Grossest American Chain Restaurant

I think the SF Cheesecake Factory I was recommended was on the top floor of Bloomingdales? Somewhere in the Union Square area.

Mom and pops fail while chains prosper because they're reliable. It's rare to hear about one Red Lobster being really good and the another terrible - they're getting their supplies from the same trucks and kitchen turnover is high so it's not like the cooks imprint a personality on the food over time.

Independent restaurants are more of a dice roll (and, realistically, often no better than a chain).

No way any of the chain restaurants are making better BBQ and catfish sandwiches than the 30+ year mom & pops that I like (although I get your point).

FYI if you like bread rolls at Red Lobster, this recipe is a very good approximation of them (my sister's made them several times, they're great if you're about to get drunk and watch football):

http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=4431#more-4431

http://e-lacrosse.com/blogs/lifeinthepros/files/2009/03/wafflehouse.jpg

i think reliability is part of it. but when you get beyond the denny's level, there's the spectacle of the whole thing: it's not just dumb shit on the wall, but... a western theme! glossy menus! or, sports memorabilia and crisp as fuck flatscreen tvs and an aquarium with a shark in it! dolled up waitresses in clean uniforms! mango daquiris that come from a slurpee machine! waitresses are writing upsidedown on a tablecloth that i can also draw pictures on with crayons! there are 58 kinds of cheesecake! that's what i dig, at least.

i spent four years in moose jaw, saskatchewan (pop 30,000), where local restaurants consisted of thick leather bound menu joints that served crappy doughy pizza piled high with mennonite sausage and canned mushrooms, pasta sauced with cream of mushroom soup (see: houston pizza, wayne and laverne's pizza, rodo's, the mad greek, cordova bistro). chains coming in and fucking up their game was the coolest thing that ever happened. and slowly, the old places got shut down and were scavenged by asian/etc. migrants, who opened a vietnamese place in a dusty old greek restaurant, best thai restaurant on the prairie's in an old polish/german bar/dive, a malay place in an abandoned grocery store, an indian joint in a failed steak house. the only good mom and places that lasted into the 2000s were... well, the chinese restaurants, that had been there from the start, and one place that ran out of an old carwash and had its menu up on hubcaps on the wall.

but the fact that their sign and menus were in Papyrus sort of turned me off.

Most elitist post itt

Anyway I fucking love Pizza Hut, I loved it even when there WERE local ma' and pa' options (I don't think Big John's is even a chain, there's just the one). I HATED Big John's, they made a thin and crispy crust and put green olives on the pizza. Disgusting.

Thank god for the Book It reading program that forced my parents to spend probably a couple hundred bucks taking us out to Pizza Hut.

think it is def a going with the enemy you know thing, particularly for out-of-towners passing through. hmm maybe Aunt Putsy's Country Kitchen is awesome...but maybe it's awful and plus they'll bludgeon me and put me in their meat cooler...better play it safe and get the QUESADILLA EXPLOSION SALAD at Outback. I know that's about the only time I eat at chain restaurants now, on road trips.

red lobster why bcuz u should hot have seafood in iowa

QUESADILLA EXPLOSION SALAD at Outback

Chili's, dude, sounds like you're out of touch with the menu at your No. 1 favorite U.S. restaurant

but the fact that their sign and menus were in Papyrus sort of turned me off.

Most elitist post itt

I was going off the other day about a new local mom and pop place that seemed alright in most ways but their logo is in Algerian. Not even regular Algerian, they stretched the letters out vertically. I can't get past places that put a lot of effort into everything but their menu / logo, like it's totally an afterthought.

Sorry, but to me the premise of this thread is akin to asking which, amongnst a variety of ways to die, is the most lethal.

Red Lobster are racist fascist pigs.

crustaceanist

How so u s steel?

If there is any of these restaurants I associate w/racism, it is Denny's, tho I suppose that is as timely as associating Jack in the Box w/E. Coli.

They sent hundreds of thousands of lobsters to concentration camps in cattle cars.

I believe at that point one may refer to them as lobster cars.

I thought Cracker Barrel was the notorious political "baddie" among this bad bunch- superfundamentalist and hardline, I seem to recall some pretty horrible policies about HIV positive employees being fired and a nasty stink/protest in retaliation.

The only one of these I have a distinct memory of eating in is Denny's. I guess they can get kind of gross at times, depending on the place, time of day, etc.

"We got paid off by Cracker Barrel!"

http://www.famu.edu/headlines/UserFiles/Image/Cracker_Barrel.web.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Holy shit, A) your'e in south Jersey / B) you don't like Pat's??

― This object perpetually attempts to sell itself on eBay. (Stevie D), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 11:31 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm from SJ and I also think Pat's sux and is kinda expensive. I'd rather go to Joe's or Mama Ciconte's any day. Scotto's in Woodbury is pretty good too ($6.99 large pizza special!).

Most authentic food on rt 45 imo is a Sicilian Deli hoagie.

^^ I am going to keep these in mind when I return home for the summer

have always wanted to visit that sicilian hoagie shack, but it looked like a money laundering front so I'd always get the too-salty cheap hoagie from shoprite instead. :/ (I suppose all good hoagie shacks look like money laundering fronts tho)

true. doesn't help that it is next to a tattoo parlor.

Guys can we have a SJFAP? We can all get pampered at Hello, Gorgeous! and then pop by Heritages for some sodas and then GO TO THE COLONIAL ON 45!

NO SBARRO NO CREDIBILITY

that's really stretching the definition of restaurant. which is their slogan, iirc.

Also I am usually not v pretentious/elitist but will willingly/sort of embarassingly admit I am a snob and a half when it comes to Comic Sans and Papyrus. Mostly I just don't get why other people don't get it.

i'm not the pampering kind but wouldn't mind stopping by the 'lo. good flapjacks.

sounds good, if I'm back in time

when i was stuck in stockton, ca a year ago for work, i ended up eating @ Macaroni Grill a LOT. the food was surprisingly pretty good, and it was one of the few good restaurants in what was otherwise a foodie's hell.

do they actually grill the macaroni?

Say, when "dyao" get back? (ha ha!) No, they don't grill the macaroni. They just want people to know it's basically an Italian-ish Chili's or Applebees

these places (like denny's) have gotten worse over the years, right? I mean I remember eating at IHOP as a kid (and Denny's, and the unfortunately named Sambos) and they were alright, for the 70's/80's. And I don't think this is just because my tastes have gotten refined; I'm pretty sure these places have gotten much worse. The last time I ate at IHOP it was barely edible.

IHOP has always been known as I-SLOP in my neck of the woods.

def. gone down a notch or two: ihop, chili's, sizzler

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4632991n?source=search_video

Denny's is like the nastiest place on the face of the Earth

I'd imagine K-Lo's kitchen takes the cake, so to speak.

kitchen? is that what you call it?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

i'd so much rather go to denny's than any of these. ruby tuesday chilis applebees can rot in hell

i chose Applebee's mostly for selling something called a "wonton taco"

The nastiest food experience I've ever had was in a Denny's; it involved oil and vinegar carafes that had a thin film of dead gnats floating on top of the liquid inside them and undercooked food served on unclean plates with unclean silverware and water served in unclean glasses. It was beyond vile.

xp: woah that is compelling evidence tho

I don't know what Dennys considers coffee these days, but what I used to drink there late nights was better than Starbucks.

i wanna heart Denny's simply b/c of their Nannerpuss and Paulie Walnuts ads.

wonton tacos:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q--bapvYnos/RvtwhMK60AI/AAAAAAAACOg/l0ukqP_mtW8/s400/Tuna+Taco+23082007498.jpg