Fancy Dining that Doesn't Break the Bank

Most of what Val and I have been posting so has been in regards to pretty heady topics: science, religion, politics, philosophy, etc.  But we've also been shifting paradigms on the small things too, small changes to our behavior or lifestyles that work better for us even if it's not traditional or common.  From time to time I'd like to share these other ways that we've broadened our minds as well, starting with a cheap dinner date idea.

Yesterday was our first anniversary, and the one thing we know we wanted for sure was a nice dinner at a restaurant with a fun atmosphere and excellent food.  The problem was, how to do this when we're living on a tight budget?

We ended up ordering a three-course meal at an upscale restaurant. A small apple and goat cheese salad to start, a cup of roast pork chili verde, and for the main course the excellent pasta of the day with a vodka red sauce, chili verde, house sausage, bitter greens, and a soft white cheese.

All together this should have been a $80 dinner for us, but we managed to eat at this fine restaurant for only $35.  How did we manage that?  We only had water to drink, and we shared all three dishes.  It was a luxuriously slow dinner, we received excellent service throughout, and they even gave us both full portions of soup for the price of one.  Plus we were able to enjoy a larger variety of foods, the pasta alone would have been enough to fill us up if we'd had our own meals.

Anyone else have their own way of doing things that gets them a better experience for less money?  If so feel free to help us keep shifting our paradigms.

In search of reason,

Mike