Saturday's lunch ($28.60)!
Saturday phase-2 sit-down lunch — $28.60 mid-tier restaurant spread. Weekend break from home cooking.
Saturday lunch with BB — $28.60 sit-down restaurant spread. First weekend of October, mid-tier restaurant break from the home cooking routine.
We ordered (Saturday lunch):
- A shared main or two small mains
- A side or starter
- Drinks
Total: $28.60 for the spread.
The $28.60 lunch pricing sits in the casual sit-down restaurant tier — about $14 per person, which lands in the budget-to-mid range of weekend restaurant lunches. Cheaper than the elevated brunch spots, more substantial than hawker centre meals.
The plate(s) were the competent casual restaurant fare. A protein-and-carb main, a small side dish, drinks. Nothing elaborate but properly executed at the price point.
The protein was likely a glazed chicken, grilled fish, or pork dish — the kind of mid-tier lunch standard that every casual restaurant has on the menu. Cooked properly, plated cleanly.
A small side dish provided the supporting component — usually a sautéed green or a salad with a dressing.
Drinks were the standard restaurant pours — soft drinks, tea, or coffee.
$28.60 for two on a sit-down Saturday lunch is fair value. The home lunch alternative at this point cost us $4-5 in groceries and 15 minutes of cooking, which makes the comparison favourable for home cooking on the cost side. But the restaurant break has its own value — different surroundings, conversational shift, the small act of going out for a change.
Phase 2 was six months in, the routines had stabilised, and the home-versus-restaurant rotation had found its rhythm. Weekday home cooking as the steady baseline, occasional weekend restaurant breaks for the variety.
The October weather was starting to ease into the cooler end of the year, which made the sit-down restaurant venues more appealing — air-conditioning was less critical when the outdoor temperatures had eased slightly.
Some lockdown habits earn their permanence; some habits earn their occasional break. The Saturday restaurant lunch was the small structural break in the otherwise steady home cooking rotation.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid Saturday restaurant lunch — would repeat the break.
