How often did your family eat in a restaurant when you were a child?

When we were kids, we only went out to dinner on very special occasions. There were times on a Saturday morning, if Mom was in town for something, she might bring hoagies home for Saturday lunch, but that was rare. They just didn't have the money for restaurants or take-out that often. Mom cooked for many of our birthdays, too, but sometimes she would ask us if there was anything we really wanted for our birthday meal. And Mom usually did make a cake for us. Dad did make ice cream often during the winter, using the snow to pack around the ice cream container. We ate homemade ice cream more so than store bought, usually vanilla ice cream and we would add chocolate syrup. Sometimes she made peach or peanut butter, but Dad was a vanilla ice cream man, so that's what Mom made.

One night, Dad took us to a local steakhouse. We thought it was wonderful....we had never gone there before. That might have been for my birthday as a big surprise.

I remember that I never, ever had a slice of pizza until I married Rick. And even then, it was a homemade pizza that my MIL had made. Man, pizza was good stuff!   Mom always said that Dad would never eat pizza. Never. Until one night, Rick and I stopped up at their house and we happened to have a large pizza with us. We brought it into the house. Dad looked at it, he looked at me, and he took a slice. And then he came back for two more slices. Mom was shocked. She always said that Dad would eat my cooking more so than hers. He loved to come down to our house for dinner. There were some things that he couldn't eat....he couldn't handle cooked onions (but oh! he loved raw onion sandwiches!). And I always made it a point to have sliced and salted raw onions on a small plate in front of his plate at the table. He loved them. He rarely ate cooked corn. They always came to our house for Easter dinner; the first time I made a stuffed ham (it was stuffed with cornbread), he thought that was amazing.   He was very interested...Mom said if she'd had made it, Dad would have never touched it. But that was my Dad.

When our son was small, we ate in restaurants more often than our parents did. But even then, I cooked a lot. Even back then, going to McD's was a huge event for us because we just didn't do it that often. And for our son's birthdays, while I usually would order a bakery birthday cake, I cooked his birthday dinner. He would tell me what he wanted and I made it. When it came time for my birthday, I did it for Rick, too. Mom still would make my birthday dinner and we all went there. Eventually, we got to where we would go to a restaurant for birthday dinners and such. But really not that often.

Were your parents fond of restaurants or did your mother cook most of the time?

When I was a kid we would go out to lunch on Sunday after church.

We went out to restaurants from time to time but mostly holidays. Mom and Dad mostly went out to eat by themselves though. We didn't eat much fast food. People in general ate less fast food back then though I think. 

Dad did most of the cooking. Mom doesn't like to cook but she did do some of it for holidays and such.  Her cakes were always from a mix with canned frosting. I loathe canned frosting. That stuff is vile. She even made cookies from box cake mixes but those are actually good- better than using the mix for a cake. They were unfrosted (that's probably why  )

Frequently.

My mom refused to cook on Sundays.  So, it was either take out to home, or eating out.

Mostly, we went for Chinese when I was a kid because it was "special" and kind of out of the way from where we lived.  

Birthdays were also celebrated with meals in restaurants - birthday person got to pick!

It became more frequent as we got older because my mom got older obviously, and was tired of cooking LOL.  Nobody complained

We didnt eat out often when I was young. I remember once going to pizza hut. Most of the time it was a local place called Walkers. Mostly Daddy would get us hot dogs that was his favorite plus they had specials from time to time 2 for a dollar on those and hamburgers. On special occasions my Daddy would get us a pizza. They were so good. 

As we got older and Mom and Dad divorced we ate out more. Daddy would take us to Walker's on his weekends. Mom would get us pizza once or twice a month. 

In 2013 my Daddy passed away. Six months later Walker's burnt down. I cried my eyes out when it did. It felt like I was losing a piece of him again.. 

We very rarely ate out.  I only had frozen pizza until I went to college and didn't have Chinese food until I went into the military.  We maybe got fast food two or three times a year when we weren't home, other than that it was meals at home.  The vast majority of meals were cooked from scratch as well, not heat and eat food.

I'm a dinosaur; I grew up in the 1950s, and no one went out to restaurants much then. As Winchester said, it was only for a special occasion. We lived in a suburb of a major city, but there were few restaurants around. Fast food and pizza were unknown. There weren't any bars or casual cafes. It was probably different downtown, but not in the suburbs. The most we had were the soda fountains in dimestores.

I am the 8th child of 9.  We didn't go out to eat.  I remember going to the local soda fountain, The Busy Bee,  with my sister when we were supposed to go to church.  We'd hop in a grab the newsletter on the way home 'proof' that we'd been there, until someone ratted us out. Or the coffee shops with my Grandma Connelly.  My sisters were older and once they had jobs they would order pizza or take us to McDonalds.  My best friend's family used to get take out chicken and that was a treat if I was invited to join them for dinner.

I do remember being sent to the movie theater with my sister every Saturday.  My mom would make a big brown bag of popcorn and send us off to the double feature.  It was 75 cents to get in.

Never. My Dad was a single parent. He didn't have money for us to eat in restaurants.

We didn't go out to restaurants often. When we did it was rare and something like pizza hut. I didn't mind though.

If we did it was a hot dog ice cream place with curb service hotdogs 3-4 for a dollar and good ice cream on a cone was15 cents a scoop

Some of my earliest memories are of going to Sizzler with my parents and uncle. I liked Sizzler because you could get ice cream! And we must have gotten fast food fairly often because my mom says my brother got too fat from french fries when he was 2 and she realized she'd have to cut back on how often we ate out. I don't remember that though. I also remember sitting at the bar at the health food co-op while they made fancy smoothies. And a bakery seems to factor heavily in my early memories but I don't know how often we actually went there :tongue2:.

When I was 5 we got stationed in Japan and there wasn't a chain fast food place on base at the time. They did have a cafeteria, the kind with burgers wrapped in foil under heat lamps, and it was in the same building as the laundromat and the ladies' lounge, so we went there a lot. I still like a cheeseburger that's been wrapped in foil and allowed to sit until all the flavors melt together, lol. We also learned to appreciate Japanese street food like yakitori and takoyaki (that's octopus on a stick! I liked it when I was little but after a while I lost my taste for it).

So I guess we did eat out a lot! I shouldn't be surprised because neither of my grandmothers could cook, so they couldn't teach my parents, who couldn't teach me. Oh well. I actually don't eat out much now because I'm frugal .

Fast Food restaurants - never! I was in college before I ever had McDonald's and I was terrified Mom & Dad would find out! LOL

Mom always cooked and we were ALL expected to be at the dinner table, unless we had a darn good reason not to be - like, we were dying or something! LOL There were occasions when we would go out to eat at some of the 'family', Mom & Pop type, restaurants, but not very often. When we got older, there were times when we got all dressed up and went to a high-end restaurant with linen tablecloths and such. We were taught 'proper dining' at home early on - how to order, which flatware to use, "rest" & "finished" positions of flatware, proper use and placement of your napkin, ordering wine, basic table manners and other etiquette. Dad owned his own corporation, so Mom often hosted business dinners at home. My three sisters and I were taught how to host a dinner party and how to cook and serve. I have one sister who has the local pizzeria on speed dial, and one who couldn't boil water if her life depended on it! My oldest sister and I both love to cook and entertain and we frequently have each other over for mini dinner parties where we break out the good china, crystal and linen. It's become a 'competition' over the years to see who can out-do whom, and we have a blast doing it!

I still don't eat fast food very often, but I do love going out for a nice dinner, especially when they serve unique entrees` that you ordinarily don't cook at home. I enjoy cooking too much to spend a lot of time at restaurants, though. 

I grew up on a farm. Mom cooked everything including our birthday dinners. I did have pizza, but it was homemade. We only went to restraunts occasionally if we traveled away from home to shop. Dad would always go to Red Lobster because my mom loved shrimp. I begged for Chi Chi's and once in a while dad gave in, but he wasn't happy about it. We went to Canada every summer and we ate at small dinners. My husband and I eat out far more than my parents ever did, but I still cook all birthday meals because I think it is very special.

Mostly for special occasions like a birthday or Mother's Day. Those outings were usually with my great aunt and uncle and maybe their adult daughter. We'd always go to the same places: a Chinese restaurant, McDonalds, a steakhouse type place. Some weekends my parents would take us to Chinatown for grocery shopping and dim sum lunch.

My family? Once a week. Me with them? Rarely.

I was the outsider child in the family. They'd leave me home to fend for myself.

Mum cooked every night but there were times went on when we went to a Chinese restaurant called The new shanghai in.wardour streets in Soho in London where the prostitutes plied their trade.
We didn't go often but it was very good. I still have no idea why we went. Maybe my sister knows.
There was no take away or junk food in our house.

We rarely went out. We would occasionally get takeout pizza. :nod:

My mom was single and my Grandparents lived up the street.  Gram always did Sunday dinner for the whole family.  Eating in a restaurant wasn't the norm.  If I did; it was usually with my Grandparents.  They took care of me a lot; so they would treat me to a Happy Meal now and then.  Or we would go to Friendly's.  I also remember going to Red Lobster and eating at a hotel one Mother's Day.  I can't recall Mom and I eating out just the 2 of us.  it probably wasn't in her budget.  Being in a big Catholic area (and from a primarily Catholic family) fish fries during lent were a big thing.  I still crave those!  But those were usually take out eaten at home.  Or at the Legion; where my other set of Grandparents were very active.

When I was a teen my Mom and Step-dad would take us out maybe once or twice a year.  They did order pizza and wings regularly.  Occasionally we would get subs or something like that.

We eat out more than I did as a kid.  Usually it's getting a sub or Chick-fil-a.  But we do take the kids to eat out at sit-down restaurants too.  We probably do that 4 times a year; more if we have company from out of town.  I like cooking; but not THAT much.  So we go eat out once.  The year before last the kids went out to eat with us on our Anniversary.      Last year we were out of town so the kids were with us again.     We usually go out for Mother's day and my mother's birthday.  Sometimes we do for mine; Mom cooks for others.  

We ate out all the time, both fast food and restaurants. 

Sunday after church we always went out to a restaurant. My parents also did a Friday night date night by themselves. They both worked full time [I was a latch key kid] so sometimes it was easier to just grab takeout on the way home or go out to eat, rather than spending a couple hours preparing food, cooking, and cleaning up. 

Plus my mom, while an excellent cook, loathed grocery shopping. I also hate it. She maybe cooked once a week when I was in junior high and high school? 

We often did fast food too, we'd run through McDonald's on the way to my activities.