With thanks to all who are participating, here are the results of this past weekend’s poll, which I’ve now closed. This poll’s focus:

How often do you dine out?

The results:  While 94% of respondents dine out at least once monthly, there’s quite a range in frequency. Certain types of food are clear favourites, though, and more than a few menu options received repeat mentions. A full 69% of respondents typically bring their lunches to work. Among those readers, salads and soups – followed by leftovers – are the runaway favourites.

If you’re inspired to try some new lunch or dinner recipes, click here to check out my Food page. There, you can follow the drop-down links to recipes for lunches, dinners and more.

How frequently do you dine out each month?

• 6% of respondents don’t dine out
• 13% of respondents dine out 10 or more times monthly
• 81% of respondents dine out one to five times monthly

Do you typically bring your lunch to work?

• 6% of respondents selected “Other”. One wrote, “The Company provides a Café & Kartine for lunch”.
• 25% of respondents said no; they let someone else do the cooking
• 69% of respondents said yes; they bring their lunches to work

How many times monthly do you dine out or order in for lunch?

•  6% of respondents do so one to 10 times monthly
•  6% of respondents do so 15 to 20 times monthly
• 19% of respondents don’t dine out or order in for lunch at all
• 69% of respondents do so one to five times monthly

How many times monthly do you dine out or order in for dinner?

•  6% of respondents do so six times monthly
•  6% of respondents do so eight times monthly
•  6% of respondents do so 10 or more times monthly
• 12.5% of respondents do so twice monthly
• 12.5% of respondents do so four times monthly
• 19% of respondents do so once monthly
• 19% of respondents do so three times monthly
• 19% of respondents do so five times monthly

I asked readers to name their favourite work day lunch. There’s a fair bit of duplication, and so I’ve listed repeat items once only. Salads, soups and leftovers received the greatest number of repeat responses.

• Soup (including mention of homemade soups, with at least one reader planning to make the transition to salads now that the weather is warming up)
• Salad/chicken salad
• Leftovers
• Cold meat salad
• Mexican
• Pasta
• Sandwich
• Sushi
• Tapas

Next, I asked people to identify their favourite meal when dining out. Again, I’m showing items that received repeat mentions only once. Italian food, steaks, pasta and pizza received more repeat mentions than any of the other items on the list. 

• Italian food
• Steak
• Pasta
• pizza
• Chili
• Chinese food
• Fish
• Sunday lunch
• Tapas

Lastly, I asked people to identify their favourite dinner for dining in. Here are respondents’ choices. Here, Chinese food and pizza received the most mentions.

• Chinese food
• Pizza
• Chicken and chorizo risotto
• Chicken and rice
• Chicken and steak
• Creole food
• Curry
• Greek food
• Stir fry
• Things/Dishes that go well with red wine
• Veg/rice/potato