I should mention that, with few exceptions, nearly all the truly horrible dining experiences I’ve ever had were at independent places. For me, chains are at least a bit more reliable.
For this thread, I might have nominated Applebee’s and Sbarro, but I’ve heard so many horror stories that I’ve never been to either of them.
My choices:
Mid-level sit-downs: to be honest, there are none I truly despise. Most are equally bland and inoffensive. Olive Garden, I guess, 'cause they seem not to go to any real effort to make sure their stuff is properly cooked.
Fast food: Long John Silver’s, by miles. Once a year I think “Maybe I’ll give LJS a try again, I could really use some fish and chips”. Every time, I end up throwing it out half-eaten.
Most disappointing: 1) Wendy’s (in the past two years they’ve systematically destroyed everything I once liked on their menu) and 2) Panda Express (their fried rice is awful, which lets everything else down, and I swear to God, Jack in the Box’s Chicken Teryaki bowl and egg rolls are better than anything on the Panda Express menu).
Jack in the Box. I’ve only eaten in one, which used to be near Mission Beach in San Diego. All the homeless hung out there. The burgers tasted like fried Strongheart canned dog food. Awful, awful, awful. Mercifully, it was closed last time I was there.
Did Sizzler suddenly make a big leap in quality (like as in over the Grand Canyon)? Or is it sorta like the Orphans from the movie “The Warriors,” so bad we won’t even acknowledge it.
Dude. It’s a hamburger chain. I mean, if you dont eat hamburger, then you really have no right to bitch about the food there.
Now as for the fries, many people love them, since they are made fresh, right there. To me, they are underdone. But as I found out In&Out has no problem at all with special orders, so i have got mine “extra crispy” and they were quite nice.
I was gonna say… (In N Out, for me, is about as perfect a large chain fast food restaurant can be. I wish I didn’t have to go halfway across the country to get them. Seriously, from the quality of the food, to the prices, to the service, it stuns me that such a place even exists.)
The service at In N Outs floors me. The first time I went to one in LA, I was completely dumbfounded, as I’m used to fast food service being indifferent at best, at least around here. I’m not exaggerating–I have never in my life seen fast food employees who seemed so genuinely happy to be working their jobs. And every In N Out I’ve visited has been like that. Are their employees lobotomized or something? It’s so disconcerting to me (in a good way, of course.)
They’re well paid and well treated, so the company has their pick of employees. From the company website:
“We start all our new Associates at a minimum of $10.00 an hour for one simple reason…you are important to us! And our commitment to a higher starting wage is just one of the ways in which we show it. Another way is through offering excellent benefits like flexible schedules to accommodate school and other activities, paid vacations, free meals, comprehensive training, and a 401k plan. For our full time Associates, we provide a benefits package that also includes medical, dental, vision, life and travel insurance coverage.”
You saying that about Imo’s is if I went up to Chicago and ordered pizza and said ‘What the fuck this pizza is SO THICK fuck you Unos’ You still have a right to say it, but I think it’s more of a regional thing.
I worked at Imo’s all throughout high school and into college - it’s provel you ate on that pizza, and each of the locations is independently owned and operated. Some are better than others. I worked at 2 different ones and one was vastly superior in quality than the other. The owners of the ‘good’ store bought better ingredients and cut less corners, and you could tell from the final product. And whether or not you knew what you were ordering, you were ordering a specific style of pizza that a lot of people not from the area tend not to like (judging from comments I have seen here and elsewhere).
For my own entry: fuck Applebees. When I was a kid my parents took us there a lot. Used to have pretty yummy chicken fingers and they’d rotate in some decent stuff. I remember a brisket sandwich that I liked, they had these little chicken bacon sliders that were good…everything good they GET RID OF. Most of their food seems to be prepacked microwave junk and the few things they had that still at least tasted OK they change or just trash from the menu completely. When I hit drinking age they had Long Island Ice Teas that were delicious and they’d have them on special for $2 at late night happy hour…GONE. I haven’t been except dragged for a work event in years.
Sorry if it didn’t come through. That was a particularly serious nomination. Though I do dislike their french fries. Even well done. French fries are not, in my opinion, something that is best when made fresh and quickly. But that is just personal opinion.
But I do kind of hate them because I always feel like an ass because friends will want to go there and they’re really the only place I have to completely veto since I simply can’t eat there. And there is no such thing as a good food that has American cheese on it and if my friends can’t recognize that I doubt their ability to identify good food.
Imo’s style pizza and Provel cheese seems to be somewhat controversial even in St. Louis, in my experience. Personally, for me, an Imo’s style pie looks great, but I just can’t get past the “cheese.” (For those who don’t know, Provel is a cheese food product in the same general ballpark as Velveeta.) I wouldn’t necessarily call it “bad,” but it’s not one of the regional style of pizzas I’ll actively seek out. I could see Provel working well in macaroni and cheese, but it just doesn’t work for me on a pizza anymore than putting Velveeta on a pizza would work for me.
Provel is made using cheddar, swiss and provolone, and it’s more “gooey” and creamy than mozzarella is - which I think a main source of the problem for people. They made it so when you bite into it, it doesn’t get all stringy like mozzarella does, it just bites through. It’s a processed cheese yes - but it tastes a hell of a lot better than that neon monstrosity that is Velveeta (only useful for nacho dip…). Provel does well when put with red sauces, it tends to melt into them instead of sitting on top, so if you put it on pizza or in a baked pasta, it really melds nicely with the sauce. It’s not haute and it’s not supposed to be, but it’s not a big ass lump in a box that tastes disgusting if you just eat it cold - provel rocks on a salami sandwich too.
I’ve always liked Sizzler. Of course, I pretty much always get the same thing: chicken noodle soup, Malibu Chicken, baked potato, and cheese toast. I love Sizzler’s cheese toast. For a mid-to-low-price sitdown restaurant, they’re one of my favorites.
One place I used to love when I was a kid but not so much anymore is Bob’s Big Boy. Not sure if my memory is just bad, but I hadn’t eaten at one for probably 20+ years (there aren’t any close to where I live) but when we were down in San Diego for Comic Con we tried it for nostalgia’s sake. The burgers aren’t as good as they used to be, and the old Silver Goblet milkshakes (which don’t come in a silver goblet anymore) just taste like the same old blah restaurant shakes everybody else has now. I was disappoint.
Maybe the Velveeta comment was a bit harsh (although I like Velveeta in certain applications, like macaroni and cheese, although I blend in other cheeses with it.) Maybe a better analogy would be that Provel is somewhat like processed American cheese in terms of melting property, texture, and flavor. Personally, though, I don’t think the Velveeta comparison is that far off.
Wait, yeah. I forgot about them. They are also mediocre, like the McDonald’s of pizza.
And did Applebee’s include their seasoning on the steak? Because that’s what sets it apart for me. In fact, it’s the only reason I can justify paying more there than at any local restaurant. It’s the same reason I think Western Sizzlin’s steak is awesome.
I find that finding the right seasoning is the hardest thing about cooking for myself.
I’m going to step up for Red Lobster. Their shrimp is rubbery protein bits with no taste, sure. But the ROCK lobster (not the Maine Lobster) can be really good if you order it in season (which you can usually tell because they have specials on the rock lobster at such times. It is DELICIOUS, very flavorsome.
Crab can also be good when it’s in season. It’s more of a crap shoot, you can come across flavorless crab at any time, but a lot of the time, it’s just what crab should be.
In fact, for many restaurants, ordering the right thing is the key to enjoying it.
My nominee for worst chain restaurant is Buffalo’s Wild Wings. It’s more of a bar and grill chain, and my wife and I play bar trivia at the local every week. We have tried about everything on the menu, and the very best dishes are mediocre, the worst dishes are inedible. We’ve settled on buffalo wings for me, and a veggie boat (slices of carrot and celery, the carrots often having that whitish texture that come from being way too dry) and buffalo wings for me. (I go with the wings not because they are exceptional but because they are at least recognizable pieces of chicken, all of their other chicken dishes are unknown chicken bits bonded with pink slime and molded into chicken-ish shapes.)
If we were drinkers, we would just order drinks, which many customers do, but we are not drinkers, so we pick at the pathetic bits of food they bring. That’s how bad Buffalo’s is.
I went to Applebee’s with my S.O. and we ordered the same steak. I got a good steak. His was horrible and gristly. We complained to the manager and he knocked down the price of the meal. But I still didn’t think much of the steak overall. It had been marinated in god-knows-what with lots of salt to make it tender and juicy. Kinda like a No-Name steak.
That was also about the last time I got good service there. Now, I only go because there is one close to my mother’s home. She can’t travel far and insists on being the driver when we go out. It’s safer to pick the place that is only two blocks away.