Back to the paper menu for takeout
 

Ordering food is a pain. Go to a website and they redirect to grubhub or some other 3rd party delivery service which mixes in menu items from other place . Allow scripts and reload the page with facebook and god knows what other tracking or banking websites. Did I remember to like? Pop-ups for loyalty customer programs etc continuously. Then you finally get to the menu. It is obviously incomplete. Big splashy background which scrolls annoyingly. Maybe it is the catering menu instead. There is no phone number. There is no map. After 10 minutes of the runaround I could have cooked something already and don't feel like carry-out anymore.

I just want the food. A list of description, prices and pictures please. [/rant]

I was in a Bokampers restaurant in Charlotte Airport last year when my smartphone wouldn't read the QR code that was pasted to the table for a link to the menu.
The waiter said they had no paper menu's and brought back his own phone to read the QR....it wouldn't work also.
I said that I wanted to see options and prices before ordering. He answered.."I'm sorry"

Walked out.

Its all about information harvesting. Credit card companies have done it for decades. Search engines were next. Then stores with their "customer discount card" (there is a supermarket here where the weekly circular of sales for the week are available only if you have their app). Now business websites want my email address before they will show me a product (no less the price). NOPE!
The government wants to make us a cashless society so they can see everything we do and take it all away if they decide your ESG is too low. Has anyone seen where credit cards now have a special merchant designation for stores that sell firearms and ammunition? Of course no one will use that against people, right? Oh wait, remember when CA had a leak of records of citizens who had a concealed carry permit (accidentally of course)?

I stopped eating anything "take out" about 4 years ago.
- Mainly because; I had a couple of bad experiences and God only knows what's in there.

Most (90%) of the cooking in my house is done by me.
- My GF thinks I'm a complete idiot for not ordering out... And then she over cooks the steaks. lol ;)

I just phone a place I regularly go to and know well (trust) and say "Hi, it's me. Pork fried rice please, be there in 10 minutes."

There's a local family owned Chinese place near my house. They had my custom for years until;

- "Sleepless night with 4am Firehose Dia-horria"... Never ever again! :mad: (I think it was the prawn chips)

:eek: Ah ha, the ole prawn chips trap eh.





There is one here called Tongs. I must have been going there once a week for five or ten years. I went in to get my pork fried rice and they were acting a bit odd and confirmed I really wanted pork fried rice. Usually my cat would eat the pork as fast as I could give it to her but she wouldn't eat it. I thought it tasted odd/weird/strange and didn't eat it. So never went back.

If they had just said to me the pork is rotten see you next week instead, I'd still be going there.

We do have a Thai place that we love. Our previous Thai place was sold to new people that cranked up the price and changed the food/recipes so it wasn't as good. About ten years ago I had a Chinese place that I loved. Then I moved and they are now gone.
The worst thing about our new place is that the closest Asian place is about 45 miles away. I've never been to any of them. I'd have a hard time driving that far for a Chinese place, especially when there's a good chance that it would be crap.

Growing up I didn't think it was possible to make bad Chinese food, but I have since learned that it's very possible and not that uncommon.

I used a paper menu Saturday night to order take out Mexican food for the GF and me. According to the paper menu the total should have been around $20 including tax. She picked it up on the way home and the total was $32.

I guess that menu is a couple of years out of date.

Some restaurants want me to use their "app" to order from them. Some just want me to go to the web and set up yet another username and password. Screw that. I will look at the online menu, and make my selections. Then I use my phone as a phone, and call them.

I am not setting up another username and password just to order an item from a menu. I get enough spam and crap via email now, I don't need more.

Get off my lawn!

Same here except they don't know who I am until I walk in then they recognize my face.

I usually order the same stuff so don't need a menu and the phone number is in my phone contacts, natch.

That said, I keep about 6 paper take-out menus with me all the time. They are in a small notepad folder in my travel bag along with my wallet, cellphone, camera, and small bottle of contact lens re-wetter solution. The bag goes with me anytime I drive somewhere.

Prices always go up so I grab an undated menu about once a year but I don't really care as much about the cost as long as the food is good.

Mostly I cook at home but sometimes I want something different and quick!

I'm a printer. Keep asking for paper menus!

About a year ago we went to BJ's with the FIL (his favorite place and certainly not a place I would go without him). Their menu is literally an encyclopedia and they wanted us to use QR code. How in the F am I supposed to read a fifteen page menu on my phone??? Much less narrow it down to any one thing?

Luckily they still had hard copy menus that they grudgingly gave up.

We usually only do take away from restaurants we also dine in. So knowing our order is much easier but the multi layers of third party and FB is such a pain.

Cool - good for you!

When I was hired as a Horticulture instructor, the person who hired me, who also was head of the vocational side of the college, was a printer by trade. I'll never forget what a great guy he was to work for and as a mentor.

Yep... :(

We moved back to SA two years ago and haven't found a decent Chinese place. None.

Thai though we do have some good options. There is one in particular that just a few weeks ago re-opened for dine-in. They had been take away only since the COVID started. Pretty tough area though, so you better carry.

This is where I am at.

Since 1985 I have been sick 4 times.

Food poisoning at the college dorm, sick over a week
Food poisoning a couple time since I moved back to California 20 years ago.

Fourth time was when I got the flu shot in 1992 and almost died.


Don't go out to eat much anymore. Wife is a bit disappointed, likes going out to eat. There are a couple places we still go, I know the owner, but that is it.

I never gave myself food poisoning, not even one time.

I live in a small town by jersey standards. I frequent three local eateries, chinese, pizza and a deli. They know me, I know them and I don't get take out from any place else. It's been many years and never an issue.

My wife and I eat out all over the place, a lot. I have not to my knowledge ever had food poisoning. I have only had the flu twice in my life.

I think you are more susceptible to food poisonings as you get older.