At what price per plate would you start to consider a restaurant expensive.

[Locut0s]

At what price per plate would you start to considered a restaurant to be expensive. I'm not talking about a place you would frequent every day, like fast food. However I'm also not talking about a really expensive restaurant for special occasions. This would be more like the kind of restaurant you would frequent once a month or so. I'm talking just an entree. No drinks, appetizers tips or anything else. Just what they list on the menu for the entree.

For me it would start getting pricey around

Lunch: $10

Dinner: $15

But then I've never had much of an income and currently don't have any, so these numbers actually reflect what I occasionally pay, usually I'm eating out with my parents and they pay.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

More than $20 per entree.

 

[brblx]

'expensive' is a pretty arbitrary adjective.

<20 bucks a person is usually 'casual dining,' but there are some smaller, cheaper places with really great food. most 'good' resturaunts would be more like 20+ an entree.

probably doesn't help that nothing is local here. whether you want a good steak or a good lobster, it costs some money to get it there.

 

[Spikesoldier]

entirely subjective and varies based on location.

im with don though, more than $20 and its a slippery slope.

 

[shortylickens]

EXPENSIVE is 50 per plate.

A decent meal can be had for as low as 10, but dont bet on it.
In my neck of the woods (overpriced Virginia suburbs) a good meal at a nice steakhouse will go between 20 and 30 depending on dessert and drinks. I can have a nice small lunch nom for under 15 though, if I am smart.

 

[RbSX]

At what price per plate would you start to considered a restaurant to be expensive. I'm not talking about a place you would frequent every day, like fast food. However I'm also not talking about a really expensive restaurant for special occasions. This would be more like the kind of restaurant you would frequent once a month or so. I'm talking just an entree. No drinks, appetizers tips or anything else. Just what they list on the menu for the entree.

For me it would start getting pricey around

Lunch: $10

Dinner: $15

But then I've never had much of an income and currently don't have any, so these numbers actually reflect what I occasionally pay, usually I'm eating out with my parents and they pay.

Jesus Christ in Vancouver that will buy you a piece of bread. I am gonna guess you do not go out much.

 

[Matthiasa]

That depends on the food.
What I recently had was ~23-24 and was defiantly to expensive for what it ended up being. Now if it was actually how it was described that it would have still been a little to much but not overly expensive.

Rubbery shrimp and overly seared fish (read outside tasted burnt in spots) that isn't even seasoned how it was described is not cool.

 

[Alienwho]

If it gets above $10 for dinner I start to second guess it because there are plenty of awesome restaurants around where I can get great food and lots of it for $9. The same price holds for lunch as well.

<edit>
I should clarify I don't go out to eat at steakhouses or ever buy ribs or steak at a restaurant b/c if I want ribs or steak I'm going to do it myself because no restaurant makes a better steak than I do.

 

[sjwaste]

Expensive? Probably $25+ an entree.

I won't complain about the price if it's good, though. I'd prefer to go out less frequently to nicer/better places (which is not necessarily a function of price) than to eat out because I'm too lazy to make something and blow my food budget on stuff that's just OK.

 

[ProfJohn]

Any place that doesn't have a dollar menu...

 

[sjwaste]

EXPENSIVE is 50 per plate.

A decent meal can be had for as low as 10, but dont bet on it.
In my neck of the woods (overpriced Virginia suburbs) a good meal at a nice steakhouse will go between 20 and 30 depending on dessert and drinks. I can have a nice small lunch nom for under 15 though, if I am smart.

I just moved out of Arlington, but DC is definitely a good place to get a bargain on lunch. You could really have a nice lunch for $15. I don't miss the crowds or the traffic, but I do miss the food.

 

[iGas]

More than $20 per entree.

Agree.

 

[Locut0s]

Jesus Christ in Vancouver that will buy you a piece of bread. I am gonna guess you do not go out much.

Not to nicer restaurants. But we eat out like 3 days a week or more at cheap places. Chinese restaurants, fast food and the like, all the time. But like I was saying usually my parents pay. Yeah I know you will say that's sad but meh whatever.

 

[deadlyapp]

Over $20 is what I consider expensive. I'll get an over $20 dinner every other month or so but usually I can't justify it.

 

[Spikesoldier]

actually i think 30 is more where i draw the line. ive had seafood and steaks that were totally worth it.

 

[DrPizza]

Depends on what the entrees are, etc. I've been to restaurants where the cheapest meal was $20, and considered it cheap, for what I got, and I've been to restaurants where most maxed out around $15, and I considered it overpriced for what I got.

Imagine going into an Italian restaurant. You go in, the maitre de (sp) seats you. Your waiter (who never has more than a total of 2 tables) immediately brings over a large salad (no iceberg lettuce in it), a selection of half a dozen homemade dressings, and a big loaf of Italian bread. He pours water for everyone, gives everyone a menu, and waits for a drink order. Your drinks arrive immediately. After you've made your selection from the menu and order dinner (the special of the evening - stuffed prawns, with an assortment of other seafood, on a bed of linguini), the next course arrives - some type of soup or something along those lines. If you run out of bread, another loaf of bread arrives. As the last person finishes their soup, the main course comes out. When you're done with dinner, the owner comes over and greets everyone, and asks if everyone has room for dessert (there's only a small handful of choices - Italian desserts.) Everyone is stuffed at the end of dinner, but you get to eat at a relaxed pace and take your time with each course, while having a nice conversation. There's an old guy in the background playing Italian music on some sort of organ thing. You end up staying at the dinner table, enjoying coffee, or whatever with dessert, and have been at the restaurant for at least an hour and a half.

$40 is cheap for that.



Go to some place that's a mom&pop type of shop, but similar to Applebees or some such place, and a $25 delmonico is expensive.

because no restaurant makes a better steak than I do.

Because you've never gone to a top of the line steak restaurant.

 

[CrazyAznDriver]

30ish

 

[SMOGZINN]

Last week I took my SO to Wolfgang Pucks 560 for dinner and it cost the two of us $250 not counting cocktails. $125 a person is definitly expensive.

 

[RbSX]

Not to nicer restaurants. But we eat out like 3 days a week or more at cheap places. Chinese restaurants, fast food and the like, all the time. But like I was saying usually my parents pay. Yeah I know you will say that's sad but meh whatever.

You just asked what I would consider expensive.

On a relative scale, $15 bucks in Vancouver will buy you a salad.

DERRRRRRRRRRRP.

 

[KeithTalent]

I don't know, I guess over $30 for an entree around here I would start to think of a place as expensive.

KT

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

$10. Food is gone in a few hours. I'd rather have something like a blu-ray I can physically keep. I eat out maybe 1 a month at most.

 

[iGas]

Most expensive restaurant that I have been to in Vancouver was Diva at the Met. The bill came to just over $750 ++ tip for 4 people.

It was expensive, but the seafood was amazing and so was the drinks.

 

[Locut0s]

You just asked what I would consider expensive.

On a relative scale, $15 bucks in Vancouver will buy you a salad.

DERRRRRRRRRRRP.

Relative being the operative term here. 15 bucks will buy you most of the entrees in the restaurants we would frequent on a once per month basis. The whole reason I ask is cause it IS relative. It depends on the person. I'm guessing you spend more on average for this type of restaurant, a place you would frequent once every two months or so. Which is fine.

 

[shortylickens]

I just moved out of Arlington, but DC is definitely a good place to get a bargain on lunch. You could really have a nice lunch for $15. I don't miss the crowds or the traffic, but I do miss the food.

Competition downtown is a little more aggressive. The folks at Union Station are scared and will do anything for customers. I've seen the pizza place sell slices for a buck some times. Good shit too.

 

[SlitheryDee]

$20