Most Expensive Meal

[dougiezerts]

What's the most expensive restaurant meal you've ever had--and was it worth it?
A few years ago, my brother-in-law treated us to Ruth Chris Steakhouse. There were, I recall, six of us, and the bill came to something like $300. Fortunately, he paid! Was it worth it? Yes, I'd say it was.
Also, my girlfriend and I ate at a restaurant in London. (Forget the name.) That bill came to 60 pounds--about $100 (the exchange rate was better, then). I'd say that was worth it.

[AnxiousCowboy]

Hotel Hershey-
Me and my girlfriend and the tab was $180 after her 20% discount (shes the garde manger there) Delicious and perfect in both food and service. The maître d', Sous Chef, and Executive Chef all came to the table to say hello and ask if we are enjoying the meal. The sous chef prepared us a suprise middle course of micro greens and duck proscuitto iirc. Awesome.

[kuan]

In general, My wife and I are not expensive restaurant eaters, we're hole in the wall hunters. The last kinda expensive restaurant my wife and I sampled was Victoria and Albert's, $300 for the two of us, but, I've been known to eat $150 worth of sushi at one sitting all by myself! Well, sushi and sake, with a couple sakes thrown in for the chefs.

All other expensive meals have been paid for by other people, steakhouse meals being the most expensive. Go figure.

[oldschool1982]

Back in 92, when I worked in Atlanta, a few of us got together and invaded one of the concepts in the group for a "Last Night" type thing. We each ran a kitchen in the company. One of us was moving and myself and another were leaving the company. If I remember correctly between the 4 of us we destroyed 3 in house charge accounts with a total bill of around $900.00 Gosh I miss those old IHP accounts.

[DMT]

Back in 1990, a party of five of us ate in a nice little ristorante called La Capannina in Torino, Italy.
Numerous courses later, after the grappa, the bill was 250,000 lira...
I've NEVER spent a quarter million on dinner before...
But in USD, that was only about $60 per person.
The big number in lira was what caught my attention.

[AprilB]

Seriously we had the best meals 24/7 on the Oriana when we came back to the US from Australia.

The best most expensive meal?

A chinese restaurant "again in Sydney". Salt and Pepper lobster at $100 + plus the most amazing hot sour soup, mu shu pork, potstickers, sw and sour pork, and fried special noodles...worth every penny...(bear in mind this was my 11 yo daughter and me!) I think we got out of there for about 200 aud +/-.

The very best not necessarily the most pricey? A steakhouse just inland from the Gold Coast. I do NOT remember the name but intend to look it up. You pick your steaks from a cold display case, brilliant line cooks, baked potatoes the size of your head, oven roasted vegetables, avocado/smoked salmon/capers/tomato/onion/caviar/toast apps...whole grilled fish of all kinds, calamari...

I'd say under $50 (aud) per person w/o the extensive wine list.

Suprisingly not that "dear" as they call it and always packed.

It's worth booking a flight to Qld just to go there!

April

[Free Rider]

12 people, over $2000 bill (I think it was closer to $3000). Vertical food at George's in La Jolla.

[Mezzaluna]

Dinners at Tru and Alinea (both in Chicago) were about the same price: $300 for two including gratuity. My husband uses those meals as a benchmark for "too expensive" now.

"Expensive" to me means 'out of my budget' or 'an extravagance'. This can change with one's circumstances. When I was a struggling new teacher a $12.50 meal was expensive!

[dougiezerts]

You mean McDonalds was more your style!

[Blade55440]

So far the most expensive meal for me was during my hospitality class "dine-out". We went to a ski resort in Alaska ("Seven Glaciers" at Alyeska Ski Lodge/Resort) and we all ordered what sounded good to us. If I'm not mistaken each person was given a $1-200 tab (not including alcohol).

The thankful part was that the tips we earned in class paid for it all (we waited tables for the class)

[OahuAmateurChef]

I've never exceed $50 per person. Much more of the time it is around $35 per person on the most expensive nights.

[blue_wolf]

It was our one year after we're married honeymoon (never took the first one). Chicago, little place called Atlantique, five course meal for 2 ran with tip about $200. The kicker, the cab fare to get there and back... $100. Worth it? To see the look on her face when the gay bartender started hitting on me infront of her...yeah, it was worth it. And the food was great too.

[Suzanne]

Forgive me, but you guys are all pikers. How about $1,000 for lunch for three? Yeah, LUNCH. Was it worth it? It should have been, but sadly it wasn't. At that price, I want everything to be perfect, and that was not the case. Artichokes in the veg ragout were tasteless, service was just plain silly and over the top (one person to carry out the plate, another to remove the cover, a third to receive the cover, and a fourth to put the plate on the table -- well, anyway at least 3 people). To their credit, though, they did let us sit at the table until about 5pm (from 1:30), when they had to start setting up for dinner.

Oh, yeah, where was this? Per Se, Thomas Keller's first NYC outpost.

[Mezzaluna]

Suzanne, I'm shocked to hear that. I'd never expect mediocrity from Thomas Keller.

Dougiezerts, I'd be more likely to take that $12.50 to the supermarket and buy a nice steak and fixings for a dinner I'd cook myself. Or I'd go to Tenuta's Italian market (I lived in Kenosha, WI) and splurge on prosciutto or the like. McDonald's? Maybe once or twice a year.

[Headless Chicken]

I too experienced Ruth's Chris here in Toronto's Shelton Hotel about 10 years ago with 4 of us dining. The tab came to $200(CAN) and we all had a steak and drink but 1 of us had to go and order sides, a downside to a la carte. Personally, not really that worth it since theres another steak house which I regular to called the Keg Steak Mansion that does the best prime rib and garlic mash, $30/plate for a 20oz serving. That restaurant is also on my list of $ dining experiences but considering there were around 6-8 of us, the tab came to $300, and we all had drinks, definatly worth it.