What is the most expensive meal you have had?

DH is a foodie and loves good food. We've dined many places at $100 plus pp. Wolfgang Pucks, Lombardi's Steakhouse in Green Bay, several in Disney World, Emeril's restaurant in Vegas, Carnivore in Milwaukee.

They were delicious experiences, but not at all necessary!

We did not.  The main area was so dramatic between the decor and dramatic ceiling & lighting, we didn’t want to be enclosed in a smaller room.  I’m thinking the vault in this restaurant was the wine area.  

I really don't know. I don't drink much, no wine ever as I hate it. Usually just one cocktail, if that. So that keeps my share down. However for nice dinners we will usually order an appetizer or two. A few weeks ago we were in Las Vegas and my guess is one particular meal was my most expensive. I'm going to check out the menu online and see if they have prices and remember what I ordered.

Weird, I get an error message when I try to view it. Anyway I think my steak was around $60. I had a soup appetizer, and shared one with dh. Then a cocktail and dessert. I know I had creamed potatoes with the steak but it was the sharing kind so that was probably separate. At least a $100 I guess. We've eaten at other very nice restaurants but dh handles the bill usually and we are often with another couple (if dh doesn't handle it, they do). If I see the bill I usually just look at the total, not how much each person spent. Since I drink the least, I probably am the the least expensive portion. Everyone else usually has a couple of drinks at least. Rarely do I have two cocktails.

Oops, I see you said no alcohol.  Well anyway I still think that was probably the most expensive.  I don't usually order steak at really nice places because dh always does and that's so expensive, and I enjoy other things just as much usually.  But that time I was in the mood for a steak. Dh ordered the Wagyu.  I did not so mine was still significantly less than his (which I tried and was better, but not so much better to pay that much more IMO).

My husband and I went to Per Se on a New York trip about 6 years ago. I looked at it as paying for an experience, not a meal. Rationalized it as a really expensive concert or tickets to the Super Bowl. The experience delivered too. The details were impeccable and I remember all of it in technicolor detail. Don’t need to do it again. But certainly loved it that night.

Do it!!

It's a round table in a glass-walled room that's not much bigger than the size of the table, haha. You can see all the hustle and bustle in the kitchen. They also take you into the kitchen to make a cocktail with their antique shaker (but I think the salon guests get to do that too). 

Honestly, it's just so intimate, fun, and casual. There's a speaker above the table that plays music that aligns with the course. I think you get extra courses at this table. Regardless, I left feeling super full.

Being in a glass room is maybe also helpful in that they can anticipate your needs as well. I must have been looking around because all of a sudden, someone was next to me asking if I was wondering where the restroom was...and I totally was. The service was nuts.

To get lobsters, generally yes, cheaper than a lot of places.  To go to a restaurant and have them made for you?  Not so much.     

I'm not a seafood fan, but coming from New England where you can get it fresh almost anywhere, I get the impression that if you like it, it's worth paying for when it's fresh caught like that and prepared right.  I helped move my mom back to NH this summer, and one of the first places she really wanted to go was to a small, beach side stand to get a lobster roll.  She didn't care how over-priced it was, she'd been craving one the whole time she was in Nebraska.

Oh, this is so sad.  French Laundry is on my bucket list.  My aunt has dementia and one of the few things she remembers clearly is her meal at French Laundry.  It's beautiful that a dining experience can be so memorable and stay with one for so long. 

In 2008, I went to a restaurant that was under the Brooklyn bridge - I don't remember the name. There were four of us and the bill was About $1000-1100. It was a business trip and my coworker was paying with a company card; she had been leaving embarrassingly low tips and I remember saying, "So the tip should be $250.." She was going to leave the server $20!

Exactly!!! And cheap is relative. I’m in Massachusetts, not far from Maine and small lobsters are $10.99 a pound this summer.

One of the things I love the most about super high end restaurants (aside from the food of course) is the service. It’s literally choreographed, and impeccable. And you have literally a team of servers, not just one or two. If you want to send them into a tizzy, get up to go to the ladies room just as they’re about to bring your next course to the table 🤣

The crumb catcher coming out between each course and repeated napkin folding...

And announcing which region of France the cows were raised, where the butter came from…whenever DH and I go to a nice restaurant we always start giving each other crap when we get home as to why these things aren’t a regular occurrence in our dining room. Or we act them out for each other. 

You and your DH are in good company! I don't know I've gotten French cows, but Bryan Voltaggio focuses on locally sourced ingredients which cracks me up because I tell the server, "Dude, I live down the road from that farm, I've smelled the cows."
I'm sure I saw a comedy skit about this somewhere. The server told the couple the actual name of the cow their steak came from and the lady suddenly lost their appetite! LOL 

  I imagine that’s similar to picking out your own lobster. I don’t want a relationship, I want to eat it! Thacher & Rye sounds like a place DH, especially, would love to go to. I like great food & service but he really enjoys watching the shows and learning about specific chefs as well. Maybe when we can travel again in 2025…