When I was out more often (pre-children!), I would usually tend to go low from a combination of lots of walking around, and drinking (alcohol).
I would split dose and often not need to take anything more than the first dose. The split dose to avoid having too much insulin on board and needing to deal with a hypo while out.
The overnight part is tricky, I would tend to not go high, though it will depend on what you eat and getting used to the response and how to deal with it. When taking short acting insulin before you go to sleep, be careful (obviously).
Unrelated to eating out, I am tending to go high in the evening these days, but unless I'm absolutely certain that there's still carbs to be absorbed I will only take a quantity of short acting that won't make be go seriously low (from whatever my blood glucose is at that point) I'd prefer to run a bit high than drive myself seriously low.