Since we’re mentioning restaurant chains, I want to throw Chipotle into the ring. I could understand thinking it’s great if you live somewhere that doesn’t really have good Mexican food, but they’re also big in California and Texas? Why? How? In either state, you can’t drive for fifteen minutes without passing at least two actually good taquerias, and people are still lining up for the place with the blandest burritos imaginable.
Prosecco is better and cheaper.
Agree completely with the second part, agree conditionally with the first part. I say conditionally because although bad champagne is indeed bad, inexpensive champagne (or more accurately inexpensive sparkling wine) can still be quite good, e.g. a nice Spanish Cava for instance.
I like a good steak, but what I don’t get is the baked potato that is often offered along with it. A baked potato is peasant food - I mean you knock the dirt off of it and bake it. Sure, people say it’s the toppings on the potato that make it good, but that doesn’t really make up for the blandness of the potato itself.
If very fresh and still warm they are excellent. Hours later, they are below average. Day old- meh. Regular cake donuts are better.
Yeah, its okay, basically a reason to eat drawn butter.
Now in Mexico I had broiled lobster halves, no butter. Better.
I really like the cream cheese frosting, but I do not care for cinnamon.
Way better than McDs but yeah. Nice fresh burger, at a decent price. No doubt the best FAST Food burger, but that is not a big hurdle.
Yeah, not bad but I rate it “meh”.
Actually, a good pizza, like one from Pepe’s, is actually pretty good cold. But a bad pizza, like one from Pizza Hut/Dominos/Papa Johns/Little Caesars, is only okay fresh but really awful the next day, whether or not it’s warmed up.
For me, it’s ham. I will eat it occasionally, but I don’t enjoy it that much.
It isn’t easy to make good sausage gravy. It’s like alchemy. I’ve tried it, but I can never get the right amount of seasoning and the right texture. I like biscuits and gravy, but I get it from one of the best biscuit places in the country. 
Even better if you add some hot, greasy fries. They also have the best cinnamon rolls.
I’ve never had anything good from Chipotle. I don’t have anything good to say about any of the big chains like this that are a step above fast food. I think they might start out good, but eventually they start to cut corners on the food and we’re at a point where none of it is good. Panera, I’m looking at you!
The best thing about Chickfila is the little sandwich bag that keeps them warm for a long time. Magical!
Previous, brand-centered thread:
Agree on lobster and KK. Violently disagree on biscuits & gravy, kimchi and truffles.
You just wrote what was in my head.
I’ve had chicken and waffles perhaps three times in three different restaurants, and came away disappointed every time.
I love them each separately, and combining them sounds like a great idea, but it’s just not nearly as yum as it sounds.
mmm
Never been to Roscoe’s, have you?
This is why I’ve never tried to make it at home. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten out at any place that had decent sausage gravy, and I’m going into withdrawal.
Nope. Looks like they’re all 2000+ miles away from me.
Worth a road trip?
mmm
Biscuits and gravy and coffee ordered in a dingy southern diner where the ancient waitress calls you and everyone else “Hun” is God’s own breakfast.
For itself, nah. But if you are in the area, definitely!
So I was scrolling through the thread to catch up, watching for this one. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Chik-Fil-A that didn’t have a god-awful line of cars at the drive-through. The few times I’ve actually eaten there, it was okay but nothing special.
I do like biscuits and gravy pretty well, though. It’s not something I’ll get often, because I’ll usually feel like I should get something that’s, well, good for me. (Disclaimer: I’m not particularly knowledgeable about nutrition, but I kinda have doubts about that aspect of B&G.)
I agree on lobster but am willing to change my mind. I once thought the same thing about escargot, that it was essentially bits of rubber hose to dunk in butter. But earlier in the year we were at a restaurant that served it and I ordered some on a lark and they were delicious. I frankly had no idea that escargot was supposed to taste like that.
So, since my perception of lobster is also basically “expensive rubber for butter sauce transfer”, I’m willing to accept that maybe I just haven’t had the right lobster yet.
BBQ, on the other hand, I just don’t get the love for. It’s fine… I mean, it’s meat and typically sugary sauce so it’s a pretty low bar for being acceptably tasty but I’ve never had any BBQ anywhere in the country where I wouldn’t have been just as happy to have the pork or chicken served in some other fashion.
The key thing that is common to many of these overhyped things, and especially the overhyped casual food, is that they are enormously disgustingly sweet. The batter on Chick-Fil-A is about 50% sugar. A KK donut is about 70% sugar. Fried chicken and waffles is basically an excuse to add sugar to the fried chicken batter/breading, then serve it over a waffle made from batter with sugar in it, then pour maple syrup (or maple-flavored HFCS) over the whole thing.
For the vast majority of Americans, by which I mean obese sugarholics, that is what heaven is meant to taste like. no wonder they love it.
For those of us who aren’t sugar addicts, we just don’t get the attraction.
There’s a lot of people out there who are not adventurous eaters, and for them steak is the best meal they can possibly get because they don’t eat a wide range of things to begin with. That said, I’ve had some awfully good steaks in fancy steakhouses.
For me, there’s a number of ‘luxury’ foods that I personally find overhyped. Truffles, caviar, foie gras - they’re fine, but I have no desire to seek them out or pay for them.
I’m going to give a most tepid defense of Chik-Fil-A. Oh, not that they aren’t overhyped, or at least, that their success is all out of proportion to their actual quality, which I’d rate as “fine” for the standards of fast food.
But prior to effective competition in the market, they were the best chicken sandwich out there. Now that there are a plethora of actually decent chicken sandwiches available at many different, equally available chains, that is arguable - but for too much of the 80s and 90s, the other chicken sandwiches out there were minced cutlets, overly breaded and over cooked. I’d still say that CFA is one of the better options out there (in Fast-Food land to be clear) because since they are more specialized, there’s less chance that you’ll end up with an over/under fried sandwich at one of the other decent options (Popeyes or Wendys’, both of which often have a better option - especially spicy!) but with more uneven quality.
Does the difference in consistency justify the super long lines? Oh hell no IMHO, much like earlier comments on In-And-Out or Whataburger, but sometimes things are popular because you see such lines and decide it must be just that much better.
Dry-aged steaks.
The restaurant had spent months advertising that they were building an aging room, and how much the process would enhance the flavor.
I took one bite, and thought “Mom cleaned out the fridge, and is trying to get rid of stuff that is on the verge of spoiling.”