The Dining Debacle

One evening my mom and I had gone to a five-star restaurant to kickstart our weekend with a bang. We were visiting this restaurant for the very first time and had zeroed in on this place after hearing a lot of reviews raving about the food, its quality and the ambience of the dining area. We were excited to see how the evening would unfold and were eager to experience the flavour of various cuisines enriching our tastebuds.

This restaurant made a strong statement in the initial minutes itself as to why it was called a signature place. There was a decorative ambient light set up on each table whose colour could be customised based on the mood. This increased our expectation multifold. We looked at the offerings of the day in the menu, placed our order and were waiting with bated breaths to receive our food.

After a wait for 20-25 mins, the food- which btw, looked absolutely delicious- arrived. The aroma filled our nostrils, and we were ready to savour the food. My mom and I took a bite of one of the items and after tasting it, we immediately looked into each other's eyes. We realised, it was not our mouths that were watering craving for more, but our eyes that were watering due to the 'distasteful taste' and the exorbitant amount of money paid for it. We somehow finished half the portion of whatever we had ordered, paid the bill, and left home. 

This was the story of our Dining Debacle in full glory.

This incident reminded me of one of the most intricate and interesting debates in today's time-'Place value Vs Taste value'. I call this debate an intricate one as it helps us understand the complex and innate human emotions on the basis of the choices people make. The watershed moment in this debate is the choice of picking the restaurant to dine-in. Some of them put their social status first before their own taste buds, while some put taste first over the place they are dining in. This forms the baseline for the argument.

To understand this conundrum better, consider this. You prefer taste over the place. Would you like to eat in an unhygienic place even though you know that the food there tastes really good? This pushes you into a predicament, and you think of switching sides. But will this switch guarantee you the best output? We have this common misconception that greater the money involved, better would be the quality. Is this completely true? Not really.

Food costs are really high not only because of the quality, but the additional expenditure these restaurant giants incur in order to satisfy the needs of their high-level customers. This means, that the entire amount you are paying is not solely for the quality and safety of the food but is also for the logistics that the restaurant has to put in to maintain the place.

At this point you must be in two minds wondering if there is no end to this debate. The deeper we dig into each argument, the more convincing it starts to sound. What is the final verdict? Is there no way we all can arrive at a conclusive closure?

To offer a resolution for this debate, the first thing that all of us should be doing is to decide if we prefer food over taste or vice versa. This will help us make more efficient food choices and avoid mistakes as we would be visiting places that align with our interests. Maybe if the food served while you are a customer at a place is bad because the restaurant didn't have a good day, you still won't crib about the cost as you willingly signed up for it. 

Now comes the next thing- what if you willingly didn't sign up for visiting a place and just went by whatever you heard? If that is the case, the best approach would be TRUST your sources but VERIFY before going. In our case, we just saw Google reviews and decided that the restaurant would be the best for us. Had we spoken to any of our foodie family members/friends to see if the taste would cater to our food liking, we could've avoided the situation.

The more I ponder regarding the reason for dislike of food there, the more complicated the arguments get. Every idea sounds equally convincing and deciding what must've been the reason behind the Dining Debacle gets crazier. There is another theory as well in my mind while writing this: maybe I was so used to eating food at local street shops and small restaurants that I didn't even have the appetite for the food eaten by elites! (LOL)

I rest my case here by mentioning this: Place value vs Taste value is a never-ending debate, and each person has their own reasons for picking one side. Despite following all the steps, you might still end up in a Dining Debacle if the stars are not aligned properly. What is important here, is for you to identify what kind of a person you are, which would thereby enable you to make informed choices. 

Finally, remember, you eat to live and not live to eat, so don't let one bad experience completely tarnish your image about a certain place. Look for alternatives, keep exploring and whenever you experience a Dining Debacle, remember there is always a next food joint/eatery that you can explore to keep your taste buds high!

      - Anusha Sridhar

(P.S Have you experienced any Dinner Debacles in the recent times?)