Chinese restaurants in the U.S. are generally horrible. I’d love to go to one that served actual authentic Chinese cuisine sometime.
Is that a joke? I’ve never been to the place (heard horrible things), but you’ve got to be kidding me. They really name things like that?
Cheesecake Factory. Decent cheesecake, but not worth the wait.
Bennigan’s has nothing interesting on the menu at all.
Bob Evans is second-rate diner food; you get better stuff in any independent diner anywhere.
AFAIK, Steak and Ale has gone under (as a chain – there may be individual restaurants).
I think it depends on where you are. Boston has tons of excellent independant restaurants (and a good handful of terrible ones). In fact, except for the major fast food places, it’s hard to find chains in the city limits.
Except Sbarro. And I’m not a fan. They once advertized a breakfast sandwich. It was basically an english muffin with a greasy egg, mozzerella, and pepperoni. And it tasted like bad pizza. And I think it cost $6.
Never. Again.
Are you kidding me? We go there whenever my cousin Vinny is in town visiting from Sicily and he wants a taste of home.
I’ve been to Lonestar once (not to be confused with Longhorn). Had the most disgusting babyback ribs ever. I couldn’t even eat them - I started to cut into them, and the top peeled off to reveal a massive layer of fat on top! Eeeew. My date asked me if I wanted to get something else - I didn’t want to risk it.
Susan
Sacrilege! My yearly visit to the Temple of the Plastic Cow is this Friday. I used to get the Frank’s cut Prime Rib (24 oz), but I’ve cut back to the King cut (16 oz) in recent years.
One time a vegetarian friend came with us to the Hilltop. The only thing he could eat safely was the steamed carrots. Even then he had to make a special request that they hold the 1/2 lb. of butter they put on.
I’d have to vote for Applebee’s for nasty. On my single visit there, I was served chicken tartare.
Chicken con broccoli is real. Here is the recipe that Olive Garden supposedly uses.
Pasta con mushrooms may be something I did not remember correctly, but rest assured that there have been ads for other similarly silly names.
I deeply hate Joe’s Crab Shack. The food is okay, but when the waiters all get together and do their little song and dance routine? Dear God. I just want you people to bring me my molluscs. There’s no need to debase yourself for my amusement.
We have an Outback in Bangkok, but it suffers from none of the horror stories I read here. There are no televisions. I’ve never seen it very crowded, so always a table, no waiting. And really, sometimes I just want a hunk of meat, and steakhouses are precious few here. The only other one I can think of offhand is called Neil’s Tavern – it opened on July 20, 1969, so take a wild guess the Neil it was named after. Neil’s Tavern is good but very high end. I just don’t like paying that much.
Outback is very reasonably priced and so far no problems with the steak itself. The wife likes it, too.
As for other places, I don’t like McDonald’s and never go there.
I had the most horrible meal at Max and Erma’s recently. First and last time I’ll ever go there. I don’t even know how to articulate how bad the food was, but it was equally bad for everyone. Bland, weird, just BAD.
There’s a chain (well two resturants left, anyway) in these parts called Cattleman’s. It’s a steak house, and is open for dinner only.
Everytime that I went there, the food was either cooked incorrectly, or screwed up even worse when it was sent back. I ordered a combo meal that consisted of two New York steaks, along with some crab legs. The steaks arrived, and although I ordered them medium rare, they were completely raw in the middle.
I called the waitress over, and asked if the steaks could be cooked a little more. After a brisk 20 minute wait, the steaks were returned. At least, I think they were steaks once. They were burned completely black, with a nice brown interior. That was my last visit.
I also used to have a problem with Taco Bell. I could not get a ground beef burrito. I’d always get beans instead. This always made a drive-thru visit aggravaiting, especially trying to find a parking spot after my order was screwed up again.
Quit going to resturants/fast food joints; problem solved.
Try one in a Chinatown. We’ve been with a friend from Hong Kong both in New York and San Francisco, and some are pretty good. There are some good places, I think, near me in the Bay Area also, but those are in shopping centers 90% patronized by people from China.
But authentic in a strip mall place, serving middle America? No way.
Thank you for pointing that out. I eat in a restaurant once or twice a week. Rarely is it a restaurant that anyone would recognize if they were not from my part of the world. I like Anna’s for Italian cuisine, Weng’s Garden for Chinese fare, Ibiza for tapas, etc. I give thumbs down to Gardas (good food but service problems).
I’ve never had issues with Outback. Not worth the wait, though.
I hate, hate hate Taco Hell, Burger Chef (if they’re still around) and In n Out Burger. (That will catch hell.) Burger King has never done it for me - crappy fries.
I have an issue with Dead Lobster also - I’m not sure why.
I’ve heard terrible things about it. Never saw a need to go. Why anybody living in a coastal region needs to eat at a place where the fish is shipped in from a warehouse in Wichita is beyond me.
I had a bad service experience there recently. We were the only customers in the place, and it took them an hour to bring out our fucked up sandwich order. Nevah again.
If I ever find myself in a city with a Chinatown, I’ll give it a try. I do live in an area with a reasonable amount of actual Chinese people, and upon asking for a recommendation I’ve been told that DC is about the closest place I’ll find anything worth trying. 
Years ago my father in law had an engagement party for us at that hideous place. There was a fake finger nail in my sister in law’s salad. Neither my husband nor I ate red meat and so were out of luck. I guess if you like eating huge slabs of raw meat it is a great place to go but my feeling is if that placed burned down it would be no great loss.
Cheesecake Factory. Overpriced, lame food. The cheesecake is good but not heavenly.