On Fri, 18 Jul 2014 23:31:10 -0400, Ed Pawlowski > wrote:

>On 7/18/2014 1:23 PM, wrote:
>
>>
>> To me, eating at a restaurant is to enjoy the company of a friend, if
>> I'm not doing that, I eat at home, can't remember when I last bought
>> any takeout.
>>
>
>Sometimes you have to. If you are traveling on business, for instance,
>you can't go home for dinner. Alternative is take=out in your hotel room.

When away from home alone I'd eat at the counter of a diner, or a
communal table of a cafeteria, not many of those around anymore but
used to be lots in NYC. But I don't like eating alone at a restaurant
and rarely have, being the only one all alone at a table you stick out
like a sore thumb and people actually stare including the servers...
only exception a real Chinese restaurant, typically so crowded (and
noisy) no one knows you're alone and people will ask to sit with you,
with grining, bowing, and nodding because most speak no English...
during the '50s-'60s best Chinese food in the US was NYC's
Chinatown... still the best but not nearly as good as it was.
Toronto's Chinatown has great food too. LA's Chinatown wasn't bad,
Frisco is the worst by far... I don't think any food in Frisco is
good, much too commercialized, seafood at the Wharf is way overpriced
dreck.