I have to agree with Applebees. Never managed to exceed sub-mediocre when I’ve gone there. The local Chilis used to be pretty good, but not enough so that I’ve felt compelled to eat there lately. Oddly, I don’t even know where the local Boston Market is – the only one I knew of locally closed many years ago, and having eaten there once, I can understand why.
I’m glad to live in a place where there are local places everywhere. Sit down chains only happen when I go to visit a family member. I grew up eating at them - maybe that’s why I was a chubby kid - but Lord help me if I ever go back on purpose. Even “destination treats”, like Cracker Barrel, give me an unhappy and bloaty stomach for at least a day.
Fast food: I don’t understand the love for Popeye’s. My students rave about it. I went there once to get a biscuit because my stomach was kicking and a biscuit sounded nice. I didn’t eat it. It was cold, kind of hard, and the lady who handed it to me gave me the Stink Eye. Maybe I had a bad experience or something, but even SEEING Popeye’s (or KFC) makes me recoil. It doesn’t even look like real food.
Hooter’s food is the worst I’ve ever paid for. The way-too-dry fries have no taste at all, not even a hint of the grease they were supposedly cooked in to allow salt to stick to them. It’s what I imagine eating styrofoam would be like. I’ve had better burgers at a cookout I was three hours late for, where all that was left was the forgotten patty that’s been hanging out at the back of the grill, slowly baking into a disk of almost pure carbon.
I’m also not a fan of the bag of ice dunked in the half-full beer pitcher to keep it cold. Yeah, cute concept until you begin to imagine where the bag of ice might have been set during filling and making it into the pitcher. “No no no wait that’s OK, you don’t have to dunk awww”.
What tore it though, was the creepy children’s birthday parties held there on Friday nights as the pre-clubbing crowd (my group) filed in. What kind of parents…?
I still have the deck of Hooters Girls playing cards I bought there, though. Well, I still have Miss Ace of Spades as a bookmark, anyway.
I’ve expressed my disdain for Taco Time on this board before, but i’ll say it again because the place deserves a special place in Fast Food Hell. The chain was founded in Eugene, OR (red flag) in 1960 (double red flag) by a white man (ABANDON SHIP), and I don’t think they’ve changed their recipes at all since then. Their food tastes like it was created by a man who read about tacos in a book and said “I can make one of those”, and whose idea of “spicy” was putting black pepper and white pepper in the beef stock. Their “soft taco” is a burrito, their “crisp burrito” is a taquito you’re meant to dip in “hot sauce” that tastes like watered-down ketchup with bell pepper seeds in, and their fish taco inexplicably has shredded carrots and jicama of all things on it. They have the audacity to sell tater tots as a side dish and call them “mexi-fries”, their white chicken chili doesn’t taste like it’s ever even been in the same room with a chili pepper, and I can’t even stomach trying some of their offerings like the “taco burger”.
On top of all of that, they have the balls to try and market themselves as an upscale fast food place, with table service and locally-sourced ingredients. A bland, uninspired burrito that’s honestly priced is just poor taste, but a bland uninspired burrito that costs $6 and comes with a side cup of ranch dressing? That’s an insult.
Fuck Taco Time. Fuck it raw.
Geez, at least McDonalds is a food company. mmm, meatloaf made by a private equity firm!
After you mentioned this, we decided to give them another try (we’ve got one about 5 minutes from our house, and in the 12 years we’ve lived here we never went. Spouse wasn’t feeling too well and wanted breakfast-for-dinner, so we took a chance.
It wasn’t bad, for cheap food. The pancakes were actually tasty. I think we might go back next time we’re in the mood for cheap easy food.
We used to trek over to the Newton store for lunch.
My vote for worst goes to: Boston Market, because they gave me the nastiest food-poisoning of my life. It happened 10 years ago and to this day hearing the words ‘Boston Market’ makes my stomach urp a little.
Second worst is Sbarro. Their food tastes like paste mixed with spackle.
It’s a WW2 German fighter?
I have eaten at two Hooters. One was in Tx and they had some of the best damn buffalo wings I have ever had. Then next one was in SF CA, and the same food was inedible. 
Red Lobster? Cheese biscuits are great and all you can eat shrimp is fun. Other than that- meh.
Dennys- we have two within a short drive. One is fairly tasty- the other is ghastly beyond belief.
Whoo boy, where to begin?
Breakfast - Bob Evans, Denny’s, Country Kitchen. They are all salt, fake cheese, and tough pancakes.
Lunch - Applebee’s. Slow service and bland, cheap “treated” food.
Dinner - Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday’s, Dead Blobster. High calorie and low nutrition junk food. It is not all about sweet sauces. And quit putting chemicals on your salad bar ingredients to preserve them. That just gives me a headache.
91 posts and not a single mention of the horror that is** Waffle House**? :eek:
I’ll just assume it was a given…
You’ve explained why I find the “Taco Hell” nickname so strange. It’s more like Taco Limbo, land of bland.
I’d actually rather go to WH than to lots of TGI McScratchy chains. At least WH actually cooks their food. Although my brother may give it the nod, since once time they did not cook his hamburger enough and it was frozen in the middle. Yet, it’s still better than Applebee’s.
I was going to mention it, but I’ve been told that Waffle House is extremely variable, with some places being awesome, and some really sucking, depending on who’s doing the cooking. My few experiences with it have been less-than-favorable, but not outright objectionable. I’m reserving judgment on it, personally.
I don’t understand the hate for Cracker Barrel. We almost exclusively get the breakfast, though. They had some pancakes with granola in them or something one time and they were fantastic. Oh and I forgot! I went there once for Thanksgiving (long story) and it was great! Maybe they’re better in the South?
If you like soggy and salty gobs of fried batter, I highly recommend these:
- Captain D’s Seafood
- Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken
**
Edited to add: **Golden Corral because they have the buffet where too many grimy hands can touch the food. Kids and chocolate fountains should be outlawed.
Put me down as another Applebee’s hater. It used to be somewhat passable. For years now, though, it’s been way below average, with way-overpriced drinks. Every six months or so, someone suggests going there, every time I go along with the group, and every time I’m disappointed all over again. I wish that wasn’t the case, because Applebee’s is the closest restaurant to my house, so it’d be very convenient if they just had decent food.
Your Panda Express food had flavor? Wow. My family and I went to one for the first time last year, ordered a bunch of food, sat down to eat it, and it tasted like a big bland nothing. The little Torqueling hated it and was very hungry, so we tossed the lot of it and went to Subway.
My take:
-Dead Lobster: everything tastes like old grease
-Long Jon Silver: it may be fish, but tastes like grease
-Chipotle: enormous quantity of tasteless rice and beans
-Taco Hell: I can only say -ugh!
Now the good places:
-Waffle House (and its imitator Huddle House): damn good breakfast and excellent fresh coffee
-Olive Garden: salad and sop is excellent, watch the salt though. They used to have excellent veal parmigiano-but stopped offering it (cost?)
-Cheesecake Factory: excellent steak diane-as good as I’ve ever had
Their Orange Chicken is reasonable, but that’s all I’ve ever ordered from Panda Express. Subway, on the other hand… the smell alone puts me off. I don’t know what it is about it, as I like other chain sub places like Jimmy John’s and Jersey Mike’s, but Subway just has this putrid smell to it. I’ll put it up there with Domino’s and Taco Bell on the wall of shame.