Are you guys finding you can cook better than a lot of restaurants now?

Not everything, of course, but I remember when I was growing up ANYthing was better than eating at home. Now that I've been cooking for years, I find places like TGIF and it's ilk just aren't as good as what I can make. I think we live in a pretty good society when food can be an inexpensive in-home luxury.

when you shop for yourself the fresh ingredients you get at a grocery store are going to be better than TGIF-type places every time.

I prefer cooking to most restaurants these days.
Much happier cooking a dish the way I like it

nearly anyone can find fresher (better) ingredients than what most chain places use.

if the ingredients are better, and you know what you're doing in the kitchen, it's not a huge leap to surpass places like tgi fridays.

i dunno how anyone can compete with tgi fridays defrosted-to-order entrees

is it really cooking when everything fried and made the exact same way every single time

speaking of TGI-Fridays

I went there for an informal interview the other day and was hungry so I looked over the menu. You may no know this but any chain restaurant place in Cali now has to post the calorie count for its dishes on the menu.

After reading about 1200 calorie salads and 1800 calorie sandwiches I decided to skip lunch and ate a salad at home instead

holy fucking shit


and to the OP

yeah, I cook way better than probably 99% of the places I've eaten in the past, and not just TGIF style places, I'm talking about high end steak houses.

its ridiculous how bad some of the restaurants are out there. Some of them turn it around, some of em,,,,bleh.

Wife and I went to a place that did carribean food, she orders nachos ( vegetarians, sigh) anyways, they give her a mountian of salad with some chips ( I kid you not)
We went to Applebees last weekend,,,,bleh, FAIL moar, she orders nachos, the cheese isnt melted, the riblets were good though, I'll give em that, and the fries were fresh.
Yet this little mexican place, in a house, perfect food, and I believe authentic, err damn close.

"Real" cooking takes more time than most people want to put in. However, using good food, correct seasoning, and basic cooking methods yield great food.

Hell, I liked steak but was never a huge fan of it at home as a kid. It always seemed tough and flavorless... I couldn't understand the obsession with it. Then as I got older, I started researching methods of cooking it... I realized my parents simply had no clue about it. One afternoon, a steak, salt, pepper, a hot pan, and some oil, and I made the best steak I've ever eaten. I mix that style with the occasional cabernet peppercorn sauce or a balsamic/butter/shallot reduction and the flavors beat a $40 steak at a nice steakhouse.

I have a group of friends that all enjoy cooking and are quite good at it. We just pick a house most of the time and team up on a really amazing meal instead of giving the money to a restaurant. I honestly don't go near chain restaurants if I can help it.