Many of us have heard the saying "when you are invited to a restaurant for a dinner, do not order the most expensive item on the menu."
Here is my view on this issue, which I shared with the young singles at the prestigious garden during their singles time out titled "Beautiful Butterflies in the Garden."
"My dear, let's stop encouraging all these fake lifestyles and hypocrisies that are so rampant these days. There is a restaurant for every budget. Why invite me to a five-star restaurant if you can't afford to pay for a one-time five-star meal for me? Why make my life miserable in your heaven when I don't know when I'll have the opportunity to enjoy a heavenly meal again? If I'm worth being invited by you to a dinner in such a prestigious restaurant, why not make that dinner a memorable one for me?
If you don't think of me as a five-star guest, then why invite me to a five-star restaurant for a dinner? Why not take me to a two-star restaurant instead?
"That's how young men invite young women to fancy dinners and then let them go hungry all night because the women feel sorry for them and decide to just have drinks instead, leaving themselves at the mercy of hunger and ulcers all night. Who is deceiving who?
"If you'll heed my advice, let's stop trying to live the lifestyle of the rich if we can't afford it.
"Do you know that I was once invited to a dinner and I tried to follow your advice? I ended up in trouble. My host had paid for everything I could ever want to eat, and even had enough money left over for a take-away, but I ordered the least expensive item on the menu (I won't tell you what it was). What I ordered was actually expensive, but it wasn't what my host was expecting. I had to explain myself later on.
"I'm not saying that you should order everything on the menu, but a dinner is just one course, and one plate or something light is enough. If the most expensive item on the menu is what you would normally eat for dinner, then why not order it? The only time it would be wrong to order the most expensive item is if it doesn't fit the occasion.
"If your host is a good friend of yours, there's no problem with ordering the most expensive item on the menu and paying for it yourself.
But if you're not familiar with your host, you need to consider the setting, the reason for the dinner (are you there for an interview, are you a guest speaker, etc.), and your host's budget before you place an order.
"Secondly, if you're a woman being wooed by a man and he invites you to a fancy restaurant that you know is out of his budget, kindly and humbly suggest that you go to a cheaper restaurant that you can both afford. There's a way to do this in a way that will make him respect you for being well-cultured and financially responsible. If he insists on going to the more expensive restaurant, he'll be happy to pay for whatever you order, and if you order something on the lower end of the menu, he might even encourage you to order something more expensive.
But if you're a gold digger, you'll just waste his money and leave him broke.
"In conclusion, people appreciate honesty and sincerity. Invite your guests and girlfriends to restaurants that you can afford. Don't try to create a false impression of yourself, because it will only get you into trouble. People will appreciate you more for being genuine."
Ladies and Gentlemen, what’s your take on this? Kindly go to the comment section and drop your comment, ask your questions and please vote this article. Voting helps drop my attention to my errors and encourages me to write more articles.
