21 Things People Love To Order At Restaurants, But Just Aren't Worth The Effort Of Making At Home
Recently, home cooks shared meals they love to order when they're out at restaurants, but couldn't stand making at home. Here are just a few more stories:
1."Oh man, ravioli… My brother and I attempted to make homemade ravioli for Mother’s Day one year. We assumed it would be fine to stack them in layers if we put flour in between to keep them from sticking. Surprise — they still stick! It was one huge mass of noodles and cheese fused together. We ended up just pouring the sauce over the whole thing and popping it in the oven, and it came out kind of like a shitty lasagna. At least it made for a good story; years later, we still laugh about the time we had 'Mother’s Day pie.'"
2."I've had a ravioli disaster, too. I attempted to make homemade ravioli for my family for dinner one night. From SCRATCH, including the sheets and all. The sauce turned out well, and so did the filling and sheets. Everything was going okay up until I put the ravioli in the boiling water, at which point all of them burst open and left an awful mess in the water, with the filling coming out and all. Thankfully, I had some pasta dough and the sauce left, so I was able to throw something together for dinner that night, but I was so disappointed."
3."Any breads that need the bath, like pretzels and bagels."
4."Sushi. Once you buy all the ingredients (if you’re making rolls), you wind up spending more than just buying your favorite rolls from a sushi restaurant, and the prep work alone is a pain in the ass before you even get to assembly. It’s worth the price for someone else to make it for me."
5."Eggplant Parmesan. What a hassle. Eating it when you go out makes it better when it's someone else's mess."
6."During the pandemic, I was baking cookies for a charity that distributed them to healthcare workers. I got to try recipes that I probably wouldn’t have tried otherwise. One cookie that I will NEVER make again is Hot Chocolate Cookies. They were so labor intensive with the chilling and then having to place individual miniature marshmallows on top of the cookie. Then adding sprinkles. They were visually appealing, but after all that work, I wouldn’t even try one."
7."Fried chicken for sure. It's always better when we order out and a lot less cleanup."
—Bert
8."I feel like this one doesn't get mentioned often: really complicated salad, especially ones with multiple frou-frou ingredients that you would pay, like, $20 for at a restaurant. You think, 'DAMN, $20 for a SALAD? It tasted good, but it was a SALAD!' There was a specific one I had once and loved that was a special that never came back, so eventually, I did my own spin at home. My kitchen was hipster critical mass: I sous vided and seared tri-tip, quick-pickled red onions in a blood orange brine, cooked quinoa, shredded carrots, chopped Kalamata olives, broiled and cut halloumi croutons, shook up a lemon miso za'atar tahini yogurt dressing...and used store-bought greens and honey-roasted almonds, because of course, honey-roasting my own almonds would be a step, too."
"All these ingredients came together into many AMAZING salads that I enjoyed thoroughly, but oh damn. I hit multiple stores and spent, like, a literal entire day preparing ingredients...for SALAD. Maybe just order it."
9."Eggs Benedict on toast. By the time you have all the elements ready, more than half are cold. Also, the amount of eggs you need (for poaching and sauce) makes you think twice about eating it."
10."Burgers. Sure, I could make a burger at home for myself when the mood strikes, but burgers are like a social food for me, like having cookouts with family all my life and going to McDonald's with friends as a kid. A burger needs lots of people, lots of burgers, and lots of toppings to go around. What am I going to do with seven more hamburger buns after I eat my too-salty burger after I cried into it because I'm eating alone?"
11."Almost anything that’s stuffed. It’s just a lot of work and a lot of mess, especially if it’s breaded and fried."
12."When I was a kid, my favorite treat was when we went to the mall, and they had this corn dog restaurant in the food court. I always got the ones that had cheese inside, instead of hot dogs. They were so delicious, I’m salivating right now just thinking of them. But then, we moved to Colorado, and they don’t have that place here. I’ve tried making them myself a couple of times, and they turned out awful. If I was rich, I’d fly somewhere just to taste them again."
13."Big batches of cutout sugar cookies. Unless you have a lot of counter space to roll out the cookies and then cool them after baking, it is a huge pain and not worth doing it more than once a year."
14."The one thing I hate cooking at home is scallops. They are difficult to cook, but there is such a fine line between raw, perfect, and overcooked. I don’t find them worth the anxiety."
15."Yogurt. I did it with my Instant Pot but didn't calculate in that the whole heating the milk and then cooling it part would take hours, so by the time it went in the Instant Pot, it meant I had to set an alarm for 3 a.m. to take it out. Then, I had more yogurt than I could ever eat in two weeks and was yogurted out. If I want to make it again, I'd need a new starter, and, nah, I'll just wait for a coupon and buy a pack."
16."Biscuits. I don’t want to hear it; I’ve tried it. I’ve definitely managed a few decent batches, but they never come out the same way twice, and after two or three decent attempts, I’ll get four or five that go wrong in totally different ways. Frozen ones, on the other hand, are very reliable and tasty."
17."Candy making is so hard without the proper tools, and unless you love doing it that much, it's just not worth it."
18."As simple as they may be, homemade chicken wings aren’t worth my time. The amount of work and time that goes into separating the drummettes, flappers, and wing tips was totally not worth the payoff of those little scraps of meat. I did it once and decided never again. While they’re still little scraps of meat, I find them more enjoyable if I don’t have to do the work, and will happily pay for some damn good wings. If I crave Buffalo wings at home, I’m going for convenience and using thighs (which, ironically, I don’t mind deboning before cooking)."
19."Trifle. So time-consuming, and buying the ingredients costs four times as much as buying a delicious one in the shop."
20."Schnitzel. I absolutely LOVE schnitzel, and I will still make it at home since I usually consider it such a ripoff to have from a restaurant, but I will avoid it as much as I can. Frying it makes a mess, and you're left with at least three plates to clean (for the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs) just from the get-go. Frozen, ready-made schnitzel from the store turned out to be just as good as that made at home."
