This happens to me and my friend a lot.

I think we're both the ones who will have "anything"; but then when we start listing restaurants, we both have slight objections to some options.

There's a common pattern in how the conversation goes.

"What do you want to eat?"

 

"I'm fine with anything."

 

"How about ABC?"

 

"I'm not sure I'm feeling up to ABC today, maybe something else?"

Then we often go back and forth for a minute until we agree on something we both really want.

Recently, I think we've made pretty good progress on skipping that step. Instead of asking:

"What do you want to eat?"

the question becomes:

"Is there anything you don't feel like eating today?"

I find this eliminates a bit of the useless conversation. There's still usually some back and forth about what we each want; but in this way, you should get a better idea of what will get shot down.

As other answers mention though, they may not know specifically what they want/don't want. You may suggest an option that they realize they don't want, even though they didn't mention it when asked. At least by asking before suggesting, you minimize the chance it's something that they won't want.

This happens to me and my friend a lot.

I think we're both the ones who will have "anything"; but then when we start listing restaurants, we both have slight objections to some options.

There's a common pattern in how the conversation goes.

"What do you want to eat?"

"I'm fine with anything."

"How about ABC?"

"I'm not sure I'm feeling up to ABC today, maybe something else?"

Then we often go back and forth for a minute until we agree on something we both really want.

Recently, I think we've made pretty good progress on skipping that step. Instead of asking:

"What do you want to eat?"

the question becomes:

"Is there anything you don't feel like eating today?"

I find this eliminates a bit of the useless conversation. There's still usually some back and forth about what we each want; but in this way, you should get a better idea of what will get shot down.

As other answers mention though, they may not know specifically what they want/don't want. You may suggest an option that they realize they don't want, even though they didn't mention it when asked. At least by asking before suggesting, you minimize the chance it's something that they won't want.