# The most overrated restaurant in your city **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262 "2010-12-24T05:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/41 "2010-12-26T23:23:27Z")
I just read how the co-owners of one of Salt Lake’s oldest, most upscale and (IMHO) most overrated restaurants, La Calle, (somewhere that runs at least $80-100 per person, not including wine, which for this local market is VERY expensive) checked into the Marriott last night and each ate a Merry Christmas bullet (this was a husband and wife) rather than face their impending financial belt-tightening. Their 80+ employees are S.O.L. as far as back pay goes, and the future of La Calle is up in the air, pending an investigation. La Calle was obviously feeling the economic pressure, and I am sure that there are thousands of places all over the country that are bleeding money right now. This is a brutal time for the service industry in general, and I imagine that upmarket places are especially feeling the pinch these days. (I recall a Doper who is currently thinking of opening her own spot up in Seattle and I hope that she seriously considers how tight things are for the average household) These places need to start offering some budget offerings that the average patron can afford… ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/42 "2010-12-26T23:34:57Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Juan’s Place in Berkeley, CA keeps winning polls in the local alternative weekly for the best Mexican restaurant in the East Bay. In my opinion, not only isn’t it the best, it isn’t even good. The last time I ate there the chicken mole they served me was reheated pre-cooked plain chicken with some mole sauce poured over it. Ugh. The idea that Juan’s Place is the best of anything is a mass delusion. I’m glad someone else feels this way! I have only eaten there a couple times and it was completely generic. I would much rather eat at a place like Cancun on Allston, even though it’s more of a taqueria and not a dine-in Mexican restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/43 "2010-12-26T23:39:02Z")
All of them? There’s a mindset among homers in Buffalo that any independent, locally-owned restaurant is going to have spectacular, “authentic” food, and that it’s impossible to find a bad meal in town. The homers will even give props to the strip mall Happy Lucky China Panda Dragon Star-style Chinese restaurants. **Anchor Bar** is definitely overrated. Decent wings compared to most places outside of Buffalo, but about average among locals IMHO. (Gabriel’s Gate, Duff’s, Bar Bill and La Nova are my preferred wing joints in town.) **Chef’s** , an iconic Italian restaurant downtown, also has a glowing reputation, but IMHO their food is a bit on the bland side. You’ll find better red sauce Italian in many of the neighborhood restaurants on the north side and in Tonawanda. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/44 "2010-12-26T23:45:32Z")
FWIW, I can’t find it, but a while ago I started a thread on restaurants that locals love, even though they _know_ the food there is mediocre or awful; Imo’s Pizza in St Louis, Casa Bonita in Denver, White Castle in the Midwest, and so on. The restaurant may even be beloved _because_ the food is so bad. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/45 "2010-12-27T00:15:43Z")
I’ve lived in a few cities with overrated restaurants. Kansas City - K.C. Masterpiece. Possibly the most name-recognized BBQ restaurant in the world thanks to sales of bottled sauce in grocery stores. It isn’t the best KC bbq in the city by a long shot. It’s fine, if you like KC-style bbq. But as far as I know, the sauce predates the restaurant – the restaurant was started by some marketing guy who figured that the sauce should have a flagship in its namesake city. Go to Gates or Jack Stack or Oklahoma Joe’s instead. Philadelphia - All three cheesesteak places (Pat’s, Gino’s, and Jim’s). They all have too much volume to be able to provide the quality they should be providing. The meat is under-seasoned. The onions are under-grilled. The prices are absolutely outrageous. Go to a street vendor instead. Chicago - I’m not going to enter the pizza discussion, but I offer Ann Sather’s, a celebrated breakfast restaurant. Yes, they’ve got fantastic cinnamon rolls. But everything else they serve there is pretty awful. The eggs taste powdered. The coffee tastes weak. The menu is totally uninspired. It’s probably the most famous breakfast place in the city, but if you don’t want cinnamon rolls, you’ll be disappointed. For breakfast, go to Julius Meinl instead. Or Orange. Or M. Henry. Or Big Joan’s. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/46 "2010-12-27T00:21:35Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > **Anchor Bar** is definitely overrated. Decent wings compared to most places outside of Buffalo, but about average among locals IMHO. (Gabriel’s Gate, Duff’s, Bar Bill and La Nova are my preferred wing joints in town.) It’s funny. All the Buffalonians I met told me to avoid the Anchor Bar and go to Duff’s (if they weren’t recommending their local hole-in-the-wall.) For me, it was Duff’s that was overrated. I wanted to like them so much that I went to both locations to give them a fair shot, but prefer Anchor Bar to both. Perhaps I had just built up my expectations for Duff’s way too high and Anchor Bar had been properly underhyped. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/47 "2010-12-27T00:29:47Z")
> [@Randy\_Seltzer](#): > > Chicago - I’m not going to enter the pizza discussion, but I offer Ann Sather’s, a celebrated breakfast restaurant. Yes, they’ve got fantastic cinnamon rolls. But everything else they serve there is pretty awful. The eggs taste powdered. The coffee tastes weak. The menu is totally uninspired. It’s probably the most famous breakfast place in the city, but if you don’t want cinnamon rolls, you’ll be disappointed. For breakfast, go to Julius Meinl instead. Or Orange. Or M. Henry. Or Big Joan’s. YES! Last time we were there I was sitting there thinking, “Why did we wait 40 minutes to sit here and be ignored at the table for 20 minutes before being served some really mediocre food?” And then I remembered thinking the same damn thing last time I was there. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson. I much prefer Clarke’s or driving up into Evanston for Lucky Platter (apricot flakeys FTW!) or even out to the 'burbs for a Walker Bros. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/48 "2010-12-27T01:03:40Z")
Oh, breakfast places. Another local chain: Cora’s. Cora’s advertises itself as the place to go if you want a really good, fresh breakfast. I’ve gone twice and both times paid a pricely sum for breakfast no better than the stuff served at Denny’s or Golden Griddle. Why on earth I’d want to pay $25 for a $13 breakfast I don’t know, but many people insisted I should, so I tried it and was out twelve bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/49 "2010-12-27T01:44:57Z")
P.F. Chang’s. Worst, most overpriced food I’ve ever eaten. Big disappointment. Cheesecake Factory was a close second. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/50 "2010-12-27T02:16:06Z")
> [@Pullet](#): > > P.F. Chang’s. Worst, most overpriced food I’ve ever eaten. Big disappointment. Their offshoot, Pei Wei, is utter crap too. It’s like eating frozen Asian dinners at restaurant prices. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/51 "2010-12-27T12:27:48Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > The most overrated restaurants in and around Austin aren’t upscale or gourment places- they’re down-home and/or barbecue places… > > …The town of Lockhart is not far from Austin, but it’s far enough to be an inconvenient drive. If you ever visit Austin and someone tries to talk you into driving to Lockhart so you can get barbecue at Kreuz’s Market, tell them no- you’d rather stay in and have a peanut butter & Jelly sandwich. The food is pretty bad, and it’s WORSE when you been driving 45 minutes to get there. We are going to have to agree to spectacularly disagree on this one. (Though many of the posters at chowhound agree with you that Kreuz is very overrated.) Which places do you favor instead for Central Texas-style barbecue? Kreuz used to be my favorite place for barbecue—even over Smitty’s, Black’s and Louie Mueller’s in Taylor—but[Franklin Barbecue](http://www.franklinbarbecue.com/) has taken its place. Plus, Franklin is within Austin, so you get to skip the half hour-ish each way drive to Lockhart. Thanks for the Chicago recommendations, **WhyNot** and **pulykamell** ; I’ll have to give Gulliver’s or Pequod’s a try the next time I’m in town. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/52 "2010-12-27T13:49:13Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > We are going to have to agree to spectacularly disagree on this one. (Though many of the posters at chowhound agree with you that Kreuz is very overrated.) Which places do you favor instead for Central Texas-style barbecue? Kreuz used to be my favorite place for barbecue—even over Smitty’s, Black’s and Louie Mueller’s in Taylor—but[Franklin Barbecue](http://www.franklinbarbecue.com/) has taken its place. Plus, Franklin is within Austin, so you get to skip the half hour-ish each way drive to Lockhart. > > Thanks for the Chicago recommendations, **WhyNot** and **pulykamell** ; I’ll have to give Gulliver’s or Pequod’s a try the next time I’m in town. Well, we don’t HAVE to agree. OBVIOUSLY, if you or I consider any restaurant to be highly overrated, it follows that there are LOTS of people who love it. So, enjoy your next dinner at Kreuz’s. You just couldn’t pay ME enough to accompany you. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/53 "2010-12-27T16:08:19Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > Their offshoot, Pei Wei, is utter crap too. It’s like eating frozen Asian dinners at restaurant prices. Odd, I’ve enjoyed every meal I’ve had at Pei Wei. It’s good for fast food. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/54 "2010-12-27T18:06:43Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Juan’s Place in Berkeley, CA keeps winning polls in the local alternative weekly for the best Mexican restaurant in the East Bay. In my opinion, not only isn’t it the best, it isn’t even good. > [@markdash](#): > > I’m glad someone else feels this way! I have only eaten there a couple times and it was completely generic. I would much rather eat at a place like Cancun on Allston, even though it’s more of a taqueria and not a dine-in Mexican restaurant. Me three. I also tried their mole and found it surprisingly bland and unimpressive. Not just ordinary, but a notch below average. I don’t really get the love. In fact just this Christmas on Saturday my sister-in-law mentioned it in passing as “their favorite Mexican place” and though I didn’t say anything, I was perplexed. Usually they like _good_ food. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/55 "2010-12-27T18:15:27Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > Odd, I’ve enjoyed every meal I’ve had at Pei Wei. It’s good for fast food. I thought it was the fast food version of PF Chang’s. I eat at both as often as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/56 "2010-12-27T18:30:37Z")
L’Escargot. The service, the food, the atmosphere, even the snails are terrible. If you can’t cook the dish your restaurant is famous for, really, give your Michelin star back. ETA: apparently they have already lost their star. Not surprised at all. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262/57 "2010-12-27T18:36:44Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I thought it was the fast food version of PF Chang’s. I eat at both as often as possible. Is it fast food? Every place I’ve ever lived has little storefront Chinese food places that are much cheaper and much better if I want Chinese food fast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-overrated-restaurant-in-your-city/565262.md?page=2)