I hate fine dining, generally.

The food is awkward and pretentious and I just don’t have the willpower to acquire a taste for most of it. But I don’t want to eat junk either, and whenever I go out for a good meal I’ve always had a difficult time describing the kind of thing I really enjoy. ‘Gourmet kids meal’ has crossed my mind: take the kind of food they use for kid’s meals - fried chicken, hamburgers, pizza, macaroni - except use the finest ingredients and cooking methods and throw in some exotic flavours: that’s what I like in a good meal. (Maybe the kind of thing Pizza Express does with pizza, what TGI Fridays does with a burger or what Olive Garden does with pasta.) But, then, I like many salads as well, and I love Italian and Mexican food, and much else that kids wouldn’t eat even if you promised them a bedroom made of cotton candy.

So I was surfing the net earlier and found a term (and concept) which more and more restaurants are beginning to use to describe themselves: ‘premium casual’. Premium casual fills the gap between casual dining (like Olive Garden or Chili’s) and fine dining (like The Ivy). On the other side of ‘casual’ is yet another category I notice emerging, called ‘fast casual’ and filling the gap between fast food (like McDonald’s) and server-attended casual. (A perfect example of this is Panera Bread which is also fantastic.)

I want to be allowed to wear a pair of jeans and still get a good quality meal. ‘Premium casual’ sounded just like me. So I went to the website of my favourite restaurant, Wood Ranch, to find out how they like to describe themselves.

“Wood Ranch provides a distinctive, ‘premium-casual’ dining experience by offering a moderately priced, innovative menu featuring made-from-scratch ’signature’ items; a high energy, comfortable atmosphere; and friendly, attentive service.” 

Bingo! (If you’re ever in SoCal you really ought to visit Wood Ranch, by the way; you can thank me afterwards.)