I suspect every community has one of these. A place that has a reputation as being very nice but in fact is completely mediocre.
I went to one of these places last night in Denver. I had to go in early to get a place to park (fireworks), and having a couple of hours to kill, went to a place to sit down for a decent meal, killing time in the process.
This place is called Baby Doe’s and it gets rave reviews from lots of people (not foodies), so I tried it out with some friends. This place takes a half-hearted stab at being “elegant” with linen tablecloths and uniformed waiters, but thats about it. Any town with 20,000 people has better restaurants than this one. A limited menu (steaks, seafood linguini, the ubiquitous “surf and turf”), inexperienced staff, and while it once had a great view of the city skyline, the view is now led by a six flags amusement park with flashing lights and roller coasters.
I don’t get why people fall in love with places like this. It is one of the only sit-down places withing walking distance of the football stadium, and a lot of people go there on gamedays, but there was a couple there last night clearly celebrating an anniversary or something.
This will make me sound incredibly snobbish, but this place has no ambition but to be the fine dining choice of the hoi polloi.
In Charleston, SC, definitely 82 Queen. It’s actually pretty good. However, the food is overpriced, and you can get the same stuff for less at any number of other local restaurants.
Not exactly my town, but it’s the closest I can think of.
Oh, if only our tiny town had ONLY one blah restaurant. They are ALL blah. You have your choice of fast food or supper clubs whose menus haven’t changed since the 1960s. With one or two exceptions, we have to drive 40 miles minimum to get a decent meal. Or cook it ourselves.
I suspect that the reason such blah places are popular is that old-timers get in the habit of going there and just don’t notice how bad the food is. Or don’t care. Or (heaven forfend) actually LIKE it. <shudder>
Well, I’ve never actually been there, but Dr.J’s been to a few drug dinners at Cafe Pasta, which is allegedly one of Michael Jordan’s favorite restaurants. He assures me that it’s perfectly adequate but by no means stellar, and that the food at the little Italian place up the street from us has food twice as good for roughly a third of the price.
I thought that was the exact target audience for places like The Olive Garden and O’Charley’s.
In San Francisco, there’s a restaurant that’s really popular with the tourists, called The Stinking Rose (they use a lot of garlic). I’ve been taken there various times, and have never seen what the big fuss was about.
St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, St. Joseph, and Waite Park, MN, adjoin each other and combine for a total population of more than 105,000 - never mind another 400,000 in the surrounding areas. So what are the popular “special event” restaurants?
Outback. Red Lobster. Olive Garden. Ooooooooh, and did you hear about the new chain, Space Aliens? How about Buffalo Wild Wings? :rolleyes:
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of independent restaurants. Unfortunately, 99% of them get their food from Appert’s (a foodservice supply place), and all 200+ restaurants apparently copy all of their menus from each other. Really, how many ways are there to doctor up a breaded chicken breast?
There’s is only one restaurant in town that’s really worth eating at, and no one goes there because, as my family likes to say, “the portions are too small”. Which means, of couse, that the food is well-prepared, plated without a pound of french fries, and actually has flavor.
Another small townie here, and yeah, that’s almost every restaurant in town. After living in Boulder, CO for 11 years, it’s been quite a change to move to a town where Red Lobster is one one of the better restaurants. We are lucky in that we have a newly opened Thai place that seems pretty good so far - not spectacular, but it’s Thai! And the locally owned fish place/brew pub down by the harbor is pretty good, but we go there twice a week sometimes… it gets old.
Steak and Ale is the most boring chain restaurant of all. My good friend tends bar there, but it’s strictly a place for the “bring your own oxygen” crowd to eat.
I can’t stand TGI Friday’s, Red Lobster, and Olive Garden, but I’m actually a big fan of the Cheesecake Factory (a higher-end chain with a more varied menu). I can’t think of too many real “old-timer” restaurants that have survived down here.
My complaints are actually about the blah trendy restaurants: the ones that think you become a Gourmet Schmancypants place by changing your name to Eatery and dunking everything in pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.
Asheville has lots of fantastic restaurants in it, but also has too many little trendy places like that: overpriced and uninspired food, the adult equivalent of Yu Gi Oh. Fortunately, they’re clustered in the tourist areas, leaving the good restaurants less crowded :).
Cafe Di Lorenzo in Tallahassee apparently enjoys a good reputation, so we went there for our first anniversary. It cost us nearly $100 for not enough food to fill us up. It was totally bland, undercooked and virtually tasteless. We remarked during the meal that we both can make better Italian food than that at home. So now we do!
Ruby Tuesday’s is also extremely blah, no matter which location you patronize.
I’m with ya on the Cheesecake Factory…in fact, it’s what came to mind when I read chique’s “Really, how many ways are there to doctor up a breaded chicken breast?” question. I went to one for the first time in May, and have been dreaming about going back ever since: I was at a conference in Baltimore with some co-workers, and we each ordered a different type of meal (seafood, poultry, etc.). Everyone’s food was excellent! I had chicken with some kind of parmesan cheese breading, and I felt like I could eat it forever…even the little bit of pasta on the side was very tasty. And, of course, they are known for their desserts: the cheesecake is phenomenal. The closest one to me is pretty close (about 15 minutes away), but I haven’t been back yet.
Anyway, back on topic: around here there’s an Asian place called Big Bowl that people talk about a lot, but I was not terribly impressed. I think it’s one of those places that folks like to take out-of-town guests to, but so far I haven’t met anyone who eats there regularly. It wasn’t bad, just ‘eh.’
I’m going to Chez Thuy for lunch today. This is an example of the kind of place that just kills the chains, but still they are packed. Small, independant, not a thing on the lunch menu over $10 except the softshell crab (yum!), yet people flock to P.F. Chang’s to pay more for a lettuce wrap than an entire meal costs at Thuy.
I’ll second that, ironically there are at least 10 better restaurants within 100 yards of the Stinking Rose. And Brandy Hos even does better garlicy dishes if you just want that garlic buzz.
O’Charley’s came to mind when I read the thread title, so you can put another vote down for them. The thing about O’Charley’s is, the writeup of the foods on the menu makes them sound spicy and savory, but the food itself is bland, pre-nursing home stuff. The people who wrote the menus really need to get with the people who are creating the foods themselves … major disconnect here.
Buffalo is that way too, really. Residents can’t say enough about how the city is a great restaurant town, but the vast majority out there are:
Standard neighborhood Italian red sauce joints with varying degrees of luxury, most serving very similar menus; heavy on pasta with tomato sauce.
Greek “family restaurants”. Basically, meat-and-threes that also include souvlaki on the menu.
Neighborhood gin mills with a bar in the front, and some tables in the back. Mostly 1950s-era menus and fish fry.
Exurban coach inns/taverns dating to the mid-1800s. Again, menus are from the 1950s, with almost every item being “roast” or “fried.” The Buffalo News head restaurant critic, Janice Okun, can’t get enough of them, even though they’re the Buffalo equivalent of the dreaded Wisconsin supper club.
There are very few places catering to “foodies.” There’s some in downtown Buffalo, the city’s Elmwood Village neighborhood, and the upscale suburb of Amherst, but compared to other cities, restaurants catering to foodies are few and far between. The types of places that Denver’s Westwordcriticsgushover are extremely rare. Even upscale national chains tend to bypass Buffalo, while opening outlets in cities far smaller.
As for “blah” restaurants … any of the gazillion 24-hour Greek diners in Buffalo. Locals love 'em to death, but the quality of just about everything on the menu there is … meh. Reliable, not bad, but … meh.
Heh–one of the only two restaurants I remember eating at in SanFran was the Stinking Rose. I was staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel, and the Stinking Rose was just down the street. And it sucked: I was really disappointed.
At least it was better than the other restaurant, a “pizzeria” that served stale cardboard slathered in cheap ketchup with candlewax melted on top and expected me to believe it was a slice of pizza.
Kate Mantilini, which has three locations here in L.A. County. I’ve been to the one in my neighborhood, and was completely unimpressed. It’s a beautifully decorated space (a nice modern design with big black leather booths), but $16 dollars for a Cobb Salad? I’ve had better at TGI Friday’s for half the price, thanks. Everything was basic, bland ‘steakhouse/diner’ food for ridiculous prices.
I’m lucky to live in an area that has a tremendous amount of independent restaurants, with at least a dozen within walking distance.
I went to one for the first time in May, and have been dreaming about going back ever since: I was at a conference in Baltimore with some co-workers, and we each ordered a different type of meal (seafood, poultry, etc.). Everyone’s food was excellent! I had chicken with some kind of parmesan cheese breading, and I felt like I could eat it forever…even the little bit of pasta on the side was very tasty. And, of course, they are known for their desserts: the cheesecake is phenomenal. The closest one to me is pretty close (about 15 minutes away), but I haven’t been back yet.