Ever boycott a favorite restaurant?

[silenus]

Chik-fil-A, as others have noted.

[Dr.Woo]

@Tamerlane

Yep. You can search for “Pasand Lounge” owned by one Lakireddy Bali Reddy in Berkeley, CA. Good food, but that is about the only time I actually boycotted something seriously. Personally I felt his sentence was a bit light.

Exactly. It hurt my very soul to stop going to the Pasand in Santa Clara, but damn.

[WolfpackJeep]

Chik-fil-a, for the reasons noted above.

I have no plans to ever set foot in an Andy’s (now HWY 55) again, as the horrible food handling practices at their Mount Olive location kept me out of school for a couple of days in 2000.

[Mithras]

@Anne_Neville

Every time I’ve eaten at Cheesecake Factory, what I’ve ordered (if it was not cheesecake) sounded a lot better on the menu than it actually tasted. Then I look up the nutrition information after I got home and am generally horrified. I am not sure how they manage to make food that is so bad for you taste so mediocre. I also don’t care for the ads in their menu (they make the menu bulkier and harder to browse) and their policy of not taking reservations, even at locations where people are often lining up outside the door. Other popular restaurants solve this problem by- guess what- taking reservations.

Outback may be using so much salt in tribute to Australia as the #5 salt producing country in the world.

I do think it is a problem that casual chain restaurants serve such large portions. It certainly is for me personally, and I think it’s a larger societal problem as well. I try to avoid any restaurant that competes on “value” or portion size rather than on quality of food. I’m overweight, so more food for less money is not a good value for me. Especially since I know I will generally end up eating most or all of what they put on my plate. Maybe this works well for people who can say they’re only going to eat half of what’s on the plate and take half home for another meal. I doubt I’m the only one who manages to do this in practice only once in a blue moon. A lot of us were raised to “clean our plates,” and it’s hard to shake off that training at these restaurants.

It’s always been my belief that Cheesecake Factory was the result of the owners putting together a focus group and trying to implement every suggestion made. I don’t know how else to explain a menu where you could order a Thai curry, your companion a pizza, another person some tacos, you all get some cheesecake for desert, and then pick up a few folksy looking jars of sauce or whatever on your way out the door. I think somebody must have said that they like to feel they’re getting a good value, so the wand was waved and giant plates of food appeared. Last time I was (dragged) there I noted that someone else must have mentioned they count calories 'cause there was a section of vaguely healthy sounding dishes.

[Zsofia]

Not boycotting, but this thread reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write a very upset letter to a small restaurant we quite like. Last week we ate there and the waitress put the check down next to me and then ran back to get it. I assumed she’d given us the wrong check, but she exclaimed “I’m so sorry! I meant to put it next to the guy!”

<record scratch>

I think she felt my “WTF did she just say?” on her back as she attended to her other tables, so she came back and apologized if she’d offended me, and I was all, okay, that’s fine… and then she explained “I really hope you weren’t upset that I put the check next to you!” and I was, “Er, that’s totally not why I was upset.” And she kept on! “Well, I always try to do the chivalrous thing! I guess I’m just pretty Southern.” I politely suggested she just make it a general policy to put the check down in the middle of a couple without comment, but I’m still pretty upset about the whole thing.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@Eve

Here, too. Paolini’s used to be the best Italian restaurant in Bryn Mawr–I have never tasted tomato sauce as good as theirs and never will again. My family had been going there for 30-some years when they changed chefs (hell, after 30-some years, he probably died of old age).

Food became . . . average. Tomato sauce like what you’d get from a jar. We’d been so loyal to the owner and the staff that we tried going back a few times, but we–and everyone else–just fell off. Place closed less than a year later.

The new sauce probably DID come from a jar or can. Making good gravy takes time and skill, and it’s a lot quicker, simpler, and cheaper to just open a jar or can. Any minimum wage worker can open that jar of mediocre sauce. Making really great sauce or gravy (whichever you prefer to call it) takes a great chef.

The same Mexican place that I used to go to also used to have great chicken soup, and great tortilla soup. Nowadays, though, both soups have been changed, and again, I suspect that the cooks are just opening cans. I’m not naming this restaurant, but I will name another one that I still go to.

It’s a quarter til two. I’m going down to Antonio’s. It’s 25 miles and about 30 minutes away. But they still serve great soup and fajitas. And the service is wonderful.

[Anne_Neville]

Cheesecake Factory’s menu is already huge, and yet they feel the need to bulk it up further with ads.

@Mithras

I noted that someone else must have mentioned they count calories 'cause there was a section of vaguely healthy sounding dishes.

Unfortunately, “healthy sounding” and “healthy” aren’t the same thing. It seems like a salad should be healthier than two slices of pizza. But if you’re eating at CPK, the salad could easily have more calories than two slices of pizza.

There’s also the fact that, if you’re eating too-large portions, even if you’re eating healthy food, you will still be taking in too many calories.

[control-z]

I am currently boycotting an Applebees and all businesses that built on top of Pantops mountain in Charlottesville, VA. That would have been a great spot for a park with a scenic view of the city, not buildings and parking lots.

[StusBlues]

To the OP: I would have done the same thing. I don’t care how good your food is–you don’t screw with me.

[Enderw24]

I imagine that if George Rekers ever opened up a restaurant, you’d find a boycot soon afterwards.

[lorene]

@Thudlow_Boink

Are you sure they didn’t just mistakenly give you the tofu friend rice or something instead?

I boycotted Nestle back in the day, because of the whole baby formula thing, but I don’t think I’ve ever boycotted a restaurant.

[tdn]

Not a restaurant, but I boycotted Hood products for a while.

One 4th of July I was watching the Boston’s fireworks on TV. There was a Hood blimp in nearly every shot from the ground. I was furious that they’d take that opportunity to advertise on national TV that way, by putting their logo up where everyone was looking.

It was years later that I found out that the blimp was there to take the aerial shots.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@lorene

:smack:

Is “tofu friend” anything like Hamburger Helper?

[Kimballkid]

@ZipperJJ

Papa John’s is not my favorite pizza but it’s the closest and sometimes you just want Papa John’s. Not good pizza, but Papa John’s. Like wanting McDonald’s, not a good burger.

Anyway, the owner guy threw quite a shindig for Romney. I lost all taste for Papa John’s.

You mean Papa John himself or the owner of your local store?

[Yarster]

I have two very unusual boycotts going against restaurants, both of which have nothing to do with the food:

1. P.F. Chang’s - when it first opened, I thought it was decent and the prices were o.k., plus the wide open atmosphere was nice. Fast forward a few years and every douchebag in a suite with slicked back hair decided this was the place to hang out. And if you’re going to be a douchebag you have to talk louder than all the OTHER douchebags in the restaurant. Now when you go to one, you can’t hear your friend across the table without shouting. No thanks. Add to that the fact that prices started going up while portion sizes went down and you had a recipe for losing my business.

2. The Loving Hut - This is a vegetarian restaurant chain that is opening up all over San Diego as a healthy alternative. Enter the unwashed hippie crowd to ruin the place with their stink and the fact they show videos of the evils of animals being slaughtered to make their vegetarian roots loud and clear. Yeah, see ya’. Incidentally, if all these shitty vegetarian places are into not eating animals, why do they all offer tofu products that are designed to look, taste, and mimic meat?

[dalej42]

I’m boycotting Papa Johns as well because of the Romney shindig. It isn’t as hard now since I live in Chicago. Still, I had a free pizza because of my points.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Yarster

Incidentally, if all these shitty vegetarian places are into not eating animals, why do they all offer tofu products that are designed to look, taste, and mimic meat?

:dubious: Just because someone thinks that eating animals may be unethical/immoral/bad for the environment/bad for your health, that doesn’t mean they don’t want something filled with savory flavor and chewy texture. And it may be easier to get non-veg friends to come to a veg restaurant if there are meat-like dishes there.

[Count_Blucher]

Well, there’s this pub in Boston. It was famous due to a couple named Sam & Diane? I’d long planned a vacation with it as one of the stops when a few days before we go some upstart named Buckner hands a series to the Mets.

Typically unruffled, the management of the [del]loaf-pinch[/del] Bull-finch decided that NJ licenses weren’t sufficient ID for entrance to an establishment serving liquor. This was said by numerous bouncers busy shuffling girls who looked like they had just finished their first book-reports in behind them without checking their IDs.

“Oh, they’re regulars. This isn’t about them; this is about You.” :dubious:

Evidently, we objected noticeably.

“Where everybody knows your na-aaame… 'cause yer banned for life…”

[Odesio]

I’m not boycotting the On the Border Mexican restaurant here in Little Rock but I’m not going there any more. My wife and I used to be frequent flyers at this establishment to the point where we recognized the servers and they recognized us. The waitstaff knew my wife was a salsa fiend and we always tipped generously. Over the past few months the waitstaff has changed to the point where we don’t recognize anyone and the service has gotten abysmal. On one recent trip both we and the table behind us had our meals comped by the manager because the service was super slow. Last week we went again and the service was so bad that I didn’t tip and we decided we wouldn’t go there again.

So avoid the On the Border Mexican restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas located right across the street from Barnes & Nobles near IHOP and Mimi’s Cafe.

[Sister_Vigilante]

@Anne_Neville

Cheesecake Factory’s menu is already huge, and yet they feel the need to bulk it up further with ads.

Unfortunately, “healthy sounding” and “healthy” aren’t the same thing. It seems like a salad should be healthier than two slices of pizza. But if you’re eating at CPK, the salad could easily have more calories than two slices of pizza.

There’s also the fact that, if you’re eating too-large portions, even if you’re eating healthy food, you will still be taking in too many calories.

According to a book called Eat This, Not That!, Cheesecake Factory has the absolute worst pasta (Bistro Chicken - 2,819 calories), hamburger (Classic burger - 1,375), fish (Wasabi Crusted Ahi Tuna - 1,750), steak (Carne Asada Skirt Steak - 1,703, salad (Caesar w/chicken - 1,510), and kids’ pasta (w/alfredo sauce - 1,803) when it comes to counting calories.

Great book. California Pizza Kitchen’s salad actually IS worse than three slices of their pizza.