, really good.)

Doc Daneeka: When a supposed appetizer is large enough to be a filling meal in itself, something has gone severely wrong.

In most chain restaurants, appetizers are meant to be shared by several people at the table. That's why they're so big. At fancier restaurants, appetizers are meant for a single person and are much smaller.

3_inch_thrill: Forced to take the appetizer over the entree. This is our great depression.

As Remove All Republicans noted in a thread yesterday, we're in worse shape than we were under Coolidge. People back then were foregoing the aperitif and thought they had it bad.

If I could, I would, piss in their tip jar.

Uno's snack hours: 4-7PM and after 9PM (most restaurants)

2 snack hour chicken quesadillas - $5.98. Makes for a very good (and relatively healthy) meal.

Their $1.99 macadamia nut cookie sundae dessert is actually very generous with the portion as well, and one of the best things I have ever tasted.

If I do order an appetizer, it is usually just chips and either salsa or spinach dip.

I can make my favorite entree last three meals for $12.

3_inch_thrill: Forced to take the appetizer over the entree. This is our great depression

Bonus points!

With a few notable exceptions in any given area, most restaurants are exercises in choosing the least obnoxious item and getting it over with quickly. If it happens to be a 9,000 calorie appetizer, so what?

I'm not a picky eater. I like just about anything but I am so tired of good simple food so overloaded with some moron's idea of elegance that it needs a descriptive paragraph so people will have some clue what food group it used to belong to.

ultraholland: WTF? Is 9/11 the neo-Godwin?

I mentioned that earlier today in another thread. ...which means calling 9/11 the new Godwin is on the way to becoming the new Godwin...

just_dis_guy: chrismac: There's a restaurant called Aladdins, I know there's a couple in the Pittsburgh area and some more spread across the country, but their appetizers are meals in themselves only they are (in my opinion) better to eat and notably cheaper.

I didn't even realize I had been eating off of the appetizer menu until probably the second to last time I'd been there.

If restaurants want people to order entrees instead of (or in addition to) appetizers, they should make appetizers that cannot be mistaken for meals.

If you think Aladdin's is good, you really ought to make your way down to Khalil's on Baum Blvd. if they're still in business

/haven't been there in 10 years
//but I still wish I could find hummous as good as Khalil's
///try the mejadra
////and the medamas (this is NOT foul medamas - it is a hummous-like paste made with walnuts and sumac, and I have literally never seen it anywhere else. And it's really, really good.)

Forgot to mention, they also serve kibbee nayeh (yes, that is raw lamb meat and bulgur wheat.) If you're not a squeamish eater, I recommend a big lump of it on pita bread, with raw onions, a little feta cheese, and some olive oil, eaten like a sandwich. Mm, mm good.

/now I'm hungry
//fortunately there is a lebanese butcher around the corner
///might have to take a little walkie

AlwaysRightBoy: If I could, I would, piss in their tip jar.

Tyler Durden already did that in your soup.

My wife and I get an appetizer at Outback, then take the entrees home for at least another meal or two. No way can two people eat all the food that restaurant expects you to eat at one meal.

schattenteufel: Man, I was coerced into going to Applebee's a couple of weeks ago. The only worthwhile food they had was on the Appetizers menu.

I just ordered from there, whilst everyone else got crappy dry burgers & wilted lettuce with luke-warm slabs of chicken on them...

They all envied my decision & the coveted my potato skins & boneless wings.

Also at Applebee's, the only vegetarian choices are appetizers or desserts.

My friends and I used to just go for the 2fers, half-priced appetizers, and desserts... I think they changed the hours of half-priced appetizers, and I think we kinda outgrew it anyway.

schattenteufel: I mentioned that earlier today in another thread. ...which means calling 9/11 the new Godwin is on the way to becoming the new Godwin...

awesome. We're really changing the world here.

just_dis_guy: chrismac: There's a restaurant called Aladdins, I know there's a couple in the Pittsburgh area and some more spread across the country, but their appetizers are meals in themselves only they are (in my opinion) better to eat and notably cheaper.

I didn't even realize I had been eating off of the appetizer menu until probably the second to last time I'd been there.

If restaurants want people to order entrees instead of (or in addition to) appetizers, they should make appetizers that cannot be mistaken for meals.

If you think Aladdin's is good, you really ought to make your way down to Khalil's on Baum Blvd. if they're still in business

/haven't been there in 10 years
//but I still wish I could find hummous as good as Khalil's
///try the mejadra
////and the medamas (this is NOT foul medamas - it is a hummous-like paste made with walnuts and sumac, and I have literally never seen it anywhere else. And it's really, really good.)

I've only been to the Aladdin's in Mt. Lebo as I've had a number of friends live in that area (and it was close to my place in Beechview when I lived in the city.)

I've since moved to Maryland, but if for some reason I should find myself back on Baum anytime soon, and it's still open, I'll give it a shot.

Where on Baum was it? I used to live around the corner from where Baum hit Liberty in Bloomfield... (Although it seems that I've lived just about everywhere in that city)

I love to eat, and especially I love to eat at interesting, creative, and different restaurants. Especially in these good restaurants, I will often order 2 or 3 (or 4) appetisers instead of an entrée. A lot of fancy-pants chefs spend all their time and energy coming up with amazing appetisers, but then just do really mundane entrées. So the best of the menu is in the appetisers.

Sometimes it actually costs more, but the experience is so much better, more varied, and you really get to taste the best that chef has to offer.

In main street restaurants though, I agree with many posters - the appetisers are the size of a good meal, no way I can eat that and and entrée.

just_dis_guy

Khalil's sounds awesome. I wish I were anywhere near there.

in re the medamas, it sounds like a variant on muhammera, in which case it's not super-common, but you can get it elsewhere (new window).

Some of you consider Outback and Applebees restaurants?

LeroyB: AlwaysRightBoy: If I could, I would, piss in their tip jar.

Tyler Durden already did that in your soup.

I make my own soup.
/be it good or bad, i still drink it

We got like ten restaurants in our town and no chains. food mostly sucks, eat at home.

My wife and I regularly do this and always have for the thirteen years we've been together. We like to pick a few things and share. We always tip well so it doesn't matter to the server. Plus we like to sit at the bar.

I've been a waitress for 10 years, and I don't give one fark what you order so long as you leave a decent tip and treat me well. Owners, however, are only in it for the money and that's why they bi-a-tch.

The place I work at has 18 cent bean soup and all you have to do is at least order a soda to get it.

/PLEASE TIP WELL IF THE SERVICE IS GOOD!!!

chrismac: just_dis_guy: chrismac: There's a restaurant called Aladdins, I know there's a couple in the Pittsburgh area and some more spread across the country, but their appetizers are meals in themselves only they are (in my opinion) better to eat and notably cheaper.

I didn't even realize I had been eating off of the appetizer menu until probably the second to last time I'd been there.

If restaurants want people to order entrees instead of (or in addition to) appetizers, they should make appetizers that cannot be mistaken for meals.

If you think Aladdin's is good, you really ought to make your way down to Khalil's on Baum Blvd. if they're still in business

/haven't been there in 10 years
//but I still wish I could find hummous as good as Khalil's
///try the mejadra
////and the medamas (this is NOT foul medamas - it is a hummous-like paste made with walnuts and sumac, and I have literally never seen it anywhere else. And it's really, really good.)

I've only been to the Aladdin's in Mt. Lebo as I've had a number of friends live in that area (and it was close to my place in Beechview when I lived in the city.)

I've since moved to Maryland, but if for some reason I should find myself back on Baum anytime soon, and it's still open, I'll give it a shot.

Where on Baum was it? I used to live around the corner from where Baum hit Liberty in Bloomfield... (Although it seems that I've lived just about everywhere in that city)

Not too far from there at all. a little ways west of there, or a couple blocks before you hit Craig Street. The building is/was very unpreposessing, and gave off this aura of being somewhat past its prime and from the outside appeared to be the kind of restaurant that only old people in sansabelts would enter... but the food was incredible.

/let me guess... you're yet another Pitt or CMU grad that fled da 'burgh because you couldn't find a job?
//lives in Virginia now.
///true confessions, I briefly waited tables at Khalil's after I graduated/before I found a real job. Part of the reason I haven't been in there is because I walked out one evening after a disagreement with the owner's daughter. Truth is, that family is one of the nicest you could meet and I could never stop in to get my pay - even on my day off - without hanging out for an hour and getting a full meal. I still think I was right, but I'm also a little embarassed about the whole thing, because I genuinely liked them.

itazurakko: Man, some of us order appetizers because they're the size of a decent meal already, while the entrees have 3x too much food to justify the 3x the cost.

Though yeah, it's bad form to do that all the time in a restaurant I suppose.

/eats at home


People need to stop being gluttons so its probably a good thing that economic hard times may force people to downsize their waists and overindulgence.

I often order the appetizer salad at restaurants just because I usually have a small appetite, I don't want to be the size of a barn, and I rarely eat left overs. Never really thought anything of it because it was never about the money but the fat content... and I would hardly think that I need to justify my eating habits to a server.

Etiquette wise, I don't think what you do is bad form. You are paying them so you can eat whatever you want off the menu. What the waiters/waitresses do is bad form by biatching about it. Its not like you are going in and just ordering water.

Maybe the waiters and waitresses in the article aren't wearing enough "flair".

I spend 2-3 nights on the road every week and and have for ten years. I have long since learned to order what I want and not give a shiat what the server thinks. I am on an expense account so price is not the issue. I became a fatass and had to lose a lot of weight and I am not going through that again. So if I order a child's plate and a Brewtus glass of Shiner, well, get stepping. Unless I am ordering a cup of hot water and a couple of packets of ketchup to improvise tomato soup, the server shouldn't care.

all you can eat buffets for me. i'll go about twice a month and its the only dining out i do. for $9 i'll do the chinese buffet and have 2 dozen raw oysters and plenty of crab legs and stuff myself. the day or 2 before and the day after i'll eat much less. often the next day i'll have only a can of soup with 400 calories or some rice and veggies just to have something in my stomach. its not the healthiest thing but its better then eating full meals and then gourging myself and going right back to eating full meals.

There are some restaurants where I prefer the appetizers to the meals. And if I want that to be my meal, then I don't see a prob with that.

For instance, Sticky Fingers, while their BBQ is okay (have had better), they have these Baked Potato skins with roast chicken on them, and they are so freakishly good, I would much rather eat a plate of those.

Also, although I abhor Chinese buffets, there is on locally that has a large amount of hard to find chinese appetizers that most chinese restarurants don't even serve, and I fill up on Bao, and Dim Sum, and dumplings and whatnot, rather than the typical Sesame Chicken, etc.

Appetizers and Canapes and H'or Dourves (sp?) can sometimes be better than a main course, and sometimes just as expensive.

I have to order appetizers almost everywhere I go because I'm a vegetarian. Somewhere I missed the memo that said "absolutely every entree ever must have meat!"

Maybe I missed something.

Has that "Abe Froman" scene become the new "Ha Ha Guy Takeover"?

<checks list for appropriate meme behavior>
1) random
2) great movie scene
3) tangentially related to several Fark stories

Well played. Continue!

MezzoPips: Owners, however, are only in it for the money and that's why they bi-a-tch.

Yet every other word in your post is about you getting money. Hmm.