# Most evil chain restaurant? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514 "2010-06-17T04:26:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/21 "2010-06-17T13:30:03Z")
I had to go with McDonald’s just for the evil. They invented the modern corporate mass-producced styrofood culture. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/22 "2010-06-17T13:36:20Z")
I wanted to go with either Red Lobster or Olive Garden, for what they’ve done the general perception of their categories of food served. Both trounce the living hell out of what good italian/seafood should be, and ruin it for a lot of people. But I went with Applebee’s. They seem to have the corporate model of “we’re not going to serve you good food, and we’re not going to like it either”. I’ve never had a good meal there, I’ve never had good service there. I have, every single time I’ve been there (usually to indulge someone in a group who wants to go there), I’ve been borderline angry at the shitty food/service I’ve received. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/23 "2010-06-17T13:37:32Z")
I voted for Red Lobster. When the favorite item at a seafood restaurant is the endless supply of biscuits, there’s something wrong. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/24 "2010-06-17T13:39:37Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I don’t like most of them. A cheap date I am not. But I was the 1st to pick Golden Corral. “You can eat all you want”. “But the food is bland and shitty”. “Sure, but you can eat all you want”. Yes it’s like an American version of those terrible Asian buffet places that are everywhere around here. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/25 "2010-06-17T13:48:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Hey, CiCi’s is awesome. I’d eat there any time I could if their pizza was only as good as their breadsticks. I think they make their pizza intentionally mediocre so you don’t have too much of it. My ideal pizza place would be Cici’s pricing model, with their exact breadsticks, with Pizza Hut breadstick dipping sauce, with Papa John’s pizza made with the exact toppings you want just like at Cici’s (only, a bit thicker slices than Papa John’s,) with Papa John’s garlic butter and hot wing sauce. > [@](#): > > McDonald’s. Because they killed Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers? The one whose roast beef sandiwches taste like Arby’s sandwiches made from spoiled meat? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/26 "2010-06-17T13:50:45Z")
I thought I’d be the only one to choose Applebee’s, but it looks like a lot of people get it. It’s expensive, overcooked, horrible, and definitely the dumbest restaurant. Chili’s, however, is my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_McAwful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@Larry\_McAwful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_McAwful)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/27 "2010-06-17T13:58:05Z")
I went with Taco Bell, largely for personal reasons. It’s not that I think their food is any better or worse for you than any other fast food chain’s–I have no such illusions. My problem is that while I love the way it tastes, I invariably get a headache after eating there, no matter what menu items I go with, so I gave up on it long ago. For fast food, my favorites are Burger King and White Castle, but I have to abandon them, too. Ever since I found out that pretty much all of the big fast food restaurant chains use beef that’s been bleached with ammonia, I can’t bring myself to put that stuff anywhere near my mouth. I learned this two months ago, and have lost seven pounds since. My source about the ammonia information: the movie _Food Inc._ It’s not the grossest movie, but it’s enough to put me off fast food again. _Supersize Me_ put me off initially, but it didn’t wrack me with guilt like _Food Inc._ did. And I don’t think it’s really that much to mull over, since the result is my cutting out bad-for-you food in the first place. I still love a burger, but I can’t do fast food anymore. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/28 "2010-06-17T13:58:27Z")
I picked PF Chang’s for the sacrilege of their “hot and sour” soup. Beef stock, _ground_ pork\*, _white_ onions, white mushrooms, not even a token bamboo shoot or tofu cube, no discernible vinegar or soy sauce and no hot chili oil of any sort. It’s like they thought hot and sour soup is some sort of variant of onion soup… Perhaps they’ve improved in the last decade, but some sins aren’t forgivable in one lifetime. \*[sub]Might’ve been ground beef; the stock made it difficult to tell.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/29 "2010-06-17T14:02:14Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Roy Rogers? The one whose roast beef sandiwches taste like Arby’s sandwiches made from spoiled meat? Yes. Though I’d never actually had the roast beef; I always got the bacon cheeseburger. And they had the fixin’s bar, so you could build it however you wanted instead of having to order “a \_\_\_\_\_ burger no \_\_\_\_\_, no \_\_\_\_\_, and extra \_\_\_\_\_.” Everybody hates that guy. And Arby’s sucks! (except for the curly fries) ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/30 "2010-06-17T14:06:50Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I voted for Red Lobster. When the favorite item at a seafood restaurant is the endless supply of biscuits, there’s something wrong. Yeah but they are good biscuits. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/31 "2010-06-17T14:27:51Z")
I voted for McD’s simply because of the food being so awful. But evil? Maybe they do buy their toys from China and confuse kids with the eating/playing thing but they do so much good here for sick children and their families, particularly St. Jude in Memphis. I rarely eat out at restaurants but I had a great experience at Olive Garden years ago. It might be the Taco Bell of Italian food but what I had was pretty tasty and the service was good enough for me to remember it years later. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/32 "2010-06-17T14:35:13Z")
Applebees. Never had a good meal there. I will only go if I’m on the road and can’t find anything else. Oddly, a few years ago my Wife got take out from the Olive Garden. It was fantastic. I swear the spaghetti noodles where home made. Maybe they where experimenting. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/33 "2010-06-17T14:37:05Z")
I think many of us are confusing “inauthentic” or “Bland” with \. Evil can only describe McDonalds, which has done more to destroy American gustatory standards and habits than any other, by far. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/34 "2010-06-17T14:44:01Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > And Arby’s sucks! (except for the curly fries) No, Arby’s sucks _because_ of the curly fries. They used to serve some pretty good skin-on fries, but they dropped them from the menu because they can charge more for the curly monstrosities. That’s when I stopped eating at Arby’s (and wrote a nasty letter to corporate about the fries, as well). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/35 "2010-06-17T14:48:32Z")
Taco Bell, KFG and Burger King, especially when they put all three into a single building. Not so much that the food is bad (I like KFC strips just fine), but that they are almost always the filthiest fast food places I have ever been in. Say what you will about MikeyD’s food, but they are generally quite clean. There are exceptions, of course, but in general MikeyDs are far better managed and run (including attention to cleanliness) than Bunky King and it’s sisters. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/36 "2010-06-17T14:49:32Z")
There’s bad food, and then there’s evil against humans. I will never go anywhere near Cracker Barrel due to their corporate policy of [discrimination](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Barrel_Old_Country_Store#Policy_of_discrimination_against_LGBT_employees) against LGBT employees. Historically, if you’re not a white Christian, they don’t want you as a customer either. They may have rescinded the discrimination policy, but they still score the lowest of all food service companies on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality index. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/37 "2010-06-17T14:54:02Z")
I picked Rally’s/Checker’s. When I was a teenager, I atethere occasionally because the food was dirt cheap. And every time, I ended up feeling bad; ranging from a headache to a stomachache, to something resembling mild food poisoning. And after I ate there, I would swear it off. But a couple months later I’d be broke, and I;d think, “Oh, it wasn’t so bad.” And try it again. Rinse and repeat. Until, _the last time_. I got so ill. I remember sitting on the toilet, hoping, praying, to expel the awfulness one way or another, and being unable to. And I swore to myself there that I would **never eat there again**. No matter how hungry I was. No matter how poor. **NEVER**. That I could never forget what their shitty-ass hamburgers had done to me. It has been many years, but I have never been back. And I have been tempted! I have been with people when they went, and I was hungry. But I remembered the promise I made to myself, and declined. And when my companions clutch their stomaches and moan afterwards, I am vindicated. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/38 "2010-06-17T14:56:44Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > What’s the problem with Steak and Shake? It might be a bit expensive, but to me it’s definitely worth it. I have run into other people who detest Steak and Shake, but I never was able to glean from them what was so wrong about it. It’s an overpriced McDonald’s, the burgers are nigh-inedible, and I’ve never been in one where I didn’t freeze my ass off regardless of season. > [@Justin\_Credible](#): > > Of course, White Castle is the worst one of all. As burgers go, absolutely. I’ve only had it once or twice, and I still carry the scars. > [@even\_sven](#): > > I vote for Applebees. The food is basically TV dinner quality, and it’s really expensive. Not sure where all the Applebee’s hate is coming from. I agree it’s not special, but I generally have very good meals there. > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Actually, most Americans do not think that Sbarro is authentic New York pizza. Also, Michael Scott on “The Office” is not representative of most Americans. I hope this information is useful to you. I’ve only had Sbarro 2-3 times, and I regretted it each time. They seem to be in every mall and food court–they’re the ones with no line. > [@kayaker](#): > > I don’t like most of them. A cheap date I am not. But I was the 1st to pick Golden Corral. “You can eat all you want”. “But the food is bland and shitty”. “Sure, but you can eat all you want”. We have a winner! My family will go to GC once in a while, mostly to humor my grandmother. Dear God. 100 entrees, all bad. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/39 "2010-06-17T15:00:51Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > I picked Denny’s. I haven’t eaten there in years, basically because the last two times I at ethere, the meat was rancid. I couldn’t choose. However, another way that Denny’s is evil is that their chicken fried steak…is a breaded ground beef patty. Plus, if you try to order that sucker in the middle of the night, they don’t have mashed potatoes available, just fries and hash browns. Fries and hash browns are all very good, but they are NOT acceptable sides for CFS. Either offer CFS made with a REAL steak and mashed potatoes, or don’t offer it at all. A tenderized round steak is perfect for CFS. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514/40 "2010-06-17T15:04:13Z")
I haven’t been in Denny’s for over ten years. It just got too scary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evil-chain-restaurant/543514.md?page=3)