It’s Wednesday night, and you’re bored.  Maybe you don’t have a list of girls to ask out, or maybe you asked someone out and got shot down, either way, you’re needing something to do.

The typical answer is “go out and find a woman (or three),” but even if you find them, it’s my guess you’ll have no idea what to do with them.  Since Wednesday night is a great date night — you have an “early exit” excuse (work tomorrow), restaurants aren’t going to be too busy to get seated quickly, and it’s that time of the week when the ladies are itching for something fun to do — why not use the boring evening to scope out things to do on a future date?

Restaurant Check List

There’s nothing worse than taking a lovely lady to a restaurant only to find out it has a list of bad qualities.  Some restaurants are too noisy even on the slow night.  Others are too crowded even during the week.  Maybe the place is dirty, or the service is horrible.  Jump onto Yelp.com, find a list of restaurants in your area, and make a plan to visit a few on a Wednesday night, taking note of the following features:

1. Is it too loud?  Low ceilings, small rooms, and tables crowded too close together are all negative features that can ruin a good date.  How can you listen to her blabber when you can’t hear her?
2. Is it too crowded?  Check in at 7pm, a typical time to start a date.  If you can’t get at table when you’re alone, what’s the point of trying to get one when you take someone out?  If it’s busy, see what their reservation policy is.  Even better, if you have to make reservations, get the name of someone higher in rank than the hostess before you leave — and use that person when you make a future reservation.
3. Is it too expensive for your budget?  Spending big wads of cash on ladies will get you nothing but golddiggers.  If the date goes bad and you end up trying to get her to go dutch so you can bail, don’t pick a place where you’ll spend more than you should.  My rule-of-thumb on restaurants is that you shouldn’t spend more than 10% of your weekly take-home check on the entire meal, at least for casual dating.  If it’s a special occasion, spend more when you’ve saved enough, but don’t go overboard trying to be Mr. Bigshot to a gal you barely know.
4. How is parking?  This is especially important in inclement weather.  I prefer to find restaurants with free or cheap valet parking.  If there isn’t valet, do they have a parking lot or street parking available?  Driving around for 20 minutes looking for a spot is not going to make anyone happy, especially someone you’re trying to get interested in you.
5. Can you understand the menu?  I’ve seen it happen: a guy takes a beautiful sweet thing out to a fancy foreign restaurant, slaughters the pronunctiation of the menu, and then gets corrected by the woman who happens to speak the language fluently.  If you can’t pronounce anything, skip it, or maybe ask the server for some help.  A little side trick: if it has foreign terms on the menu, take note of a few words you have no clue about, and Google them.  Being able to explain a menu is always a trick to raising their interest, if you do it properly.
6. Check the amenities: coat check, restroom, and waiting area.  If you see any problems with any of these, scratch it off the list (and let others know if you use review sites).

 

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