For me, that includes most pasta dishes, steaks, and many preparations with chicken. Doing it at home would spoil the experience at the restaurant for me. I’d always be comparing and complaining–or facing the reality that my home version wasn’t as good as I thought.
Ray
I love going out for a big breakfast or fancy brunch but don’t like cooking it at home. It always tastes better to me when someone else whips up an omelet or a Benedict for me and I think I’m pretty good at it. Just don’t like all the timing that it takes for all the components to hit the plate still hot and fresh.
I like almost everything better at home with the notable exception of foods from the Indian subcontinent. There are too many dishes I love that are simply too time and ingredient intensive to whip them up for dinner. That is sad for me because my favorite comfort foods come from India.
I am not a good cook, so just about anything I eat at a restaurant is better than I can cook myself. And I enjoy the buzz of a restaurant almost as much as the food.
But, like Katie, I would particularly mention a big breakfast - bacon, sausage, black pudding, eggs, mushroom, tomato, beans, fried bread. I simply don’t have the skill to bring that all together at the same time.
Peking Duck and to claim I prepare it well is a bit of a fib. Nonetheless it’s just too much work.
To me, hot dogs and hamburgers always taste better out than when I make them at home. Also pizza.
I never prepared a steak at home in my life until two weeks ago–and it was delicious-- better than in a restaurant.
I did it to test out my prep work with a new knife.
Unlikely to ever do it again.
What are some of your favourite comfort foods?
I’m with Tim and prefer to cook at home because I can make it better and feed my family for less.
My boys love Spaghetti Carbonara to eat it once in a restaurant (as a family) I can make that dish for Dinner 8 times at home.
For me it is hard to justify the cost.
Same goes for breakfast shocking what the restaurants charge.
My only reason for eating out is to get a vacation and to be pampered.
Chinese takeaway, I have not mastered the cuisine so we get that and it’s worth the money because I have 3 days of rest.
Anything deep-fried, usually seafood. I can deep fry at home but I hate to do it. Also lasagna and eggplant parmigiana. There’s only two of us. Lasagna is a PIA and DH isn’t crazy for eggplant. But I can make a mean lasagna and eggplant parm if need be. The only chicken I order at a restaurant are chicken wings - which I am also quite capable of making - but so much easier to have someone else do it!
I cannot poach an egg to save my life (thankfully, I don’t suffer a condition that would require a poached egg to do so), but I LOVE eggs benny, so that’s def ordered out if I’m going to brunch.
As for dishes I make well at home, I am usually not inclined to order them out - for the reasons you mentioned: I’d be comparing and complaining and, frankly, would consider it a waste of money… unless it far surpasses my version.
No, when I go out to eat I tend to order dishes that either involve techniques I am not familiar with or for which I lack the necessary equipment (like a 2000˚ oven for pizza & other screaming hot burners, or sous vide), or ingredients I find hard to source, or that take an inordinate amount of time to prepare.
I do order pasta at Italian restos even tho I’m pretty good at that, but I love it just so much 
You’re serious?
Wow!
We had steak at least once a week when I was a much younger me.
Growing up in a capital of beef perhaps colored my experience.
Only at a steakhouse would I ever order a steak. And that was partially because steaks always came with a side of spaghetti. 
Of course! How could I forget deep-fried stuff!!! Absolutely.
Hi bbqboy,
To me, steaks have always had a celebrity aspect to them that just don’t feel right at home–like lobster. When I lived in the DC area, I could buy an entire Lobster clambake “live in a can” to prepare and feast at home. It was great, but doesn’t compare with some memorable lobster meals I had in Boston restaurants.
Same with steak. There were steak dinners with sauce Bearnaise that would never have felt right at home.
The fun part for me was discovering that I really could do it at home.
Give SE’s reverse sear method a try some time. I think you may just ‘up’ your steak consumption at home (if you have a proper grill – dunno if I missed anything there) 
Hey Tim,
Nice to see you in person on your thumbnail !
I hate to sound arrogant, but I took up serious cooking in 2016, because I was tired of feeling I could make 90% of all the top restaurants dishes I ordered better myself at home.
I’m not talking about high class Michelin star level restaurants, but solid top level restaurants.
I very often felt like something wasn’t perfect in the dish I ordered.
My mother turned out dishes, that were top restaurants worthy in my mind (and others too), and I knew I had some talent in me inherited from her, so I simply decided I had spend enough of my hard earned money waiting for hours and hours in restaurants for dishes, I could make better at home.
When I once in a while visit the still humble 1-star Michelin restaurants I do finally feel, that I need to step up to be able to make that level of restaurant food.
Regarding pasta dishes.
I’ve eaten at numerous great Italian restaurants in Italy and Denmark, and none have been able to make pasta dishes to the same quality level I make at home in my own home kitchen.
Same with risotto. I have been furious over the low level of risotto I have been served at top restaurants in Denmark as well as in Italy. I simply prefer my own risotto BY FAR.
OK, I spend typically 1-2 hours (including prep) making my own risotto at home infusing the arborio rice with chicken stock very slowly at very low heat. They can’t do that at restaurants since they haven’t got the time.
This is why my risotto tastes far better than even top level Italian restaurants risotto.
BUT WHY, Ray ?!?!
Only one thing beats my home made steak in a restaurant and that’s when they use a grill to prepare it.
I’ve been served 100’s of steaks in restaurants and only a select few came close to beating my own home made steaks and they were made at Michelin star restaurants in France and Denmark.
You just made your first home made steak and it was better than restaurant level steaks and now you won’t do it again at home ?!?
You have just proved my point - we CAN IN FACT make dishes at home, which beats the restaurants versions.
Hi Natascha,
I succeeded–on my first try–to outperform most restaurants I’d been visiting.
That was amazing to me–and I’m sure I could improve–but to me a great steak should still be enjoyed in a restaurant with friends.
Ray
Fried rice
Ice cream (yes, in my house ice cream is most definitely an entree)
Sure, Claus,
I can outperform a restaurant at home as long as special equipment isn’t required, but lots of time, I don’t even want to try.
I’ve been going to Casa Bianca in Eagle Rock for more than 30 years–ordering pizza and pasta. I can’t equal the pizza, but I’m sure I could beat the pasta if I tried.
But I can’t replace all the memories tied to that familiar meal. Making better pasta at home would just tarnish the overall experience next time I visited.
