I’ll have to admit that a lot of the Chinese and Mexican places in a good portion of Florida are bad to awful as far as offerings go. I’d say one of the reasons that Mexican food is so bland has to do with the abundance of Cuban food around here; it’s also a bit bland, but flavored with very different things.
There are a handful of good Asian restaurants in my area; most of them are near the ocean (Tamarind in Deerfield Beach on US1) or tend toward the Japanese end of things (the museum where I volunteer has an excellent Japanese restaurant, but there are two or three others in the Boca Raton area that are pretty good).
I’ve gotten to the point where there are very few chain restaurants that I really enjoy. Most fast food isn’t palatable to me anymore (I can’t eat french fries these days 'cause they’re too greasy, and Wendy’s seems to be convinced that I want a ketchup-flavored burger), so I tend to go to the “fancy sandwiches” end of fast food or (like today) Pollo Tropical. <— Their chicken is abysmal, but their shrimp skewers are not bad at all. When it comes to sit-down restaurants, I find that a lot of places don’t provide enough options that are somewhere between vegetarian and carnivorous without it being some sort of iceberg lettuce salad with a handful of chicken tossed on and ranch dressing (blech!) as the preferred dressing option. Most places seem to oversalt their food too, especially [it seems] to the point that all you can taste is salt. I end up going to places like Stir Crazy because I can choose to have a dish that’s got more vegetables than meat on it, but still has enough meat to be satisfying.
Is it to hard to ask for a variety of vegetables and fruits as part of a normal meal in a restaurant? If I wanted a baked potato or french fries as my only accompaniment, I’d make it at home, damnit!
Sounds like you made the mistake of going to Sonny’s . When I lived in Tampa, there were about 250 of them in the area, each worse than the last. OTOH, there was a smaller chain called Roger’s which was much more palatable. But, for the most part, barbecue chains kinda suck.
And another vote for Tony Roma’s . I remember it being pretty decent about 10 years ago. Went to one here in Vegas about a month ago and it was damn near inedible!
Olive Garden has improved over the last couple of years, but I much prefer Romano’s Macaroni Grill .
Still like Outback , though its quality has slipped a little recently.
But for disappointment in the steak area, I recall my one and only visit to Ruth’s Chris . It was about 15 years ago in Atlanta, and I remember thinking how outrageusly expensive it was for a mediocre meal. At least at Outback I don’t have to take out a 2nd mortgage for a decent steak.
And here in Vegas, everyone makes a big deal over The Original Pancake House . Personally, I’ve had better breakfasts at Denny’s .
I think that you could blind-fold someone and put them in a Chili’s Bennigan’s or applebee’s, take the blind-fold off, and they could NOT tell which place they were in from the menu or from the taste of the food. They are all alike to me, not bad but not really good.
I could certainly pick out Applebee’s, if it was the one down the street from me. It’s far from bland, it’s actively offensive. I wonder if they put some unauthorized ingredient in everything. Sodium pukinate or something.
