Frequently Visited Restaurants
 

I have read articles or seen TV shows where people indicate that they visit their favorite local restaurant 3,4, or more times a week. We had a favorite Japanese place that we went to once a week before it closed, but it is hard for me to imagine going to the same place more often than that.

What is the most frequently visited restaurant you patronize? How often do you go there? Do you have favorite dishes you order all the time or do you vary your meals? Do you consider this a substitute for eating at home or do you view your restaurant visits as "eating out"?

Back in my undergrad days I hung out at an off campus joint maybe 5 days a week. Great food, cheap beer, and once you were deemed trustworthy, the owner would allow you to run a bill for up to 30 days.

Can't really say my favorite, but I visit Ichiban's once or twice a week. Just came back from there:)

Frequently Visited Restaurants
 

I was visiting my local bar several times a week, but no longer do that.

There isn't a restuarant that could hold my interest for that many visits per week.

We have restaurants in our rotation that may come up more frequently than others but we always try new locations as well. It is rare we'll visit the same place more than twice per month.

I've known people that really enjoy the bartender knowing their name/drink, having their favorite wait person, knowing the owner &/or chef. Personally I dine out for the quality of the food, so unless the food is worth me forking over my money for, the rest doesn't matter very much.

Kabuki, a Japanese chain restaurant. Lunch only, up to 3x week.

Despite being secure financially, I can't afford going to a full-price sushi bar for dinner anymore. I eat too much. Crack ain't got nuthin' on my raw fish monkey.

They have a frequent-diner card, gets me 5% off. A lunch-card punchcard, good for another 10. And the piece de resistance, half-price sushi 3-6 pm weekdays.

But more and more I forego the cheap eats for the full-price new and exotic offerings like grilled calamari and yellowtail or salmon collar (much as it pains me to say).

When we first arrived in this little city in China, there was only one restaurant we trusted to be sanitary enough.

We went there at least once a day for a few weeks. As our stomachs and underwear got used to the less sanitary restaurants, we started to go else where.

Now, eating dog meat skewers doesn't scare me anymore.

When I lived in Shenzhen, there was a Middle Eastern place on Wenjin Nan Lu called Sharazad. I went about four times a week (once, the owner brought back baklava for my pal and I), and dug the presence of salad on the menu. It closed a few months after I finished my contract, but the neighborhood still is the de facto Moslem part of the city. Quite close to the Luo Hu-Hong Kong border crossing (http://goo.gl/maps/vRJKQ).

Nhu's Restaurant in the Tenderloin got many of us through law school with $2.95 5 Spice Chicken (circa mid/late 1980s) and other slightly-more-expensive plates at least a couple of times a week (for those of us who would venture a block further than nasty fast food). That was probably this lifetime's "most frequently visited" restaurant over a time period.

The current repertoire includes a nice restaurant in the neighborhood that usually gets a visit from weekly to monthly, often on their Thursday "special menu" nights, so there ends up being a variety (in addition to the regular menu).

Otherwise, there are so many good restaurants at so many price points within 1 to 2 miles from home that things get mixed up a lot.

I like the Eddie V's chain in Texas, though more than once a week gets expensive.

I lunch at CF Folks in DC two to three times a week when I am in town. Great menu with lots of daily variation, not far from where I work. Quirky place, a bit pricey and only open for lunch.

Some years back I used to eat at Nandos (a UK chain) once or twice a week when in the country. The quality overall has gone downhill since then, but the Canary Wharf branch I used to frequent is still pretty good.

Not been to one in months actually..

(Gratuitous question?) The chicken place? With branches in South Africa and DC? It's British? (So maybe that was "gratuitous questions")

I liked their spicy peas, but the spiciest sauce wasn't quite so.

I change it up. I used to hit Palazzo Versace for at least 3 times a week, but then I switched to the Hard Rock Cafe which was within walking distance but there service went downhill. Then switched to Skypoint - the observation deck in my building - but their food quality declined.

Started frequenting pubs that would do a chicken schnitzel but in the last week or so, every single one took Schnitzel off the menu. And replaced it with parmi or some other fancy chicken dish.

+1. I try to go in for a sandwich every time I'm in DC.

Sorry - By "British chain" I was being lazy - it's actually South African by origin, but I meant that I dined there in the UK as opposed to in the US which is the country most Flyertalk discussions are automatically assumed to be in!

Incidentally, Nandos in South Africa is actually quite unpleasant.

Nah, I don't automatically assume that (I'm mostly peeking around the Asia forums anyway), but fair enough.

What do you usually get?

Ya, I tried their branches in Sandton (by Johannesburg) and DC, and they're both ok...it's more of an exotic thing in the states, of course, so the couple of branches look nicer (if still lacking good acoustics).

It's all about the 1/2 chicken with 2 sides :)

I used to do coleslaw and either spicey chips or rice, though now I've gone low carb that wouldn't work any more.

The South African chickens are very small and lack much meat. The sides also tend to be quite poorly presented. I guess you can call the chicken authentically African, but there's no excuse for the under-cooked chips, etc.

The one thing the South African Nandos can claim is one of the best commercials I've ever seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1EX--vdxh4

There's a bar across the street from my apartment building, which I probably hit twice a week, and there's a restaurant under my gym that I probably hit once I week. I try to hit the gym four to five times a week.

When I lived in the Phoenix area and was fresh out of college there were two bars I'd visit at least once, often twice a week. Now that I'm older and more careful with money, I rarely go out to eat unless it's with friends or I'm traveling. The most I'll visit the same place around here is twice a month.

I couldn't do anything that frequently. If I'm lucky I get to eat out at my favorite places twice a month. We still eat out other places too, but if we go out too often it would put too much strain on our budget and waistlines. And surprisingly enough, there are enough really good places in my area that I don't want the same food more often than I get it.

I go to my favorite railroad car type diner (greasy spoon), usually for breakfast and or lunch. On average, I eat there 3x's a week.

Most regulars order the same thing for breakfast, so as you're walking in, they're giving the short order chef your order. As for me, I like to mix it up a bit. French toast one day, or 2 eggs scrambled well with crispy potatoes and rye toast the next.

I'm boring and repetitive. Always go to the same restaurants at my usual travel haunts. Unless they close of course like my favourite Turkish joint in Cologne, Germany after almost 20 years of patronage...

Would love to have "my" Jewish deli for breakfast and lunch but unfortunately not that easy to find at the usual destinations.

There isn't any restaurant that we visit on a weekly basis but there are a couple that I tend to visit in the 2 times a month range. We visit them for somewhat frequently for a few reasons. Proximity to where we live, good food and a good selection of food.

Both are in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn- Roll N Roaster and Wheelers.
1-RnR is "not so fast, fast food". Great roast beef, burgers etc...
2-Wheelers- a bar with a restaurant in back- The best mozzarella sticks anywhere as well as good sandwiches, burgers etc...

I sorely miss my local sushi place in NYC. Was able to get an off-menu bento for $6 that I'd get at least 3x/week as takeout.

I used to go to this place, Zingers, in Denver, every day, two to three times a day. They ultimately went out of business within a year of opening up, and I really miss them. The best part was they were a part of the miles for dining schemes so I got about 6-7 miles per dollar spent.

Now back in LA I have a few places I visit two or three times in a week but then don't go back to for a few weeks.

Places in my rotation, Jersey Mikes (chain), Reddi Chick, BCC Snack Shack, Santa Monica Seafood, Bay Cities Italian Deli, Souplantation (chain), Yummy.com, and back in Denver I also went to Illegal Petes and Snarfs all the time, as in more than once a week.

I was at Roll N Roaster a couple of weeks back. ^

Wheelers... such nice memories. I use to eat there with my AOL Brooklyn Bulletin Board friends.

I hit L and L Hawaiian BBQ nearly every time I get to LA. Chicken Katsu!

BBQ mix plate for me. And they have one of the best macaroni salads I have ever had.

La Varenne, a French brasserie in an upscale office tower in Doha, has the business model to attract office tenants nearly every day, via a menu that changes every week, specials, events, etc.

For such a restaurant, obviously the menu has to be wide, but the food should be simple. It's hard to get around in Doha and there aren't a lot of good options, so this seems to work well. Sort of like the canteen for the tower.

I wouldn't want to go to a single place that often because eating out is not a very common thing for us but more of a treat--we may go out to a restaurant about twice a month, and have pizza or Chinese food or something else delivered another 2-3 times a month. So when we do go out, we try to think of someplace nearby that we like that isn't where we went last time.

However, I often dearly wish that where I live in particular and more of the USA in general had more walkable neighborhoods with reliable local food-serving pubs or restaurants a walk away (without, that is, having to move into a big city; been there, done that). Next place I live, walkability's going to be a major selection factor.