Monday, May 25

What's your

least favorite chain restaurant?

I LOATHE Applebees and would rather starve than visit another one again (for many reasons). My second least favorite has to be Don Pablos. There's a reason that it's always empty.

What place remains open and you just can't fiugre out why?

I usually like to go to mom and pop places, but i live in the middle of planned community bliss (eyeroll) which doesn't lead to much real culture or mom and pop goodness, just cardboard-theme-loudmusic-shitonthewalls-hell.

16 comments:

vq said...

I really don't mind franchise restaurants and I think some of them (the Macaroni Grill, for example) do a pretty nice job.

There's one here in Yorba Linda that gets on my nerves, though. It's called Mimi's, and I know it's a chain but I don't know if it's nationwide or not. But what bugs me is that there is always a HUGE line at our local installment, and there's very little parking and so you often have to park blocks away on a side street to go there, and it's just not worth it. For some reason, everyone I know always wants to go there (probably because we have almost no restaurants in town), and it's ok, but not worth walking 3 or 4 blocks and waiting in line for.

vq said...

Oh, and also, what is so freaking great about P.F. Chang's that there's always a line there? I'd rather go to some little hole in the wall Asian place. The food will be just as good, and there'll be no line.

emma said...

I hate Burger King and even more so since they started airing those crreepy commercials with that King.

I LIKE PF Chang's! Their tea is great and I like their wok charred lamb!

Jilly said...

verb,

i agree with the p.f. changs comment, and i's be cheaper to get a #2 at a local joint.

my most recent beef with applebees came aout because i ordered a chicken salad. they brought my salad with bleeding chicken on it and then proceeded to scrape the chicken off, cook it, and put it back on the SAME greens.

i don't really like Mac. grill but i do like to go to olive garden and have soup out the waazoo when i get off work at 2:30.

emma, i desprise BK, the food is awful and awful for you and the commercials are creepy.

jilly

Sonya said...

I avoid a lot of chains, but will go occasionally. I hate Macaroni Grill. Way too much food and not as fresh as I'd like it. For Applebees, I love their Oriental Chicken Salad. And I've had some really good food at PF Changs, but it's loud. Give me a little Mexican (food) joint with diet pepsi or a beer and I'm really easy to please.

vq said...

Funny. I perceive Olive Garden as "school cafeteria" style Italian food. I think Mac Grill is far superior in quality and creativity.

I think this thread proves that one bad experience in a particular restaurant kind of sours that place forever

sheila222 said...

I feel like I am offering up a TRUE CONFESSION(S), but I like Red Lobster, Crab Cracking Mondays.

UrbanStarGazer said...

Food, glorious fooooooood!!!

I like Macaroni Grill's chicken marsala but, I've only been to two Macaroni Grills and one was good, the other bad.

P.F. Changs is white people Chinese and I'd totally prefer an authentic Chinese restaurant to P.F. Changs but, they do have one dish that I like, their Lo Mein. I would say that I don't get the appeal but I do because, as white people Chinese food goes, it's decent.

I like a couple of things at Chili's but, again, some are better than others. I like their chicken sandwich that is like a buffalo wing and I love that chocolate molten cake. It's one of my all-time fave things.

I like BK's original chicken sandwich (with cheese).

I love McDonald's regular cheeseburgers, the little ones.

Jack-in-the-Box's Ultimate Cheeseburger brings me great happiness.

KFC's chicken wrap is decent.

Wendy's has a good cheeseburger -- just their regular one.

In-and-Out is okay but Nation's is better.

I like the banana bread that they bring you at Mimi's.

Arby's gets on my nerves because the one that is on the way to Tahoe has idiots working there and the two times I've tried to go there I ended up driving away because just trying to order was so irritating I couldn't take it.

Can you tell that I've spent WAAAAAAAYYYYY too much time driving back and forth to Tahoe and eaten way too much chain food?

I tell you, it's what's going to kill me.

vq said...

Urbles, you are a food-lover after my own heart.

Jilly said...

I think the reason i dislike mac grill so much is the lack of service at the one near me. i don't go to ANY chain and expect authentic food, because most people don't want authentic food and it's all so trendy. if one chain gets a new mixed drink or cheesecake, they all get something like it fast.

jilly

Brenda said...

the franchise restaurants in my area have good food. red lobster, applebees,red robin,qdoba. if i want authentic, i eat at home.

vq said...

My very favorite chain restaurant is the Cheesecake Factory. They have a great reputation in the food service industry for only buying the very freshest and highest quality ingredients. They just really do a great job. (Although their gigantic portions are alarming!)

Brenda said...

their long island iced teas arent' bad either. :)

vq said...

And if you have one of those first, you won't care what the food tastes like!

mavis sidebottom said...

Im not adverse to a gigantic portion

UrbanStarGazer said...

Verb -- I love that appetizer at the Cheesecake Factory with the soft corn cakes with sour cream and avocado and stuff. That's a goodie.