Friday Question #134
When you eat out, are you more likely to go to a restaurant you know you love, or try some place new?
When you have guests in town, where are your favorite places to take them to eat?
We eat out so rarely now, that when we do, I find myself always wanting to go to one of our two favorite places – El Famous Burrito or Red Robin – I know that when we eat there, I will be satisfied. It’s less of a risk than trying some place new! Of course, when we are out of town, we like to try new places.
The best thing about Red Robin is that they cater to a lot of special diets and allergies – and they now have vegan burgers! It’s a testament to the power of voicing your opinion – I wrote to them asking why they don’t carry the vegan Boca burgers, and they wrote back a few months later saying enough people asked for them that they would! Score!
And when we have house guests (usually family) we end up taking them to these places as well. My family doesn’t have Red Robin where they live, so they like to go there. And who doesn’t want to eat a burrito that’s nearly the size of their head?
I was very tired this entire day… you can tell in the photo! Yikes!
Of course, when we have guests, we really prefer to cook at home, but it’s fun to eat out from time to time!
Themocracy
My favorite place to go when visiting my sister in Florida is this mexican place called Tijuana Flats – I always have a blast there and you can order everything exactly the way you like it. My favorite restaurants here are mostly vegetarian ones – I have links to them on my sidebar in case you ever come to Belgium 😉
We do both- sometimes going to a place we love and sometimes trying something new. When we are out of town, we generally try new places (or places we don’t have close to us).
We have a few places near me that are great to take guests but whenever my parents come to visit, my dad always wants to eat at Five Guys so I never get to take them anywhere else.
We have a ton of Five Guys out here now and I haven’t tried it. They probably don’t have any vegan food 😉
I usually like to go to the same places I know and love, but sometimes I like to mix it up a little : )
Oh Red Robin… I’ve only been there once, but it was AMAZING!!!
I like going to new places each time. Not to say I’ll never visit a good place again (there are a few places in downtown Palatine and AH that are MONEY, btw), but I prefer to switch it up. For me, part of the fun of going out to eat is the new experience you get with it! Luckily, my friends knkow this and are ok with my insistance of doing so. 🙂
What are some of the good places in Palatine?
Oh hey, me and Erin and a blog reader are running the Rotary Santa 5K in Arlington Heights on 12/4, then we are going out to brunch after… interested?
I definitely have my local faves, but especially when it comes to family, we do the same old spots. When I am in Rockford with my parents, we almost always go to Mary’s Market– a local version of Panera because we can all get something (think good vegan to pulled pork for my dad!). I’m more adventurous at home. There are so many new places that I almost hate to go to my favorites– scared that I’ll miss discovering a new one 🙂 So glad to hear Red Robin listened to their vegetarian following!
We eat out all the time! We definitely have our favorite places in the city (let me know if you want any suggestions on places) and waiters/owners are starting to recognize us we go there often. The guy in Jimmy John’s knows our order and has it ready by the time we get to the counter. I’ve gotten free meals because I’ve tried something new and the waiter knows I tried something new and didn’t like it even though I said it was good 🙂 We also started trying a new to us restaurant a month. We have found a couple amazing new places to add to our rotation. When people come to visit we eat out since there are so many great places that they don’t have where ever they came from.
I will have to let you know when we are looking for places to eat in Chicago because we NEVER know where to go! 🙂
Love, love, love Red Robin! I usually substitute a Turkey burger for one of those tasty concoctions they make. Awesome. And they are very kid friendly. One of the best chains out there.
I LOVE the french fries at Red Robin! I’m not sure if they still do this, but they used to do free refills on fries. In high school, my sister and I used to go there, order a basket of fries for $2 and then just keep getting refills. Our entire bill was, like, $2.27. Hilarious.
These days, I really like to try new places. I’m kind of motivated by Yelp. Ha. I want to go somewhere new so I have someplace new to “review”/write about. That’s fun 🙂 One of my favorite things about going out of town is trying restaurants. We’re off to DC late next week and I can’t wait to go out to eat!
Oh yeah, the fries are STILL bottomless. I always get a refill. ALWAYS!
I need to learn more about Yelp. A lot of people swear by it. Hey, if you go to DuPont Circle, the Chipotle there has a vegan “meat” substitute. I knot Chipotle is not an exciting place to “try” but I thought it was good!
We’re so boring – always the same places it seems.
can i come visit so we can go get a yummy burrito? I tend to go to the same places when I’m alone and/or with visitors. I like them to try the local, off the beaten path places when they visit, you know? But Mexican and Italian are always on the map 🙂
Yes! Please do! 🙂
I always love trying Mexican places. You can’t go wrong with chips and salsa or guac and a plate of beans and rice!
My favorite place to take people is Maya since the food is good and the restaurant is beautiful. But I also like to try new places with people. When it’s just Jason and I we tend to stick to places we know.
I like to try new joints but I do have some tried and true favorites. When friends come to town I would probably take them somewhere I know is good just to be safe.
Seattle has a lot of vegan restaurants. JUST SAYIN’! 😉
I was visiting family yesterday and they recently went on a cruise by Alaska that started in Seattle! I thought of you 🙂
Please take me to Red Robin. We have commercials for them but no Red Robins. : (
I also like Panera : )
Red Robin! Yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm… is that the commercial you have?! We have to go the next time you are here. You and I can keep ordering the bottomless fries until we explode.
We’ll have to see if Steven can get us some discounts at Panera 😉
i suspect it has to do with being raised by a restaurant reviewer… but i’ll ALWAYS choose new over someplace i’ve eaten before! 🙂
I love El Famous! I immediately thought of the head-size burrito–although I usually get the tacos.
Having kids changes things because we’re heavily influenced by what they like. So Chili’s, Go Roma, Stony River if we’re feeling fancy, 5 Guys…
We typically go to the same restaurants. We do have another couple that we go out to eat with and we go to new places occasionally.
When you eat out, are you more likely to go to a restaurant you know you love, or try some place new?
-It depends. Sometimes me and the bestie will try something new if it looks interesting. And sometimes we’ll go to a place we’re more familiar with. It just depends on our mood really.
When you have guests in town, where are your favorite places to take them to eat?
-I usually taken them to Hard Rock of Planet Hollywood in Manhattan.
I recently got my husband to stray from his favorite date night dinner place called The Fish Market which is in the bass pro shop (it really is good though!). But when out of towners come here we normally take them to a neighborhood place called Merichka’s which has the best poorboys!
Hi! I stumbled across your blog yesterday when searching for a fun Friday meme & was excited to read that Red Robin has vegan Boca burgers now. Awesome! I answered your Friday Questions on my family’s book blog (here) and linked back to your post.
I don’t think we have either Red Robin or the burrito place in Champaign. We have a few places we like to go here, but really, I think the food in C-U SUCKS. It embarrasses me when people come to visit because I feel like I have nowhere nice to take them.
So, it totally depends (of course!). There are a few local favorites to which we gravitate with out-of-town guests, but we also usually give them a choice. On occasion, like when my parents are in town, we’ll go to a place that we’ve been wanting to try but just haven’t.
I will say that we usual try to take people someplace that they wouldn’t, perhaps, find or go on their own!
It’s mixed for me. I like the same places and I order pretty much the same thing, but on the same note, I also like to try new places and new menu choices. When friends come from out of town, I like to take them to a place that’s local to Utah yet a place that’s got great choices.