Thoughts on chain restaurants.

[Silencio]

i am an omnivore but I really appreciate their veggie burgers as the patties are made of vegetables (kind of Indian style) with peas, beans, cauliflower and not these "fake meats". Thick cut chips and a good selection of drinks including local beers for those looking for carb overload.

Not restaurant related, but Trader Joe's has frozen masala burger patties which are exactly this: vegetable-based patties with Indian masala spices. They make a fantastic simple lunch when I'm working from home, served with Trader Joe's frozen naan and some chutney or curry ketchup.

Restaurant-wise, we are also experiencing sticker shock whenever we go out to eat, or even when pondering ordering pizza these days. Between that and generally being more mindful about our grocery and dining out budgets, it's easier to say no to dining out these days. Besides, the winter months are the best time to cook hearty fare at home and have lots of leftovers.

 

[AZhappyjack]

My wife and I probably eat out too much, but looking at our typical spots we tend to favor either local places or regional chains.

Of the national chains around here, Red Robin I think has been the biggest post-pandemic disappointment. Their menu is tiny compared to what it use to be(I use to love their onion buns on some burgers, but they don't have that as an option anymore, plus a lot of their other choices). Texas Roadhouse has remained good, but unsurprisingly the one around here is always packed. Applebees and a few others have honestly fallen off our radar. Our last visit to Cracker Barrel was when the restaurant we usually go to for breakfast closed for a month for vacation back in the summer-it was okay. Bluegrass Hospitality, a restaurant group out of Kentucky, opened a restaurant near us a few years ago that is very good but I really wish that they'd bring their signature restaurant(a steakhouse) to this area as I think it would do well and I wouldn't have to wait until we visit my parents to go there .

We eat out way too much, also... life is busy and it's just easier to run out and grab something... but we are finding that everywhere we go, the quality has dropped, as has the portion size, yet the prices have risen. Local, chain, fast-food matters not - they are all the same way...

Everything is so generic - the menus at the chains (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Red Robin and Applebee's, etc) are boring and overpriced. Even Chinese food (good, local place) has raised prices and the quality has suffered... I can't tolerate what they call pizza in Arizona... and all of the Mexican restaurants look, feel and taste the same...

When I cook, I prefer to grill, BBQ or smoke meats and prepare sides, but that takes planning and preparation, and I'm old and lazy.

 

[rhett7660]

We eat out way too much, also... life is busy and it's just easier to run out and grab something... but we are finding that everywhere we go, the quality has dropped, as has the portion size, yet the prices have risen. Local, chain, fast-food matters not - they are all the same way...

Everything is so generic - the menus at the chains (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Red Robin and Applebee's, etc) are boring and overpriced. Even Chinese food (good, local place) has raised prices and the quality has suffered... I can't tolerate what they call pizza in Arizona... and all of the Mexican restaurants look, feel and taste the same...

When I cook, I prefer to grill, BBQ or smoke meats and prepare sides, but that takes planning and preparation, and I'm old and lazy.

I can relate to the bolded section a little toooooo much lol.

 

[Huntn]

We eat out way too much, also... life is busy and it's just easier to run out and grab something... but we are finding that everywhere we go, the quality has dropped, as has the portion size, yet the prices have risen. Local, chain, fast-food matters not - they are all the same way...

Everything is so generic - the menus at the chains (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Red Robin and Applebee's, etc) are boring and overpriced. Even Chinese food (good, local place) has raised prices and the quality has suffered... I can't tolerate what they call pizza in Arizona... and all of the Mexican restaurants look, feel and taste the same...

When I cook, I prefer to grill, BBQ or smoke meats and prepare sides, but that takes planning and preparation, and I'm old and lazy.

I can relate to the bolded section a little toooooo much lol.

Agree about grilling food.

 

[BaggieBoy]

I'm from the UK but spent 3 years in the late 80's in the California Bay Area. We had 2 young children and our regular Sunday meal was at Denny's. This Denny's seemed a bit different to the regular ones, it had a cocktail room. The kids loved it and the staff were great.

Other memory was my mother visiting from the UK and we took her to a Velvet Turtle. The look on the waiters face when she ordered a prime rib...well done!

 

[compwiz1202]

Bertucci's files for bankruptcy again, closes more Massachusetts, New Hampshire locations

I remember when one of these opened up in my local town where I lived in, back in the day. Lines around the corner waiting to get in. Always busy, always good food.

Like so many other chain restaurants, something happened along the way, the food stopped being so unique, service started slipping, competition was doing a better job.

I can't say that I'm surprised over this. There's a Bertuccis on a very busy road near a lot of commercial and retail buildings. Yet when you go there, the parking lot is empty.

New locations always have high managers galore, and then eventually they move on the the next project, and "When the cat's away, the mice will play". When I worked in fast food, this would even happen by time of day. In the daytime, GM would be there. Once she left, it turned to crap.

 

[compwiz1202]

Like the Olive Garden, they seemed to be kind of generic, nothing special.

One of the issues I'm seeing is cost. I know its been mentioned, but I kind of got hit with sticker shock the other day. Maybe I'm oblivious (I am), maybe I just don't pay attention (I don't) and may be I'm just particularly poor this time of year (I am). But I ordered take out at my local Italian Restaurant. Nothing special, 2 Chicken Parms, a garden salad with chicken cutlet and my got some sort of shrimp risotto.

It ran me almost 70 dollars. This would have cost me in the 40 dollar range 2 years ago. Its good food, its a mom and pop type place but still. I can't be spending this much money on a weekly basis. They've cut back on portions, the so called shrinkflation. The side salads that we get were literally a piece of lettuce, slice of tomato, and a little bit of onions.

So for chains, I can see them getting hit even harder as people go out less.

We only ever go eat in anymore, if we do go. I just open DD or GH, shake my head, and close ti again. Same thing in the grocery store. I'm like are you people mental on what you call a sale, and then you require multiple items????

 

[compwiz1202]

I'm from the UK but spent 3 years in the late 80's in the California Bay Area. We had 2 young children and our regular Sunday meal was at Denny's. This Denny's seemed a bit different to the regular ones, it had a cocktail room. The kids loved it and the staff were great.

Other memory was my mother visiting from the UK and we took her to a Velvet Turtle. The look on the waiters face when she ordered a prime rib...well done!

I love that Denny's is one of the few that have hashbrowns, and they let you top them. But the one right by us is ridiculously slow, even before shortages, so we never go.

 

[Huntn]

Last time we went to Denny’s was pre-COVID, always had a Grand Slam breakfast and coffee regardless of the time of day. In the meantime, I‘ve honed my eggs, pancakes, and bacon breakfast at home which I usually fix once on the weekend. For those of you who can find the brand I recommend all-in-one Krusteaz Buttermilk pancake mix, not the healthy version, the original.

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[Alphaized]

The one restaurant, (If you want to call it that) in which surprises me, is Starbucks. They have opened at least three stores within a 15 mile radius in my city in the last 6 months, and continue to thrive, even with inflation. I personally love coffee, but I probably should wean off spending $25 a week when there’s so much better competition with local small batch blends available or even using my Keurig at home would be a more convenient method.

 

[NoBoMac]

Sub “Starbucks” with “Dutch Bros” by me. Those are popping up everywhere and doing brisk business.

But like above, my coffee habit is French press at home. Or one of the near by mom pop roasters, and even that is probably once every couple of weeks. The chains are visited only when no other near by options.

 

[SalisburySam]

Yeah, I do like Starbucks and have for years. Their coffees have a slight bitterness to me and I like that, both in a Flat White and a Latte, with the bitterness toned down a bit by the milk/cream. But we’ve gone from must-do-daily to a couple of times a month generally when we’re out shopping. Ever mindful of their market, Starbucks also offers a free “puppaccino“ if asked. This is a small cup of whipped cream and our dogs love it. Almost worth the trip just to see the happiness when that word is mentioned. Big downside though…they’ve discontinued the almond croissant at local stores, one of the huge draws for me. I keep asking for it just to create some annoyance and confirmation that at least one customer liked and bought it.

Like @Alphaized, we use the home Keurig as our daily driver, made infinitely better in taste by using dark roasts (fav is Barista Prima French Roast to get the heart started in the morning, followed by Barista Prima Decaf Italian Roast for the rest of the day), and making 6oz pours rather than the coffeemaker’s default 8oz. Also the water is fed from our whole house RO system and this alone considerably improves our coffee regardless of brewing method.

And we have a Nespresso unit for quick and decent espresso after dinner, both decaf and not.

For those times when we really wish to indulge, we also have a Jura Capresso unit with it’s included coffee bean grinder that, for us, makes the best cappuccinos and lattes as well as espresso, that we drink. Awesome control from bean grind to brewing strength yielding an excellent coffee beverage, for us. Just a little slower and more complex that either of the other two machines. During the stumbling-around-the-house phase of each morning, the Keurig is the clear winner. YMMV.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Sub “Starbucks” with “Dutch Bros” by me. Those are popping up everywhere and doing brisk business.

But like above, my coffee habit is French press at home. Or one of the near by mom pop roasters, and even that is probably once every couple of weeks. The chains are visited only when no other near by options.

Not a fan of the millennial yuppie wanna be fru-fru coffee joints... give me a good espresso, or a good Guatemalan or Ethiopian dark roast... and make it black - no sugar, no creamer, forget the half-caf, flavored creamer, soy crap. IMO the Starbucks and Dutch Bros and their ilk are overpriced and serve nothing even resembling "coffee". (and get off my lawn!)

And, I, too, have a Keurig, but not a huge fan... the pods are often "old", compared to fresh grind, and that is noticeable... sure, you can grind your own and still use the Keurig with their reusable pod thing, but that just creates a mess... so, I don't use it often...

 

[PauloSera]

Chain restaurants are almost always terrible and overpriced. Not to be confused with Fast Food chains. Fast food has it's place for the convenience, price, and availability. But chain restaurants - think Applebee's, Panera, Chili's, etc. are usually more money than a mom-and-pop place, significantly worse quality, and you are not supporting a small family business by going there.

The worst of them is Panera - I have a friend that swears by it and I had it with him one time. A small bowl of canned soup, the most basic sandwich I could make at home, and a coffee for $12. No thanks.

Except fast food places today are not cheap anymore, they've become obscenely overpriced, the quality has fallen even lower, and the total lack of care for customer means you're lucky to actually get what you ordered.

 

[PauloSera]

Yeah Longhorn's app is trash.

Texas Roadhouse rolls sound really good right now...

Texas Roadhouse is certainly better than both Outback and Longhorn. We regularly rotate through all of these places. You just have to reign them in on the seasoning, as they will over season everything if you allow them to.

 

[PauloSera]

My opinion was that they could be good and many used to be good. Olive Garden for instance was a decent restaurant where you knew you'd get a good meal for a decent price. As they got bigger and they consolidated and the kitchens did less and less cooking.

Olive Garden is now just mass produced heat-up-in-bags food. Really not good.

Is there a Carabbas near you? This place is much better at (most) locations. They make everything in house. Slightly pricier than Olive Garden, but for obvious reasons.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

#164

The trick is to visit the grab and go and deli section of your grocery store instead of going to these restaurants. You usually get way more and much fresher food for the price.

 

[maflynn]

Olive Garden is now just mass produced heat-up-in-bags food. Really not good.

Yep - they're at the stage of just microwaving the food that is sent to them from some sort of central distribution center

 

[decafjava]

Yep - they're at the stage of just microwaving the food that is sent to them from some sort of central distribution center

Blah really not worth the cost.

 

[Queen6]

I'm based in Asia. so likely can't really contribute but pricing and portions seem to have remained fairly static. We had beef noodles the other day and was a struggle to finish the bowl for $1.75.

Similar to most this is a small family run business who offer great food at a good price. The big chains are well past serving good food, it's just about the $$$, seats at the table and I agree the quality has degraded...

Q-6

 

[Silencio]

I'm from the UK but spent 3 years in the late 80's in the California Bay Area. We had 2 young children and our regular Sunday meal was at Denny's. This Denny's seemed a bit different to the regular ones, it had a cocktail room. The kids loved it and the staff were great.

Other memory was my mother visiting from the UK and we took her to a Velvet Turtle. The look on the waiters face when she ordered a prime rib...well done!

The Velvet Turtle! Now you're dredging up some old memories for me. For those who don't know (which is, I presume, pretty much everyone else), The Velvet Turtle was a small chain of formal, fine dining restaurants in California back in the 70s and 80s. They were popular for prom dates and the like.

Speaking of Bay Area restaurants, some time ago I found lurking on the Internet the recipe for my favorite minestrone soup from a now long gone local restaurant. It was locally quite famous and people obviously missed it to this day. I finally made a big batch of it last night, and it really holds up.

Yes, Denny's was never exactly a Velvet Turtle-like paragon of fine dining, but any of them did indeed have cocktail lounges in the 70s and 80s. They started falling out of favor in the 90s as Denny's tried to reposition themselves more as a family diner-type restaurant. I never thought their food was very good or anything, but when I was hungry in college at 2AM, it was heaven sent.

There's a whole other thread on here for coffee. I prefer single source varietals, usually Central or South American, preferably light or medium roast, consumed black. A Chemex is my brewing weapon of choice, but I still use my French Press to make cold brew in the warmer months. I don't go to cafes often, but I'll take a Cortado or a Flat White if they make them.

 

[dannyyankou]

Texas Roadhouse is certainly better than both Outback and Longhorn. We regularly rotate through all of these places. You just have to rein them in on the seasoning, as they will over season everything if you allow them to.

They've been a little inconsistent lately. I've had them undercook my steak a couple times recently. And when I say undercook, I don't mean medium rare instead of medium. I always ask for it medium rare. I mean it comes out raw.

 

[PauloSera]

They've been a little inconsistent lately. I've had them undercook my steak a couple times recently. And when I say undercook, I don't mean medium rare instead of medium. I always ask for it medium rare. I mean it comes out raw.

I've long ago concluded that these kitchens that are mass exporting steaks have zero standards at the pass, and their feeling is: if its over/under, send it anyway. Only a certain percentage of the ones they send will come back, and only if they come back will they make another one. But they are never going to throw away an over/under cooked steak before attempting to pass it off on the customer.

 

[Queen6]

It could also be related to poor/cheap management. While working in Malaysia one KFC had the worst ever chicken the other one of the best I've eaten? Seen the same in other countries with big chains/franchises. We would joke the one outskirts of town was Kentucky Fried Cat, basically greasy and underwhelming portions.

Q-6

 

[enterthemerdaverse]

Not restaurant related, but Trader Joe's has frozen masala burger patties which are exactly this: vegetable-based patties with Indian masala spices. They make a fantastic simple lunch when I'm working from home, served with Trader Joe's frozen naan and some chutney or curry ketchup.

Restaurant-wise, we are also experiencing sticker shock whenever we go out to eat, or even when pondering ordering pizza these days. Between that and generally being more mindful about our grocery and dining out budgets, it's easier to say no to dining out these days. Besides, the winter months are the best time to cook hearty fare at home and have lots of leftovers.

30 years ago, yeah I’m getting old, Burger King used to serve a spicy bean burger and it was the most awesome veggie burger anywhere. I’d take that over this nasty imitation stuff we have these days.