I love the pizza at BJs.
I’m impressed by the food at PeiWei, the faster food version of PF Changs. (the one time I tried PF Changs, it was too salty)
Pick Up Stix has some delicious varieties of Asian cuisine. Cooked fresh to order. I wouldn’t stay in there to eat, though—I’d get very uncomfortable on all the wooden chairs.
Rally’s food isn’t bad at all, especially for the price, but they must hire the people who are too dumb to work at other fast food restaurants. They almost invariably get my order wrong, even when I’m only ordering one single item!
On the plus side, I’m looking forward to when we get a Noodles & Company here in town.
Whataburger is consistently excellent for a mass burger chain.
I love PeiWei. Fuddrucker’s is good.
I really like Red Robin. They have a really diverse menu for that kind of restaurant, and I crave their Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Wrap. I’ll always think of Red Robin fondly because when Tropical Storm Allison caused catastrophic floods in Houston in June 2001, a bunch of us were stranded overnight in a small entertainment complex that suddenly turned into an island. The Red Robin stayed open all night until the waters receded at 9 or 10 the next morning. They made free coffee and soda available to everyone (including all the riders from a Greyhound bus that was forced to stop there) while we napped in their booths and watched the local news coverage on the TVs there.
St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera, to the rest of you) has always been good whenever I’ve gone there. And I keep finding new stuff on their menu that I like.
Was it the Marq*E, at I-10 and Silber?
I was pleasantly surprised by Checkers, too. A lot of mid-range sports bar type establishments are good, too, but I’d expect that. If I ate at a good Applebee’s, OTOH, I’d be pleasantly surprised by that.
I guess I was a bit pleasantly surprised by Carrabba’s, but only in that the atmosphere wasn’t sport-barry, and that’s what I’d expect from a mid-range chain. Very quiet. The food’s good too.
Chipotle is one of my favorites. They make some great burritos. We also had a very tasty (and reasonably healthy) meal at Applebee’s last weekend.
I recently had a surprisingly good meal at an Outback in Florida. Normally I am not impressed at all by chain restaurant steak, but I got a prime rib and it was suprisingly good: cooked precisely as I wanted, plenty of jus, and very tender. Not fancy-steak-house-aged-for-weeks-good, but much better than I expected.
But what was really spectacular was the service. Our waitress was one of the best I’ve ever had in my life, including ludicrously expensive steak houses. My wife has a lot of food allergies, so chain restaurants can often be dicey, but our server was absolutely perfect about it, and the chef made a special sauce that she could eat with her meal since she couldn’t eat the normal one (this is almost never an option at a chain). I cannot emphasize enough how attentive the server was to the allergy issue, and to the entire meal experience. She got a HUGE tip.
Plus the bloomin’ onion was fucking amazing.
My hubby and I ate there when we were in Boston back in 1994 and I wish we’d get one here in WV. The one good seafood place we had here went tits up a few years back and there’s none about. The food at LS was great, the staff were nice and the atmosphere was quite pleasant.
You go to Cheesecake Factory for steak? What a country! Honestly their name has to be hurting them. Same for Bonefish Grill, doesn’t sound very appetizing to me.
My pick would be Cracker Barrel. Good food, neat environment with all the anti-qs. The gift shop I can take or leave but better to have stuff to look at while you wait for your table instead of just sitting.
I love McCormick and Schmick’s with every fiber of my being. When I first came across one while searching for a place to have brunch in downtown Chicago, I was not sure at all if it was a chain. I had to look on the internet later to find out. Now that they’ve opened one in Columbus, I’m probably there once every few months. The menu changes daily based on what they have fresh, with a few standards that stick around a while. I try something different every time I go, and I’ve never had a disappointing meal there.
Zankou Chicken is pretty much the only one.
This is just my personal preference, but barring the occasional gluttonous dim sum outing, I prefer not to overeat because I watch my weight very very carefully. Of course, what I put in my mouth is ultimately controlled by me, but it is somewhat irritating to go to a place like this, eat, finish before everyone else because I’m eating a quarter or less of what’s on my plate, send it away so I don’t pick at it, then watch everyone else eat for hours and hours. I guess I could sit there with the food in front of me, but I’ll inevitably eat more. It’s just a given. Those little bites add up. So I try to get rid of it in front of my face as fast as possible.
Maybe if I were naturally thin, this wouldn’t be that big a deal to me. But I work really hard for my body and if I’m going to pig out, I don’t want it to be on something as bland and nasty as I find CF, or other chain restaurants, to be.
I had the same experience with the Capital Grille in DC. So much so that I forgot about it being a chain in this thread. While the high $20 steak is more than I’d ever want to pay for an a la carte steak, it was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had, and the portions of the sides were huge for their $4-7 price (each side could easily be sides for three.) Not to mention the huge wine list.
Red Robin all the way. I went there by myself Saturday afternoon just to have a good burger and fries. Because it was so packed, I sat at the bar, and although I never ordered an alcoholic or mixed drink, the bartender was fantastically sweet to me and my service was lightning quick. The food’s good, too. As loud and crowded as it can be, I always have a good experience there.
Carrabba’s was excellent the one time I went, too. I still crave their pistachio cannolis. 
I don’t like big portions either, but I can take the leftovers home and eat them for lunch the next day. That helps rationalize the cost of eating out a little too, if I get 2 meals worth.
I’ve never had a bad sandwich at Schlotzky’s, especially their namesake sandwich.
ohh… Another nod for Carrabbas and Outback. They both defy the mediocrity found in other chain restaraunts.
Also, Pei Wei and Panara Bread for a much better fast food experience.
As far as Burgers and tacos go, there’s no such thing as authentic or gourmet. You have to get the best specimens from greasy dives that havent cleans out their frier for ages. I also LOVE Wendy’s and Taco Bell.