The Great Dinner Debate

Choosing where to eat on date night can be make or break. Are you going to have enough time for apps?  My wife and I have different theories on restaurant choosing so I thought I would share with you our two sides to the Great Dinner Debate and let you decide which side you're on:

A NEW PLACE vs. A RECOMMENDATION - LET THE BATTLE BEGIN


So the question came up as the wife and I were driving west towards the city, no plans in mind, this was pre-child when we could waste an hour or two deciding where to eat, now I have to schedule when I am going to use the bathroom.  Where do you want to go to eat? It's a big question, that comes up very often in relationships, and to get to a decision can take longer than the meal itself.  She started off by reeling off a bunch of places that friends from work told her about, (insert name) said the pasta is amazing at (insert Italian name here.) All the girls from work go there, we should go, its supposed to be soooo good!!!


MY THEORY - A NEW PLACE


So here I am sitting in traffic, hunger kicking in, listening to my wife tell me all about these great places nearby that would be very easy to get to, and sound amazing based on what her friends were telling her about it.  And that is when I realized, I don't like to listen to recommendations, I am an explorer, a discoverer.  This is my theory:  If you go to a restaurant that you heard is amazing, and order a dish that you heard was amazing, then at best your experience will be just that, amazing... nothing more, nothing less.  And what kind of amazing is it?  It's not your amazing, it's someone else's amazing, so there is a cap on how high the amazingness level can hit.  There are only two things that will happen when you go off someone else's recommendation, either you will not think the place is as good as they said it was, therefore leading to awkwardness around the water cooler, Can you believe so-and-so likes that place, oh it was awful.  Or what most likely would happen, you would agree with your friends suggestion and as they did, also think of this place as amazing.  But there is no passion in that feeling because it is not your feeling, it is someone else's words, it is someone else's amazing.  This is probably the reason why I never watched the Lord of the Rings movies, or why it took me until the final season to finally start watching Lost.  I have an issue with doing things that I already know the outcome of, if everyone says a movie is great, why should I watch it?  I know its gonna be great, but it's not my great, it's somebody else's.  So I guess my point was, I rather find a new restaurant that we never heard of before, just by driving around exploring, and take the risk of it being awful or amazing.  In fact it would be better than amazing because there are no expectations, there is no ceiling to the amazingness factor in discovering a new place to eat.  You are the one setting the expectation, you can put whatever word you want on it, and it will be yours.  Where there are expectations there are limitations, if you take away the expectations then you are left with an infinite amount of space to let your imagination run wild, and in this case your taste buds.

HER THEORY - RECOMMENDATIONS ARE GOLDEN


The wife seems to believe in listening to her friends and family's suggestions in choosing a place to eat.  She feels that if you risk going somewhere that you know nothing about then it could be a horrible experience, a waste of time, and a waste of money. I want to know I am going to like it before I go, I don't like surprises.  Which is very true, she planned her own surprise birthday party last year, just kidding, but not really.  She told me, if I know that a restaurant has a type of food I like, and it is very good, then yes I want to experience that as well.  She loves to listen to people's suggestions, she is always googling (really a red line under googling, how is this not a word yet?) to get advice from other people.  And it does make sense, her theory does make sense, it is just not the way I see it.  Her way, you know what you're getting will most likely be really good, you then can report back to the friend that suggested it and that is always fun I guess, and your experience will be simply put, amazing.  Just not your amazing.

THE QUESTION I PROPOSED


So now it comes to you, my readers, to answer the question that I asked my wife on that very night.  If the same chef made the same exact meal, and he gave it to you at Restaurant A (which you knew about from friends at work who said it was amazing) and then he served it to you at Restaurant B (a place you stumbled upon while driving around on a random night) would they taste the same?


She said it would.
I said it would not.

What do you say?