Does Planning Your Meals out in Advance Take Away From Your Dining Experience?

I'm a big proponent of the dinner pregame. You know how you pregame a night out by having some tipples before hitting the bar? Pregaming dinner is all about perusing the menu of the new hot spot you just made a reservation for and planning out your future meal in your head. The food-lover that I am, it gets me excited to arrive at the restaurant, and all the pressure is taken out of those first 15 minutes of sitting down. Some, though, think that peeking at menus early takes the experience out of dining out. Waiting, they argue, allows you to go with the flow and decide on meals as a group. "It lets your stomach, rather than your mind, lead the conversation, and rewards a la minute cravings," Nick Mancall-Bitel said for Eater.