30 Homemade Foods That Will Always Win Against Their Restaurant Versions, As Pointed Out Online
Some places are exceptionally good at making meals they offer, and while there probably is a certain number of excellent restaurants for almost any meal, as a rule of thumb, most people find certain meals to usually taste better homemade. The reasons for this may vary from preferring it made in some exact way, using exceptionally fresh or high-quality ingredients to believing that home coziness is a crucial part of it. People shared exactly these kinds of meals, answering one Redditor’s question: “What always tastes better at home vs. a restaurant?”
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I really like going out to eat, and honestly the most disappointing thing is vegetables. I hate spending $30+ on an expensive entre for the vegetables to be steamed, unseasoned, and overall sad. That's not to say I haven't had good vegetables out, but I notice when meat is the centerpiece of a dish the vegetables have very little care. I like my veggies.
Lasagna. unless the place makes a big tray daily there is a very high chance you're going to get lasagna that was frozen. the other thing that goes wrong with lasagna is when they try to cook it on the spot. you end up with this gross meat soup in one of those pizza place to go tins.
Italy, the land of big, cheap and delicious lasagnas 🥰 the whackier the restaurant looks, the better the lasagna 😍😍😍
Chocolate chip cookies. Like standard, no frills, ~~milk~~ semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies.
I recall going to Mrs. Fields at the mall and the cookies were good (if not great) but still not as good as a home baked one.
Soup. Made from scratch soup. Or grilled cheese. It’s a tie.
Many many great restaurants (not chains like Panera, Applebees, etc) make their own soups from scratch. You must seek to find.
scambled eggs. nothing like eating them just out of the pan and done precisely to your preferred texture.
the best scrambled eggs i've ever had, in my 68 yrs on earth, were on swiss air, and in the swiss hotel breakfast buffet. what's their secret? i need to know!
Chili
BLTS
The amount of bacon they use when you order a BLT at a restaurant is always pathetic.
Steak always taste better at home because you can do it just as good if not better than 99% of restaurants for a much lower price.
Man idk but that simple breakfast, eggs sausage/bacon home fries biscuits ultimate home meal that never slaps quite the same In a restaurant 😂
At a great Mom and Pop diner, it slaps even better because I didn't make it.
Tamales. I’ve had very good tamales at restaurants but there’s just something about homemade that you can’t compare.
I never buy restaurant tamales. They need to be made and then sold by the dozen by a 140 year old Mexican woman who rules over her family's assembly line, Soaking corn husks, making the green chili, slow cooking the pork, grinding the perfect masa to make the dough, properly assembling them, and finally the actual cooking all take a long time. Restaurants don't have that time to get them perfect.
I'm a good cook, but I can't think of anything that I make that I couldn't find better at *some* restaurant.
However, I have been perfecting my beef bourguignon to taste like the one served at Joséphine Chez Dumonet in Paris. Theirs is the best I've ever had. So it's still better than mine, but mine is better than anything I eat at local restaurants.
Just googled this and found Julia Child's recipe, definitely making that this weekend.
Christmas dinner
I suspect people who tend to eat out for these meals do so because it’s the only or best option for them. Used to see a lot of single dads with kids on those days. Don’t know what it’s like anymore, but sometimes it’s less expensive to eat at Dennys or the Waffle House than make an entire meal at home
Baked potatoes. They never have good, crisp skins at restaurants. Most taste either microwaved or cooked well, well in advanced with soggy, sad skins.
Marinara sauce. I make it my grandmother's way, so could be biased.
Coffee.
Those aren’t baked potatoes in the picture, but they are delicious looking crispy roasted potatoes. Yum.
I live in a chinese food desert so lo mien noodles are always better when I make them at home.
All I want is a little takeout box full of delicious, mildly greasy noodles. Is that too much to ask?
Ah man, I take for granted just how many are within a 15 mile radius of my house; it's an obscene amount.
Omelettes. Restaurant omelettes are nearly always overcooked and leathery.
**Salad**. So many salads are sad, old lettuce with a tomato and maybe a sliver of onion. Salads are easy to make at home and I can add everything: Sweet potato, grains, beans, avocado, fresh fruits and vegetables, roasted eggplant, sundried tomatoes, lentils, kale, spinach, tofu, tempeh, etc...
**Tortillas**. Both corn and flour tortillas are fast, easy, and cheap to make at home and 9 times out of 10 mine are better than the restaurant tortillas.
**Anything spicy**... I can make my food spicier than most restaurants.
**Oatmeal** again, super cheap and easy to make at home. I've never seen a restaurant with oatmeal as extravagant as my oatmeal: nuts, nut butter, berries, peaches, cinnamon, chai seeds, nut milk, steel cut oats, flaxseed, and cloves.
Bacon. Making your own Bacon, even the most basic of recipes, ruins all commercially available Bacon.
Wait, does this refer to cooking your own bacon, or actually starting with a pig and creating your own bacon?
Spaghetti
Cue laughter from thousands of Italian restaurants. I mean Italian restaurants - the ones staffed by Italians, in Italy.
My shepherds pie is always SO MUCH better than any restaurants. Most of my Mac and Cheese's have been better as well.
I made a rule as a chef who was getting too comfortable with eating only a select number of meals 😂 I’m now not aloud to order anything I would cook regularly etc I have to order something I wouldn’t normally cook or attempt to make etc. makes it easier on judging the kitchens and this excludes steak options 😂 sometimes a good steak is just fun cooked by someone else.
Chocolate frosting. Have yet to find one in a restaurant that I really like. They all taste little better than canned or have powdered sugar added. Nothing beats Grandma's recipe. 😋
Here is a simple but delicious chocolate frosting. Butter, powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Mix and adjust sugar and cocoa to taste
Grilled corn on the cob. It's always rubbery at every single restaurant I've ever eaten it at.
Do street vendors count as restaurants? I've had excellent grilled corn on the cob from street vendors in various Southern California cities. I don't make it at home, so it's hard to compare.
In Danish cusine, there is a thing called: Mormors frikadeller, it's 100% impossible to replicate.. you need a big chunk of "hygge"
It's a danish thing... in the spring with fresh potatoes in potatosalad... every family have their own recipe... It's dinner, lunch, snack.... you just can't buy this - It's the feeling af family og hygge...
Meatloaf
I have had excellent meatloaf in a restaurant but I do make better myself.
A simple roast chicken. It's hard to make a roast chicken cooked to order in a restaurant unless you spatchcock it.
pizza at home is pretty damn good, huh. I can make the dough nice and thick, and put full cherry tomatoes on it, with lots of fresh basil. I also like eggs & toast at home better.
In our house especially, homemade pizza is queen. No restaurant can make it the way I do, with my highly custom sauce, seasoned crust, and expert cheese and topping selections.
Stuffed vegetables (Grape vine leaves, cabbage, eggplant, etc.) and stuffed pigeon. No restaurant can make them like parents or grandparents.
I stopped commenting after I realized I posted, "Go to better restaurants" on the first few I read. But seriously, Go to better restaurants. So many of these are calling out diners or snack bar/fast food type restaurants. Live a little. Go to some place that isn't a chain.
There is an art to knowing what to order even from a restaurant you've never been to before
I’m a pretty strong home cook and can replicate a lot of recipes I like. I learn new techniques frequently and enjoy making good food for me and my family (even if my kids don’t always appreciate it). I go to restaurants for a few key reasons: 1) I’m just too tired to cook; 2) I’m getting something I don’t know how to cook; 3) I’m getting something that is time-consuming and/or messy to cook; 4) they just do it better.
I stopped commenting after I realized I posted, "Go to better restaurants" on the first few I read. But seriously, Go to better restaurants. So many of these are calling out diners or snack bar/fast food type restaurants. Live a little. Go to some place that isn't a chain.
There is an art to knowing what to order even from a restaurant you've never been to before
I’m a pretty strong home cook and can replicate a lot of recipes I like. I learn new techniques frequently and enjoy making good food for me and my family (even if my kids don’t always appreciate it). I go to restaurants for a few key reasons: 1) I’m just too tired to cook; 2) I’m getting something I don’t know how to cook; 3) I’m getting something that is time-consuming and/or messy to cook; 4) they just do it better.
