Anyhow. On food in specific, for the last decades I've dreamed of trying to get people trying & exploring new things. But wow, it felt like folks were absurdly attached to their staples.
That said, in my 20's, I was crazy dollar-conscious. I still ate out for lunch a lot, but the thought of paying $2 or $4 more than any of the abundant quality high-value local shops for something more upscale or just more elaborate was super hard to swallow. $13 buffet at Majer House Kabob was like the pinnacle of richness. So I get some of it. But also, it was still disappointing feeling unable to rally for a good exploration.
That shit never happened to me when I worked onsite.
That being said, and to your point, taking oneself out to a restaurant, especially a new one, is worth trying for anyone that hasn’t.
And I’m showing my age. Not like dining alone means things like SMS stop working. Or whatever people use these days. It can be social.
Assuming the word choice was deliberate, which, no reason to not, if it were about coworkers vs not coworkers a more typical phrasing would have been “with friends from outside of work instead,” or even “with other people you know instead.”
It doesn’t have to be an assumption that those are the only two choices. Enumerating all choices wouldn’t be helpful, as there’s more than three.
Replacing group A with group B is less interesting, more obvious, and potentially not an option, or at least not an easy one. If it were, said lamented would likely be eating at a new restaurant with friends rather than lamenting. Or their friends aren’t brave and hate new restaurants, which functionally is the same as not having a group in that case. If they are all at McDonalds because “going to that little place on the side street that looks dingy and smells amazing” is scary, well…
Going out alone is less universally accepted, some find it weird, some find it uncomfortable. But a lot of us enjoy it. (Literally dozens of us). So sharing that idea will likely lead to more interesting conversation.