Best Casual Dining Restaurant Chain

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.

California Pizza Kitchen was my runner-up here. Scoff if you will, but CPK came to my hometown mall when I was in high school and brought barbecued chicken pizza into my life. It's never left.

But I voted for Hackney's -- is it really much of a chain? -- on the strength of their really strange and awesome perfect cube of fried onion strings.

I might have gone with Famous Dave's if I'd seen it -- I think Dave is one of the most successful Native American businessmen outside the gaming industry, and they bring decent barbecue to towns not known for it.

Should be on the list but isn't: ORIGINAL PANCAKE HOUSE

The Old Spaghetti Factory is the only place where you can eat spumoni and sit in a caboose trailer inside of a restaurant and feel special because you are higher up then the boring people who choose to seat in "tables" and "boths"... yeah! Well, I like my fake traincar and I like it just fine! So maybe the old factory's not makin' the best tasting spaghetti these days, who cares?! Not me! I'm sitting in a fucking train playing with crayons and solving the puzzle on my placemat.

I can eat a whole rack of Famous Dave's in about 20 minutes.

Have very happy memories of deep fried clam strips a la HoJo, but haven't been to one since I was 10. Baker's Square used to be fantastic when it was Poppin' Fresh, the 'punk Embers' that used to be on Hennepin will prob also resonate with everyone of a certain age from Mpls, and I've been on more Perkins trips with butthurt 14-year-olds hoping for denied seat in smoking than I care to remember. Croissant sundaes bleurgh, Wishing Well hooray. My mom also used to take us to Chi Chi's and Mr. Steak.

i wish there was a cracker barrel or an old country buffet in downtown manhattan

Bob Evans, because I'm confusing it with Bob's Big Boy.

This poll is all over the place! The difference between a Coco's and a Hard Rock Cafe can be enormous. (Or 15 variants of that example, at least).

also -

we used to go to this place where kids could eat for free if you let the manager "tickle" you
-- dell, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 18:36 (1 week ago)

Wait, seriously? Please tell more about this.

Anyway, another vote for CPK for awesome salads. Even though, again, this poll should be broken down into like 4 or 5 different polls.

(^^^Ban Self)

i have a horrible soft spot for those never ending bread sticks at the olive garden.

CPK has always had soggy wet pizza every time I've eaten there. but their frozen pizzas are alright.

we ate at denny's on our wedding night (because the hotel didn't have room service after 11pm and it was the only place open). it was gross.

Does American Cafe really still exist?

The 99 in Charlestown has been the site of a mob murder or two over the years. I can't really imagine going to it. On the other hand, I have spent my share of time at 99s in Danvers, Marlborough, etc. and usually find them to be OK.

Of the places actually on the poll I may have had the best meal at Chili's. Bertucci's is known to do the job as well......def. NOT Friday's.

Is P.F. Chang's worth going to under any circumstances?

we ate at denny's on our wedding night

^^^

little-known fact: legal grounds for divorce in 14 states

ring the bell for Famous Dave's

Does American Cafe really still exist?

It does! For now. I'm completely addicted to their spinach con queso.

The TGI Friday's in West Orange, New Jersey is the single worst restaraunt I have ever been to in my life. Avoid at all costs.

cheesecake factory is some nasty, awful shit

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Dark horse Famous Dave's!

abstentions win in a landlside!

I was in Minneapolis last weekend for the first time in almost two years, and I bought a copy of Mojo magazine and drove to the Famous Dave's in Linden Hills and sat there with a pulled pork sandwich and fries (no drunken apples this time) and enjoyed the hell out of it.

I just noticed that Fuddruckers is missing. They still around?

if you have to ask...

I worked as a waiter in a Ground Round once. Peanut shells everywhere.

A Fuddruckers opened on the main drag in Madison last year and closed about nine months later, unmourned.

Eazy, that Dave's is the one my mom goes to.

just noticed that Fuddruckers is missing. They still around?

Swiss Chalet blows all these out of the water.