I went out with my wife to a restaurant for our 29th anniversary b/c she wanted to go. I think the last time we did that was shortly after we were married. So we are talking mid 90's.
Now I know why we waited this long.
First she tried to reserve a table by telephone but they said that two people can't reserve. You have to come and when a table is available you get one.
So we go and wait close to an hour for a table.
Then I tried to order. Every time I called over a waiter or waitress and asked to order they would nod. I quickly learned that the nod means that "yes, you can order. You can also stand on your head. You can also moo like a cow. You can do whatever you want. But I am too busy to bring you food. Just think about how much you will enjoy it when it actually comes. The hungrier you are - the better the food."
Finally finally finally a nice young lady agreed to take our order. The food came [quickly I must note]. We ate. Then came the bill. In my estimation, I paid over 10 times the amount than the food actually cost. And my wife is no feminist. No 50-50 stuff. Like the Ksubah. 100-0. The old fashioned way.
Then we came home. The whole story took about 4 hours. [Relatively long wait for the bus home].
Final price: I missed night seder. For a guy who learns as little as I do that is a heavy price.
Mussar Haskel: For Shalom Bayis there is no price. What brings more Shalom Bayis is worth it. Bi-simcha. If Hashem wanted us to learn non-stop and be "purely spiritual" then He wouldn't have commanded us to get married and have children. Money? The BEST money spent is money spent on Shalom Bayis.
And I enjoyed myself and most importantly my wife did too. Maybe we won't wait almost 3 decades to do this again.
That being said - the whole culture of people going out to eat is for people with money and time to burn.
Given the crowd at the restaurant [almost all Charedi] - there are many such people. There is a Facebook group for "Kosher Restaurant Foodies" with 86.2 thousand members. And this. That says it all.
