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Advice For Travellers - Chain Restaurants That Actually Are Good
I've only found two, Seasons 52 and Bonefish Grill. At least the ones I have eaten in.
Neither is inexpensive, both are what I would call moderate. The interesting thing is that Bonefish Grill is much better than it's stable mates Outback Steakhouse and Carabba's Italian Grill. The same corporation also operates Fleming's steakhouses, but I have never eaten in one.
Anyone else found any good chain restaurants?
Neither is inexpensive, both are what I would call moderate. The interesting thing is that Bonefish Grill is much better than it's stable mates Outback Steakhouse and Carabba's Italian Grill. The same corporation also operates Fleming's steakhouses, but I have never eaten in one.
Anyone else found any good chain restaurants?
Keep your stinkin' government hands off my Medicare.
Replies
Mike
I would travel far and wide for their Rotisserie chicken---thus they broke my heart and removed it from the menu---I have not returned (Wonder if I take my food too seriously?:) )
Otherwise my favs have to be indys---can no longer suggest a good meal in a chain
Denny's is always solid (assuming you're white of course). I like Applebee's, my wife likes Perkins (never been to one until moving to Iowa).
Fleming's is on par with Capital Grille.
When we were in Florida last month we met up at Legoland with my mom for a day. She was in Florida for the winter, in a condo.
At the end of the day we left the park, and were going to go to Applebees for supper, but I saw a Perkins directly across the street. I thought "That looks like a place old people would like". So we went there.
I was really surprised at the quality of the food, and the selection. Expected deep fried or re-heted ****, but there was a decent selection and it was actually quite good.
Otherwise, ****'s, right?
Setebello's Pizza is good but I don't know how widespread of a chain they are. Definitely not Americanized pizza, but if you are ok with that (and who isn't?!) then it is damned good.
Famous Dave's is totally acceptable too.
You go into a chain you pretty much know what you're getting. Some people are always looking for a hole-in-the wall which has the "best breakfast burrito in New Orleans" or whatever, but its a dump, the waitstaff is rude, the bathroom is dirty, and everybody raves about how awesome it is, and how IHOP is "too corporate" and all I want is decent food and a bathroom that doesn't look like people use it to shoot up heroin.
Maybe where you are---here--Ma N Pa are usually far and away the best
Not sure what kind of places Sherb frequents.
If I have to hit a chain while on the Road...Culvers.
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We found that exact thing when I researched best breakfast place in down town Boston. We flew in at 5:20 am and I found this place that the locals rave about. Worst greasy spoon I've ever walked into. Filthy hole in the wall, but it was rated high. Found out it's because that's where all the drunk college kids go after the bars close. Foods always great when you're plowed.
Setebello's pizza, we ate there in Henderson NV just a few weeks ago. The marg pizza was to die for, but I think it's only west of the Rockies.
You're lucky to have the Ma and Pa's, they've been pretty much run out of business here except for the ethnic restaurants. The good steaks usually are served up by higher end chains..
Mike
http://stoneyacresfarm.net/about/
p.s. Not to mention the truly crappy food in all the National Park lodges, with the singular exception of Jenny Lake Lodge where the restaurant is superb but very expensive.
I'm fine with chains. I know what I am going to get. May not be great food, but that's often ok. Of the chains listed so far, Outback good.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
I would not be ashamed. If my budget allowed it, I'd eat at better places.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
But chains usually are not less expensive than ma & pa places, at least not on the east coast. A comparable neighborhood Italian restaurant usually costs the same or less than Olive Garden or Carrabas and usually is better. Almost any independent pizzeria is better than any of the standard pizza chains, although I have eaten at a couple of chains that offer pretty good brick oven or wood-fired pizza - but they are expensive. Almost any local cafe, diner or coffee shop will get you a better breakfast, sandwich or burger for only a little more than non-drive through chains, and we usually can find a local restaurant for no more than it would cost to get mediocre standardized dinner at Applebees, Ruby Tuesdays, Outback Steakhouse etc.
What really surprises me in Georgia and the Carolinas is how even many locals will go to the mediocre-to-crappy chain BBQ places instead of searching out the hundreds of good independent ones, or eat farm-raised Asian shrimp (talk about your strange brew of chemicals inside of you) at Bubba Gump's instead of local shrimp at local seafood places.
This/\ /\ I swore off corporate pizza after my one and only trip to dominos
Places that sell the $4 heart attack value meal can turn out to be expensive in the future due to the health problems associated with eating at those places just to save a buck.
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There's a small operation in a town about half hour away----You can get a Bacon cheeseburger---made with real hamburger--real lettuce/tomato/onion----more real cut fries than you can eat---best I've had in a long time---told my wife--I don't think I could BBQ as well
$9.25
That's close here to what I paid for that double big mac meal--I hated
Someone mentioned Culvers...still has great shakes and used to be pretty good, now the fries are gritty frozen crap, they used to be fresh. Their burgers made a bad move some years back, lost the flavor nearly entirely I think that happened when they removed the "pink slime"...and it's expensive, actually nearly all junk food places are expensive. I tend to hit local cafes when I can. Most have been better than fast food.
I did stop at some kind of fish place in Wyoming, not Long John silvers...or any of the others known in the midwest or east. Never saw this one before, I had the best fish sandwich (Halibut baby not Haddock) I may have ever had, it wasn't like those flat things you'd get anywhere else. I'd go there again. But not too often, fish we get today whether wild or farmed are toxic. Salmon is the worst, it's poison (if you eat too much) in either case. If you do some research you will be shocked. I am regularly only eating Sardines, Anchovy and Smelt, anything that doesn't live long enough to built up their toxicity. I do admit to eating at the local Hardees in Waupaca when out on errands. They used to to serve a big roast beef that was three times the size of competitors or other hardees offerings. I think they got new management, now it's like the others....to be avoided.
Why in the world would anyone buy steak out at a restaurant? You can do it better at home any day. On western beef, nearly always tough, except at a "fine dinning" place in Manhattan Montana..I forgot the name...something trees or something. I have heard western beef has gotten better. I guess they no longer sell beef from cows chained to a weight in roadside ditches. I've seen that all over the west.
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.