9 times out of 10, I'M the host, and it's typically a business lunch and I don't recall it ever being at a French Restaurant (although sometimes at a Nortons or Ruth Chris)....
For business, the practice is to order whatever you want. There's no consideration for cost, for me as the host or for them as the guest. That's just not how it works in business. It's all business, after all. And of course, I'm using the business credit card.
And in my work, these usually are not social events, they are working lunches. So the primary thing is some restaurant that's not noisy or rushed. To me, it doesn't matter at all if the entrees are $7 or $70... it's did we accomplish what I wanted.
Occasionally, the goal is social, it's simply to build a relationship. And that can involve inviting them to a ballgame or inviting their whole family to Disneyland but often it's a nice dinner. And it may include our wives. And it may be well over $500 for the meal (again, corporate credit card). BUT if I can look back from a profitable deal and see that dinner as a factor toward that, then it was money well spent. I think of these rather like dates, LOL.
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