Olive Garden, Spike’s and Farmer Boys—why eat at such places when you could eat somewhere else and not feel like crap later?
McDs, Bk, and pretty much every other fast food chain. I exclude smaller chains like In N Out from that list, though.
That’s what I’d vote for, the Golden Corral and all those other horrible all you can eat places. Filled with miles of the most revolting, lowest common denominator crap, we’d eliminate half the obesity in America if we got rid of those places.
Panchos, a Mexican food chain, has the absolute worst Tex-Mex I’ve ever had. (unfortunately, I got stuck in one when the car I was riding in broke down on the side of a highway) They’re almost like a Mexican version of the Golden Corral.
But don’t mess with my Arbys. I’m nominally a vegetarian but every couple of months or so, I’ll sneak down to Arbys and get a ham melt. Yum…
Thankfully, I’ve never been to Golden Corral, but I’m with you on Panchos. Absolutely vile.
I can’t stand Outback either, and though I’ve never been there, I expect the same will go for Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse judging by the billboard adverts around this area. It’s nothing to do with decor, quality or any of the other complaints; it’s the fact that they serve steaks that are thicker than the hardback, extra-large print edition of War And Peace. If I order a steak “medium-rare”, that means I want it “medium-rare”, not with concentric circles of “charcoal” on the outside all the way down to “frozen” on the inside. Don’t even think of trying to ask for your steak to be pounded flat before cooking either, the waiter will just look at you like you asked him to fellate the entire clientele. In Swahili.
After a couple of (thankfully free) trips to Outback, I’ve sworn to never eat steak out again. It’s just so much cheaper and tastier to cook it at home.
That may be a regional thing as my partner is quite allergic to garlic and has no problems at all with Outback.
I haven’t been to one in 30 years, but if Perkin’s is anything like it used to be (back when it was Perkin’s Pancake House), nuking’s too good for it. Let’s put it this way: when I was in college, Red Barn was in improvement over the college cafeteria. Perkin’s tasted like the cafeteria’s oil vat sludge.
But the absolute worst restaurant I’ve ever been to is Bullwinkle’s, in West Yellowstone, MT. Filthy, filthy place, with ungodly bad food. I think they must have picked up week-old road kill from the park. We only stayed because we were starving, but three bites of the food told us that the fourth would have us hugging the toilet. And people were standing in line to get in.
Going to have to vaporize…
Chuck-E-Cheese
Poppa John
Little Ceasar
and all their pizzas.
and BK. I had BK for lunch one day and was burping char-broil the rest of the afternoon. Had pepperoni pizza for supper. Burped. There’s that d**n char-broil again.
Blasphemy!! How else would my mother be able to feed my son and his friend when they stay for vacation in Prescott with her? She isn’t up to doing all that cooking for a couple of picky eaters, and do you KNOW what vast quantities of food 17 year old boys can eat? She thinks the all-you-can-eat buffet thing is groovier than sliced bread! 
I’ve got no problems with a lot of these places because I know exactly what to expect from them. I mean for a buck fifty I can satisfy my desire for that addictive fake cheese and sour cream at Taco Bell, and at that kind of price it would be a miracle for the person behind the encounter to exhibit any type of competence. These people need to have pictures on the buttons, yet people expect them to handle a substitution order? And it never would have ever occured to me that someone would actual order a steak at one of these “Shenanigans” places. That said, there are a few standout places that go above (perhaps below is the term) their peers to suck. They include:
Carlos O’Kelley’s – At least they give you a proper clue before you even walk in the door that this Mexican restaurant will suck. With that kind of honesty, I’ll bet they’d tell you what brand of entrees to look for in the freezer section if you asked so that you could save yourself the 700% markup.
Taco Del Mar - As I’ve read elsewhere: “I would like to throw Taco Del Mar back in the Mar.” Makes Chipotle taste like fine dining.
Pizza Hut - How this chain could survive for so long at the prices they do baffles me.
Sonic - I, too, hate your stupid commercials. Your food looks good on the menu, but will always, always, disappoint. They should have erected bleachers outside of every Sonic because its food is more akin to stadium vittles than any drive-in food I’ve eater eaten.
Culver’s - This Midwest chain is exporting Milwaulkee to a town near you, clientele and all. Plenty of dairy, greasy meat, and fried goods without the beer or the authenticity. And ice cream with eggs in it. Gross. I wouldn’t be caught dead going into one a second time, but I’m afraid many regular patrons will be caught dead after going in the 5th or 6th time. For the sake our nations arteries, nuke this butterburger chain before it escapes the Midwest.
Another vote for Olive Garden. Here’s how it usually goes down: Salad - nice. Bread Sticks - nice. Entree - spit and wipe tongue off with napkin.
She’s not doing them any favors. The food in those places is always loaded with fat and low in actual nutrients. Yeah, they’re teenage boys and will (probably) burn off the calories but it’s starting them on the road for heart disease.
The perfect late night, drunk, need food now place to go. They must be preserved if only for that virtue. But, I will admit, that unless one is in the above state of mind, the food is terrible. Gut bombs indeed.
Hah! That’s my bf’s favorite tex-mex place EVER. I’ve been there once, and was underwhelmed, but it wasn’t awful.
The recipe for the biscuits is the same as a recipe on the side of the Bisquick box. They’re just drop biscuits with shredded cheese and brushed with a little garlic butter. And if you make them at home, you can add Bacon Salt.
I don’t know if either of these are chains since only one location for each exists in my area:
On the Border- a faux-Mexican vomitorium of a restaurant that could save itself a lot of time and trouble by reducing the menu to two single items, one listed as “bland” and the other as “excessively salty”. The privately owned Mexican places around town are leaps and bounds better.
Whitewater Pizza and Pasta- They should put “pasta” before “pizza” in their name since the pasta is decent. The pizza, not so much.
Haha, I suppose you’re right, but I was in seventh grade at the time, and it was the first time I’d gone there since I was five years old, and at that time my dad was the manager so we went every week, not to mention that my mom waitressed there for a while.
Plus fish has been my favorite food since I was eight, and I tend to order the fish pretty much everywhere I go out to eat if it’s good. And if I haven’t had the fish at a restaurant I order it anyway to give them a chance. (and only if it’s dinner. I can’t eat fish for lunch, for some reason.)
Joe’s Crab Shack makes good Mahi Mahi…salivates at memory
[ rant ]
God, I fucking hate Olive Garden. I hate it because it’s so Faux-talian, and their commericals make me want to stab myself in the eyes until I can’t bleed blood anymore (you could say they’re faux-nny). I started hating Olive Garden when a blonde, pale-as-paper, Scandinavian-looking waitress who couldn’t have been older than 17 argued with me over the pronunciation of minestrone, when I’m out to dinner with my Grandma Rose and Aunt Rita, whose parents were PURELY Italian, making me half Italian.
Similarly I want to punch Giada DeLaurentis in the face every time I hear her over-pronounce ‘biscotti’ and every other Italian word even MY family doesn’t accentuate half to death. Go to Olive Garden, Giada, and take your collection of 9813678236237567823 cleavage-baring tops and your fake-accented mom with you!! And I hope you barf when you get home because the lasagna wasn’t cooked enough JUST LIKE I DID!!!
pant, pant
[ /end rant]
Ah. Alrighty, then. I’m guessing you found the service to be acceptable. 
I’ve actually found Applebee’s to be a real crap shoot. At one I’ve been to a few times, the food was… almost palatable. The service sucked. At the one in my neighborhood, the food inedible, but the service is amazing.
Oh, I never thought of that. Well, consider yourself very lucky, because my local Outback uses garlic like it’s the antidote for every disease known to man, when it’s really the activator in my case.
Wait, don’t launch that missile at Culver’s. Personally, I’m glad o hear you don’t care for their custard - all the more for me
Their burgers and other stiff you can take out, but leave the custard alone
I’m going to have to go ahead and add Subway to the list. I know some dopers swear by the place, but I’m guessing the quality varies from restaurant to restaurant.
I’ve only been to one, and I went there twice. Both times I was tired and so hungry I could eat the asshole out of a dead moose. In fact, that would have been preferable. So hungry, and yet both times I threw away more than half of the sandwich. It was that bad.