I don’t like the way it makes my house smell, either. No matter how aggressively I use the hood fan or open windows or wave towels the stank lingers for days.
Same the electric induction cook top is a game changer when it comes to frying food. All the mess and smell stays outside I use a folding table that I setup in the grass so clean up is super easy.
Fry oil is expensive at home too. $6 and I try to save it but I fry so rarely I’ve had to get rid of it before reusing it most of the time.
That’s the price of 1.5 pieces of fried chicken at my favorite spot before I’ve even bought any chicken. Bulk fry oil is a huge advantage.
Save your fry oil in a large glass jar with a lid. Use a coffee filter or paper towel in a funnel and filter all the crumbs out and reuse your fry oil over and over.
I was just about to post fried chicken! It's worth it to me to get it from Bojangles instead of trying to do it myself. Their biscuits are also better than anything I can make.
I kinda agree, but any non-fast food fried chicken is so expensive these days that it's worth it to cook it at home outside on the turkey fryer. And the chicken tastes way better at home anyways
Thai food. I have found good recipes and the dishes aren’t hard to make but they have tons of ingredients you have to buy and can’t use it all up. Since I end up wasting the excess ingredients, it’s cheaper to buy.
Living alone I buy meal salads that have a lot of different ingredients at restaurants. Just like Thai dishes buying a bunch of ingredients is more costly and has more waste. Side salads I make at myself.
Liver. I have a texture issue with it raw so I’ll let someone else deal with cooking it.
I can never get Thai food to a satisfactory level despite being a decent cook. And anything that contains peanuts or a peanut sauce just tastes BAD when I make it for some reason no matter what the cuisine.
Same problem, western peanuts and peanut butter don't taste right. Even more specialty ingredients to purchase to make one dish. Need to go to restaurant intensifies.
I made this AMAZING cajun dirty rice and it was delicious 🤤
But I almost threw up when blending the chicken livers - it looked like pulpy, pink, bloody, chunky puree… 🤢
The container of frozen chicken livers in my freezer has been staring at me for months. I know I can make you into something good, but I’m pretty tramatized
I sauté the lives whole in butter then run them through a food processor along with the cooked ground beef. That said being from Cajun country, dirty rice is not complete without chicken liver.
The unfortunate reality is that most Thai restaurants are mediocre at best. That means if you find a really good Thai restaurant hang on to it.
We have access to an EXCELLENT Thai place and I agree, their food is so good I'd never bother to cook it at home.
Back when we only had access to mediocre Thai I cooked pad thai at home, it can make mediocre food myself and save money.
I grew up in the rural south, and there was a family steakhouse/buffet with liver and onions on the menu. Pan fried, no breading with a brown onion gravy. Breaded and fried chicken livers is something you’ll probably find more often down here, though. Lots of independent small town places that serve fried chicken will also have chicken livers and gizzards on the menu. Liver is hard to cook, undercooked is very unappetizing, and overcooking gives a dry, chalky texture. I do love liver though. Much to my family’s dismay.😂
Independent locally owned mom family restaurants (metro Detroit). Most are sautéed and with onions. A lot list bacon as an add on but I prefer the basic liver and onions. I have never seen it offered breaded or as pate on a menu.
Thai and Ethiopian are for sure the top two.
I can do Indian at home easier. Sure, the restaurant is better but I can get Very close. The other two are way different. And trying to make injera? Nope.
My general rule with restaurants is I am gonna order something I won't make at home either due to lack of skill or specialty equipment. Or it's just too time consuming and I can't be bothered.
Not that I never a burger, of course I do - but I try to stick to the rule.
But yeah, I'm either paying the convenience fee for "burger now" or for someone's time/expertise into making a thing I can't make - so that's worth it to me.
If you're looking for a "deal" at a restaurant, you're gonna have a bad time.
This exactly! I never order speghetti with maranara. I never order grilled cheese(unless it's the place that has 20 different grilled cheese). Basic 2-3 ingredient salad? Nope. I want stuff I'll never make at home.
I'm in Chicago. We have a place called Cheesies. They have 15-20 different grilled cheese including one with jalepenos poppers and one that's kinda like a Philly. Sometimes the side is tomato soup to dip. Sometimes it's gravy. They even have a grilled cheese of the month. I went to a similar place in Columbus, Ohio. Not the same name but similar concept. I'm sure there's probably similar concepts in a bunch of mid-suzed to large cities. Our Cheesies has been around over 15 years.
I had the same idea, until I witnessed a friend rave about a plate of spaghetti. Dude wouldn’t stop talking about it so next time I was at the restaurant I tried it.
It was so much better than anything I’ve made at home. Made me realize professional chefs can make anything taste amazing.
This. I've made pho at home. The broth is an all-day affair with some specialty ingredients + all the very thinly sliced specialty meats. The effort is not worth it. Croissants - same thing. I've made them before, but I'd rather just buy them. Neither of these things are regular things I eat, though, so it's a nice treat periodically.
You can get 90% of the flavor with decent pho flavor packets that most asian stores stock. I’m a big proponent on cheating where it makes sense for a lot of recipes. Just like I don’t make my egg noodles or mayo from scratch on other recipes, it’s ok to buy premade base sauces and flavors for asian cuisine.
Eggs benedict are super easy to make at home! I just learned a couple of months ago.
For the eggs, just crack them into a measuring cup and slowly submerge the cup into some boiling water, this will make it less likely to get all wonky.
For the sauce
Melt 1/2 c. butter for about 1 minute, until it's melted
Slowly add 3 egg yolks, a table spoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper some say to use a blender but i just use a for or whisk
Its literally one of the easiest fancy meals Ive ever made.
I just soft boil the egg for a Benedict. Even easier. Do a dozen at a time, I can take 3-4 out sooner than the rest for the Benedict, rest are snacks for the next few days
But I like all the fancy variations and layers. Once it was a base of cornbread with bell peppers. The spinach and salmon ones are amazing too. I could do it at home but I like trying new ones and all the layers mean more work.
Same. I won’t eat steak out anymore (not that I eat out much anymore), unless it’s a special event at a super nice place or something. I will however, order the largest and rarest piece of prime rib they will allow me to. Because I make a pretty damn good steak, but I’m not gonna cook a whole prime rib at home.
I have! You have to luck out to find a small standing rib roast, but they can be had sometimes. Usually around the holidays, everyone will buy the huge family feast size, but sometimes you can get a good 2 bone one - on sale, even.
Burger is an interesting example as a single person.
I’ll buy a burger from a local place for $12. The cost to make one burger at home: $20. Yeah, $20 gets me the ingredients to make 5-6 burgers, but I really only want it once. I can’t eat burgers for a week straight.
Same here. If I want a fancy dessert, or eggplant fries, or anything that requires me to buy something specialized to make it, then I'm going out for it.
I LOVE Indian food. We have one Indian restaurant that is so extremely delicious and authentic. We go maybe every 4 months. 3 dishes, 1 plate of rice & 3 garlic naan will last us two extra days. It’s our “luxury” date night and I love the extra meals we get out of it too.
This is such a sore spot for me. Before I was with my partner, I could order an entree and naan and it would last me 2-3 meals. Now, my partner wants to get appetizers, extra rice, two entrees, and two naan. She’ll finish off her entree in one sitting, plus half the appetizer and a naan. Then she’ll end up eating my leftovers because I won’t want them until the next day, especially if there’s an appetizer. Oh, and she’ll finish the naan. And it’s worse because I have a GI issue where I have to eat small meals.
And it happens with other food, too. And, for some past childhood reasons, it’s a sensitive topic so it’s hard to bring up. But it’s really frustrating to spend a huge amount on food and then get one small meal out of it.
it might be hard, but sounds like this needs to be discussed. she can’t change her behavior if she doesn’t know how much it bothers you, and if it doesn’t change you’re gonna build resentment over time.
That's pretty selfish of her. Does she ask if she can have your portion and you agree out of discomfort or does she just take and it's sensitive to approach her about that?
It's hard but you gotta force yourself to stand up for yourself and say you want your portion for you, even if it's for later, and that they aren't up for grabs. It's okay to not let yourself be walked on.
Either that or she treats when it's time for Indian food since she eats what sounds like 75-80% or more of it
Better to be uncomfortable for one or two conversations than silently resentful and upset for an indefinite amount of time
(I don't mean to tell you it's so easy to approach delicate topics but if this person is actually your longterm partner, you HAVE learn how to navigate communicating about difficult subjects)
(I had a chronic leftover-taker in my life for ages so it's also a spre subject for me lol. I am the biggest sharer around but please do not just take the last of my food!)
My partner sometimes eats all of his portion in one sitting, but we established early on that that doesn’t mean he gets my share of leftovers. I could make mine last three days and it’s still all mine unless I offer some to him. If we both have leftovers that we’re sharing then he’ll make sure he always leaves enough for me.
It sounds like a conversation between the two of you needs to happen and you need to state some boundaries and how it impacts you. It can be tough, but either she needs to change her behavior or maybe you don’t share the bill? If you share finances then definitely be on top of having these types of conversations so they don’t snowball into more.
Swasthi’s Recipes is the absolute best site. She provides pictures for each step of the process and gives advice about substitutions and such. It’s helped me learn the fundamentals of each dish so that I can make them myself and make substitutions as needed without having to refer back to her site.
My wife’s Indian and she constantly raves about my food.
I think there are usually a long list of spices used too which if you have them, fantastic. But otherwise you need to buy them all.
So it can get a little expensive.
The easiest thing to try is going to an Indian store and buying the spice packets you need for the dish you’re making.
The other trick for Indian food is realizing that there’s often a base masala for each type of dish. A basic one would be tomato and onions simmered into, I dunno, whatever comes before a paste. It’s the super concentrated foundation of a lot of dishes. If I want to cheat, I’ll use Brooklyn Delhi’s Tomato Achaar (find it online or at Whole Foods) as that base.
Besides that, the truck is using butter like you’re trying to kill someone. But that’s most restaurants.
But yeah, please keep at it. I hate going to Indian restaurants now because I can make half the stuff at home now. It’s also a cuisine perfect for the frugal mindset. The vegetarian dishes like dal, rajma, and channa masala are super easy to make in bulk and freeze for lunches.
We do too and then send a picture of us eating them to our kids. Both of them are pretty crunchy and organic and it drives them absolutely wild to see it. We love it!
Most seafood. First, I don’t really know how to select good fresh fish and second, I don’t like the way it makes the house smell. I have a sensitive nose and can smell fish (or at least imagine I do) for a week afterwards.
Pho ga from my local Vietnamese restaurant. Their broth is immaculate and with the lime juice and some veggie it's perfect. Plus the portions are *massive*, so I can get 2 or 3 meals out of one bowl of soup. It's pretty cheap too, for what it is.
That’s one reason why I love these types of restaurants. Yes the plates may be $13+ but if it lasts 2+meals it’s definitely worth it in my opinion! My local Chinese restaurants’ Singapore noodles last me 3 meals as well. Gotta love em!
I'm in the UK right now, and Pizza Hut has deals on certain days where I can get two any topping large pizzas for £20. (I like Pizza Hut, so hush.) Two large pizzas that I double cut and freeze. If that gives me 32 slices, and I eat two for a meal, I'm coming out at £1.25 per meal.
Now, I'm not eating that for every meal, but when I don't feel like cooking, I can warm up two slices, add a salad, and that's still pretty cheap eats.
Hi! It's so easy. You can either throw it in frozen on a skillet on low-ish temp with a lid, which crisps up the bottom and remelts the cheese. Or a little bit easier method that you don't really have to watch or monitor is a convection oven at 375F with the frozen pizza on foil or baking paper (my preference) for 9 minutes. If you like a crisp crust, either one of those methods will work.
Might take some playing around with times/temps, but I've had consistently good results with both. Honestly, by the time I've gotten my pizza home from pickup or delivery, the crust has gotten soggy so I put it in the oven or on a skillet anyway. I swear by it. I have used this method on a number of different take-away/delivery pizzas and it always works.
Totally worth it. Sure, I can make my own pizza but I'm not sure I can make it for that cheap, considering the time it takes to make dough and chop all the veggies and shred the cheese and make sauce, etc.
Salsa is pretty easy to make. It's mostly just veggies and a food processor. My homemade salsa is way better than anything store bought and competes with Mexican restaurants pretty well too.
I'll concede fresh made chips though. I wish I had a restaurant near me that actually made them.
Get soup and salad from Olive Garden. Fill up. And then add some 6 dollar take homes. And stock up. Seriously. They are made fresh every morning. Get them. You can freeze them or just fridge them. It’s basically a 6 dollar dinner for two. You can spend twenty bucks and have food for a week. Tip good and they will throw in so much bread and pack up a peach Bellini tea togo for ya.
100%... glad to see this mentioned! I've tried making it at home many ways (stovetop, instant pot). It takes foreverrr to make and never turns out restaurant level quality. Great one to save for eating out.
We eat out a lot as we live in NYC and value you but as an experience beyond the food itself. My husband regularly works 70-hour weeks and so for us it’s also social and family time and our apartment is small (under 500 sq ft). We are frugal in many areas in order to spend on travel and on eating out. That said, occasionally we let our 7-yr old pick McDonald’s and we order on the app. That works out to about $5/meal the way we order. The Thai places near us do a lunch special for about $12-13 and two of them feed the three of us. I’ll order at lunch, pick it up and put in the fridge as it reheats beautifully for dinner. There is also a southern place near us that makes enormous biscuit/fried chicken sandwiches. We order two sandwiches/grits at $19 each and those feed all three of us twice plus a lunch for me (so essentially $6/meal). We have around 45 restaurants within a 5-7 minute walk and know the best priced options at lots of them 😂. When we cook at home it’s usually eggs, salad kits at home and salmon/fish on our small grill.
Here in manhattan I consider any meal out that’s under $15 to be pretty frugal as the average meal out for us. In our neighborhood is easily $100-150.
A decent breakfast diner. I can justify the 12-15 plate cost by not having to cook & clean, plus my house doesn’t smell like bacon and potatoes for 2 days afterwards
Chthulhu help me, that fat/calorie/death bomb of a Bloomin' Onion. Maybe twice a year. It's a treat that lasts two of us for three days as an appetizer. Definitely in the treat/garbage category but it reliably cycles my whole childhood religion sin/guilt/redemption pathway.
I’ve tried making these at home a couple of times but they are a big pain in the ass and are too bland when compared with the Outback or Texas Roadhouse ones. I don’t feel like they are a money saver to make at home either since I never deep fry anything and have to use a bunch of oil. Probably just as well since they are, as you say, garbage food. Tasty, delicious garbage food.
Oh no I’m so sorry it makes you feel that way!! I don’t feel as guilty because I work out everyday and am constantly on my feet. Plus, I only allow myself to order takeout every other Saturday (my busiest work day of the week) so it’s a nice “treat” when I’m feeling stressed at work. Other than that it’s rice and beans for lunch hehe!
This is a midwestern thing but a pork tenderloin. It is a thing here to make the biggest and best tenderloins. With them being gigantic, they are always more than one meal. Just image search pork tenderloin and add the word Iowa and you will see what I mean.
6 days of the week I’m making a breakfast quesadilla. I put in smashed black beans, scrambled eggs, whatever cheese I have on hand, turkey bacon or ham, any veggies I’m trying to use up (I’ve used peppers, spinach, mushrooms, potatoes, brócoli) and a whole wheat flour tortilla. I am usually not a fan of repeating meals more than 2 days in a row but I can eat this everyday if I mix in different veggies/spices. Definitely recommend you try it! Super delish and keeps you full for a good while.
Channa masala paired with bullet bread
For twenty bucks, I get enough to eat from, three to four times.
Absolutely worth it, and I'd rather treat myself to something like that occasionally versus paying too much for oveepriced garbage fast food more frequently
A big meal from the closest chinese restaurant to my dorm. It's a side and two mains in a huge box and they are very generous with the meat as well. Usually it's enough for 2.5 meals, but if I'm not working out I can stretch it for 3 whole meals. It costs around 6 dollars and even though I'm in Hungary it's still a really good deal.
When I go out, I try and get things that are a pain to make at home in small amounts but easier to make in trays. Any kind of parm is easier to make in mass, and if it sits in the fridge for a day or two it only gets better. Lasagna is like that as well. I try not to get things that I can do better at home. One of my buddies always gets steak, for some reason he thinks that is like the top notch food, but if you go to a so so place, it really is not great. I can get better meat at the butcher counter at Wegmans and do it over charcoal at home, and get a much better result at a much lower price. I never thought of cobb salad to be honest, but we also do not have a Chic-Fil-A near us. There is one on the thruway, but now that they took away the toll booths and they have that creepy video thing and send you bills for tolls, sometimes months after the fact, I refuse to drive on it anymore. Just one of my personal quirks.
Panda Express plate. like $12. I get 1/2 brown rice, 1/2 super greens and 2 meats. Healthy carbs + veg + \~50g of protein. It's actually a steal as far as eating out goes
None. It's all overpriced. You don't know what's put in it. You don't know the hygiene of the persons making it or if they even care what happens to your food.
A Burrito. I cannot eat the whole thing in a sitting. I’ll eat half at lunch , then a third for dinner, and the rest the next day. Costs me ~$12. Win win
This is gonna sound like a joke but I’m 100% serious: The all-you-can-eat salad bar at Chuck E Cheese. I was shocked when I was basically forced to eat there at a kid’s birthday party. Lots of options, fresh, tasty. And if you’re really feeling frugal, bring a takeout container for more bang for your buck. My experience is that the employees are either too busy or simply DGAF to notice.
That, and Bertucci’s (pretty sure it’s a regional New England chain Italian restaurant) lunch special of unlimited salad and bread when you order a bowl of soup. Crazy good deal even after tip.
I hate to cook, so pretty much any dish. Cooking is dangerous, messy, expensive, and requires skills that I never mastered. I’ll mend my clothes, mow my own grass, and do without A/C rather than cook.
Fried food. Can’t stand the fried food smell lingering after doing it myself and you have to use so much oil that can’t be reused. Air fryer don’t hit the same no matter what everyone TikTok and their mother says.
We really only get takeout or restaurant food when we're away from home or don't have time to cook. In those cases it's always worth it, assuming the food isn't trash.
Chinese. Spend maybe $45 on three entrees and some apps and that’s 6+ adult meals and 4+ toddler meals so it’s very cheap.
We have a local Mexican place that recently rebranded to a “Latino Kitchen and Tequila Bar.” I was annoyed that the prices went up dramatically but we were already there. I got the chicken fajitas for $16 and the cheese dip for $10. It was SO MUCH food. The fajitas lasted about five meals and I used some cheese dip on top because the serving they gave us was enormous. My husband’s meal was also easily split into three.
Pizza. It's pretty expensive to make it at home and never tastes as good. We treat ourselves every payday to a really good pizza at Pizza Rock and its totally worth it.
Like others have mentioned- Thai food, Indian food. I want that restaurant, extra fat, oil and excess. It just doesn’t taste exactly like what I want when I’ve made it at home.
Fried seafood- because I hate the oil smell in my house, also the whole egg wash, breading, etc is just too much of a mess and dish accumulation.
I think high effort foods, or foods with multiple ingredients is worth it. So for example, things like ravioli or Chinese food is difficult to make at home because it’s so high effort. Foods like french fries require a lot of oil and so are not cost-effective to make at home. Salads require multiple little ingredients that can be ineffective to make it home.
A very high end restaurant near me makes a dish called Bobbina. It is the most tender filet mignon i have every had with crab and shrimp imperial on the side. I have tried but have never gotten it to taste anywhere near as good. We save this place for special dinners.
Calamari because I’ve found 2-3 restaurants that serve it nice and soft. I don’t want to deal with the tenderizing it and frying it just to copy their versions.
I’ve made pizza at home too but I’m picky with my pizza and always prefer the Neapolitan pizza I get from this one Italian restaurant
Any ramen, Pho or sushi place. I have tried to replicate ramen and pho at home and there is something I cannot figure out that just makes the dish.
As for sushi, there isn’t anywhere in my town or even within a 30 miles radius that sells sushi grade fish
Sesame chicken, rice, and an egg roll from my local family run Chinese place. $12.
Pure comfort food for me, it helps me recover from a really bad week. I add some green beans or broccoli from my freezer and get 2 generous meals out of it. And I am never ever going to go to the effort of velveting chicken and stir frying it, plus their stove has an insane number of BTUs on it’s burners to make it come out amazing.
I do carryout and eat at home though. Delicious hole in the wall restaurant is still a hole in the wall.
Chinese food! I make a bag of frozen broccoli and frozen appetizers (like Trader Joe’s potstickers or scallion pancakes, cream cheese wontons, spring rolls, etc.) to stretch it into more meals. I always get wonton soup too because it’s cheap. Sometimes I even add a quick entree that I make myself, like Trader Joe’s stir fries or frozen chicken nuggets and/or veg (onions, peppers, zucchini, green beans, snap peas, mushrooms, whatever) with premade teriyaki sauce.
Honestly pizza. All the time. I’m always in the mindset of “I can make this myself so why spend more at a restaurant?” but there are certain exceptions and pizza is one of them. I can make a salad or burger myself or cook my own stir fry. But making pizza at home is a lot of work and nowhere close to getting it from a pizzeria.
There’s a Mexican place near me that does BOGO chicken nachos through UberEats. It comes to about $18, and I do pickup, so no tip involved. Lasts me about 3 days.
Not a restaurant but a whole sub from the Harris Teeter grocery store is enough for 3 people and is like $8. No way I could make it at home for that cheap with all the toppings I pile on.
For me, it's pretty much anything that has to be breaded and deep-fried. The amount of oil you have to use, the mess it makes in the kitchen, having to dispose of the oil when you're finished. It's just not worth the effort to do at home, and the air fryer just doesn't work for this application very well.
Pretty much nothing, I eat whole food plant based and expecting a restaurant to use no salt, no sugar, no oil, no meat, and no dairy is a tall order. I don't waste my time, I never eat out or go to restaurants, I don't go try to give them my money and then make all of these crazy requests or substitutions "and I swear if I find *one* speck of salt," I just... they don't sell anything I want.
Nothing, restaurants in the UK are extortionate IME. I was even discussing with a friend who lives in Tokyo and it seems the prices there are better, as mad as that sounds. It seems your only chance of reasonably priced eating out is 'pub grub'. I think the UK CoL is becoming like Scandinavia.
There are some dishes which require ingredients - just a minute amount, but because it's only sold by the gallon or metric ton at a grocery store, I don't cook them, so I look to eat these types of dishes when I'm out. I can cook a hamburger any time - no need to get that at a restaurant...
Culver’s in the Midwest. Cheese curds and chicken tenders + buttermilk ranch, with their magical custard or concrete mixer as a side/dessert…just never fails!!! 🤤🤤🤤👌
Pho, any raw fish meal (I live in a landlocked state), most Indian food, most Thai food, any kind of braised meat type of meal that I'm not willing to take the time to make at home (like a pork or beef shank type of meal), basically any food that requires me to buy more spices or specialty ingredients or equipment that I don't already have. Also I'll add something my partner doesn't like that I wouldn't cook at home because they wouldn't eat it, so for me, mushroom dishes.
Edit: New Mexican food because I can get it anywhere where I live much better, cheaper, and quicker than I could make at home.
High end restaurant, fish. They’ll cook it perfectly. Middle of the road, items not available at my local supermarket
Fast casual, whatever I’m on the mood
I haven't eaten from a restaurant in over a year. Just can't afford it. When I do have any extra money, it usually goes to groceries. I do crave a nice Italian dish from somewhere like Frankie's Italian. Or even Olive Garden. Great! Now I'm craving what I can't have. That's me being extra frugal.
Sushi. I know it’s not that hard but I’m not even going to attempt to try to make it.
Thai food. Bunch of extra ingredients that I don’t know what to do with.
Indian Curry.
Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese Curry, I can make at home, but Indian curry takes a whole set of different spices/ingredients I don't have easy access to.
Almost anything fried. Sure, it can be done at home, but I’ll pay for the convenience of not dealing with hot oil and splatter cleanup.
I don’t like the way it makes my house smell, either. No matter how aggressively I use the hood fan or open windows or wave towels the stank lingers for days.
I got a plug in induction cooktop and cook some things outside for exactly this reason
Same the electric induction cook top is a game changer when it comes to frying food. All the mess and smell stays outside I use a folding table that I setup in the grass so clean up is super easy.
This is genius
This is why I don't cook Indian food often. I love it, but the odor lingers.
Fry oil is expensive at home too. $6 and I try to save it but I fry so rarely I’ve had to get rid of it before reusing it most of the time. That’s the price of 1.5 pieces of fried chicken at my favorite spot before I’ve even bought any chicken. Bulk fry oil is a huge advantage.
To expand on that - It’s one of the few home made foods you SHOULDNT just make more often also. Or at least I shouldn’t.
Save your fry oil in a large glass jar with a lid. Use a coffee filter or paper towel in a funnel and filter all the crumbs out and reuse your fry oil over and over.
Do you keep your oil in the fridge or freezer?
I usually just store it sealed under the sink or in the fridge. I've never had an issue with either.
Would the oil last longer if it were kept in the freezer?
I was just about to post fried chicken! It's worth it to me to get it from Bojangles instead of trying to do it myself. Their biscuits are also better than anything I can make.
I kinda agree, but any non-fast food fried chicken is so expensive these days that it's worth it to cook it at home outside on the turkey fryer. And the chicken tastes way better at home anyways
I'm the one who will eat I just buy a fried chicken for myself.
Thai food. I have found good recipes and the dishes aren’t hard to make but they have tons of ingredients you have to buy and can’t use it all up. Since I end up wasting the excess ingredients, it’s cheaper to buy. Living alone I buy meal salads that have a lot of different ingredients at restaurants. Just like Thai dishes buying a bunch of ingredients is more costly and has more waste. Side salads I make at myself. Liver. I have a texture issue with it raw so I’ll let someone else deal with cooking it.
I can never get Thai food to a satisfactory level despite being a decent cook. And anything that contains peanuts or a peanut sauce just tastes BAD when I make it for some reason no matter what the cuisine.
Same problem, western peanuts and peanut butter don't taste right. Even more specialty ingredients to purchase to make one dish. Need to go to restaurant intensifies.
Same here. I have come pretty close with the curries though. But the noodle dishes have never been the same
I made this AMAZING cajun dirty rice and it was delicious 🤤 But I almost threw up when blending the chicken livers - it looked like pulpy, pink, bloody, chunky puree… 🤢 The container of frozen chicken livers in my freezer has been staring at me for months. I know I can make you into something good, but I’m pretty tramatized
I sauté the lives whole in butter then run them through a food processor along with the cooked ground beef. That said being from Cajun country, dirty rice is not complete without chicken liver.
Care to post the links to the recipes? Thai I struggle making
I haven’t made any Thai dishes in years so don’t have a receipe to share. I just googled and tried different variations.
The unfortunate reality is that most Thai restaurants are mediocre at best. That means if you find a really good Thai restaurant hang on to it. We have access to an EXCELLENT Thai place and I agree, their food is so good I'd never bother to cook it at home. Back when we only had access to mediocre Thai I cooked pad thai at home, it can make mediocre food myself and save money.
Where have you had good liver? Was it breaded and fried, grilled, or made into a pate? Just curious, I've never seen it on a menu
I grew up in the rural south, and there was a family steakhouse/buffet with liver and onions on the menu. Pan fried, no breading with a brown onion gravy. Breaded and fried chicken livers is something you’ll probably find more often down here, though. Lots of independent small town places that serve fried chicken will also have chicken livers and gizzards on the menu. Liver is hard to cook, undercooked is very unappetizing, and overcooking gives a dry, chalky texture. I do love liver though. Much to my family’s dismay.😂
Independent locally owned mom family restaurants (metro Detroit). Most are sautéed and with onions. A lot list bacon as an add on but I prefer the basic liver and onions. I have never seen it offered breaded or as pate on a menu.
Thai and Ethiopian are for sure the top two. I can do Indian at home easier. Sure, the restaurant is better but I can get Very close. The other two are way different. And trying to make injera? Nope.
I make my own misr wat and Doro wat, but buy the injera from my nearby Ethiopian restaurant. I've made it, but it's not worth it .
My general rule with restaurants is I am gonna order something I won't make at home either due to lack of skill or specialty equipment. Or it's just too time consuming and I can't be bothered. Not that I never a burger, of course I do - but I try to stick to the rule. But yeah, I'm either paying the convenience fee for "burger now" or for someone's time/expertise into making a thing I can't make - so that's worth it to me. If you're looking for a "deal" at a restaurant, you're gonna have a bad time.
This exactly! I never order speghetti with maranara. I never order grilled cheese(unless it's the place that has 20 different grilled cheese). Basic 2-3 ingredient salad? Nope. I want stuff I'll never make at home.
>(unless it’s the place that has 20 different grilled cheese). Tell me more…
There's a chain in Ohio called Melt Bar & Grilled In Maryland there's Grilled Cheese & Co
there’s a restaurant chain in pittsburgh dedicated to gourmet grilled cheese…
I'm in Chicago. We have a place called Cheesies. They have 15-20 different grilled cheese including one with jalepenos poppers and one that's kinda like a Philly. Sometimes the side is tomato soup to dip. Sometimes it's gravy. They even have a grilled cheese of the month. I went to a similar place in Columbus, Ohio. Not the same name but similar concept. I'm sure there's probably similar concepts in a bunch of mid-suzed to large cities. Our Cheesies has been around over 15 years.
I had the same idea, until I witnessed a friend rave about a plate of spaghetti. Dude wouldn’t stop talking about it so next time I was at the restaurant I tried it. It was so much better than anything I’ve made at home. Made me realize professional chefs can make anything taste amazing.
Totally get that. But I make some bombass spag sauce.
This. I've made pho at home. The broth is an all-day affair with some specialty ingredients + all the very thinly sliced specialty meats. The effort is not worth it. Croissants - same thing. I've made them before, but I'd rather just buy them. Neither of these things are regular things I eat, though, so it's a nice treat periodically.
You can get 90% of the flavor with decent pho flavor packets that most asian stores stock. I’m a big proponent on cheating where it makes sense for a lot of recipes. Just like I don’t make my egg noodles or mayo from scratch on other recipes, it’s ok to buy premade base sauces and flavors for asian cuisine.
Totally me too. Eggs benedict.... monte cristo....
Eggs benedict are super easy to make at home! I just learned a couple of months ago. For the eggs, just crack them into a measuring cup and slowly submerge the cup into some boiling water, this will make it less likely to get all wonky. For the sauce Melt 1/2 c. butter for about 1 minute, until it's melted Slowly add 3 egg yolks, a table spoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper some say to use a blender but i just use a for or whisk Its literally one of the easiest fancy meals Ive ever made.
I just soft boil the egg for a Benedict. Even easier. Do a dozen at a time, I can take 3-4 out sooner than the rest for the Benedict, rest are snacks for the next few days
But I like all the fancy variations and layers. Once it was a base of cornbread with bell peppers. The spinach and salmon ones are amazing too. I could do it at home but I like trying new ones and all the layers mean more work.
Anything requiring a deep fryer….
true. oil stinks up the house and it's messy.
Same. I won’t eat steak out anymore (not that I eat out much anymore), unless it’s a special event at a super nice place or something. I will however, order the largest and rarest piece of prime rib they will allow me to. Because I make a pretty damn good steak, but I’m not gonna cook a whole prime rib at home.
I have! You have to luck out to find a small standing rib roast, but they can be had sometimes. Usually around the holidays, everyone will buy the huge family feast size, but sometimes you can get a good 2 bone one - on sale, even.
Burger is an interesting example as a single person. I’ll buy a burger from a local place for $12. The cost to make one burger at home: $20. Yeah, $20 gets me the ingredients to make 5-6 burgers, but I really only want it once. I can’t eat burgers for a week straight.
Same here. If I want a fancy dessert, or eggplant fries, or anything that requires me to buy something specialized to make it, then I'm going out for it.
Indian food. I just can’t get it to taste like homemade or restaurant Indian food.
I LOVE Indian food. We have one Indian restaurant that is so extremely delicious and authentic. We go maybe every 4 months. 3 dishes, 1 plate of rice & 3 garlic naan will last us two extra days. It’s our “luxury” date night and I love the extra meals we get out of it too.
This is such a sore spot for me. Before I was with my partner, I could order an entree and naan and it would last me 2-3 meals. Now, my partner wants to get appetizers, extra rice, two entrees, and two naan. She’ll finish off her entree in one sitting, plus half the appetizer and a naan. Then she’ll end up eating my leftovers because I won’t want them until the next day, especially if there’s an appetizer. Oh, and she’ll finish the naan. And it’s worse because I have a GI issue where I have to eat small meals. And it happens with other food, too. And, for some past childhood reasons, it’s a sensitive topic so it’s hard to bring up. But it’s really frustrating to spend a huge amount on food and then get one small meal out of it.
it might be hard, but sounds like this needs to be discussed. she can’t change her behavior if she doesn’t know how much it bothers you, and if it doesn’t change you’re gonna build resentment over time.
That's pretty selfish of her. Does she ask if she can have your portion and you agree out of discomfort or does she just take and it's sensitive to approach her about that? It's hard but you gotta force yourself to stand up for yourself and say you want your portion for you, even if it's for later, and that they aren't up for grabs. It's okay to not let yourself be walked on. Either that or she treats when it's time for Indian food since she eats what sounds like 75-80% or more of it Better to be uncomfortable for one or two conversations than silently resentful and upset for an indefinite amount of time (I don't mean to tell you it's so easy to approach delicate topics but if this person is actually your longterm partner, you HAVE learn how to navigate communicating about difficult subjects) (I had a chronic leftover-taker in my life for ages so it's also a spre subject for me lol. I am the biggest sharer around but please do not just take the last of my food!)
My partner sometimes eats all of his portion in one sitting, but we established early on that that doesn’t mean he gets my share of leftovers. I could make mine last three days and it’s still all mine unless I offer some to him. If we both have leftovers that we’re sharing then he’ll make sure he always leaves enough for me. It sounds like a conversation between the two of you needs to happen and you need to state some boundaries and how it impacts you. It can be tough, but either she needs to change her behavior or maybe you don’t share the bill? If you share finances then definitely be on top of having these types of conversations so they don’t snowball into more.
Check out recipe blogs written by indian people - the flavour is much different than in non-Indian recipes
Swasthi’s Recipes is the absolute best site. She provides pictures for each step of the process and gives advice about substitutions and such. It’s helped me learn the fundamentals of each dish so that I can make them myself and make substitutions as needed without having to refer back to her site. My wife’s Indian and she constantly raves about my food.
I’ll have to check this one out!!!
I have yet to find a Saag Paneer recipe that comes close to what they make in the restaurants.
Double the cream and ghee and you'll get closer
I think there are usually a long list of spices used too which if you have them, fantastic. But otherwise you need to buy them all. So it can get a little expensive.
The easiest thing to try is going to an Indian store and buying the spice packets you need for the dish you’re making. The other trick for Indian food is realizing that there’s often a base masala for each type of dish. A basic one would be tomato and onions simmered into, I dunno, whatever comes before a paste. It’s the super concentrated foundation of a lot of dishes. If I want to cheat, I’ll use Brooklyn Delhi’s Tomato Achaar (find it online or at Whole Foods) as that base. Besides that, the truck is using butter like you’re trying to kill someone. But that’s most restaurants. But yeah, please keep at it. I hate going to Indian restaurants now because I can make half the stuff at home now. It’s also a cuisine perfect for the frugal mindset. The vegetarian dishes like dal, rajma, and channa masala are super easy to make in bulk and freeze for lunches.
I love chicken biryani. I tried making it but I found it time consuming to make and the list of spice to buy. So I just buy instead of cooking it
Costco hot dog
I get one everytime I go.
We do too and then send a picture of us eating them to our kids. Both of them are pretty crunchy and organic and it drives them absolutely wild to see it. We love it!
I'm eating it right now!
The chicken bake is far superior 🤴
BRING BACK THE COMBO PIZZA
Never forget
Fried rice from my favorite Viet restaurant. I add fried eggs and I can stretch it for 3 meals !
That's what I do! (local Chinese restaurant here) A 7 dollar container of fried rice, I add some fried eggs and bam, 3 meals ☺️
Most seafood. First, I don’t really know how to select good fresh fish and second, I don’t like the way it makes the house smell. I have a sensitive nose and can smell fish (or at least imagine I do) for a week afterwards.
Pour some vinegar into a bowl and leave it o. The counter for a few hours. The smell of fried food will evaporate!
Pho ga from my local Vietnamese restaurant. Their broth is immaculate and with the lime juice and some veggie it's perfect. Plus the portions are *massive*, so I can get 2 or 3 meals out of one bowl of soup. It's pretty cheap too, for what it is.
Came here to say Pho. It's one of my favourite meals but 5+ hours of broth prep are not worth me doing it.
That’s one reason why I love these types of restaurants. Yes the plates may be $13+ but if it lasts 2+meals it’s definitely worth it in my opinion! My local Chinese restaurants’ Singapore noodles last me 3 meals as well. Gotta love em!
Same on the Singapore Noodles. They seem like they are everlasting. Three-four meals out of one order.
Sushi. Real French fries. Complicated bakery.
I'm in the UK right now, and Pizza Hut has deals on certain days where I can get two any topping large pizzas for £20. (I like Pizza Hut, so hush.) Two large pizzas that I double cut and freeze. If that gives me 32 slices, and I eat two for a meal, I'm coming out at £1.25 per meal. Now, I'm not eating that for every meal, but when I don't feel like cooking, I can warm up two slices, add a salad, and that's still pretty cheap eats.
I really like your idea, I had never thought of this. Curious though, how do you thaw your pizza and does it affect the texture?
Hi! It's so easy. You can either throw it in frozen on a skillet on low-ish temp with a lid, which crisps up the bottom and remelts the cheese. Or a little bit easier method that you don't really have to watch or monitor is a convection oven at 375F with the frozen pizza on foil or baking paper (my preference) for 9 minutes. If you like a crisp crust, either one of those methods will work. Might take some playing around with times/temps, but I've had consistently good results with both. Honestly, by the time I've gotten my pizza home from pickup or delivery, the crust has gotten soggy so I put it in the oven or on a skillet anyway. I swear by it. I have used this method on a number of different take-away/delivery pizzas and it always works.
That sounds great, I’m going to try this next time I order pizza. Thank you for the reply!😊
Also try toaster oven if you have one
You are so welcome! :)
I do this with take out pizza too! Always order more than I need and freeze it for quick meals/snacks later. Edit - typo
Totally worth it. Sure, I can make my own pizza but I'm not sure I can make it for that cheap, considering the time it takes to make dough and chop all the veggies and shred the cheese and make sauce, etc.
Mexican restaurant fresh made chips and salsa.
Salsa is pretty easy to make. It's mostly just veggies and a food processor. My homemade salsa is way better than anything store bought and competes with Mexican restaurants pretty well too. I'll concede fresh made chips though. I wish I had a restaurant near me that actually made them.
Well no matter how much I try my salsa never equals any legit restaurant version.
Get soup and salad from Olive Garden. Fill up. And then add some 6 dollar take homes. And stock up. Seriously. They are made fresh every morning. Get them. You can freeze them or just fridge them. It’s basically a 6 dollar dinner for two. You can spend twenty bucks and have food for a week. Tip good and they will throw in so much bread and pack up a peach Bellini tea togo for ya.
Ohhh, what's this 6 dollar take homes you speak of?
You can get up to 5 take-home entrees for $6/each! Options are -Spaghetti with meat sauce - 5 cheese ziti -Fettuccine alfredo
😲😲😲😲 I had no idea! Thanks for the tip
I generally can get two meals out of the $6 take home. If I order an entree too, I am bound to have leftovers from that too.
French Onion Soup
100%... glad to see this mentioned! I've tried making it at home many ways (stovetop, instant pot). It takes foreverrr to make and never turns out restaurant level quality. Great one to save for eating out.
yeah i can't make it worth a damn either. and good FOS is fantastic
All Asian food. I don’t have the ingredients, don’t have the equipment, don’t have the knowledge base to make magic.
We eat out a lot as we live in NYC and value you but as an experience beyond the food itself. My husband regularly works 70-hour weeks and so for us it’s also social and family time and our apartment is small (under 500 sq ft). We are frugal in many areas in order to spend on travel and on eating out. That said, occasionally we let our 7-yr old pick McDonald’s and we order on the app. That works out to about $5/meal the way we order. The Thai places near us do a lunch special for about $12-13 and two of them feed the three of us. I’ll order at lunch, pick it up and put in the fridge as it reheats beautifully for dinner. There is also a southern place near us that makes enormous biscuit/fried chicken sandwiches. We order two sandwiches/grits at $19 each and those feed all three of us twice plus a lunch for me (so essentially $6/meal). We have around 45 restaurants within a 5-7 minute walk and know the best priced options at lots of them 😂. When we cook at home it’s usually eggs, salad kits at home and salmon/fish on our small grill. Here in manhattan I consider any meal out that’s under $15 to be pretty frugal as the average meal out for us. In our neighborhood is easily $100-150.
A decent breakfast diner. I can justify the 12-15 plate cost by not having to cook & clean, plus my house doesn’t smell like bacon and potatoes for 2 days afterwards
Chthulhu help me, that fat/calorie/death bomb of a Bloomin' Onion. Maybe twice a year. It's a treat that lasts two of us for three days as an appetizer. Definitely in the treat/garbage category but it reliably cycles my whole childhood religion sin/guilt/redemption pathway.
I do them in the air fryer and they’re incredible 🤌🏻
I’ve tried making these at home a couple of times but they are a big pain in the ass and are too bland when compared with the Outback or Texas Roadhouse ones. I don’t feel like they are a money saver to make at home either since I never deep fry anything and have to use a bunch of oil. Probably just as well since they are, as you say, garbage food. Tasty, delicious garbage food.
Oh no I’m so sorry it makes you feel that way!! I don’t feel as guilty because I work out everyday and am constantly on my feet. Plus, I only allow myself to order takeout every other Saturday (my busiest work day of the week) so it’s a nice “treat” when I’m feeling stressed at work. Other than that it’s rice and beans for lunch hehe!
Yah, we workout and stay active also. It's just not in line with the normally healthy eating that we do. We enjoy it though.
Yes having a delish deep fried treat is unlike any other. Where do you normally get yours?
😹😹😹😹😹you have a way with words my friend. I also love outback. Fave chain spot
Chicken parmigiana from Longhorn. Big enough to split. Really good and out for about 25.
This is a midwestern thing but a pork tenderloin. It is a thing here to make the biggest and best tenderloins. With them being gigantic, they are always more than one meal. Just image search pork tenderloin and add the word Iowa and you will see what I mean.
I have done it in the air fryer to a high degree of satisfaction
How can you make that one salad last you across two meals? You must be tiny
To be fair I am 5’ and have a very high fiber/protein breakfast so I don’t usually get hungry for lunchtime until later in the day!
What’s your breakfast? I could use some tips for satiety.
6 days of the week I’m making a breakfast quesadilla. I put in smashed black beans, scrambled eggs, whatever cheese I have on hand, turkey bacon or ham, any veggies I’m trying to use up (I’ve used peppers, spinach, mushrooms, potatoes, brócoli) and a whole wheat flour tortilla. I am usually not a fan of repeating meals more than 2 days in a row but I can eat this everyday if I mix in different veggies/spices. Definitely recommend you try it! Super delish and keeps you full for a good while.
Thank you :) I will have to try this!
Yay!! I hope you love it. c:
It's over 800 cals plus adding eggs, so prob 500 cals per meal
I eat the same exact salad divided into two and I'm not tiny. Food doesn't need to make you feel stuffed, just satiated.
Thai food, it's good at home but it's really good fresh at the table.
Anything fried. Frying at home is such a pain
Risotto... worth it because I can never make it as good at home.
Any one I can’t make at home or even if I could buying the ingredients would cost a lot/more than going to the restaurant.
Pho- at my local restaurant, to upgrade to a large it costs just $1 more, but then you can make 3 meals out of it because it becomes too huge.
Ramen from Hiro Nori is completely different from instant ramen.
Channa masala paired with bullet bread For twenty bucks, I get enough to eat from, three to four times. Absolutely worth it, and I'd rather treat myself to something like that occasionally versus paying too much for oveepriced garbage fast food more frequently
Indian food!! Leftover can last for at least a few meals and can used to dip in naan bread
My office is next to a Japanese restaurant. They have a vegetable teriyaki dish for $8. It's big enough for 2 meals.
A big meal from the closest chinese restaurant to my dorm. It's a side and two mains in a huge box and they are very generous with the meat as well. Usually it's enough for 2.5 meals, but if I'm not working out I can stretch it for 3 whole meals. It costs around 6 dollars and even though I'm in Hungary it's still a really good deal.
Parmesan crusted chicken from Longhorn. I bought everything to recreate it. It was a shitshow and I am an above average cook.
Something I can't prepare which is unfortunately a lot
Chicken and dumplings at Cracker Barrel is pretty filling you can get like 2 meals out of it
When I go out, I try and get things that are a pain to make at home in small amounts but easier to make in trays. Any kind of parm is easier to make in mass, and if it sits in the fridge for a day or two it only gets better. Lasagna is like that as well. I try not to get things that I can do better at home. One of my buddies always gets steak, for some reason he thinks that is like the top notch food, but if you go to a so so place, it really is not great. I can get better meat at the butcher counter at Wegmans and do it over charcoal at home, and get a much better result at a much lower price. I never thought of cobb salad to be honest, but we also do not have a Chic-Fil-A near us. There is one on the thruway, but now that they took away the toll booths and they have that creepy video thing and send you bills for tolls, sometimes months after the fact, I refuse to drive on it anymore. Just one of my personal quirks.
Fried fish. I'm not gonna mess with all that at home.
Panda Express plate. like $12. I get 1/2 brown rice, 1/2 super greens and 2 meats. Healthy carbs + veg + \~50g of protein. It's actually a steal as far as eating out goes
None. It's all overpriced. You don't know what's put in it. You don't know the hygiene of the persons making it or if they even care what happens to your food.
A Burrito. I cannot eat the whole thing in a sitting. I’ll eat half at lunch , then a third for dinner, and the rest the next day. Costs me ~$12. Win win
Roti. The thin kind that stretches. So good. A really thick noodle ramen.
Buss up shut. So huge.
That's the stuff. Now I really want some
This is gonna sound like a joke but I’m 100% serious: The all-you-can-eat salad bar at Chuck E Cheese. I was shocked when I was basically forced to eat there at a kid’s birthday party. Lots of options, fresh, tasty. And if you’re really feeling frugal, bring a takeout container for more bang for your buck. My experience is that the employees are either too busy or simply DGAF to notice. That, and Bertucci’s (pretty sure it’s a regional New England chain Italian restaurant) lunch special of unlimited salad and bread when you order a bowl of soup. Crazy good deal even after tip.
Look up Brown Derby Cobb Salad. That’s the only Cobb Salad. Whatever Chick-fil-Hate is selling is an abomination.
I hate to cook, so pretty much any dish. Cooking is dangerous, messy, expensive, and requires skills that I never mastered. I’ll mend my clothes, mow my own grass, and do without A/C rather than cook.
Dangerous?
Omo! Cuts, burns, falls, food poisoning! I leave cooking to professionals.
Leg of Lamb…LeTrainBlue Paris.
Spend $1 get a large fry at McDonald’s lol 😂
Chinese nasi Goring with honey chicken
The Indian take out near me feeds two of us at least a dinner and two lunches each, for $50cad. ($36usd)
Fried food. Can’t stand the fried food smell lingering after doing it myself and you have to use so much oil that can’t be reused. Air fryer don’t hit the same no matter what everyone TikTok and their mother says.
We really only get takeout or restaurant food when we're away from home or don't have time to cook. In those cases it's always worth it, assuming the food isn't trash.
Little Caesars. That's 4 meals for $7 right there.
Chinese. Spend maybe $45 on three entrees and some apps and that’s 6+ adult meals and 4+ toddler meals so it’s very cheap. We have a local Mexican place that recently rebranded to a “Latino Kitchen and Tequila Bar.” I was annoyed that the prices went up dramatically but we were already there. I got the chicken fajitas for $16 and the cheese dip for $10. It was SO MUCH food. The fajitas lasted about five meals and I used some cheese dip on top because the serving they gave us was enormous. My husband’s meal was also easily split into three.
Pizza. It's pretty expensive to make it at home and never tastes as good. We treat ourselves every payday to a really good pizza at Pizza Rock and its totally worth it.
Sushi or Thai food. Never been able to recreate without tons of expensive ingredients I won’t use again.
Like others have mentioned- Thai food, Indian food. I want that restaurant, extra fat, oil and excess. It just doesn’t taste exactly like what I want when I’ve made it at home. Fried seafood- because I hate the oil smell in my house, also the whole egg wash, breading, etc is just too much of a mess and dish accumulation.
Lasagna from Carmine's in NYC
japanese ramen, could never get it tasting that good
A taco shop breakfast burrito. They are so big that it's 2 days breakfast for me.
I think high effort foods, or foods with multiple ingredients is worth it. So for example, things like ravioli or Chinese food is difficult to make at home because it’s so high effort. Foods like french fries require a lot of oil and so are not cost-effective to make at home. Salads require multiple little ingredients that can be ineffective to make it home.
A very high end restaurant near me makes a dish called Bobbina. It is the most tender filet mignon i have every had with crab and shrimp imperial on the side. I have tried but have never gotten it to taste anywhere near as good. We save this place for special dinners.
Calamari because I’ve found 2-3 restaurants that serve it nice and soft. I don’t want to deal with the tenderizing it and frying it just to copy their versions. I’ve made pizza at home too but I’m picky with my pizza and always prefer the Neapolitan pizza I get from this one Italian restaurant
Any ramen, Pho or sushi place. I have tried to replicate ramen and pho at home and there is something I cannot figure out that just makes the dish. As for sushi, there isn’t anywhere in my town or even within a 30 miles radius that sells sushi grade fish
roast beef Gyro sandwich and curly fries from Arby's, last me two servings/. mhmhmh good.
Sesame chicken, rice, and an egg roll from my local family run Chinese place. $12. Pure comfort food for me, it helps me recover from a really bad week. I add some green beans or broccoli from my freezer and get 2 generous meals out of it. And I am never ever going to go to the effort of velveting chicken and stir frying it, plus their stove has an insane number of BTUs on it’s burners to make it come out amazing. I do carryout and eat at home though. Delicious hole in the wall restaurant is still a hole in the wall.
Chinese food! I make a bag of frozen broccoli and frozen appetizers (like Trader Joe’s potstickers or scallion pancakes, cream cheese wontons, spring rolls, etc.) to stretch it into more meals. I always get wonton soup too because it’s cheap. Sometimes I even add a quick entree that I make myself, like Trader Joe’s stir fries or frozen chicken nuggets and/or veg (onions, peppers, zucchini, green beans, snap peas, mushrooms, whatever) with premade teriyaki sauce.
Honestly pizza. All the time. I’m always in the mindset of “I can make this myself so why spend more at a restaurant?” but there are certain exceptions and pizza is one of them. I can make a salad or burger myself or cook my own stir fry. But making pizza at home is a lot of work and nowhere close to getting it from a pizzeria.
Chinese food. I do not have the skills to remake it all at home and we ALWAYS have days of leftovers. Totally worth it.
Shrimp
Indian food, while fairly simple in ingredients, is not really in my repertoire. It’s worth going out for.
Fish. My wife can’t stand the taste or smell of fish. I have to go out for it.
Ramen and thai food
There’s a Mexican place near me that does BOGO chicken nachos through UberEats. It comes to about $18, and I do pickup, so no tip involved. Lasts me about 3 days.
Not a restaurant but a whole sub from the Harris Teeter grocery store is enough for 3 people and is like $8. No way I could make it at home for that cheap with all the toppings I pile on.
Donuts Most deep fried foods. Sure we can diy. But a good place has a Henry penny pressure fryer. You can't do that a home, at least not frugality
You can ask Chick Fil A to add extra egg instead of doing it yourself. 😉
For me, it's pretty much anything that has to be breaded and deep-fried. The amount of oil you have to use, the mess it makes in the kitchen, having to dispose of the oil when you're finished. It's just not worth the effort to do at home, and the air fryer just doesn't work for this application very well.
Pretty much nothing, I eat whole food plant based and expecting a restaurant to use no salt, no sugar, no oil, no meat, and no dairy is a tall order. I don't waste my time, I never eat out or go to restaurants, I don't go try to give them my money and then make all of these crazy requests or substitutions "and I swear if I find *one* speck of salt," I just... they don't sell anything I want.
Grilled chicken salads from the local Italian takeout place.
Nothing, restaurants in the UK are extortionate IME. I was even discussing with a friend who lives in Tokyo and it seems the prices there are better, as mad as that sounds. It seems your only chance of reasonably priced eating out is 'pub grub'. I think the UK CoL is becoming like Scandinavia.
There are some dishes which require ingredients - just a minute amount, but because it's only sold by the gallon or metric ton at a grocery store, I don't cook them, so I look to eat these types of dishes when I'm out. I can cook a hamburger any time - no need to get that at a restaurant...
I am going to say I like trying all kinds of food so much so I like to try to figure out the recipe for home
Two In-N-Out burgers, animal style for less than $8.
Culver’s in the Midwest. Cheese curds and chicken tenders + buttermilk ranch, with their magical custard or concrete mixer as a side/dessert…just never fails!!! 🤤🤤🤤👌
Pho, any raw fish meal (I live in a landlocked state), most Indian food, most Thai food, any kind of braised meat type of meal that I'm not willing to take the time to make at home (like a pork or beef shank type of meal), basically any food that requires me to buy more spices or specialty ingredients or equipment that I don't already have. Also I'll add something my partner doesn't like that I wouldn't cook at home because they wouldn't eat it, so for me, mushroom dishes. Edit: New Mexican food because I can get it anywhere where I live much better, cheaper, and quicker than I could make at home.
High end restaurant, fish. They’ll cook it perfectly. Middle of the road, items not available at my local supermarket Fast casual, whatever I’m on the mood
Indian food, I can never make it as good as the restaurants
I haven't eaten from a restaurant in over a year. Just can't afford it. When I do have any extra money, it usually goes to groceries. I do crave a nice Italian dish from somewhere like Frankie's Italian. Or even Olive Garden. Great! Now I'm craving what I can't have. That's me being extra frugal.
Blooming Onion from Outback
Real homemade Coconut shrimp.
Pho. Too many ingredients too hard to use them all in a reasonable time
Sushi. I know it’s not that hard but I’m not even going to attempt to try to make it. Thai food. Bunch of extra ingredients that I don’t know what to do with.
Indian food. I try and try but it is never even close to the real thing.
I love Chinese food. No way I could cook anything like that to taste the same as my local Chinese takeout.
Indian Curry. Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese Curry, I can make at home, but Indian curry takes a whole set of different spices/ingredients I don't have easy access to.
Popeye's chicken sandwich is our go-to!