How many of you actually have experienced fine dining? And, What did you think?

Fine dining tends to focus on appearance, service and atmosphere. The food is mediocre though because they nigger it up with trendy gimmicks so they can be different and end up ruining every item on the menu

sometimes very good, mostly overpriced and overrated, go to ones that have food that really resonates with people

I've had the opposite experience, the 1-star joints can be pretty blah sometimes, it's worth remembering that the line between bib gourmand and 1 star is a fine one. 2-stars on the other hand have always had their shit together. could be just luck (I've only been to a few 2-stars but dozens of 1 stars).

also the san pellegrino list is no joke and I find it amusing when people are like "meh, it's on the top 50, does that count"? there's so much dysfunctional toxic politics involved in the michelin guide it's best to take the entire thing with a grain of salt.

spotted the flyover whose experience of fine dining is limited to youtube clips of the restaurant scenes in "the jerk" and "ferris beuller's day off"

Ate at about 10-ish one to two star places. Usually with my parents paying, or richer friends - wouldn't cough up the money that easily myself. However if you have the cash it's absolutely worth it, considering it's food/atmosphere/service on a totally different level from your average to decent/good restaurant. Had some of the tastiest things I've ever had (but not necessarily the best) in these places.

I eat at White Castle all the time. Fucking royalty. Bow down.

Takes forever and thinks that drinking in the atmosphere is enough to sate the customer

Been to several 1 star's and once to a 2 star since there aren't many in my country that have 2 stars.

Quality etc. varies per place, my friend had been to a place where they did that science cooking shit and he thought it was terrible (think goose liver icecream), he's more into classic.

I always found it hard to shake the feeling that people are staring at you and by people I mean the staff. When you leave your napkin gets folded. One time a ninja put a stool underneath my handbag without me even noticing it.

2star was very expensive though, I think I'd rather eat at a 1 star than a 2 star.

For a good chunk of my 30's I had the combination of a cheap place to live and a relatively large income living in a major city with a wife who also pulled decent money. We burned a lot of money going out to eat. Usually at bistro level places, but sometimes at Michelin starred joints or places run by famous chefs. It was definitely fun. Definitely a rich man's game. Often the food was amazing, but you get jaded pretty quickly. If the food is just good you are disappointed dropping a few hundred dollars on dinner, even if the ambiance and service are amazing. Which is why the trend has been toward less stuffy places where the setting isn't as formal and the food is more dramatic. But a few years of eating like that too often wasted a lot of money and made me fat.

These days I'm more pragmatic. I don't want to drop the dough to eat David Chang's or Danny Bowien's dishes, even though I know how good they are. I also know some of the cheap places in Chinatown they go to for inspiration, and dollar for dollar I'd rather just go to those places. Farm to table? I'll just drop some dough at the farmers' markets the chefs shop at and show the ingredients off simply myself. Great wine lists? I've been in that industry, and would rather drink good wine without the markup.

But I'm glad I did it. Helped me really up my home cooking game. Also made some friends in the industry, so it's easy to keep tabs on what the good chefs in town are up to. But at the end of the day I really don't like paying for the status symbol element of fine dining, even though I love the food. Guess I got older and cheaper.

Can't justify the price.

We had the Swedish royal chef and his staff flown down to us in Moçambique when I lived there.
They cooked Swedish stuff like elk and reindeer.
It wasn't that special though, I eat that shit regularly because most of my family here in Sweden hunt.

I once ate in a michylin bib gurman
It was adequate

The Keg is fine dining, right guise? Right?

We go to Olive Garden maybe once every two months.
It's good to live the high life occasionally so we often share a bottle of wine there.
My wife's a bit of a connoisseur of 'vino' as she likes to call it. It's kind of dopey but cute.

not me, I feel like I'm too much of a philistine to appreciate small amounts of pretentious food so unless someone else pays I have no intention to ever go to a place like that

*** Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
** Le Gavroche, Dinner By Heston, Marcus Wareing
* Galvin La Chapelle, Le Autre Pied, Casa Mia, Pony and Trap

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was the stand out for me. The others were a bit hit and miss. Le Gavroche wasnt very good and I can only imagine its got 2 stars based on its history.

For the one star places, I get the impression its easier to get a star if youre in an area that doesnt have a dense concentration of starred restaurants. Some of the one star places outside of London certainly werent that good.