Do you have a routine when eating at cetain restaurants?

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I only eat at a restaurant once a week or none.
Each time I go I get the same dish and go at the same time and the same day of the week.
Friday at 1PM.

They know my name now since it is a small family owned restaurant.

I often just get fries and a drink when I just want a quick snack. It always amuses me when they ask me if I want a sandwich with that.

I'm a bit of a foodie & a cook, so I like to try different things at restaurants. It gives me ideas to try at home, and helps keep me from using the same seasonings everytime I make, say, a chicken dish.

That being said, however, I don't really think of McDs, Wendy's, Burger King and the like to be restaurants - more like a gas station, just for my body instead of my car. Feeding stations, if you will. I am highly predictible at them - McDs is a double cheeseburger and small fry; Wendy's is a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, small fry; BK is a Whopper Jr w/cheese and a small fry. Always with a Coke. I have been known to walk out of places which serve only Pepsi products. I also get mildly upset if I want Ice Tea and they only have unsweetened. This is the South, dammit - make it right! It's supposed to have so much sugar that it's falling out of solution! And don't even think about serving it without a lemon wedge!

I remember a housemate actually used to mock me for my (to his eyes) selective and ritualized eating habits.

Just because I did not want the food on my plate to touch other food on my plate, and only wanted to eat maybe a half-dozen different food items, ever. And always ordering the same food when eating out.

I'm very routine-oriented with restaurants. I have literally eaten the same meal, every week, at the same restaurant for 12 years. Me and my grandmother have a restaurant circuit of four restaurants which we alternate, but we both always have the same selection of meals at each place. She has three or four choices - I only ever have one. Same meal in each restaurant each time.

I have a routine for my favorite restaurants. If I go someplace new and they don't have one of my "usual meals", I'll sit there staring at the menu blankly. I don't mind trying new things, but if I'm hungry, I often want what I usually get. That way, I'm guaranteed a good meal. Sometimes if I order different items on the menu, there's a surprise ingredient or two that comes along. Particularly onions are my bane. I've had so much good food ruined by them. Mac 'n cheese, tuna sandwich, barbecue chicken pizza, spaghetti... all ruined.

When eating out, I tend to eat some combo of chicken with veggies. It used to be chicken fingers and french fries, but I found that I don't like them as much as I used to. If I go to a steak place, it's always the prime rib. For breakfast, it's usually eggs, bacon, fruit, and toast. I recently found out how to order my favorite eggs at a restaurant... "Over well". I used to get them scrambled, and that never tasted quite the same. Ever since I was a kid, I hated runny yolk, so my mom made eggs that were over well. I used to have that for breakfast every morning before school.

Hm... I really do like food, though. I enjoy lots of different sorts of cuisine. I really like Indian food, for example... which is strange because I know they put onions in it. But at least they hide them better than most American foods. I also love Korean food. I didn't used to like anything spicy, but nowadays I think I'm a little addicted to it. Japanese food is tasty too, though it's a little bland at times. Once in awhile, it really hits the spot, though.

I can understand this, usually I'm the same way.

If I'm taken to a new resteruant with nothing familar, I will too sit there at the menu blankly because I'm unsure and paranoid about it. Yes, I can get paranoid about food. If I'm going to order something new it better be guarenteed delicious.

I like Indian food a lot myself, I also like any kind of Asian there is this Thia place that I try to go to every week, and I like Hispanic food.

If I go back to a restaurant I've been to before I will have the same thing I usually eat there(except in extremely unusual circumstances like if I'm sick).

If I don't have the same usual thing it's like something is wrong and I won't be happy until I eat the same thing there, but more than that. I won't be happy until I go home and come back at a different time and eat the correct thing there. Almost everything about the experience has to be basically the same. If it's not, it's like it's not the same experience. It's something different.

There have been very few exceptions when I have changed what was my usual order for a particular restaurant.

I eat each food separately and eat the foods in the same order each time, and also eat the parts of each individual food in the same order and same direction each time, and no, I don't want to share, and no I don't want some of yours. If I wanted what you ordered I would have ordered it.

Oh yeah. My mom used to push me a lot to try out new things. Eventually I explained to her: "But mom, if I order something new, and it turns out I don't like it then I both have to pay for something I'm not gonna eat as well as I will end up eating and I'm gonna have to wait even longer to get something I do like, all the while getting hungrier because I'm also watching you eat while I'm waiting." After that she stopped pushing. The great thing about having scientists as parents, they did get that yes, it was a logical way of viewing the dilemma. I also agreed that I would give things a try if they came in a sampler or a starter, I just didn't like putting my main meal at risk.

I usually order the same 2-3 things. Occasionally I will order something new if I'm not all that hungry, like if I know that worst case scenario I can just eat the potato/fries/lettuce and be good. But I can't have onions of any kind in my food, not garlic, red onions, normal onions or even leek. There's some chemical in all of them that makes me nauseous. I've had to make a mad dash to the bathroom to avoid spraying the table with my recent meal, so now I'm always careful to make sure people don't put any of those in my food.

I don't eat out much, and when I do it tends to be well known fast food places so I know what I get when I order it. I am always a bit uneasy when I eat at a place I've never been to before because if I just order something from the menu without knowing what it is, then I won't know if I'll like it or not, and what the portion size will be and the layout, and I don't want to dissapoint or be dissapointed. Maybe I need to take more risks.

Oh yeah, there is one other thing I do that has to do with seating. If there's an option I prefer to sit with my back to a wall rather than other people. I also don't like being boxed in in a stall, I have to be the person on the outside, and I feel extremely uncomfortable sitting with my back to the entrance. If it's a loud place I will outright ask the people I'm with to switch seats with me so I can have my back to a wall instead of to people.

My routine for eating at wendys is I have to fold the corners of the burger wrapper in to the center about an inch before I eat the burger. I always do this at Wendys and I have no idea why or what started it. I don't really do it if I eat at Burger King. There is something about the foil lined wrapping that make me have to fold those corners.

Yes, when I was a kid and went to McDonald's I always ordered a plain hamburger, small fries and a Coke. In college at Chick-Fil-A I always got the grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato only and no pickles with waffle fries.

It's funny for me to type this cuz I am vegetarian now! Since going veg I have branched out to try new foods, but I do generally like to eat the same dishes at the restaurants I like.

I forgot to mention. I like sitting in the corner of the booth or the table. I prefer being in the corner. Whether I'm alone or not I sit in the corner.

Yeah, I like the "power seat", the seat in the corner opposite the entrance. That way you can watch everything, and nothing happens behind you.

I have one with McDonald's. I order the big mac menu and eat first of all fries and then my burger)