I actually hate dining at chain restaurants bc I feel the food is too calorie/fat/salt laden, and they are expensive. I prefer small mom and pop type places. Typically for late breakfast or early lunch bf and I will eat at either my fave mexican place, gourmet fast food place, for a seafood place, all about $14 to $16 for the both of us.
We haven't gone out to dinner in ages. However, we do sometimes get take out at a sit down type place to avoid paying tips.
For example the bbq place charges I think $22 for a rack of baby backs, a la carte. (Plus they've been routinely getting drier and drier with less and less meat.) But I can make cheater ribs at home in about three hours and for ribs about 3.99/lb or less if on sale, so for about $10-15 make ribs at home, why would I want to order out? Plus it makes the house smell good for hours.
There is one exception, my fave restaurant in the world, is a sushi place in my hometown. We can easily spent $40+ before tax and tip, but that is once in a long while. We didn't even go there for my bday last year. LOL Another thing though, is I can make my own sushi too, so it's really more for the ambiance, and not the food, although, I don't know how to make ankimo (monkfish liver) but I could order it from Catalina Offshore Products if I really wanted to.
Oh and steaks! I can grill up my own at home, so why do I need to pay $32 for a rib eye at Stubricks? Although they ARE really good there.