Why Everyone Wants to Order Last
Some think it’s indecisive. I call it a power move.
Welcome to Best Food Blog, a writer-run publication about eating by journalists Ali Francis, Anikah Shaokat, Anna Hezel, and Antara Sinha. You can check out everything we’ve published so far here. Today, food writer and Time Out Chicago restaurant and bar critic Maggie Hennessy explores the strangely prolific impulse to order last.
In the delicate matter of ordering dinner at restaurants, my husband opts, irritatingly, for chivalry. I feel his eyes on me the moment the server arrives with the inevitable question: “What are we having?” Fortunately, I’m already jabbing a finger into his bicep: “You go!” Whenever I’m dining out, I have to order last.
The most obvious explanation for this impulse, which I consider a byproduct of my job as a restaurant critic, is that I’m a control freak obsessed with curating the perfect meal. And after surveying my Instagram town square for answers, I realized I am far from alone in this quirk. Like so many seemingly everyday things we messy humans do, our ordering habits are personal — and often a little irrational. The two-dozen people I chatted with for this story cite reasons ranging from micromanaging to politeness, indecision, rejecting gendered tropes, and FOMO for holding out on their dinner orders.
“We’re talking about the psychological warfare of ordering dinner.” I think she’s onto something with this rather hyperbolic take: The way we order dinner often says something deeper about who we are.
