Next time you HAVE to go out to a restaurant to grab your favorite entree/salad/appetizer, look around the internet for duplicate recipes instead! Many recipes or cloned recipes for common dishes served in restaurants can be found right on the internet.
For example, I used to live on Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad. Then I found the exact recipe, including the dressing, on http://www.topsecretrecipes.com Who knew that 5 simple ingredients in my kitchen made the dressing for this fabulous salad?