A friend group debate over whether honesty about bad restaurant choices is rude.
My friend group has a monthly dinner out. Our friend Nate always picks the restaurant and it's always mediocre chain food — think overpriced Applebee's-tier. Last month I suggested we rotate who picks. Nate got offended. I said honestly, his picks aren't great and the rest of us want to try new places. Nate said he puts effort into picking places with "something for everyone" and that I'm being a food snob. Two other friends privately told me they agree with me but won't say anything. Now Nate is saying if I think his picks are so bad, I should've spoken up sooner instead of "letting him embarrass himself." I wasn't trying to embarrass him. I just want to eat somewhere that doesn't microwave my steak.
Drew calls our usual spots mediocre but has never once suggested an alternative until this conversation. I pick because nobody else ever does. I ask the group every month and get silence. So I pick somewhere that has options everyone can eat, including Marco who does not do spicy food, Jen who is vegetarian, and Drew who apparently has very refined tastes he has never mentioned. The month I asked Drew to pick, Drew chose a tasting menu restaurant that cost $180 per person and did not tell anyone the price beforehand.
⚖️ The Verdict Is In
💀 You're both wrong
16 people weighed in on this dispute.
Official NACOL Ruling
This court finds that Drew's gastronomic critiques, though delivered with the subtlety of a chain restaurant appetizer sampler, were technically accurate in a 25 percent plurality, while Nate's martyrdom as the reluctant restaurant curator also achieved an identical 25 percent endorsement from jurors who apparently value effort over edibility. The remaining 50 percent of this court's jury simply refused to pick a side, much like Nate's group refuses to pick a restaurant, creating a perfect symmetry of indecision that this court finds either poetic or deeply troubling. Case closed.
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