Grossest American Chain Restaurant

Golden Corral anyone? grossest "restaurant" of all time by a long distance imo. its more like a trough, really. i think they might only exist in the south.

Ugh yes. This + some shitty Chinese place in Boise, Golden Star, made me decide any restaurant w/the word "golden" in the name was to be avoided.

The 'trough' comparison: my mom-in-law seriously (affectionately!) calls the place "Pigs' Trough." I think she likes it bcz there is no waiting for the food. When he daughter got her grad degree, they all planned to go to her favorite sushi place for a nice meal, but her mom called them on her cell from the "Pigs' Trough," saying she'd already started eating there & everyone should come join her. She was just tooooo hungry to wait for sushi. So that's how my sister-in-law ended up having her celebratory dinner at a heat lamp buffet.

i don't know if it's always gross but i had an awful meal at an applebees in virginia

otoh i've been to macaroni grill twice and both times it was pretty much top-notch as chain restaurants go

i voted for denny's.

i think we got all these up north but some special canada-only ones, too... shit, montana's cookhouse, kelsey's neighborhood bar and grill, boston pizza... crazy mountains of bland food. when you drive across the prairies, on the trans-canada, you hit all the minor cities that are completely ringed with red lobster, denny's, kelsey's, smitty's, chili's, applebee's. and in what's left of the deserted downtown, the only places to eat are a seen-better-days kentucky fried chicken with early 80s-vintage signage, a withered steak house, two chinese restaurants (one called DRAGON PALACE, the other called JADE GARDEN), a tim horton's, and... if you're lucky, there's a final surviving diner that aged into fucked up eccentricity and they have a menu 60 pages long and the place is full of drunks and right beside where the greyhound stops but they have good milkshakes and there's a $3.99 meatloaf and mashed potatoes special, or some recent vietnamese immigrants have opened up a place, whatever.

I was invited to a friend's workplace Christmas party at a Macaroni Grill. Free meals + five free gimlets + people were drinking red wine from a beer bong by the end of the meal = a quality experience for me.

Golden Corral pwnz all. Really, buffets are a grossness class unto themselves.

i think macaroni grill is the least bad for sure. applebees is bland and stuff but not too gross. red lobster i will never go near but i don't remember specifically why.

i have not been to golden corral but i have had old country buffet a couple times and it's interesting

My brain always thinks of Macaroni Grill as "Haim's Macaroni Grill." This is because a guy named Haim Romano played guitar for The Churchills, and I guess I replace his last name in the restaurant name w/his first name. Why my subconscious did not select a more obvious Romano, like Ray, is beyond me.

Boston Market is kind of the same as OCB. My dad tried to take me to one but I shouted and carried on so we wound up at local burger place.

dylann's description is spot on for large swathes of new jersey as well.

I hope they have Tim Horton's in Jersey.

hah I guess not, but I do remember there being a JADE PALACE about 15 minutes from where I live.

yeah up and down rte 1 in NJ its just... chilis after outback after drive thru dunkin donuts

cheesecake factory is the grossest of all of these imo because people will wait HOURS to eat at one of these places. i have never been but i really cannot imagine it is that good

i kind of love those huge chinese buffet places

also, punctuated by generic gas stations which use the american flag as part of their logo xxp

wasn't tim horton's gonna come down into the states more? i've only been to one and i liked it a lot. like a kinder gentler dunkin donuts. that vibe probably wouldn't last long down here.

in college we used to go to a place called "OK chinese"

theres a few tim hortons in nyc. i like dunkin more. coffee is better.

they have tim horton's in NY and OH, surprised they are not in NJ

i miss the indian buffet places i would go to in philly. they weren't very good, but i liked them anyway. my stomach didn't always like them though.

there is a place in ohio called TEE-JAYE'S and it is sad but they're open 24 hours. they have something called a "barnbuster"

oh, barnyard buster sorry

THE BARNYARD BUSTER®
Two biscuits, two eggs, country fries, all on one plate covered with country sausage gravy.

http://www.barnyardbuster.com/images/barnyard-buster.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3566/3320831245_b42bd93182.jpg

shocking that a steakhouse isn't veggie-friendly. you should yelp that!

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 6:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol sorry I mildly denigrated your favorite restaurant. It wasn't surprising to me that Outback isn't veggie-friendly and I've only ever been there with in-laws because that's where they wanted to go, but since I'm vegetarian that's kind of part of how I assess restaurants. Weird right?

When he daughter got her grad degree, they all planned to go to her favorite sushi place for a nice meal, but her mom called them on her cell from the "Pigs' Trough," saying she'd already started eating there & everyone should come join her.

:( sad story. at Golden Corral you can buy take out by the pound.

we need a more thorough poll here.

Of the list, I say Chili's in a walk, though I've never heard of Claim Jumpers.

Denny's was the first food I ate on American soil - had been delayed for over a day, had had about 4 hours sleep and it was the only place open. Had been eating plane food & Burger King for like two days so just wanted something vaguely decent. Dennys was not the place to go.

Although it did have some menu items "designed" by Sum41, like these:
http://www.dennys.com/en/menu.aspx?menuid=10&parentid=255

and a completely spaced-out-mom waitress.
Haven't been to any others, tbh if I want cheap crappy food I'd rather go to McDs or Burger King.

dennys is a given in this so i'll say fridays, they seem determined to be the worst at their particular niche. claim jumper is probably the one i'd eat at first, the food is nowhere near as shitty as fridays or applebees. they used to have a good sized 4-beer sampler for 5.00, since they got rid of it no reason to go tbh

Golden Corral pwnz all. Really, buffets are a grossness class unto themselves.

good god yeah i ate there in orl not knowing any better, now gc ads are starting to trickle into california against all logic. the race to the bottom between them and hometown buffet will be bloody

whut about this place?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrabba%27s_Italian_Grill

Been there once or twice. In between Romano's and Olive Garden on the Italian chain restaurant quality scale imo.

what about buca di beppo

how does golden corral compare to old country buffet

I signed my dad up for the ocb mailing list and he gets so excited about getting free breakfast coupons and stuff

lol too cute

maggiano's > bucca di beppo > macaroni grill > carraba's > olive garden.
would never choose to go to maggiano's though because it's way overpriced.

Oh man, I've eaten at Outback twice and both times I feel disgusting sick because it's just oil dipped in grease dipped in lard dipped in an American flag

i think they rub butter on the steaks i aint bullshittin

anyone who gets a steak at a chain is insane imo

Cheesecake Factory is more than respectable -- they have bars, which are charming in a generic sort of way, and they know drinks and can mix them well. It's their portions that disgust me.

Once at a Dennys my dad ordered a Lumberjack Slam or whatever, and when he went to pour syrup over his pancakes a big river of dead ants came out instead.

Their patty melt is pretty good, though.

omg @ dead ants

what about buca di beppo

ughhh. but...four meals for the price of two, so. should bring my own tupperware next time.

A student who works for Friday's sez they basically buy their own brand's frozen potato skins, pizzas, and Monte Christos from the local grocery and microwave them.

wow alfred that they can mix drinks at cheesecake factory is kind of amazing to me (i have never been to one; my gf has threatened to take me because her work goes there a lot for lunch)

tho I remember when in the eighties Friday's billed itself as "The American Bistro," boasted a menu several pages long, cooked their own food, and Sam from Casablanca played "La Marseillaise."

that is a testament to the quality of TGI friday's frozen grocery store foods xpost

haha

Are we polling chain steakhouses next? Cuz I totally rep for Fleming's or Morton's.