Avocado, goat's cheese, mushroom, olives, red onion...

[Loony BoB]

Don't you hate it when you look at a menu at a fancy restaurant and basically every single meal has something you don't like in it? And the rest of the things are described using words that look like they've been made up! Grrr.

Discuss restaurant menu frustrations.

[Jinx]

I guess no one ever taught you to order things without things?

Poor guy. :(

[Pheesh]

If it's a good restaurant then most of those things should be very well balanced in the dish and be put there for a reason. At a nice restaurant is when I'll be most likely to try some new kind of food or one that I previously didn't like.

If it's a basic, run of the mill restaurant or bistro then like TB says, just have them cook it without the thing you don't like.

[Jinx]

There are a couple really trendy, hipster restaurants in KC that I like. And their food is AMAZING.

And like Phil said, if it's there, it's there for a reason. I had some steamed spinach with mushroom and red onion. I HATE onion. And I ate the shit out of it.

[Loony BoB]

I'm not going to risk £25 on something coated in something I don't like in the hope that my opinion might have changed. That's just... weird, Phil. How rich are you? xD I can understand trying something new, sure, but something that you don't like? o_o No!

I do ask for "_____ without the ______", that kind of goes without saying (well, for me it does). More often than not, though, I'll find that one or two items will suit my tastes. I'm just wondering if anyone else finds themselves looking at a bundle of completely absurd restaurant menus like that. Generally these restaurants only have like... ten to twenty different meals on the menu, just to really drive the point home.

EDIT: The real fun comes from those places that have menus without any description, and only foreign words for the meals you can procure.

[Pheesh]

I'm not rich (although I never feel money spent on a good meal is a waste, if you knew how much the restaurant we went to for my 21st cost you would probably faint >_<), but I love food and don't believe in flat out saying that I dislike something and I'll hear no more on the discussion. Even the foods that up until this point I haven't enjoyed, I would never be silly enough to claim to have tried them cooked every way possible. Just because I didn't enjoy some eggplant cooked a certain way and paired with a certain kind of food, doesn't mean that I won't enjoy it cooked in a completely different way and used in a completely different dish.

That would be like saying I hate all paintings that use the colour green because I saw one painting once that used too much green and now I just hate it. There's lots of shades of green and when you mix it with other colours it can make something completely different :D

All that said though, I understand that it is not a very popular train of thought and I am not one of those people that is offended when someone dislikes a certain kind of food and wants it removed (hating something before you've even tried it is another story though, those people are ridiculous). Sometimes people have had such a bad experience with an ingredient that it will tarnish their taste buds forever and they just won't be able to get over that one dish. Also I don't trust lots of restaurants to cook something good enough that it will change the way I think about it, but if you don't try you'll never know right? :monster:

[Loony BoB]

I get what you're saying, but what do you do if you try something you generally don't like and then... don't like it? You've just spent £25 or so on something that you don't want to eat. Do you send it back? Eat it anyway? Leave it? Just seems like a lot fo money to throw away for me. I love to spend money on good food, but I try it at low costs before I go expensive.

And no matter what, I've never enjoyed anything with avocado and I can always taste mushroom in the mushroom sauce. Red onion isn't too bad, but mushroom and avocado are just terrible every time. Asparagus is just as bad.

[Pumpkin]

This happens to me a lot when I go to a new restaurant because I don't like trying new things. So even if it doesn't look gross, if it isn't on my approved lists of food to eat at a restaurant I just stare at the menu and sigh a lot.

[Pheesh]

Fair enough, when it comes to eating out you have to do whatever you have to do in order to feel you got your money's worth. Whether that's taking something out or sending something back. I've had my fair share of meals I've disliked that had ingredients that I normally really enjoy though, I'm not really one to send something back but in that instance is it okay to do that? I suppose so, to each his own.


And no matter what, I've never enjoyed anything with avocado and I can always taste mushroom in the mushroom sauce. Red onion isn't too bad, but mushroom and avocado are just terrible every time. Asparagus is just as bad.

If I ever ordered a mushroom sauce where I couldn't taste the mushrooms in it then I would definitely send it back :p

[tidlelover]

Goat's Cheese? More like foat's feese! I hate it when restaurants kick me out for smelling bad :(

[Renmiri]

Every restaurant can make grilled cheese sandwiches ;)

[tidlelover]

kC_xAcuHxgg

[Denmark]

don't go to fancy restaurants

problem fucking solved

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Oh Phil <3

I am divided on this since I am a cook and I work in a restaurant where we have a very fussy clientele. Like people modifying their orders until it doesn't resemble the dish or even wanting it server in a specific plate/bowl. You come to loathe these people and just start laughing at the sheer ridiculousness. Insofar as that goes, I do not have much sympathy for you.

On the other hand, a simple modification (like say you wanted no avocados on your salad) is reasonable. I mean worst case scenario, you can find something on the menu that you will like. It is not impossible, unless you have crazy allergies.

[fire_of_avalon]

If you don't like goat cheese something is wrong.

[Loony BoB]

I agree. That something? It's goat's cheese.

[Miriel]

Listen.

If you are at a nice restaurant, unless you viscerally loathe an ingredient or if it's an actual allergy, don't go around trying to "fix" a plate to suit your needs exactly.

If you're at a nice restaurant with a talented chef, then just let them take care of you.

You will never learn to like new food if you never try it. Research has shown that children need to eat an item of food 7-15 times before they will willingly eat that item. Think of yourself as a child whose taste buds are still developing.

I thought I hated cauliflower until 2 weeks ago. Then I went to one of the best restaurants in San Francisco and one of the girls I was with tried to substitute cauliflower puree for mashed potatoes. The waitress INSISTED we leave the components of the plate alone. She said that the cauliflower really worked on the plate and that we might regret substituting it out.

And guess what? It was one of the best god damn thing I've eaten all year long. It was smurfing DELICIOUS. So now I like cauliflower. I loved it so much I made the recipe for Del Murder the other day and he liked it too! And this is not a man who loves vegetables!

It's funny that you mention goat cheese because at this exact same meal with the cauliflower, my friend wanted the ravioli but it came with a goat cheese stuffing. She tried to get them to swap it out for another cheese. ANY other cheese. My friend hates goat cheese. I can't say that I like it very much either. But again, the waitress insisted and again, the goat cheese ravioli was fabulous and my friend loved it.

So reserve your pickiness for the things that you seriously can't stand to eat. Like, the stuff that you've tried several times and each time, they make you want to barf. Those are the only things you should ever actively try to avoid. The other stuff, give them a chance. You might like them if they're just prepared in a new or different way.

Del Murder hated asparagus for a long time too. Try asparagus that's been butter poached. It's amazing. Seriously BUTTER POACHED. How can you not like that?

[Loony BoB]

I'll ask the same thing I asked Phil - what if you don't like it, Miriel? I don't get why anyone would order something they clearly don't like.

I've grown up trying new things, it's nothing unusual for me. I happily try out new things - if it's cheap or free. It's at fancy restaurants that I simply refuse to pay a large amount of money towards something based on an ingredient I dislike.

[Pheesh]

The point that Miriel and I made is that when it comes to cooking, every ingredient is incredibly diverse, so you can't possibly know that you won't like it a certain way just because you didn't like the last time you had it. Eg. You mentioned that you hate mushroom sauce, but if you've never tried mushrooms in a wild mushroom and cheese risotto then how could you claim to not like them. They taste completely different because you've cooked them a different way and paired them with completely different ingredients.

And that's not even going into the fact that you may just have been cooked really bad mushroom sauces. If you had a mushroom sauce at a 3 Michelin star rated restaurant I am pretty sure it would be a very different experience to the one's you've tasted previously.

[Miriel]

Well I mean, if it's something you hate, then don't order it!

But you're talking about small things, not big ticket items. Like, if you hate steak, then there's no point at all in ordering steak.

But if you order steak and it comes with a caramelized red onion sauce, then just eat the god damn sauce. Why? Because chefs (good chefs) don't add components onto a plate unless there is a specific reason. On well balanced dishes, everything on the plate is there for a reason. Because the chef wants you to get specific flavors when you bite into something.

So even if you don't like the sweetness of red onions, maybe there's a bitterness on the plate that the chef wanted to balance out. Maybe it works in this particular case.

And the only reason you would order something that might have one thing on it you don't like, is if you like pretty much everything else. In which case, why does it matter that there is this one small thing that you typically don't care for?

If you're ordering something where you don't like ANY of the components, then that just makes you a dummy. And if you can't look at an entire menu without finding something wrong with EVERY dish, then that does mean that you are being way too picky.

[Loony BoB]

The point that Miriel and I made is that when it comes to cooking, every ingredient is incredibly diverse, so you can't possibly know that you won't like it a certain way just because you didn't like the last time you had it. Eg. You mentioned that you hate mushroom sauce, but if you've never tried mushrooms in a wild mushroom and cheese risotto then how could you claim to not like them. They taste completely different because you've cooked them a different way and paired them with completely different ingredients.

And that's not even going into the fact that you may just have been cooked really bad mushroom sauces. If you had a mushroom sauce at a 3 Michelin star rated restaurant I am pretty sure it would be a very different experience to the one's you've tasted previously.
Mum was the head chef for the Lord and Lady of St. Michael's Mount castle and has always been praised for her cooking by pretty much everyone, but if I don't like it, I don't like it. :p I've certainly been forced to eat it more than once because she and my Dad love mushroom sauce. I've eaten mushrooms in all kinds of ways because of my Mum's cooking over the years, and it's probably why I've stated that trying new things is something normal for me because Mum would frequently come up with new things (sometimes we'd just throw something together randomly, she and I enjoyed creating new recipes and has a couple of recipe books put together).

But yeah, I know what I don't like because I try new things!

EDIT: Speaking of trying new things, I'm still waiting on a reply from Miriel about that Korean food stuff. ;)

[Jinx]

I'm with Miriel.

One time I ordered a rare steak at a really expensive restaurant, and it came with a bleu cheese sauce. I hate bleu cheese. Loathe it. And it was amazingly wonderful and shit.

You're just a bad customer, BoB.

[Loony BoB]

You're just a bad customer, BoB.
Why?