It's
no secret that I love to eat out just as it is no secret that
restaurant prices are high.  Allen and I have been taking advantage of
the specials that the Quarterdeck Restaurant, an old Floridian place,
that serves good food and has different lunch and dinner specials every
day plus this past summer they had additional specials that included a
salad, main course, a side dish and apple pie for $9.99 plus beverage,
tax and tip which averages $16 for such entrees as prime rib, various
shrimp dishes, various fishes and this week 1/2 rack of ribs and shrimp.

Also,
thanks to Donna, I discovered restaurant.com which lately, because
restaurant business has really been hurting, has been offering deals for
70-90% off gift certificates. In addition I have been getting e-mails
from all sorts of restaurants, not to forget finding a lot of 2-4-1
deals in the newspapers, including some restaurants we go to normally
such as Diner 24, IHOP and Sweet Tomatoes.
With coupons we have been able to keep lunches down to under $10 each
while dinners can run from $15-20 each and we don't do the latter too
often!

I
look forward to our Wednesday lunches together and then on Fridays,
after the movies, we usually go for a bite to eat. Sadly, as much as I
love to eat out, most restaurants don't deserve a second visit. Most of
the dishes served are, if we are lucky, mediocre, which is why when we
find a good restaurant serving decent or better food we continue going
back. In most cases it is the old, "You get what you pay for," saying
just proven true. I will
say, and I was a professional server for 38 of my working years, that in
most cases we have been getting very good to excellent service.

In the past 10 days, besides eating at familiar places, we tried 3 new restaurants, two with gift certificates and one, Balan's, on Miami Beach, off the cuff, when we went to see
"Rain: A Salute To The Beatles." It had been a long time since I had
been to the Lincoln Road area and I had suggested we go to Wolfie's
which was always a highly rated delicatessen but has now been torn down
and there is a condo in its place!

On Saturday I will review the three new restaurants that we tried and I will talk more about being able to eat out on a budget. I do recommend you investigate restaurant.com