$661 dollar dinner for two

[o0o]

This food blogger spent over $650 on a dinner at Meadowood restaurant for two:

http://biteclub.pressdemocrat.com/default.asp?item=2239621&mode=

How much would you spend for dinner?

 

[adamlau]

For a dinner of food and service only? I might shell out 1K for a super delicious meal with the wifey. Maybe more. I don't know, nothing has really intrigued me to that point. I have spent hundreds on meals for two in the past.

 

[tdurand]

With wine in the picture anything is possible.

I'm a fan of a nice port afterwards.

T

 

[Monocrom]

I tend to stick to less exotic foods. Steak, chicken, or seafood dinner for two.... About $200. (I tend not to eat in very fancy restaurants either).

 

[o0o]

Same here.

I'm not the fancy restaurant type.

Most I've ever spent was around $120.

Hate French food anyway, so this restaurant already turns me off.

 

[Zero_Enigma]

Now if they went there kitted up with Six Six One gear that would have rocked.

http://www.sixsixone.com/Products_661main.aspx

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

It's all about priorities.

There's a LOT worse the money could be spent on. If that's what floats your boat, you've got your responsibilities taken care of and you've still got enough money, and it's not hurting anyone else, then why not? Life is meant to be enjoyed.

I've spent several times that in one day while auto-xing. I ate cheap food but burned off a couple sets of tires and a couple hundred gallons of 110 octane. Well worth every penny.

It's all about priorities.


:buddies:

 

[Fallingwater]

How much would you spend for dinner?

Very little, since I don't have much disposable income.
Even if I had, however, gourmet food and all that nouvelle cuisine silliness are lost on me.
I'll say more: I actively dislike luxury restaurants. I've been to a few in past years since my dad liked them a lot, and I've come to the following conclusions:
I don't want nosey, dull waiters to keep hovering around my table in a way that they try to make inconspicuous but that only serves to bother me.
I don't want them to tell me the menu by voice, as it forces me to have them repeat the whole thing over and over again to satisfy my bad memory; it also prevents me from knowing the prices.
I don't want to be served irrationally wide dishes containing tiny little servings of light-tasting purees made with attention to aesthetics, that I have to eat a small fraction at a time or they'll last me a whole minute, and that'll leave me feeling like I've lost more calories moving my arms to eat them than I have gained by digesting them.

I also really hate the ambience. Boring people who wear dresses that cost more than I'd spend on a new computer (not to mention the jewelry), who behave with all sorts of exaggerated good manners and who'll look down on me if I don't at the very least have a fine shirt on; a general air of silence, exaggerated elegance and reverence that screams "dare not to have fun, ye who enter here"; coma-inducing soft music that's so low you can't even listen to it... and the list goes on. It all makes me feel very much out of place.

And to top it all off, a bill that would make me go "holy crap how much electronic stuff I could have bought with this money".

Now don't get me wrong, my ideal eating place is not a McDonalds with junk food, blaring music, screaming kids and loud people all over the place - far from it, in fact.

What I really want is something inbetween.

My ideal restaurant has written menus; a waiter (or, better yet, a hot waitress ) who'll take your orders with a smile but then not show him/herself again until actually needed; fun-loving, easygoing people you can have a hearty laugh with without all the other patrons turning to look; some kind or other of not-too-silly music that is just loud enough that you can listen to it and/or hum it along; and, most importantly, large portions of strongly-flavoured, relatively simple foods I can attack with gusto and actually feel satisfied afterwards. And all for a reasonable sum of money.


My dad used to tell me this would change with age; that in time I'd get more refined tastes and the desire for more elegance. This has yet to happen, though, and I dearly hope it never does.

 

[BIGIRON]

Yep, priorities.

 

[THE_dAY]

For me the cheaper the better and..

somehow the hole-in-the-walls always have the best food!

 

[Fallingwater]

somehow the hole-in-the-walls always have the best food!

Word!

 

[jtr1962]

Honestly, the most I could afford and feel is worth paying is $10 to $15 per person. Past that you're mostly paying for ambience, not food, and I don't particularly care for the ambience at so-called finer restaurants anyway. Too dimly lit for my tastes plus many of the patrons are putting on airs. Give me a clean, decent hole in the wall in NYC's Chinatown any day. For $10 or less you can eat like a king!

 

[Tekno_Cowboy]

I tend to sway toward the bar-and-grill type places myself, and I'll never spend more than $100 on 2 people eating. If I want a quieter environment, I'll go to a Perkins or similar. I also actively dislike the "luxury" type restaurants

 

[Monocrom]

Give me a clean, decent hole in the wall in NYC's Chinatown any day. For $10 or less you can eat like a king!

And be hungry an hour later.

Actually, I know a great burger joint in downtown Manhattan, near K-Mart. Juicy, tender, inexpensive burgers as big as your head! But I just can't recall the side streets right now.... It's down the street and around the corner from the tiny shops that openly sell colored glass pipes made for smoking weed.

 

[jumpstat]

I do mind paying for food if it is worth it. Fancy restaurant is ok for special occasions with the wife and family......

Once in a while its good to indulge one self......if one can afford it.

 

[shakeylegs]

Hate French food anyway, so this restaurant already turns me off.

Not sure I'd call it a french restaurant.
You might want to drive ten miles south to hate The French Laundry for a price fixe meal of $210 per person plus wine list of $50 to $2500 a bottle.

Meadowood is a private membership club with public access to the restaurants and room rentals. Beautiful spot nestled in the woods with a newly remodeled restaurant. Guess they have to pay off the contractors. As you can see below, they're appealing to the wineys and foodies who flock to the valley.
==============================================
"Michelin Bestows Two Stars

The Restaurant at Meadowood joins just five other Northern California restaurants in earning two stars from the esteemed Michelin Guide.

The Restaurant's exceptional wine list allows for wine pairings that truly complement the menu. Chef Christopher Kostow employs well-grounded, classic techniques to the ingredients, but it is the ingredients that give Napa Valley cuisine its character. Whereas a winemaker looks for ripeness in the vineyard in order to express the sense of place, Chef Kostow looks for foods that are expressions of the place and exhibit a sense of balance both in each dish and in it's relationship to wine. With a wine list of 950 wines, Meadowood sommelier Rom Toulon finds it intriguing to pair wines which heighten the flavor of the food.

The menu for The Restaurant has been designed to showcase Napa Valley wines through Napa Valley cuisine, which is based on the innate goodness of regional ingredients. The dishes are flavorful, fresh and healthy, offering intensity of flavor without heaviness. The menu offers prix fixe and a la carte selections and wine pairings are available for each course. The Restaurant also offers a nightly seven-course Chef's Menu along with artisan cheeses and desserts.

Restaurant Chef: Christopher Kostow

To reserve dinner seating in The Restaurant Monday through Saturday evenings please call 707-967-1205.

Attire: Evening casual. A jacket for gentlemen is appropriate but not required. Preferably no blue jeans or sporting attire.

Pricing:Four Courses $90 Add Wine Pairing $65 ~ Five Courses $105 Add Wine Pairing $75 ~ Tasting Menu $140 Add Wine Pairing $95

Chef's Tasting Menu

Cold Smoked Toro and Osetra Caviar
Crème Fraiche, Spring Onion, Warm Brioche

Foie Gras and Strawberries

Citrus Cured Spanish Mackerel
Yellow Gazpacho Sorbet, Celery

Lobster and Sweetbread
Morels, Turnip, Summer Truffle

Poached and Roasted Squab
Apricot, Foie Gras, Dark Chocolate

Slow Cooked Beef Tenderloin
Thyme-Scented Melted Spring Onion

Salva Cremasco
Peaches, Olive Oil

Dark Chocolate and Cherries
Banyuls, Cherry Pit, Maple Syrup

Local Gardens

Organic Strawberries and Foie Gras
25 year old Balsamic, Garden Arugula

Roasted Corn Souffle
Langoustine, Cherry Tomato, Basil

Salad of Local Porcinis
Crispy Sweetbreads, Corn, Summer Truffle

Chilled Summer Squash Consommé
Mozzarella, Lavender Thyme, Sardine

The Nearby Waters

Lettuce Wrapped Monkfish
Curry Leaf, Crayfish, Wild Asparagus

Lightly Smoked Kampachi
Grilled Watermelon, Cherry Tomato Confit

Roasted Turbot
Artichoke, Caperberry, Preserved Lemon

Black Cod and Local Squid
Zucchini, Bouillabaisse, Osmanthus

Pastures & Ranches

Roasted Kobe Ribeye
Leeks, White Soy, Quail Egg
Supplement 45

Duo of Sonoma Lamb
Date Carpaccio, Eggplant, Cinnamon

Buttermilk Poached Poussin
Garden Vegetables, Lovage, Summer Truffle

Suckling Pig
Cherries, Garden Fennel, Vanilla"
====================================
I'm willing to spend a fortune for food I really love. I don't blink at the $10.00 worth of gasoline used driving down to Napa for In & Out.

 

[PhantomPhoton]

If I had the money to burn, which I don't especially at the present time, I'd rather take a bunch of people to dinner rather than spend that amount on just myself and a significant other.
I mean how many disadvantaged people could you feed with a $600 donation to a shelter or soup kitchen? In the end that will leave me with a much more satisfied feeling than spending it all on myself.
Likely the most expensive mean I've ever bought is $60, and the most expensive I've been treated to was around $130. Both weren't nearly as tasty as a nice home cooked meal.

 

[MarNav1]

I'd spend the $660 on a Ti McGizmo light!

 

[Bullzeyebill]

shakeylegs, nice well thought out post. I was raised in the Napa Valley.

Bill

 

[shakeylegs]

Bullzey, I'll bet it's changed a bit since you lived here.
We moved here ten years ago to start our business and raise our daughter. For the first year and a half, we were virtually homeless. Food isn't the only thing that's expensive here.

We opened our business with ease but neglected to investigate housing. The only place available for rent or purchase in St Helena was a one room cottage rental in someone's vineyard - $4000 a month. Our entourage of hubby, wife, young daughter, 3 dogs, and Oreo the pet rat was not high on the owner's list of potential renters. Throughout that first year and a half, we found places to live but never had a kitchen. So by default we became experts in fine dining. There were, and remain, very few affordable options for dining. We had some great meals in that time but could probably have saved a large portion of our daughter's college tuition if we'd had a kitchen.

BTW, anyone wanting the Meadowood experience without the price tag, drop into the Grill, just a few steps below the restaurant, overlooking the croquet lawn. Breakfast or lunch on the terrace is a bargain and the view is spectacular. Not a lot of starch in the waiters shorts either. Hey, they let me in!