This is the thread to lament, if one cares to, items that you love that have been taken off the menus of chain restaurants.
For example: I know that many folks don’t care much for Denny’s, but there’s a very well-run one near my place of work that I used to love going to. The thing that just kills me, however, is that they keep taking my favorite things off the menu.
When I began stopping there for lunch around 2002 or so, my three favorite items, (admittedly not exactly health food) were: reuben sandwiches, patty melts and chili cheeseburgers. For the first two, there was just something about the buttery toasted bread they were served on that really made them addictive. For the last, it was chili! all over a cheeseburger! And there always was a big bottle of Tabasco on the table when it arrived! Do I really have to explain?
More recently, they had an item they called ‘chicken-fried chicken’, which I guess was named that because the chicken was coated with the same stuff that Denny’s puts on a chicken-fried steak, and which, er, is not the same as on regular fried chicken. Apparently that confused the customers, so that was only on the menu for about six months or so, just long enough for me to get addicted to it, and then: gone.
They still serve hamburgers with cheese, and they clearly have toast, so it seems to me that they could at least keep the patty melt going, but no. Meanwhile, crap like their dried-out, understuffed club sandwich seems to remain available forever.
So, what now-abandoned restaurant fare do you miss?
There’s a place near me (Lucky Platter, for you Evanston critters) which used to serve this omelet called, I kid you not, “The Girlfriend Omelet”. I can only assume it was created by a long lost Lucky Platter cook for his really stoned girlfriend. Said omelet, in addition to eggs, contained roast turkey breast chunks, mango chutney, feta cheese, homemade garlic/parmesan croutons (in, not on, the omelet!) and spinach. Served with root vegetable hash (red onions, carrots, white potatoes and sweet potatoes). Ohmigod. So. Good.
Until they took it off the menu. For a couple of months afterwards, I was still able to order it by name, and then I just had to order by a list of the ingredients, as the staff changed. Now even that doesn’t work, as I think they’ve gotten rid of the mango chutney.
And, Denny’s is odd. There’s two within a few miles- one on Montery Hwy, another by the Airport. Montery Hwy makes an excellent burger, the other comes out with an inedible hocky puck between two stale buns.
The seven-layer nachos and the Monterey jack quesadilla from Taco Bell. I know that TB is not by any means fine cuisine, but damn if it doesn’t make good drunk food. And the summer after my sophomore year at college (the first summer I spent away from home, and certainly my dunkenest summer to date) I lived off of those things, man. The seven-layer nachos were loaded to the gills with crap (seven layers of crap, actually) and only cost a buck!
And not quite the same thing, but related…a really great local brewery here (Switchback) only does kegs of their beer. So unless you are having a party, or own a kegerator, you can realistically only get it on tap at bars and restaurants. They *used[i/] to make one-liter bottles of it in the fall (and only the fall,) but stopped doing that last fall because they didn’t make enough profit on them.
Sonic used to have the “Country-fried steak sandwich” as a staple on their menu.
Now it pops up for a week or two sometimes as a “limited time” option.
What gives, Sonic? That was the only reason I ever went there. I can get crappy fast-food burgers and chicken sandwiches anywhere…Sonic was the only place to get a chicken-fried-steak sandwich dammit!
Dairy Queen makes one too, but it isn’t as good, and there aren’t any DQ’s anywhere near me.
I’ll go a step lower than fast food. QuikTrip, a Midwest convenience store chain, has a decent selection of hot breakfast sandwiches, along with a rotating special. One of the specials about a year or so back was beef and egg on a cheddar biscuit with chipotle sauce. It was so very freaking addictive, and as likely unhealthy as it was I couldn’t avoid eating one every morning. They’ve since moved on, though, and now there’s odder things. The current special is a biscuit with sausage gravy inside, like a perverted jelly donut. Not bad, but it’s not my chipotle sandwich.
I used to work at Dairy Queen, and we had a one-time-special that was so devine…
The S’mores Parfait…
Think Peanut Buster Parfait, but with graham cracker crumbles in place of peanuts, marshmallow creme, and a tangy chocolate they called “Cocoa Fudge” (different then hot fudge). I can still taste it! I have been waiting 8 years for them to bring it back, but they seem to have forgotten all about it.
The cocoa fudge became a regular topping, at least. Whenever I get a blizzard now, I always ask for cocoa fudge in it (Warning: not for chocolate-amateurs).
Speaking of breakfast sandwiches, salami, egg, and havarti on a lye roll sounds really tasty…
I lived off Taco Bell in high school in college! Now it’s only a 2 or 3 times a year event.
I wish they’d bring back Chili Cheese Burritos. Those were damned tasty. They also had something else called a Steak Burrito Supreme that had little chunks of tater tots in it. Food of the gods I tell you.
Oh, yeah KFC’s another one. They put stuff on the menu, get you all jonesed out for it, and then it’s only when you’re trapped in the drive-in lane that you discover they’ve dropped it. Bastards.
Taco Bell had a Big Beef Burrito that I loved. It was pretty much just beef, cheese, onions, and sauce. Delicious. And now gone. I also miss the gordita that had black beans and corn in it–it had the most wonderful sauce. I think it was called the Santa Fe Gordita, but I can’t remember. I hardly ever eat Taco Bell now because all my favorite things are gone. Well, that and it’s horrible for you.
My favorite ice cream joint used to make a buttercream-flavored ice cream that was absolutely divine. It tasted just like the best cake icing you’ve ever had. I miss it terribly.
Isn’t that sweet sauce just their Arby’s Sauce? I had a B&C last week and I was sure that it still had the sauce on it. Also, they give it out in those little packets.
