A lot of things still taste great after a 10-minute drive home. Most dishes at Jaleo come to mind. Also, compared to delivery, you save quite a bit on delivery fees and tip, and if the restaurant uses a third-party delivery service, the service gets a big portion of the bill. I would rather the restaurant get all the money.

For my birthday, last week, we ordered from one of my favorite restaurants -- the same place where we had dinner on my birthday last year. The takeout dinner was delicious and we had a lovely meal, but it's not the same as going to a restaurant and enjoying the design and ambiance -- not to mention the people-watching -- my favorite part!

Anonymous wrote:OP, I can't lie to you, you're right. It's not worth it, the food is honestly mediocre once you get home.

The *only* thing that's worth it are the frozen to-go chicken enchiladas from our favorite Mexican restaurant. They are so cheap and so freaking tasty after we bake them! I don't know how they do it, but they are divine.

This is just plain silly. Virtually all food can be reheated successfully by someone who knows how to cook.

Restaurant food is not inexpensive. How do people afford to eat out all.the.time? We might get carry-out once a month. My friend burned through her first stimulus check getting specialty meals, and the money was gone almost immediately. I mean, I'll buy a nice filet mignon steak every couple of weeks and we'll make a delicious dinner with a baked potato with all the trimmings. It's totally an easy dinner doing a reverse sear, it's delicious, and it costs way less than a take-out meal.

I enjoy cooking -- it's a release for me at the end of the day to listen to music or the news while I have a glass of wine and cook. But my kids are in college and grad school, so I'm not rushing to get dinner on the table when they're starved. If I were, I might be tempted to do carryout more often. When I'm too busy to cook or without inspiration, kids and DH also pitch in with cooking or take charge of ordering out. We can walk to a bunch of restaurants, including some that are long-time family favorites, so we tend to order from those places. The food is hot or easily warmed when we get home. For a few special dinners, we've ordered from places beyond walking distance and we just warmed up the food -- not a problem. We don't do delivery b/c the delivery companies take an obscene cut off the top, making it impossible for restaurants to run at a decent profit.

We get takeout dinner twice a month on the day our cleaning lady comes (we pack a lunch and rain/shine go on a day trip to a state park). We only order stuff we can't make at home (or can't make as well): Indian food; Ethiopian food; Pho.

* less common

I like take out for recipes that use less uncommon ingredients. I just don't want to buy something just for one recipe.

We like take out because everyone can get something different. The other day we had Indian food that we picked up from our favorite Indian restaurant. We had 5 different entrees. There is no way I could have made 5 different entrees for one meal and still been sane.

Anonymous wrote:A. Because I have cooked over 5000 meal potions for my family this pandemic
B. To support local restaurants
C. Alcohol to go

How do you count cooking? Do you include, for example, making PJ or ham/cheese with chips for lunch as "cooking meal"?? Or do you only count the ones you actually have to "prep" like dinner?? Just curious.

A. Because I have cooked over 5000 meal potions for my family this pandemic
B. To support local restaurants
C. Alcohol to go

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who calls to order nowadays?! Only via an app.
The appeal is that I can get something for myself and kid and it can be different things and we can take a walk.

If you are ordering takeout with the thought of helping the restaurant owners survive the pandemic, never use an app unless it’s the restaurants own app or something like ChowNow, that doesn’t charge restaurants commission. Apps like Ubereats, Grubhub and Doordash charge outrageous commissions that can eat up the entire profit of an order for the restaurant. It’s better to call, even if it’s more inconvenient for you.

DoorDash at least allows restaurants to set their own menu prices, which helps absorb the commission. My biggest issue is that there will be a delivery fee and then other fees on top of that, and then you have to tip on top of that, so $20 worth of food ends up being almost $50 to have delivered. At that point, I usually just choose to walk to one of the dozen restaurants within a few blocks, all of which allow me to place my order on their own websites for pickup. OTOH, there are enough highly rated restaurants (e.g. Michelin Bib Gourmand) restaurants on DoorDash that sometimes I splurge and order something from Supra or Lapis or Madyan and have it delivered across town. Then the extra expense is worth it.

All of the above, plus I don’t have to eat what my kids are eating. I can get tofu or Brussels sprouts or one of the other many things they refuse to eat. Once a week or so, it’s really nice to just eat what I want, instead of some compromise solution of what everyone will tolerate.

We get takeout 2-3 times a week for all the reasons people have mentioned, I'm sick of cooking, to take a break from all the clean-up, supporting our local restaurants, but also to make sure our kids try different kinds of food.
We have teenagers and they are getting more adventurous (or just as bored as I am of my own cooking) -- it has been fun to have them try Indian, Afghan, Turkish, Ethiopian (not the same as eating on the one big pan, but still delicious as take out) -- we really are so lucky to live an an area with so many great options.
And I disagree that "takeout is not healthy" -- obviously it depends what you order, but that is on you. Even our local pizza place has nice salads, with dressing on the side, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I am so sick of cooking dinner and sometimes it's nice to not have to do it.

Also, because I value the local restaurants in our neighborhood and want to keep supporting them now so they are still there when we can all jam into a room and be close to each other again.

+1. OP if you haven’t been supporting restaurants during the pandemic, don’t expect them to be there once you’re ready to go back out to eat.

What’s the name of the restaurant?