It’s a free night and you and your friends are trying to decide where to eat. Siri isn’t coming up with anything with a ‘where to eat near me’ command and fast food isn’t going to fly tonight. Figuring out which of the restaurants in the city you want to go to is a hard task, especially when there are a few of you going because everyone has to agree. Some want chicken wings, some want gourmet; it’s a hard conversation to have. Well, if you regularly have this problem then I may have the answer for you. Here are a few ways that you can narrow down your choices of restaurants.
Decide on the Ethnicity
This is the first thing to do. Is everyone happy with Chinese or Indian food or some other type of cultural food? What restaurants are available in your vicinity regarding ethnic food? Say you all decide Chinese good; from there you can decide if you want Americanized Chinese like a fast food place or a little more authentic like a buffet. Of course, there’s always the chance that no one wants cultural food and wants restaurants that serve only typical American food. If that’s the case then find out if they are talking burgers and fries or what typical American food is. In any case, move on to the next set of questions.
Figure Out Vicinity Allowances
Where is everyone coming from and where will they go after the restaurant? Does that place restrictions on the area in which you are looking for somewhere to eat? How far is everyone willing to drive? This plays a big part in deciding where to eat because some folks may not want to go very far away. If you can narrow your options down to a few blocks then you will automatically shorten your list of restaurants. Then, you can decide from these places. If you live in a big city, or the area you are all willing to go to still have a lot of restaurants to choose from then you can use the other tips in this article and decide on a restaurant from within that area.
Find Out if New or Old is in
If you regularly eat out with the same group of people, chances are you’ll get stuck in a rut and end up eating at the same places all the time. If you are all trying to figure out where you are going to eat one night, then ask how everyone feels about trying something new. You can name a few restaurants that your group hasn’t been to before. If everyone is opposed to this idea then at least you have narrowed down your list to only include the places where you always eat. Trying something new will be hard for some if they are used to the same ‘ol, same ‘ol. Try to start the suggestions with places that are very similar to where you normally eat with the added benefit of not being where you normally eat.
Pre Plan
If you know that your group has a habit of taking a long time to decide where to go, you should be thinking about this, ahead of time. Use your own process of elimination to figure out a restaurant before the group even gets together or starts talking about eating out. Then, the next time the opportunity arises, you can pipe up and have an idea all ready for everyone to enjoy. If it gets shot down, challenge the person to come up with another idea right then and there. It’s an easy way to put someone on the spot and encourage them to back down and concede to your idea.
While you may feel like trying to decide where to eat out is a silly, first world problem to have, it’s still an issue that we all have to address from time to time. Being able to address this quickly and efficiently will cut down on the time you waste trying to decide. The problem with wasting time, especially late at night is that restaurants start to close and you end up with very few choices. Or is this a problem? Maybe that’s your answer!
