Chain Restuarants
 

We all know that the very best restaurants are the high-end local restaurants with a unique menu and a top-notch head chef. And that the Europeans like to make fun of the US for our chain-restaurant mentality. Nevertheless, chain restaurants are here to stay. And if you are in a small town in the rural west our southern US, the chain restaurants are often much better than the local ones. At least you know what you are getting into.

Having said that, what are choices for the best and worst chains? (fast food does not count) Here are mine:

Best

1) P.F. Chang's

Excellent overall menu. Seldom disappoints. Try the new menu item called Walnut shrimp with honeydew melon. Very tasty.

2) Bucca Di Beppo

I like the family style approach and I think the food quality is quite good. I have heard a few people trash this place. Not sure I understand why. Light years beyond the Olive Garden.

Worst

1) Hall of shame: Waffle House, Shoney's, Denny's. (no explanation needed)

2) Outback Steak House

Blech. I hope I never have to go back to one of these again. Boring, over-hyped food.

3) Olive Garden

I don't even like the salads. Don't get me started on the microwaved main dishes.

I love Johnny Carinos because they make great sangrias and bellinis.

I came in to mention P.F. Chang's. I like it. My wife likes it even more than me. Its little brother Pei Wei is also good, and very reasonable in price.

Other ones I like:

Fuddruckers is solid, if basic.
Maggiano's is good for someone like me who isn't an expert on Italian food.
Does Ruth's Chris count as a chain? There are actually several very good steak house chain, but that's easy to do since you don't need a great chef.

And on the negative side:

Rainforest Cafe Has anyone ever had a good experience there?
Red Lobster has had bad food and dirty restaurants whenever I have been.

Is Tepanyaki a chain, or is it just a couple of Utah restaurants?

Anyway, I went there Saturday and liked it. The steak was great.


Outback sucks, except for the Bloomin Onion.
Lone Star Steakhouse is decent.

Nice post Jeff. Great topic.

Chain restaurants are everywhere here in the midwest. It's not uncommon to see an hour wait at Olive Garden on a weeknight. My in-laws love the chains so I have a little experience at all the restaurants you listed.

Best:
Red Robin- It's not too hard to make hamburgers.
Chipotle- Big burritos.
PF Changs- Great chocolate cake.

Worst:
Ruby Tuesday- Making hamburgers is too hard for this chain.
Applebees- Just bad.
Joe's Crab Shack- Worst seafood place in the entire world.
Sizzler- My old school dad still thinks a trip to The Sizz is puttin' on the fancy.

Salvagable:
Chili's- Good chips and salsa and "Chili's is the new golf course. It's where business happens" - Small Businessman Magazine.
Fridays- There are some good items on the menu.
Macaroni Grill- Their salmon is surprisingly good. I like the Pasta Milano as well.

I know nobody ever agrees with me, but Sizzler is OK by me. The Sizzler steak is a decent, cheap steak. Just remember, if you like your steak medium rare, you have to ask for it rare served on a cold plate. If you want it rare, forget about it, not happenin.

I don't know if its a chain but I liked Saltgrass in Dallas. I know there are at least a few near where I always stay DFW Marriott north, but I don't know if it's a national chain.

I agree with you, not that it'll give you any more credibility. :)

Sizzler steak isn't high quality, but it tastes pretty good. They must inject it with flavoring or something.

I like Bucca di Beppo. For a chain, the food it pretty good and you're right, it blows away Olive Garden.

The best part of Bucca di Beppo is that it looks like the inside of just about any home in Italy, especially Sicily. It brings back great memories for me.

It's a Texas chain. My favorite chain Steakhouse by far.

Doesn't just about anything blow away Olive Garden? I can't think of a worse Italian chain restaurant. I'm not Italian food snob ... but Olive Garden is NASTY.

For Italian I like Macaroni Grill, Johnny Carino's, Carabba's.

P.F. Chang's is so overrated. But then again my last name is Chong.

I like Chipotle, Ruths Chris, PF Changs....and I know I'm a plebian,,,but I can dig on the Olive Garden all you can eat Soup, Salad n Breadsticks any day.

Rainforest Cafe is by far the worst chain restaurant I've ever ate at. Terrible food and service all around.

For you Utahns....there's a new Italian Restaurant in Riverton that is VERY good. It's called Mark Anthony's...just off of 13400 South I believe. I really liked it.

Do yourselves a favor and try Baja Fresh.

Fair enough. But please tell me a chain restaurant that serves better Chinese food.

I agree with Surfah. But I also think that in general, chain Chinese sucks. Not sure why, but it seems to be the one cuisine that you pretty much have to find a local family owned place to get good stuff.

Near my work, there is a family owned lunch-only type place and a Pei Wei almost right next door. The family owned one is MUCH better.

Never been to a Pei Wei.

I can assure you that local, family-owned chinese can be every bit as bad or worse than any chain. The worst Chinese food I ever had was at a local, family-owned restaurant in St. George. It was a pile of zucchini with some tough chicken chunks, water chestnuts, canned bamboo shoots, and La Choy soy sauce. I get a gag reflex just thinking about it.

Pei Wei is the little brother / lunch version of P.F. Chang's.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that ALL family-owned joints were better. Just that I've never found a chain Chinese that was any good.

Are there any other chains? I can't even think of one unless you consider something like Panda Express, but that's more fast food to me.

I like PF Chang's just as much as the next guy, but when people suggest going out for Chinese, I don't think of PF Chang's. I think they do a great Chinese inspired cuisine.

I am not a picky eater. I can find something I like on most menus.

Outside of Panda Express and P.F. Chang's, I can't think of a big chinese restaurant chain. But I would consider Panda Express to be fast food, so it doesn't count.

But you aren't playing the game. Give me your list of best and worst chains.

I like Cool Hand Luke's as a chain restaurant. Actually, most of the chain steak houses are pretty good. We have a Cattleman's and a Logan's which are both doable.

I like Smokey Bones and Famous Dave's BBQ. Though it must be noted that Smokey Bones is operated and owned by the same group that manages Olive Garden and Red Lobster. Bleh.

I like Ruby Tuesday for their salad bar and Triple Prime Burger.

Chipotle, though that's fast food to me.

I like Bonefish Grill quite a bit.

I used to work for IHOP Corp. so they have a special place in my heart/stomach.

I like CPK.

Benihana's is another good chain.

I second Indy's statement about Baja Fresh. It's not a pretty good Fresh Mex place.

Smokey Bones has good nachos.

Never heard of Baja Fresh. I will have to watch for it.

Yes, Benihana's is good. But not so much for the teppanyaki. That's an americanized thing that you would never see in Japan. But their sushi bars are usually quite good.

CPK is pretty decent. I was going to mention that one.

The Japanese don't do teppanyaki? Cougarguard really is a place where illussions are shattered.

Yes, Olive Garden sucks, IMO.

I tried Macaroni Grill for the first time when I was hanging with Archaea and his kids, Lebowski and non sequitur and his son after the BYU spring game. It was Americanized, but still pretty good.

As I said, the only reason I like Bucca is because it's like walking into a home in Sicily. The gaudy decorating is awesome.

I give a solid thumbs up to Fuddruckers and Chiplotle. (I guess I like large serving sizes. Speaking of, my one trip to Claim Jumpers was excellent.)

Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, any of that ilk are highly overrated.

Having served in Mexico, I make it a point to avoid any "Mexican" place that boldly advertises "No Lard" as Baja Fresh does. If you're ever in Eugene, OR, there are half a dozen Burrito Boys and they have GREAT burritos.

Claim Jumpers is a good one. Their fresh baked Idaho is great. A giant stuffed potato with all the trimmings. And I always enjoyed Tony Roma's too. Especially when they had the all-you-can-eat ribs going. But most of these have shut down. The last one I ate at was in Orlando two years ago or so.

I also like Fuddruckers. Their honey mustard sauce is great with fries. And their burgers are huge and filling and the fresh condiments are nice.

I went to a Claim Jumper for the first time on Friday in Sacramento. Great place.

I think of teppanyaki as the same as yakiniku which I was served several times in Japan.

Yes, that's probably the closest match. But it's still quite a bit different. We cook yakiniku quite a bit at our house. It is a popular food in the Kansai region where I served my mission. The type of meat and how it is marinated is different. As are the sauces. But the biggest difference is the whole "show" concept with the chef doing the fancy stuff with the knives. I never saw anything like that in Japan.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teppanyaki. And I don't care that much that it's not "authentic". But I find the sauces they typically use to be pretty bland. I would take yakiniku any day.

I can't think of a single chain restaurant that I would pay to eat at. Now, if someone is taking me out and insists on a chain, well, I never pass up a free meal.

The worsts are:
Cracker Barrel (actually, I would pass up a free meal here)
Applebees

This is fast food, but as far as burgers go, I really like Back Yard Burgers. They are based in Memphis and have spread throughout the southeast. I even saw one in Dallas.

Good luck in Mississippi. That is one place where the local restaurants are worse than the chains. There are exceptions, but not too many.

That surprises me. I've always thought of the South as having a lot of good hometown food.

Well, if you consider boiled vegetables and deep-fried everything to be good food, you would probably like it.

Texas Roadhouse is one of my favorites. They have one in Elk Grove here, and a few others, but I think it is nation-wide. Delicious steak.

Outback is just awful.

We haven't eaten out yet. I imagine you're right. I don't like most Southern food, however, Memphis BBQ grew on me after four years of taking whomever visited us out to eat it.

Baja Fresh is pretty good. They opened up a few places in Utah, used to be right next to the Buca Di Beppo in Midvale and I believe they were in Bountiful and Layton as well, but after 1-2 years they all closed down here. Otherwise they're in most other states.