fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2223 ]

[ SECRET POST #2223 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2223 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Do you (or would you) ever go to a restaurant alone?

My SO is away and I'm going out to dinner with a book because I don't have anyone to invite along. I prefer to go out to dinner with my SO but if they are away I enjoy sitting at a table by myself and reading until my food comes. But of the many times I've done it (my SO is away a lot), I've never seen another solo diner. Our usual waiter at our favorite restaurant suggested I just order my food to go and take it home to eat but I've never been there alone when they're so busy that they don't have at least a few empty tables to accommodate diners if more people come in. I live on the other side of town and my food would get cold if I took it home and it doesn't taste as good reheated. I know that going out to a restaurant alone isn't the most common thing but is it really all that weird?

I don't go out often, but when I do I'm usually alone. I don't see how it's any weirder than going out with a group.

I think it kind of depends on the restaurant?

I mean, I do go to restaurants alone, because I'm lonely and also pathetic, and I don't really care. But think it does depend on the atmosphere - more casual restaurants are very different from expensive places in that regard. As long as it's some kind of casual, cheap eatery, it doesn't bother me too much, and it shouldn't bother you, I don't think.

Anyway haters gonna hate, so who cares.

I do this sometimes, and I did it all the time when I was travelling alone. Mostly at diners, cafes, or pho places. I think I'd feel weird in a fancier restaurant.

Relevant youtube clip (from The Muppets):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpE8CdH6fdE

OP here. Thanks to you I had that song stuck in my head the whole time I was at the restaurant last night :) I didn't actually get up and dance or anything, but caught myself humming it when I was reading the menu. ~~I might have been bobbing my head to the tune a little, too.~~

I always do it alone (literally always). Because I have nobody to do it with. So I guess I'm not the one to judge whether it's weird or not. Perfectly OK, if you ask me; the only problem is that you need to consume all the food alone, which may prove to be troublesome (especially in pizza restaurants); but then again, I usually ask them to pack it for me so that I can eat it at home.

Yup, I do the same thing for the same reason. (Though lately I don't eat out much.)

Fortunately the pizza places I go to usually have slices or personal pizzas.

I don't think it's that weird. I've never done it but I probably would if I lived closer to some restaurants.

Mr Jimmy Carr once joked about this. "If you want to know how it is to be a celebrity, just eat dinner alone in a busy restaurant."

Seriously though, I see nothing wrong with it.

I've eaten alone a couple of times, mostly while travelling and I find it pretty relaxing actually...

I haven't done it but I definitely would, and I don't think it's odd. If you want good food and you know a place but don't have anyone to go with you (or don't WANT anyone to go with you)...why not?

I suppose some people might side-eye you, but some people are stupid too, so...

I wish I had the courage to sometimes, but no. I only go out to eat if I've got company with me. Otherwise it's takeout.

Same. For breakfast or lunch I'm fine with it, but those are also counter-service type places. I've never eaten in a full-service restaurant alone. I don't think it's that weird when I see other people do it (not that often), but I usually wonder why they're there alone, and I wouldn't want to be.

I usually do this in the morning. There's lots of folks who are regulars at this casual diner/restaurant who eat alone, read the paper while they eat, and they love to talk to new people who are also eating alone. Made a few friends that way. :)

I travel a lot for work and eat alone on the road all the time. I used to be self-conscious about it, but that wore off very quickly. I wind up doing it a lot at home, too, because if I have the urge to go to a particular restaurant, I see no reason to deny myself that just because it's too last minute to rope a friend into going with me.

Nothing wrong with it. It does, to some degree, depend on the restaurant. But the real point of a restaurant is to go out to eat and enjoy the food and atmosphere. Can't be assed to give a damn about anyone who would judge someone for that.

I've done it a few times myself--usually more casual places, but at least one place where it seemed like the atmosphere was more couple-y. Never brought a book, though, usually just an mp3 player.

I don't think this is too odd. I see people eating by themselves, often reading a book, reading on an e-reader, or using their laptop. It does depend on the restaurant a little, though. It seems more common at more casual places, but I think that's probably partly because people are more likely to go to casual places as a semi-routine thing.

I've never eaten dinner out alone, but I'll sit down somewhere for lunch sometimes.

The restaurant and the meal are a consideration, but no it's not weird at all. I'm more inclined to get a lunch by myself than dinner, but being alone wouldn't stop me from eating. One of my favorite dining-alone memories is a dinner I had in Denver at a nice little deli/cafe not far from my hotel. I was out exploring a bit of downtown Denver and just decided to eat dinner there instead of going back to my hotel. I sat and read and people-watched and had a really great duck salad. I enjoyed it so much I went back there two days later for lunch.

I will if it's a fast food place, but that's really all. I prefer the company. But I was on my own for two days of my trip in Japan, so I had to eat by myself for some of it, and it was interesting and awkward all at once to walk into a teashop and order myself some tea and cheesecake, then sit alone when the shop was super empty at that time of day to begin with. In retrospect I wish I had come with someone because I just felt like the staff were unsure what to do with me.

I don't know how weird it is--I do know that I do it a lot, or I'd never eat dinner out at places that I like. (My ex-bf always wanted to go to the same place, where he'd always order the same thing.) I'm pretty shameless about dining out in nice restaurants too--just because I'm by myself is no reason why I shouldn't treat myself to a good dinner that I don't have to cook, and maybe a glass of wine and one of the fancy desserts that I could never duplicate at home.

Your waiter sounds like a jerk, tbh.

I did some traveling by myself last year and so I wound up eating alone a lot because I didn't really have much choice in the matter. I was kinda self-conscious at first, but I got used to it and it wasn't so bad.

When I'm close to home I'm much more likely to get take-out, though, more because my apartment is comfortable than because I'm embarrassed eating at a restaurant by myself. I guess this wouldn't be an option if I went somewhere expensive, but I'm broke so I don't, haha.

I'm nearly always alone when I eat at a restaurant. Nobody seems to think it's weird.

Funny you should ask this now when our lab group brought the question up last night. We all love to eat, and so recommend restaurants to each other frequently. I think the consensus was that there's nothing weird about going to a restaurant alone, but it's handy to go as a group just so you can eat a greater variety of things (especially when exploring a new restaurant, but even when not, we're pretty casual about sharing food). I personally have no qualms about going to a restaurant alone (I just don't tend to remember it as an option very often when deciding what to eat).

I do this all the time. What's the big deal?

It could be a combination of things, actually. Maybe some residual stigma from middle school when eating lunch alone was the mark of a loser--a solo diner imagines that other diners pity them as a pathetic, lonely person who can't get a date?

Or (if the OP is a woman) some residual stigma left over from the days when a woman alone was assumed to be there to pick up men? (I shit you not, there was a time when good restaurants did not seat solo female diners for that very reason, disgusting as it is. Women were supposed to eat at tearooms.)

Or maybe the OP is afraid of being judged and hated by the servers--automatically shunted off to the bar, or to the table nearest the bathroom or the door, and ignored, because they feel a 2-top is wasted on a solo diner--after all, a couple could be seated there, and they'd leave twice as large a tip. (In nice restaurants, this is often far from the case, but some people assume the server will hate them for coming in alone.)

I love to dine out alone and do it all the time, but apparently enough women, especially, hate it so much that there's an online service for matching solitary diners up with others so they can avoid the dreaded "Table for one?"

I don't get it either, but I don't mind my own company.

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[ SECRET POST #2223 ]

Dinner for one?

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