10 Reasons To Order The Tasting Menu At A Fancy Restaurant

Visiting a fancy restaurant can be a true dining experience. It isn’t just about nourishment but about experiencing different flavors, taking in the ambiance, enjoying top-notch service, and immersing yourself in culture.

Dining at a fancy restaurant can be like nothing you’ve ever experienced before, especially if you opt for the tasting menu. This usually includes a seemingly endless selection of small plates for you to try through a six, seven, or even more course meal.

RELATED: 10 Tips To Make The Most Of A Luxury Restaurant Experience 

Sometimes the dishes are different for each guest, sometimes you each get the same thing. In any case, it’s worth it to order the tasting menu. Here’s why.

10 You Can Try Many Different Things

As noted, a tasting menu often includes many different small plates for you to try, one after another. All are fairly small portions and include foods that go well together and/or will provide different sensations as you go through the journey of dinner.

If you’re an indecisive person, this takes the decision-making out of the dinner process. You eat whatever the chef brings you and can have a little bit of everything. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, some restaurants can accommodate this as well, as long as they know in advance.

9 You’ll Get Something Else If You Don’t Like One Thing

If there’s one particular dish that you don’t like, it’s no big deal as it will likely be a pretty small portion anyway and you’ll get something else right after. This is much better than ordering a big (and expensive!) dinner portion of duck, for example, and then realizing you don’t like it.

If the restaurant serves different tasting menus to different guests, you can also share with your date so you get twice the tasting experience. It can also be a pretty romantic way to enjoy a date with a special someone.

8 You Won’t Overeat

If you’re worried about your weight or your propensity for your eyes to be bigger than your stomach such that you always order too much food, a tasting menu will solve that issue. As noted, you get lots of little portions so by the end, it adds up to a full meal. But it isn’t such a filling meal that you’ll feel bloated or like you ate too much.

RELATED: 10 High-End Restaurants You Didn’t Know Were Chains 

You get a similar sensation to hitting a buffet in that you can try many different foods, but you aren’t chowing down on plate after plate of fatty and unhealthy foods.

7 Dinner Will Be An Experience Not Just a Meal

Eating a tasting menu is like seeing a fashion show or an art exhibit. The clothes on the models are never ones that you’d buy and actually wear, just like you’d never make a dish you eat on a tasting menu at home. It’s art. The taste, flavors, expensive ingredients, and presentation are designed to titillate your senses.

Yes, it’s food, and yes, it’s dinner. But it’s also an experience meant to delight you. The chef takes great pride in how every ingredient is laid out on the plate and in explaining everything that went into making the dish. There’s a story behind it.

6 You’ll Get Insta-Worthy Pics

Every dish on a tasting menu will be totally Instagram-worthy so you’ll have plenty of pictures to share via social media. As noted, tasting menu dishes often focus just as much on presentation as they do on taste. So expect lots of bright colours, fun or sophisticated plating, glistening sauces, and artful setups.

Some tasting menus might include tableside dishes so you can shoot videos that are worth sharing as well. You’ll be the envy of all of your friends.

5 A Burst of Flavor Sensations

Tasting menus include small dishes so each one has to make an impact. That means they’ll be packed with flavor in order to let the true ingredients and tastes come through. The waiter will likely explain what you’re about to eat and what you will taste through each course.

RELATED: 10 Restaurants You Must Visit In Los Angeles (& Their Most Popular Dish) 

As you savor each bite, you’ll feel a burst of flavor in your mouth. Move on to the next dish, and the flavor profile will be different, yet complementary. It’s like taking your mouth on a journey instead of simply filling it with a delicious steak or seafood.

4 Try Different Tastes and Textures

You’ll get the best the chef has to offer. And often, chefs like to experiment, so you might get dishes and flavor combinations you have never had before and never would have thought of putting together.

You might open your senses to exciting new foods that you never thought you’d like. With a tasting menu, you’ll have a hard time refusing any dish. Knowing how much you paid for it as well, you’ll want to at least take a bite and open your mind to new things.

3 You Can See What You Like And Don’t For Next Time

After tasting many different dishes, you might get a feel for what you want to order the next time you’re there. Maybe, for example, the gnocchi pasta dish really stood out for you, so the next time you go to this same restaurant, you’ll simply order a larger dinner portion of that. Or maybe the short ribs were to die for and that’s what you want to get more of on your next visit.

Conversely, maybe you also realized that you don’t like the way they serve their salad or their desserts aren’t for you and you can skip that next time when you opt not to order from the tasting menu.

2 It Will Impress Your Date/Spouse/Friends

On a first date, especially, a tasting menu can be a lot of fun. It gives you lots of time to talk with your potential new mate, along with plenty of interruptions should there be any bouts of awkward silence.

Each dish gives you something to talk about so you can discuss what you like and what you don’t, and maybe past experiences with that type of food. Of course, you should never order off the tasting menu unless both (or all) parties are game and want to experience it together. But if they do, it can be a really fun time!

1 The Dinner Will Be Longer

Tasting menus often mean a longer dinner period since you are served multiple plates, each coming out at set intervals. This is great if you’re on a date with someone who you really want to get to know better, or you’re out with a partner or friend who you don’t get to spend a relaxing time with often and just want to unwind.

Order some wine or cocktails with the dinner, pairing different types with different courses at the sommelier’s suggestion, and share laughs, good conversation, and a great meal together without rushing through a run-of-the-mill appetizer, main course, and dessert.

NEXT: 10 Most Expensive Restaurant Meals In Paris 

Source: Read Full Article