Are you feeling cooked when it comes to preparing meals at home? Are you tired of the takeout options you’ve turned to too often already during isolation? It’s time to kick your takeout game up a notch. These six easy ideas will make your night off in the kitchen feel more like a fun foodie escape.
Turn Up Your Takeout Tip #1:
Swap Mystery Dinners With Friends
If you enjoy surprises, challenge food-loving friends to a takeout dinner swap. Each household is responsible for choosing, ordering and paying for another household’s dinner. You’ll have no idea what’s for dinner until they text you with instructions for where and when to pick up your meal.
Start planning your next takeout order.
Turn Up Your Takeout Tip #2:
Don’t Forget Dessert
Is dessert your favourite part of a restaurant meal? For some reason, people often forget this course when ordering takeout. If the restaurant you’re ordering takeout from doesn’t have any dessert options that you absolutely adore, diversify! Pick up your favourite sweet treat from a local bakery, splurge on your favourite gelato from a neighbourhood ice cream shop, or swing by a farm stand earlier in the day for a freshly baked pie or a batch of butter tarts. Brewing a pot of coffee and lingering over a restaurant-worthy dessert course will wrap up your takeout meal on a sweet note.
Turn Up Your Takeout Tip #3:
Put Your Drink Menu On A 25-Mile Diet
If you typically enjoy a nice, cold beer with a restaurant meal, your takeout meal is worthy of a perfect pint too. We’re fortunate in Hamilton Halton Brant to have an awesome collection of local craft breweries, so why not experiment with a new local beer? The craft breweries of Hamilton Halton Brant’s True Brew Path have some great curbside pickup and home delivery options to get you hooked up with some new-to-you brews.
Turn Up Your Takeout Tip #4:
Set The Scene
Is eating straight out of the takeout container while binging your latest Netflix addiction feeling a little too familiar? Step away from your television and set the scene for a more memorable meal. Start with a beautifully set table in your backyard, complete with fresh flowers, candles and patio lights. Break out your good dishes and cloth napkins. Turn on some dinner music. Pull out all the stops to make your backyard meal feel like you’re enjoying dinner on your favourite restaurant patio.
Turn Up Your Takeout Tip #5:
Enjoy Dinner With A View
If you’re getting a little sick of the views around your house, take dinner on the road. Pick up your food order from your favourite restaurant and set off to find a place where you can pull over and enjoy a spectacular view while you eat. With the Niagara Escarpment running through our region and miles of lake and river shorelines, there is no shortage of picturesque options.
Turn Up Your Takeout Tip #6:
Try Something New
If your takeout order has been running on repeat since March, this is a great time to try something new. Put a call out on your social media feeds for takeout recommendations from friends. Be adventurous and order food from a culture you’ve never experienced before. If you are tired of Chinese, give Thai a try. If you’ve had too many subs, switch things up for Shawarma. Trade a box of pizza for a selection of sushi.
Explore Hamilton Halton Brant’s many takeout options.
