Looking for a special night in? Don’t want to spend a lot of money? These fancy dinner ideas will help you serve a fancy meal on a budget.
Yes! Food presentation can make the simplest, cheap meals seem like very fancy dinners. Pork tenderloin, the poor man’s steak dresses up really well! Learn how to prep a special date night dinner without breaking the bank. And be sure to include a Cherry Cheesecake!
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While few of us have unlimited grocery budgets, it’s not that hard or expensive to serve a special or romantic dinner at home. A fancy dinner all depends on how you present it!
Oh sure, you can spend a small fortune on groceries and prepping fancy dinner recipes, but the cost isn’t really what puts a dish’s best food forward. Even the simplest meals can dress to impress.
These fancy dinner ideas will set you up nicely!
What Matters
Years ago I worked in a catering kitchen, assembling deli and cheese trays, preparing sandwiches, and arranging pretty fruit platters. Except for the hair net and the ugly apron, I enjoyed the job immensely — especially since I love food and I love feeding people.
One of the mantras that my manager repeated to me often was, “Presentation is everything.”
What he meant was, it doesn’t matter how good it tastes if it looks bad. And in the same vein, if the food’s not up to par, we’ll make up for it by making it pretty.
While those theories certainly breakdown at some point in home cooking, they’re helpful to think about. Even if we’re eating on a budget, I can still serve a fancy dinner.
A fancy dinner makes one feel rich! Even if you aren’t.
They say that you eat with your eyes first. If a dish is colorful, fresh-looking, and appealing to your eyes, it’s already tempted you and made you want to taste it. It gets you ready for the act of eating and enjoying the food. That’s what makes for the best fancy dinners!
Tips for Success
Here are some fancy dinner ideas to make your plates and your food presentation in general a little more inviting:
Use the freshest ingredients.
Fresh ingredients make for a prettier food presentation. No one wants wilted lettuce! So be sure to buy the freshest available.
Talk to the produce attendant and ask him or her to teach you how to select ripe produce. Alternatively, you can also request that he or she help you select the best items. If you have a plan for when you’ll serve it, that will help determine the right stage of ripeness.
The closer you can buy your product to the source (ie, from the butcher, the dairy, or the farm) the fresher it should be. Your mileage may vary depending on where you live.
Fresh ingredients will take your fancy dinner ideas over the top!
Pay attention to color.
For some reason brown, white, yellow, and orange foods don’t really tempt our senses. Reds and greens liven up a plate immensely.
Add diced tomato to a salad, chopped red pepper to a pizza, or a cherry atop the sundae.
Even a sprinkle of chopped parsley, basil, or cilantro over the top of a savory recipe can make a difference in the food presentation. People will be more likely to want to eat your food. That’s always a good thing!
Choose pretty serving dishes and linens.
Pretty serving dishes and linens make a big difference in the food presentation, even though they aren’t edible. Food stands out nicely on white dishes, so don’t think you need to invest in fancy decorated dishes.
You also don’t have to spend a ton on new serving ware, just keep your eyes open at garage sales and thrift stores. Pretty is as pretty does, not how much pretty costs.
Your dishes don’t even need to be fancy for the food to feel special. Whenever anyone sees my lunches served in these meal prep containers, they always ask about the containers. There’s just something about the presentation of the simple salad in a black box that makes it more attractive.
How you dress up your fancy dinner ideas matters!
Make friends with ramekins.
Ramekins are little glass dishes often used in baking or for serving individual portions. They also make great serving vessels for condiments and side salads. Buy them whenever you see a good deal and use them often.
Again, a stroll through a thrift store may garner you a decent collection for just a few pennies.
Transfer condiments to serving dishes.
While this may make more work for the dishwasher, it makes a huge difference to the table you set and to your food presentation in general.
Serving condiments in dishes takes the focus away from the brand of sour cream and the advertising plastered across its packaging and allows you to think more about the food and the company. It also prevents cross contamination of a larger container.
A little thought into your food presentation can make a huge difference in how those at your table feel about the meal. It attracts all their senses and gets them ready to enjoy what you’ve prepared, even if it’s budget fare.
FAQs
A garnish is something added to a prepared dish to make it more appealing, to add color, texture, or a contrasting flavor. Think of lemon slices, chopped herbs, or sliced avocado as something that will make the plate pretty and add some color. All these things add to a prettier food presentation.
Yes. Anything that you add to a plate should, in theory, be edible. It would be unsafe to assume that your guests know not to eat the decorations you’ve put on their plate, so be sure to serve only garnishes that are edible.
Fancy Dinner Ideas
Looking for some fancy dinner recipes? Check out this round-up of Good Cheap Eats’ special meals to make your supper super!
Tell us what you think!
We love to hear your experiences with Good Cheap Eats. Click the STARS on the recipe card or leave a STARRED comment to let us know what you think of the recipe.
This post was originally published on September 9, 2014. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Julia
This email came on the most perfect day. I just came back from visiting with my parents after my grandfather passed away last week. My mom was his caregiver in her home for the last 4 years and had become basically a short order cook. We were talking through her daily life shift that is occurring. It got me thinking about my household, too. We have been eating a lot of take-out and all are tired of it. I checked my email this morning and this was waiting for me. My last 2 “kids” (20 & 17) are still at home with wacky schedules and my husband’s and my work roles have changed for a busier season. I’m ready for a change and date nights at home sound so nice and cozy, and even better by breaking out the better dishes to further that feeling. Thanks so much for this post!!
Jessica Fisher
Yay! I’m so glad to hear it!
Carolyn Stutz
Oh, how lazy I’ve become! Mostly because when my husband was moved to a different department at work several years ago, he was always working overtime and NEVER knew when he’d come home. My children (now 21 and 19) have full-time jobs but not 9-5 hours – so again, no telling when they’ll be home. I honestly don’t remember the last time the four of us sat down to eat a meal together. However! in days past (oh how fast they went) I always served our meals in pretty dishes. I don’t have a dishwasher (well, not an automatic one – haha) so I made a LOT of extra dishes by moving everything from what I cooked and baked in, to pretty serving dishes. If I EVER placed a saucepan of food on the table my family knew I wasn’t feeling well!
Nowadays, it seems it’s just me and a book – good thing I love my books 🙂 Invariably as soon as the kitchen is all cleaned up my husband either comes in from work, or calls and says he’s on the way home. I confess to never bothering prettying things up at that point. I just try to make sure the kitchen is cleaned up again before I go to bed.
Ah, you make me want to set a pretty table again… well, if nothing else, thanks for the good memories you stirred up 🙂 you’ve done that numerous times and it’s a nice thing to happen – thank you.
Jessica Fisher
Ah, sweet. Maybe you can set a fancy table this week, just for old times’ sake. 🙂
Sue
I’ve always decanted foods from their original containers into serving dishes. That’s how I grew up and I used to believe that it was a southern “thing.” Nice to know that others do this as well. I find it particularly useful when serving snacks. It reduces mindless eating and you don’t have someone rooting around in an empty bag because they can’t believe they ate it all!
Jessica Fisher
Great tip on portion control. And that’s interesting about the regional thing. I wonder about that.
Janet
I completely agree with you that we eat with our eyes first. This was something I learned from my grandmothers who were each young brides during the depression. No matter how humble the food, you can still make the meal an occasion. They could make hotdogs and French fries look like and feel like a gourmet meal. I try to set a nice table – placemats, pretty dishes, glasses and silverware. One of the Christmas gifts my husband gave me early in our marriage was a set of silver condiment cups, which add a bit of sparkle to each place setting. I have several sets of salt and peppershakers, which I change throughout the year. Our favorite is a set from the early 1960s.
I do not usually use garnishes. With a tight food budget, I want to know that everything served will get eaten. I am the only one in the family that would eat parsley, green onions or most fresh green herbs such as basil so they would go to waste.
We almost always serve family style. To make the meal look appetizing I try to make sure that in addition to the entrée every meal includes at least two side dishes of fresh fruit or vegetables, which adds lots of color to the table. I often add fresh fruit slices to the water glasses, which also adds a dash of color in addition to making the water taste good.
Jessica Fisher
These are some great strategies. Do you have a trick for placemats not getting all mucked up?
Janet
It is only in the past year that I have gone back to using cloth place mats. I have been using plastic place mats since my oldest was a toddler. The first set I bought years ago on a summer clearance sale for just 10 cents each. I simply wash them in a sink of dishwater and dry them with a towel after each meal. Some of our favorites over the years included Veggie Tales, Disney princesses and swimming goldfish. We also had educational sets with the 50 states, U.S. presidents, etc.
Stephanie M.
This is a topic that I spend a lot of time thinking about especially when my husband and I have a dinner party. We have several dinner parties each year and when we do, our goal is to make all of our guests feel like they’re in a fine dining establishment and we treat them all like royalty. I completely agree with you that food needs to look pretty and appetizing no matter if you’re having guests or if you’re serving a weeknight meal to your family. Depending on what you’re serving, garnishes always add interest to a dish. If I’m serving a dish with a lemon sauce, I like to have fresh lemons on top as a garnish. Curly parsley always looks nice on just about everything. Many times, I will sprinkle dried parsley and paprika on the rim of the dish when we are serving guests for added color and interest. I NEVER serve condiments or salad dressings in their original bottles. I always put them in some kind of small glass bowl. When I serve family dinner for just ourselves, unless we are having something like soup, stew, or anything that takes up the whole plate or bowl, I always mentally divide the dinner plates into 4 sections; one for the meat or fish, one for the starch, (potato, pasta, rice), and two for veggies and I try to use two different color veggies to make the plate more colorful. Depending on what the meal is, I sometimes garnish the food with chopped chives or scallions. One thing is for sure though: I love food and cooking for people and I want my passion for feeding people both family and guests to reflect in the way I present it. When we have a dinner party, we typically serve everyone restaurant style. I am in the kitchen plating the food and my husband brings the meals to each guest. Nothing make me feel so good as when I’m in the kitchen and as he hands out the meals, I hear everyone stop talking to say, “Oh my Goodness, this looks delicious!”
Doesn’t get any better than that! 🙂
Jessica Fisher
I seriously think you should start teaching home ec classes. I bet there are tons of young people in your community who would love to learn all this.
Stephanie M.
Thanks for the kind words, Jessica. You are always so encouraging!! 🙂