How To Avoid Ordering The Wrong Thing At A Restaurant

When you dine out, cook, and pore over culinary science as much as we do, you learn a thing or two about how to make the most out of every meal. This applies to casual food cart fare, the corner bistro, and the world's most highly regarded restaurants alike. When you're spending money and time, not only for sustenance but for an experience, you want to make it count. The most critical rule to follow when ordering at a restaurant is to actually feed your true appetite. It seems obvious, but it can be hard to quiet ancillary factors that might otherwise influence your choice. 

For example, Gage & Tollner is an outstanding chophouse in New York City. It's one of the top restaurants in town, and although it has a proficiently well-rounded menu, it's mostly famed for its excellent steaks. But there's also fried chicken listed among the strips, ribeyes, T-bones, and porterhouse cuts. If the chicken catches your eye but you can't shake the steak mindset, you'll cheat yourself out of the unmatched satisfaction of getting what you want. Gage & Tollner's fried chicken also happens to be perfect, but the same principle applies even with less certain bets. Do not be afraid to zag. This might contradict some of our more concrete guidelines, but it's the most momentous tenet of dining.

In general, avoid menu items you can very easily make at home. Take scrambled eggs; although there are plenty of methods to prepare them, if you just cracked a couple of eggs over your kitchen stove, you're entering what's-the-point territory. Before discounting something for that reason, don't be afraid to ask questions. Maybe you're used to stirring up a soft scramble, but the restaurant fluffs them into custardy clouds that may as well be a totally different dish. You won't know until you know.

Although it isn't compulsory, seriously consider your server's advice. The idea that restaurant staff will only recommend whatever is most expensive is a goofy old wives tale. They know better than anyone what the kitchen does right and wrong. And a little research won't hurt, either. Read reviews from real sources that you trust, and consider them based on what you know you like. You might find that something you would have automatically ordered isn't actually prepared to your taste.

You can also order like a critic. We aim to taste as much as possible in order to best articulate a restaurant's essence. You can take the same approach just because it's fun. If your party can manage to sample representations from each of a restaurant's menu sections, across a red meat, poultry, seafood, starch, and vegetable spread, it gives you more opportunities to find a dish you truly adore. As long as everybody's true appetite gets fed.