How do you decide what you want for dinner?
 

Mr. Kipper and I often have problems deciding where to go for dinner, in that something willl appeal to one of us, but not the other, or nothing sounds really wonderful. How do you decide what to do for dinner?

I discuss the options I'm aware of (a 2-way street ;)) for where we are and we try to fit the best option with our plans. If you're talking about eating out (if 'go' is always the go), we'd need to work this out to get reservations in place.

What I want and what I get can sometimes be different, but in most cases we work something out. :) In most cases we have options. ^

Give and take - I'm the more flexible but sometimes say "how about trying restaurant X tonight and restaurant Y next time?" and keep us to that commitment.

When traveling through cities, we often used iDine / RewardsNetwork to try something new based upon the local community where we were staying.

The biggest issue is usually that one of us wants one type of food, the other really doesn't want it and suggests something different, and neither one of us is wants what the compromise is, which is usually to choose a different style of food than either suggestion.

We go with whoever suggests first. Unless there's a strong reason not to go e.g. one of us had that style for lunch, we almost always go with that plan.
Helps very much that the Mrs and I have very similar tastes.

When in new cities we'll walk around and look to see how busy restuarants are and what clientel they have before deciding. The vibe a restaurant has does often help.

Mrs BamaVol is happy with anything as long as I'm cooking. On weekends, I look through cookbooks until something inspires me. On weeknights, I look for inspiration in the grocery store.

Since I control the food made at home, it only seems right to let her pick the restaurants. That usually mean Mexican or Italian.

Tomorrow night, BamaVol Jr #3 gets to pick since his braces are coming off. I think that means ribs and corn on the cob.

We use these tips:

I love twice baked potatoes, actually potatoes period. My husband doesn't care much for them. So, if we're eating at home, I may make potatoes with the dinner and he just doesn't eat them.

When we go out to eat, we usually like the same places, so it's not a problem. But he usually chooses and if he asks where I want to go, it doesn't matter most of the time to me so I tell him to go ahead and choose.

We'll both occasionally say that neither one of us cares where we go, and the other should choose. That's not a good thing either. :)