"I'll have what she's having"? when dining out ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Everyone, it seems, can retell the deli incident in the film When Harry met Sally which concludes with the phrase "I'll have what she's having!" ... but that, naturally referred to something other than food ...

When thinking about dining in a restaurant, have you ever wished to change your order to the waiter based upon seeing something on a fellow diner's plate?

Did you force yourself to refrain from asking your waiter to switch an item, an entree, an appetizer, a dessert ... after seeing what someone else ordered which looked just perfect for what you had in mind?

Or have you actually requested a change in your own order based upon seeing something more desirable?

[moosnsqrl]

Not me so much but an old college housemate is so succeptible to the power of suggestion (well, kind of a combo of that and buyer's remorse) that regardless of what he has ordered he will invariably change it to mirror what someone else at the table orders. We've figured out it's just easier to make him order last, so the poor server doesn't have to suffer through it. Seems the other man's mesclun is always greener for Joe.

[markk]

Or have you actually requested a change in your own order based upon seeing something more desirable?

Sure. I do it all the time. I've even followed plates coming out of the kitchen, and I usually do a clever stroll through the dining room (on the pretext of going to the little boy's room, or if the route there is a direct one from my table, going out and coming back and pretending to get lost on the way to my table so I can do a reconnaissance of the room). Of course, now that I'm older and wiser, I generally do this before I order.

And lots of time I'll stop the closest waiter and ask "what dish is that?". And if it happens that I see a dish and want to change my order after I have given it, I always rush up to somebody and ask, as quickly, and as nicely as I can, if I can swtich or if it's too late. (Always, they check with the kitchen, and probably more times than not they make the switch, unless it's the case that my plate is coming out of the kitchen at that moment).

But if it's okay to add this thought, as a rule I usually go into the kitchen before a meal if I have been there before and have met the chef, and sometimes, frankly, even if I haven't, to ask what the chef himself recommends (well, this may be a whole other thread, and require an entirely different class of medications).

[purplewiz]

I've never changed my order, but I'll often take a look around the room or watch the plates being brought out before ordering. If something catches my eye, I'll ask the server what it is, and sometimes I'll order it, and sometimes I won't.

My husband once asked after this absolutely perfect dessert which was being served to another table. Turned out it was "just" their gelato - something so ordinary and often not very good we usually wouldn't bother. But it turned out to taste just as extraordinary as it looked - a real sleeper we wouldn't have tried without having what someone else was having.

Marcia.

[rooftop1000]

Wasnt this an I Love Lucy episode?

T

[Kris]

I have experienced the feeling of wanting to change my order after seeing what my husband or another of my fellow companions has ordered. But by then I assume it's too late for me to send my plate back. So I suffer in silence and vow to try it next time.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I, too, am not able to ask a waiter that late in the meal to change my order, Kris.. too shy... but it is imperative to eat that item next time .. by then I have either forgotten about it though or it isn't what I want when I actually eat it ...