Best Casual Dining Restaurant Chain

Famous Dave's Famous Dave's Famous Dave's nom nom nom

http://www.jimsrestaurants.com/images/JIMTOP.jpg

if Dave's so famous why haven't I ever heard of him?

http://www.pantagraph.com/content/articles/2007/03/28/go/eats/doc459d3c4dc22e69358806141.jpg

http://images.citysearch.net/profile/5d/60/9293026p1.jpg

famous dave's is pretty good for chain bbq.

i'm voting for perkins, for that time after a show when we convinced the waitress to grind up a chocolate chocolate chip muffin into a chocolate (oreo?) shake.

Members of an orchestra playing in the vicinity stopped in the restaurant and asked Bob Wian if he could dream up something different than just a plain hamburger. “Why not,” Wian mused.

As if his hands were guided by an unseen force, he cut a regulation hamburger bun into three slices, and inserted not one but two hamburger patties into place. It was then garnished with a special and very delectable relish he had prepared. Wian handed the innovation to the players and anxiously awaited the decision.

“Wow,” they chorused. “This is it!” and it was. Other customers saw him preparing it and asked for one. They agreed with the musicians. Wian had made a better hamburger.

http://www.hiwassee.us/midtown/content/images/IMG_0558JocksJills10th.jpg

i think i'm going to be sick

On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina cause they make fresh tortillas.

i'll pick bob evans because i went to one near oak lawn il with my grandparents all the time when i was a kid and it brings back good memories.

lol @ at the passion on the fast food thread vs the rage on this one

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Parnellos_Pizza.jpg/452px-Parnellos_Pizza.jpg

http://www.pofolks.com/images/cateringpic.jpg
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Bennigan's for the monte cristo alone

http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/4/4/16/f_4836995770cm_1549fcd.jpg

Your username seems especially apropos there.

lol @ at the passion on the fast food thread vs the rage on this one

-- Jordan, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:31 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Seriously, people can talk about how (mostly local) fine dining is good or overrated in a somewhat civil way, they can romanticize or at least talk about fast food with the offhand admission that it might not be healthy or whatever, but with the middle-tier of chain restaurants people just whine about them because they're seen as somewhat aspirational.

Also, it's missing Buffalo Wild Wings, if we're going to include wing sports bar/diner fare

OH YEAH i just tried the monte cristo for the first time a week ago. the only bummer was that when I took half of it home there wasn't enough raspberry jam or sauce or whatever left to eat w/ the other half.

i was at buffalo wild wings last night.

Carraba's and Houston's

as a boring vegetarian i will rep for chili's because they've got tasty black bean burgers and the pretty good 'quesadilla explosion' salad (lol). ruby tuesday also used to have a good veggie burger, but i haven't eaten there in years so no idea if they still have it or if it's any good anymore. i'm surprised how many of these i've never heard of before

Yeah, the Chili's black bean burger is definitely part of why I voted for it. Also pretty nostalgic, since it was the main place my parents took my brother and me for a special restaurant meal when I was a kid (I'd get the Old Timer burger), and it was also a good meeting-place in high school, when we wanted something a little better than Denny's or IHOP. I've been known to stop at the Chili's in Rolling Meadows after going to IKEA.

apparently the only place in berlin our ambassador eats is a tony roma's. i think i read this from juan cole.

^^ yes fuck now that i think of it, it was in juan cole's really long and impassioned defense of the pageant contestant going on about kids not having maps!!

out of the one's I've actually experienced, Houston's probably had the best fare. Also, Cracker Barrel is pretty dope.

yeah it reminds me of caddyshack, a lot of people there are 95

oh wait, Houston's isn't on the list?

happy chef is hellish

chili's

I've only ever been to the 99 once, in Charlestown. It was the single most depressing restaurant experience of my life. Their radio jingle is annoying too.

-- ENBB, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 10:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

otm!!!

I don't necessarily think of Houston's as moderately priced or casual.

the original perkins pancake house was near my parents house in cincinnati, we went there for dinner occasionally. it was a dinky place on hamilton ave. in the 60s. by the mid 70s it was a nat'l chain.

I think there are only 1 or 2 Howard Johnson restaurants left. Ho Jo is another memory of my youth, we stopped every summer on our way to Pennsylvania for fried clams, hot dogs/baked beans, ice cream.

I was also going to vote Houston's. Ain't on the list though.

same here. we'd stop while driving to canada or new york. there was a dig dug arcade game in the foyer of the one we went to most often.

xpost

I used to have this book as a kid on "inventions" that was half just business ideas, pitched at kids as interesting ideas that worked out. so you get the invention of silly putty along with... Howard Johnson.

Apparently they were the first, or among the first, to have the idea of having the same look, menu, and training throughout a whole chain. So now you know who to blame.

http://www.highwayhost.org/NewJersey/Restaurants/Sayreville/sayreville1.jpg

http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/images/nwaz_02_img0138.jpg

i used to love hojo's as a kid

these family restaurant chains still hold sentimental value for me, mostly probly because i havent had to eat in one for like at least 15 years

what was Ground Round's brand vis-a-vis Hojo's?

i dunno, i remember being really obsessed with the ground round tho!

i loved the ice cream sundaes served in a little plastic baseball helmet.

I really miss O'Charleys spinach con queso
used to go mad on that stuff back in the day

college memories

yes! xxp

1915 Cumberland Ave
Knoxville, TN 37916

Texas Roadhouse - sucks balls to work there, but the beef quality to price ratio is great

Quality/price ratio sucks on a lot of these, so that's saying a lot. There's one Texas Roadhouse in this region and the wait is ridiculous

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

just noticed that Fuddruckers is missing. They still around?

Swiss Chalet blows all these out of the water.