Grossest American Chain Restaurant

no Cracker Barrel no credibility

If you're going to include Denny's then IHOP and Perkins ought to be there too.

How'd I forget Cracker Barrel!

Sorry, I'm sure there's bound to be a few more glaring omissions.

Though I suppose IHOP belongs to the world really.

I am pretty revolted by the idea of Claim Jumpers, but I've never been to one.

Of this list, it's kind of gotta be Denny's.

(don't know what Claim Jumpers is tho)

I would happily dine at at least half of these right now, given the state of my budget/grocery supply until Friday. I could kill a steak platter + anything else from Outback Steakhouse, any given pasta entree from Olive Garden...fuck, even Red Lobster I'm sure I could come up with something and it's possible I've never even been to one.

Ditto for Denny's but OTOH it was THE ONLY place open 24 hours in my college town except for Meijers so y'know it's hard to hate.

I have a soft spot for IHOP, so I let them off the hook.

I was shocked when I first saw a Claim Jumper restaurant since I thought they only made frozen food. I picture all of the tables with microwaves and servers bringing out frozen gravy packets that need to be poked with a fork and nuked for 3 minutes.

I have no idea waht Claim Jumper even is. Should I?

ranking of those I've been to, from grossest to least gross:
Denny's
Olive Garden
Ruby Fridaybee's
Red Lobster
Chili's
Outback
Romano's

Unless you regularly eat microwave pork chops, then no, probably not.

x-post

Yeah, I've had plenty of Denny's cuz it was the only place around my hometown growing up that was open 24hrs. Plus they had a smoking room. All of the rowdy teenage/early 20 something delinquents would pile into that room and smoke like hell and order up greasy breakfast food from angry waitresses at 2 in the morning. It wasn't a pretty scene.

xposts

I always felt bad for the waiters/waitresses at Denny's, having to deal with groups full of insolent teenagers ordering a total of $12 worth of food and coffee per table of 6 and getting a 10% tip if they're lucky. Though this one waiter totally did deserve my friend's "get a better job" tip written on the napkin.

claim jumpers sounds like an insurance scam

I always felt bad for the waiters/waitresses at Denny's, having to deal with groups full of insolent teenagers ordering a total of $12 worth of food and coffee per table of 6 and getting a 10% tip if they're lucky.

yep. didn't blame them for being surly tbh.

My old boss took us to Claim Jumper's once, so much worse than most of the other choice for two main reasons:

1. Way, way, way more expensive than yr standard Applebees/Chilis shit but almost exactly the same
2. Ridiculous portion sizes even compared to other American chains

Grossest is likely Denny's.

Never had a remotely edible piece of food served to me at Denny's in my life. One time a slice of pie I got had a layer of dust on it 2mm thick.

Actually sort of liked Macaroni Grille at one time, tbh.

Olive Garden is really pretty awful.

I actually sort of like Cracker Barrel.

i am grossed out by the name of cheesecake factory, should be a poll option

Ate at Macaroni Grill for years with the fam in the 90s before I was aware it was even a chain. We viewed it as a treat, a REAL restaurant.

i am shocked, SHOCKED by all yalls disrespect for denny's. grand slam breakfasts are hell of great, really, don't forget it.

TGI Fridays has made me sick every time i've eaten there

Yeah, dude. Friday's can go hang, but Denny's is alright. The Grand Slam is a thing of economic wonder.

As far as I understand Claim Jumpers, it's like your standard chain restaurant but w/food of portions so ridic you need a little cookie that says "Eat Me" on it so you can magically grow to be as big as your food.

iirc it also has a prospector/old west theme?

Totally. It is a fatteh heaven.

In its defense, the one in Monrovia has RIDICULOUS football sunday appetizer specials. And cheap, big beers.

It is so cartoonish in my mind that I am certain if I ever end up there, I'll end up feeling a bit disappointed.

these are all the same restaurant

i like those breadsticks from olive garden, I could eat hundreds of them.

TGIF has made me the sickest over the years without question, lol college town. I wasn't having anything unusual and it didn't take as long to show up as real food poisoning would (ie the time it takes bacterial colonies to grow), but on several occasions it made me horribly ill a few hours after.

Cracker Barrel has pretty good food and belongs no where near this list.

I've vote Applebee's.

i think i've only been to chilli's and it was pretty goddamned bad - which is saying something, since i am generally a fan of terrible fastfood.

Chili's sucks.

The only one of these I've ever actually found gross is t.g.i. fridays, so that.

I thought Olive Garden was OK, but we were slightly tipsy and had an absolute gem of a waiter.

My brother likes Applebees best, so that's probably going to make me vote for them, because he's always wrong about food.

The only chain food that made me sick in my enormous US chain restaurant experience of four weeks in Florida mostly not eating in chain restaurants was breakfast at Ponderosa Steakhouse. Seriously, yow, not good.

The only time I've become actually SICK, not just feeling gross from eating this shit, was when our whole family stopped at a Bob Evan's while driving back home after a vacation. The entire family spent two days puking after eating there, it was the worst experience ever.

i went to some place called macaroni grill in el cerrito but i don't think it was called romano's? anyway, it was delicious and i liked that they put all their calorie info on the menu, so you could see that the cheesy past you were ordering was about 1500 cals in one serving.

I would like to order one cheesy past plz

lol whoops

I haven't been to any of these in +5 years, but I always enjoyed outback and olive garden and to a lesser extent chili's and applebees.

it actually made me order something ~reasonably~ low fat, and skip dessert

Ooh, Bob Evans, we went in one of them. I can't remember anything about it though. I think I might actually have passed up the opportunity to eat, having just googled their menu. BOBurritos looks like the grossest thing invented by man.

the Romano's in Macaroni Grill is hard to see on the sign/menu iirc

This Bob Evans incident was in like 1992 btw, still can't drive past one without hints of nausea.

Golden Corral anyone? grossest "restaurant" of all time by a long distance imo. its more like a trough, really. i think they might only exist in the south.

nope they def exist in the north!

ok i just checked: it was indeed a romano's i went to

these places have all gotten worse over the years, correct? because I ate at denny's when I was a kid (ie: the 70's) and it was fine, and I don't think that the change is just because my tastes have gotten so refined by living in the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley, because I will still eat crap if given half a chance.

I hear that, akm -- Bob Evans is an institution in the Midwest, we used to consider it good basic road-trip food. My mother knew she could feed us all there, approximately what it would cost, that we wouldn't turn our noses up at the menu, that the waitstaff would accommodate kids at 4 different levels of rowdiness/carsickness/crankiness, and so on.

Whaa happen?

Just looking at this Claim Jumper appetizer plate is making my stomach hurt:

http://www.poisonappleshirts.com/ohsofat/061609claimcombo.jpg

Also I am not gonna lie, a Cracker Barrel was the last restaurant I ate in before I spent 4 or 5 days hauling my ass along the Appalachian Trail in a rain/snow mix, only to find out that the person who loaned me her camping stove had accidentally given me the EMPTY fuel cannisters instead of the full ones, and I DREAMED OF CRACKER BARREL FOR DAYS AND DAYS.

T.G.I. Friday's

^this place is so, so bad

i'll eat denny's breakfast (wouldn't fuck w/ their real food in a million years tho)

chili's & macaroni grill are both genuinely good and i dine at both regularly

Cracker Barrel makes some pretty awesome biscuits, IIRC.

christ, that looks like several bowel movements.

xxxp

outback is also generally very good

i'll have a battered turd plate, please

Two words in defense of Denny's non-breakfast food:

Patty Melt.

The Cracker Barrel in Tupelo, MS is pretty bad, tbh. I voted TGIF.

i'll have a battered turd plate, please

― harbl, Tuesday, March 2, 2010 6:20 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark

which of our 8 different ranch sauces would you like with that, ma'am?

aside from dennys (maybe) there is something a lot of these places have in common. they are really not all that cheap! i mean, if you have a local halfway decent mid-priced italian restaurant near you anywhere and you go to olive garden instead then you should kinda be ashamed of yourself. and same goes with all the rest. eat local! sort of.

if you are in a big hurry or only have five bucks on you then i can see the point of going to mcdonalds and the like, but these places actually make you wait for food and its usually not great and no real bargain.

I would happily dine at at least half of these right now, given the state of my budget/grocery supply until Friday. I could kill a steak platter + anything else from Outback Steakhouse, any given pasta entree from Olive Garden...fuck, even Red Lobster I'm sure I could come up with something and it's possible I've never even been to one.

Ditto. None of these places are world beaters, obv, but when you consider where and what I normally eat, well...

PS, if anybody in Northern Calif (but outside the Bay Area) wants a decent steak, there's a smallish chain called Cattlemens, 8 locations, that I thought was really good when I lived in Redding.

ctrl+f, nabkin, no matches found

Olive Garden in particular is ridiculously overpriced AND their food sucks. They can't even get their soup and salad right. Unfortunately, I have a $25 gift certificate that I got from a relative for x-mas. I guess I'll use it on booze. Maybe they have decent wine there or something.

Two words in defense of Denny's non-breakfast food:

Patty Melt.

four more:

Moons Over My Hammy

Olive Garden in particular is ridiculously overpriced AND their food sucks.

This

my friends and i tried to get some drunken late night grub at Denny's a few months ago and it smelled so bad we left before our waiter took our drink order (which was taking long enough to give us a chance to decide to gtfo.)

the restaurant smelled really bad. seriously. like dirty baby diapers.

of course after i posted what i posted i am reminded that i DO kinda like the friendly's chain. they are older and have their diner menu down pat. i guess they aren't everywhere though. for 10+ bucks or whatever i can get a decent hamburger and fries and a coke and a hot fudge sundae and i rarely feel ill afterwards. but maybe its just nostalgia. i've been going to them since i was a little kid.

Ruby Tuesday - pretty average but I used to go to it when I lived in Richmond because they had probably the best veggie burger in town (not saying much in Richmond). I don't know why their veggie burger was so delicious, it was thicker than a boca burger or whatever and juicy and tasty.

Chili's - I kind of love Chili's for two reasons: being able to substitute a black bean burger into any of their burgers, and the fact that they have a menu item called the QUESADILLA EXPLOSION SALAD, one of my favorite consumer food item names (it's pretty good too)

Applebee's - average, I get it mixed up with TGI Friday's

Red Lobster - I haven't eaten here since I was a kid and even then I didn't like seafood so I'd just order the child's hamburger or whatever

Denny's - it is gross but gets a pass for being pretty much the only place open late in my college town. Just treat it like any gross diner and stick to cheese fries.

Romano's Macaroni Grill - never heard of this place

Outback - doesn't seem particularly gross but it's not very veggie-friendly. I'd always get the french onion soup and try to convince myself it was made with veggie broth and not beef broth.

T.G.I. Friday's - average, get it confused with Applebees

Olive Garden - again in college, this was like the one "fancy" place you could go that was still affordable, so my wife (then my gf) and I would go there for special dinners and it seemed great. We ate at one again a few years ago out of desperation (we were out of town and very hungry) and it was so disgusting.

Claim Jumpers - never been there.

shocking that a steakhouse isn't veggie-friendly. you should yelp that!

EW, that Claim Jumper appetizer photo!

Cheesecake Factory - food is horrible and expensive, decor is horrifying

Yeah, I would have voted for that if it had been on the menu ballot.

the chips were good at chili's, but the chicken burger i ordered tasted like it had been soaking in a rancid vat of animal fat for about a week.

tried p.f. chang's for the first time last weekend - they must put a ton of msg in their food but dang it was good.

i went to some place called macaroni grill in el cerrito but i don't think it was called romano's? anyway, it was delicious and i liked that they put all their calorie info on the menu, so you could see that the cheesy past you were ordering was about 1500 cals in one serving.

this is the only macaroni grill I've been to also and it is pretty decent and really cheap. went w/ my friend from bakersfield, who apparently used to go to the one in bakersfield all the time w/ her family. I've never seen in anywhere else in california though...anyone know what the geographic spread is?

there are plenty of em in FL

I keep misreading this as Greatest American Chain Restaurant. Bedtime.

i am voting applebees.

I'm pretty sure olive garden soaks everything in a giant vat of olive oil before sending it to your table

anyway didn't we have this as a poll already?

oh, I guess not a grossest one:

Best Casual Dining Restaurant Chain

Macaroni Grill is passable. Just get the spaghetti and meatballs. Cheesecake factory is passable too and the breakfast isn't bad at all.

is applebees really that gross? i've only been to one or maybe two of them ever and i can't remember much but it seemed like the crap hanging from their walls was grosser than the food.

http://www.menuism.com/restaurant-locations/romanos-macaroni-grill-126721/US/CA

i've never been to a hooters before. i imagine if you stick to hot wings and beer you would be safe.

watched that *YOUR SECRET BOSS IS WATCHING YOU* show and the idiot son of the dead hooters baron dealt with rogue hooters managers and it was like the worst anti-commercial on earth. made you feel like bombing their restaurants instead of eating in them.

Golden Corral anyone? grossest "restaurant" of all time by a long distance imo. its more like a trough, really. i think they might only exist in the south.

Ugh yes. This + some shitty Chinese place in Boise, Golden Star, made me decide any restaurant w/the word "golden" in the name was to be avoided.

The 'trough' comparison: my mom-in-law seriously (affectionately!) calls the place "Pigs' Trough." I think she likes it bcz there is no waiting for the food. When he daughter got her grad degree, they all planned to go to her favorite sushi place for a nice meal, but her mom called them on her cell from the "Pigs' Trough," saying she'd already started eating there & everyone should come join her. She was just tooooo hungry to wait for sushi. So that's how my sister-in-law ended up having her celebratory dinner at a heat lamp buffet.

i don't know if it's always gross but i had an awful meal at an applebees in virginia

otoh i've been to macaroni grill twice and both times it was pretty much top-notch as chain restaurants go

i voted for denny's.

i think we got all these up north but some special canada-only ones, too... shit, montana's cookhouse, kelsey's neighborhood bar and grill, boston pizza... crazy mountains of bland food. when you drive across the prairies, on the trans-canada, you hit all the minor cities that are completely ringed with red lobster, denny's, kelsey's, smitty's, chili's, applebee's. and in what's left of the deserted downtown, the only places to eat are a seen-better-days kentucky fried chicken with early 80s-vintage signage, a withered steak house, two chinese restaurants (one called DRAGON PALACE, the other called JADE GARDEN), a tim horton's, and... if you're lucky, there's a final surviving diner that aged into fucked up eccentricity and they have a menu 60 pages long and the place is full of drunks and right beside where the greyhound stops but they have good milkshakes and there's a $3.99 meatloaf and mashed potatoes special, or some recent vietnamese immigrants have opened up a place, whatever.

I was invited to a friend's workplace Christmas party at a Macaroni Grill. Free meals + five free gimlets + people were drinking red wine from a beer bong by the end of the meal = a quality experience for me.

Golden Corral pwnz all. Really, buffets are a grossness class unto themselves.

i think macaroni grill is the least bad for sure. applebees is bland and stuff but not too gross. red lobster i will never go near but i don't remember specifically why.

i have not been to golden corral but i have had old country buffet a couple times and it's interesting

My brain always thinks of Macaroni Grill as "Haim's Macaroni Grill." This is because a guy named Haim Romano played guitar for The Churchills, and I guess I replace his last name in the restaurant name w/his first name. Why my subconscious did not select a more obvious Romano, like Ray, is beyond me.

Boston Market is kind of the same as OCB. My dad tried to take me to one but I shouted and carried on so we wound up at local burger place.

dylann's description is spot on for large swathes of new jersey as well.

I hope they have Tim Horton's in Jersey.

hah I guess not, but I do remember there being a JADE PALACE about 15 minutes from where I live.

yeah up and down rte 1 in NJ its just... chilis after outback after drive thru dunkin donuts

cheesecake factory is the grossest of all of these imo because people will wait HOURS to eat at one of these places. i have never been but i really cannot imagine it is that good

i kind of love those huge chinese buffet places

also, punctuated by generic gas stations which use the american flag as part of their logo xxp

wasn't tim horton's gonna come down into the states more? i've only been to one and i liked it a lot. like a kinder gentler dunkin donuts. that vibe probably wouldn't last long down here.

in college we used to go to a place called "OK chinese"

theres a few tim hortons in nyc. i like dunkin more. coffee is better.

they have tim horton's in NY and OH, surprised they are not in NJ

i miss the indian buffet places i would go to in philly. they weren't very good, but i liked them anyway. my stomach didn't always like them though.

there is a place in ohio called TEE-JAYE'S and it is sad but they're open 24 hours. they have something called a "barnbuster"

oh, barnyard buster sorry

THE BARNYARD BUSTER®
Two biscuits, two eggs, country fries, all on one plate covered with country sausage gravy.

http://www.barnyardbuster.com/images/barnyard-buster.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3566/3320831245_b42bd93182.jpg

shocking that a steakhouse isn't veggie-friendly. you should yelp that!

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 6:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol sorry I mildly denigrated your favorite restaurant. It wasn't surprising to me that Outback isn't veggie-friendly and I've only ever been there with in-laws because that's where they wanted to go, but since I'm vegetarian that's kind of part of how I assess restaurants. Weird right?

When he daughter got her grad degree, they all planned to go to her favorite sushi place for a nice meal, but her mom called them on her cell from the "Pigs' Trough," saying she'd already started eating there & everyone should come join her.

:( sad story. at Golden Corral you can buy take out by the pound.

we need a more thorough poll here.

Of the list, I say Chili's in a walk, though I've never heard of Claim Jumpers.

Denny's was the first food I ate on American soil - had been delayed for over a day, had had about 4 hours sleep and it was the only place open. Had been eating plane food & Burger King for like two days so just wanted something vaguely decent. Dennys was not the place to go.

Although it did have some menu items "designed" by Sum41, like these:
http://www.dennys.com/en/menu.aspx?menuid=10&parentid=255

and a completely spaced-out-mom waitress.
Haven't been to any others, tbh if I want cheap crappy food I'd rather go to McDs or Burger King.

dennys is a given in this so i'll say fridays, they seem determined to be the worst at their particular niche. claim jumper is probably the one i'd eat at first, the food is nowhere near as shitty as fridays or applebees. they used to have a good sized 4-beer sampler for 5.00, since they got rid of it no reason to go tbh

Golden Corral pwnz all. Really, buffets are a grossness class unto themselves.

good god yeah i ate there in orl not knowing any better, now gc ads are starting to trickle into california against all logic. the race to the bottom between them and hometown buffet will be bloody

whut about this place?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrabba%27s_Italian_Grill

Been there once or twice. In between Romano's and Olive Garden on the Italian chain restaurant quality scale imo.

what about buca di beppo

how does golden corral compare to old country buffet

I signed my dad up for the ocb mailing list and he gets so excited about getting free breakfast coupons and stuff

lol too cute

maggiano's > bucca di beppo > macaroni grill > carraba's > olive garden.
would never choose to go to maggiano's though because it's way overpriced.

Oh man, I've eaten at Outback twice and both times I feel disgusting sick because it's just oil dipped in grease dipped in lard dipped in an American flag

i think they rub butter on the steaks i aint bullshittin

anyone who gets a steak at a chain is insane imo

Cheesecake Factory is more than respectable -- they have bars, which are charming in a generic sort of way, and they know drinks and can mix them well. It's their portions that disgust me.

Once at a Dennys my dad ordered a Lumberjack Slam or whatever, and when he went to pour syrup over his pancakes a big river of dead ants came out instead.

Their patty melt is pretty good, though.

omg @ dead ants

what about buca di beppo

ughhh. but...four meals for the price of two, so. should bring my own tupperware next time.

A student who works for Friday's sez they basically buy their own brand's frozen potato skins, pizzas, and Monte Christos from the local grocery and microwave them.

wow alfred that they can mix drinks at cheesecake factory is kind of amazing to me (i have never been to one; my gf has threatened to take me because her work goes there a lot for lunch)

tho I remember when in the eighties Friday's billed itself as "The American Bistro," boasted a menu several pages long, cooked their own food, and Sam from Casablanca played "La Marseillaise."

that is a testament to the quality of TGI friday's frozen grocery store foods xpost

haha

Are we polling chain steakhouses next? Cuz I totally rep for Fleming's or Morton's.

i'm sorry whiney but you voluntarily eat subway

i think they rub butter on the steaks i aint bullshittin

Oh hell yes they do, according to my sister, six-year Steakback Outhouse employee. They do at Applebee's too, according to my mom, who worked there.

I go to Macaroni Grille once in a while when it's someone's birthday at work; totally acceptable, and occasionally more than that (e.g. their lasagna).

I'll agree with whoever said upthread that the quality of generic American chain restaurant food has deteriorated in twenty years.

I think frying a steak in butter is acceptable tbh

yeah i missed how butter + steak constituted a terrorist act

i was kind of on a mission to try every one of these chain restaurants, but chili's was the first, and it has seriously put me off the others.

I put a teaspoon of butter on steaks after removing them from the broiler, but, yeah, it's not frying.

yeah i'd like a clarification--steaks can be topped with butter but maybe this is more like one of those pumps at a movie theater concession with a steak under it?

oh this stuff:

http://www.kanokorn.com/images/louAnna-1.jpg

or this:

http://www.kanokorn.com/images/SuperKist-SM.jpg

buttery toppingesque quasicondiment

lol @ buttery topping

i'm sorry whiney but you voluntarily eat subway

― HOOM gang (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 9:40 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

cute zing, but if you can't see the difference between a twice-fried onion dripping acrid grease clear through a piece of wax paper vs. some wheat bread and vegetables than you're either a dipshit or weigh 400 pounds.

forgot to mention that the bread is loaded with HFCS tho

cute zing, but if you can't see the difference between a twice-fried onion dripping acrid grease clear through a piece of wax paper vs. some wheat bread and vegetables than you're either a dipshit or weigh 400 pounds.

― ksh kale (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 8:53 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

it was just a cute zing :-)

red lobster; i don't f around w/budget seafood
i've never seen a claim jumpers before but i'm all about ridiculously huge portions; sounds like a great late night "so drunk and so hungry" place

there's this place called "sizzler" that's pretty fucked up too; i don't know if it exists anymore. the biggest problem with all of these places = screaming babies

he biggest problem with all of these places = screaming babies

do they come with buttery toppings?

TGI Pukeday.

Oh man, Sizzler was totally my dad's annual "classy birthday meal" restaurant.

http://www.sizzler.co.th/en/images/p-career.jpg

oh shit, I thought this was best restaurant for some reason. Forget what I said about Chili's, Chili's rules.

Grossest would be TGI Frozen's IMO. Denny's is open all night, so I cut them some slack.

i voted for applebee's because it reminds me of how my parents are getting old and are clinging to anything they can get that's predictable and a "good value" -- they live in the heart of new york city but sometimes they'll drive out to the 'burbs and go to an applebee's. it's sad.

that's kinda cute!

As much as I can agree that some of these choices are totally disgusting and represent the worst of American eating habits, I do think this thread smacks a teeny bit of elitism. I mean, remember there are some areas of the country that aren't overwhelmed with little mom and pop places to go and, as much as it may suck, going to Applebee's really is a treat night out for a family on a budget.

Applebee's takes way too much crap IMO. Plus they have those half price appetizers after 10 pm now!

cap'n-save-a-bee

jon i agree in theory but my experience at applebees was some ghastly, not fit for human consumption shit

i mean i don't think we're being elitist given the amount of people repping for dennys, chilis, macaroni grill, cheesecake factory, etc.

jon, did you read this totally reasonable post:

aside from dennys (maybe) there is something a lot of these places have in common. they are really not all that cheap! i mean, if you have a local halfway decent mid-priced italian restaurant near you anywhere and you go to olive garden instead then you should kinda be ashamed of yourself. and same goes with all the rest. eat local! sort of.

if you are in a big hurry or only have five bucks on you then i can see the point of going to mcdonalds and the like, but these places actually make you wait for food and its usually not great and no real bargain.

I have never even heard of Claim Jumpers until this poll. I guess that's a good thing?

I voted for Applebees because I remember them having terrible service. Even if a restaurant has wonderful food I expect them to have halfway decent service, so when it is bad at one of these chain restaurants it seems especially egregious.

I did miss that one! I wasn't trying to bag on anyone in particular, just feeling guilty for piling on myself.

c.a.d. - I just pulled Applebee's out as an example, but I think you get my point.

I seriously wonder if people who say that honestly believe that the middle-aged woman in the next cubicle at work seriously goes home to her kids and says "what's up, my niggas, we're having Applebee's tonight!"

-- nabisco (nabisco)

no i get that it's an example but it seems like even w/in this category there's room enough to choose wisely, y'know?

this thread reminded me that Macaroni Grill had really good tiramisu the last time I went. now i want tiramisu.

i would kill for a place where i could go with friends at 10-11pm and get some drinks and some cheap non-disgusting food in a chill atmosphere where everybody knows my name, but that place just doesn't exist, at least not round these parts. any local place that attempts something like this is basically ripping off the 'bees business model and has the same kinda food but can't afford to do half off appetizers so its not as cheap. its a bummer.

As much as I can agree that some of these choices are totally disgusting and represent the worst of American eating habits, I do think this thread smacks a teeny bit of elitism. I mean, remember there are some areas of the country that aren't overwhelmed with little mom and pop places to go and, as much as it may suck, going to Applebee's really is a treat night out for a family on a budget.

― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:53 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I mean, I have sympathy. I frequented all these places until I was like 21. Like a year of human food in New York pretty much made me realize this shit is inedible across the fuckin board.

Now when i visit my mom, I always try to get her to try all the local restaraunts we never went to when I lived there.

Voted Chili's, but that's because the last one I was in would have had to be cleaned before the health department could condemn it.

Moogs OTM re: buffets being in their own circle of hell.

Jeff's 2010 high-end chain steakhouse 'kill your per diem in one sitting' rankings: Fleming's, Capital Grille, Morton's, Ruth's Chris.

some areas of the country aren't overwhelmed w/lil mom n pop places cause they've all been overwhelmed by gross-to-mediocre chain places! they are the gastronomic walmarts.

I thought that said "Clam Jumpers"

that's what they switch over to after 10pm

the local restaurants around south jersey are often a step below the chain restaurants! no fucking way am I going to pat's pizza again

some areas of the country aren't overwhelmed w/lil mom n pop places cause they've all been overwhelmed by gross-to-mediocre chain places! they are the gastronomic walmarts.

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:22 PM (3 minutes ago)

THIS. It really pisses me off, too. In every little town in the south you used to be able to find a good meat-and-three anywhere you looked, but now it's just the same line of KFC-McD-Wendys-TacoBell-Sonic-etc stretching out to infinity.

some areas of the country aren't overwhelmed w/lil mom n pop places cause they've all been overwhelmed by gross-to-mediocre chain places! they are the gastronomic walmarts.

Agreed. I wasn't saying this lack of choice was by any means a good thing, just a sad fact of life in some areas.

The corporations are to blame for this, as are the people who never bother to frequent the good independent places.

I've eaten at all of these (except Claim Jumpers, never heard of it) and Chili's is far and away the grossest shit ever developed by mankind. Most of these don't make me hungry thinking about them, but Chili's makes me want to vomit.

anyway, next time I'm back home, should I try out THE BONEFISH GRILL y/n

I mostly avoid all of these places because I am vegan. Sometimes I used to get the veggie burger from Applebees and pretend it doesn't have egg white in it, but yeah, vegan + chain restaurants = fail, unless you're content with fountain beverages and french fries. Fridays literally has NOTHING vegan, not even salad (their breadsticks are also deep fried)

Holy shit, A) your'e in south Jersey / B) you don't like Pat's??

Also I hear great things about Bonefish Grill and P.F. Chang's.

well my family lives there stevie d, I will return home in the summer. don't like pat's or, uh, venuto's? btw the bonefish grill I am talking about is the one by the deptford mall

That's the one my mother just pointed out to me and said was delicious!! I loooooved Venuto's when I went (once on South St. in Phila, once on Rt. 45 in or near Woodbury), but the fact that their sign and menus were in Papyrus sort of turned me off.

lorenzo's is better on south st. imo

Oh, well obviously! I haven't been there since like '05 or '06 but last I checked you could still get a (fucking enormous) slice and a Coke for $3- ? Of course now I just go to Gianna's on 6th or Govinda's on Broad.

PF Chang's is bullshit fwiw

used to steal mugs from denny's. wish i still had one

i have heard of claim jumper, but i think they're only a southern calif. thing. could be wrong. i see their monstrously huge frozen dinners at the supermarket a lot.

Claim Jumper is a restaurant chain headquartered in Irvine, California with 45 locations in Arizona, California, Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, Wisconsin and Oregon. Founder Craig Nickoloff opened the first Claim Jumper Restaurant in Los Alamitos, California in 1977.

i hadn't heard of claim jumper until tonight--their menu is completely terrifying

I mostly hate these kind of places because I've lived too long in places without tons of restaurants (even chain ones) and I just get mad when I go to a bigger city with tons of new and interesting things to eat and I see a line out the door at the goddamn Cheesecake Factory.

There's got to be a better place to eat within a reasonable distance, or else I'd rather just suck it up and get a fast food burger and fries for less money, less disappointment, and probably fewer calories. Sitting down and paying like twenty bucks to eat focus-grouped microwaved/deepfried stuff is like the worst of all options.

xpost i had a friend who used to steal the cloth napkins from Marie Callender's. whenever they got a new color/patterned napkin in, the waitstaff would bring it over and be like "another one for your collection!"

oh and that reminds me of that other West Coast suburban abomination, Cocos. I think I spent most of my childhood eating at terrible chains.

my girl is chinese and has lived in canada a mere three years, and she still really gets into these places. sociologically, it's kind of a mindblowing thing, authentic canadian white people watering hole and shit, she's still impressed when we go to red lobster and the menu is full of weird shit she's never tried: clam chowder! cheese biscuits! baked crab lasagna! deepfried coconut shrimp!!! and the waitresses are always nice and you get free refills on your drinks and the bathrooms are usually clean. we moved to vancouver about a year ago, so there's less interest but...

nowadays, even legit white people restaurants are basically rip-off copies of kelsey's neighborhood bar and grill or boston pizza. olive garden ripped off italian american restaurants or whatever, but now you get the local italian restaurant giving you some olive garden-esque bullshit ('cause that's what they prob grew up eating), and if you go to your neighborhood bar&grill, you're getting a rip-off of kelsey's or montana's or some other bullshit ('cause that's what everyone likes to eat, right?). if you go to a regular old white people restaurant (ie. any restaurant not identified with a specific cuisine-- so, like the ukrainian restaurant or the polish place or the greek place are sometimes still fighting the keeping it real fight: personality, creativity). these days you basically get zero creativity, assembly line meals, but without the corporate quality control. these chains squeeze out regular ol places and the ones that survive or spring up in any market gaps just start biting the massive-heaps-of-bland-shit-and-crazy-crap-on-the-walls strategy.

Moe: If you like good food, good fun, and a whole lot of...crazy crap on the walls, then come on down to Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag.

Announcer: At Moe's, we serve good old-fashioned home cooking deep fried to perfection.

[Moe submerges a whole tray covered with food, utensils, etc., in the deep fryer]
[he takes the fried tray to a couple, who break off pieces and give him the thumbs-up]

Moe: Now that's Moe like it! So bring the whole family. Mom, Dad, kids -- er, no old people. They're not covered by our insurance. It's fun! And remember our guarantee: if I'm not smiling when your check comes, your meal's on me: Uncle Moe! {[smiles right into the camera]}

Singers: {Come to Uncle Moe's for family fun, it's good, good, good, good, good good-good!}

Homer: Mmm. Sounds good.

So what's left in the line of authenticity? NJ diners?

lol dylann my parents who are chinese love going to red lobster because of unlimited bread rolls

and unlimited breadsticks at the olive garden

and unlimited rye bread with butter at outback steakhouse

in fact, a visit to any of the above will usually involve us ordering another order of the bread right after we finish the main course, and then we will wrap the bread in th provided napkins (free!) and leave (after only tipping 10% of course)

I mostly hate these kind of places because I've lived too long in places without tons of restaurants (even chain ones) and I just get mad when I go to a bigger city with tons of new and interesting things to eat and I see a line out the door at the goddamn Cheesecake Factory.

there's a cheesecake factory in SF?

yeah, i went there and the valedictorian of my class was waiting tables

haha

As much as I can agree that some of these choices are totally disgusting and represent the worst of American eating habits, I do think this thread smacks a teeny bit of elitism. I mean, remember there are some areas of the country that aren't overwhelmed with little mom and pop places to go and, as much as it may suck, going to Applebee's really is a treat night out for a family on a budget.

― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, March 3, 2010 3:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

No elitism here. I started this thread because I was totally bummed out that all of my favorite ma & pa joints were closing up in my hometown while all of the chains out by the highway/mall were thriving. Also, the place I took my wife serves the world's most awesome potato skins - crispy on the outside, soft in the center, covered in mounds of AMERICAN cheese, bacon bits and sour cream. The trick is that the cheese is not melted. And American. Anyway, less culture war talk and more blooming onion/jalapeno popper merit discussion.

I think the SF Cheesecake Factory I was recommended was on the top floor of Bloomingdales? Somewhere in the Union Square area.

Mom and pops fail while chains prosper because they're reliable. It's rare to hear about one Red Lobster being really good and the another terrible - they're getting their supplies from the same trucks and kitchen turnover is high so it's not like the cooks imprint a personality on the food over time.

Independent restaurants are more of a dice roll (and, realistically, often no better than a chain).

No way any of the chain restaurants are making better BBQ and catfish sandwiches than the 30+ year mom & pops that I like (although I get your point).

FYI if you like bread rolls at Red Lobster, this recipe is a very good approximation of them (my sister's made them several times, they're great if you're about to get drunk and watch football):

http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=4431#more-4431

http://e-lacrosse.com/blogs/lifeinthepros/files/2009/03/wafflehouse.jpg

i think reliability is part of it. but when you get beyond the denny's level, there's the spectacle of the whole thing: it's not just dumb shit on the wall, but... a western theme! glossy menus! or, sports memorabilia and crisp as fuck flatscreen tvs and an aquarium with a shark in it! dolled up waitresses in clean uniforms! mango daquiris that come from a slurpee machine! waitresses are writing upsidedown on a tablecloth that i can also draw pictures on with crayons! there are 58 kinds of cheesecake! that's what i dig, at least.

i spent four years in moose jaw, saskatchewan (pop 30,000), where local restaurants consisted of thick leather bound menu joints that served crappy doughy pizza piled high with mennonite sausage and canned mushrooms, pasta sauced with cream of mushroom soup (see: houston pizza, wayne and laverne's pizza, rodo's, the mad greek, cordova bistro). chains coming in and fucking up their game was the coolest thing that ever happened. and slowly, the old places got shut down and were scavenged by asian/etc. migrants, who opened a vietnamese place in a dusty old greek restaurant, best thai restaurant on the prairie's in an old polish/german bar/dive, a malay place in an abandoned grocery store, an indian joint in a failed steak house. the only good mom and places that lasted into the 2000s were... well, the chinese restaurants, that had been there from the start, and one place that ran out of an old carwash and had its menu up on hubcaps on the wall.

but the fact that their sign and menus were in Papyrus sort of turned me off.

Most elitist post itt

Anyway I fucking love Pizza Hut, I loved it even when there WERE local ma' and pa' options (I don't think Big John's is even a chain, there's just the one). I HATED Big John's, they made a thin and crispy crust and put green olives on the pizza. Disgusting.

Thank god for the Book It reading program that forced my parents to spend probably a couple hundred bucks taking us out to Pizza Hut.

think it is def a going with the enemy you know thing, particularly for out-of-towners passing through. hmm maybe Aunt Putsy's Country Kitchen is awesome...but maybe it's awful and plus they'll bludgeon me and put me in their meat cooler...better play it safe and get the QUESADILLA EXPLOSION SALAD at Outback. I know that's about the only time I eat at chain restaurants now, on road trips.

red lobster why bcuz u should hot have seafood in iowa

QUESADILLA EXPLOSION SALAD at Outback

Chili's, dude, sounds like you're out of touch with the menu at your No. 1 favorite U.S. restaurant

but the fact that their sign and menus were in Papyrus sort of turned me off.

Most elitist post itt

I was going off the other day about a new local mom and pop place that seemed alright in most ways but their logo is in Algerian. Not even regular Algerian, they stretched the letters out vertically. I can't get past places that put a lot of effort into everything but their menu / logo, like it's totally an afterthought.

Sorry, but to me the premise of this thread is akin to asking which, amongnst a variety of ways to die, is the most lethal.

Red Lobster are racist fascist pigs.

crustaceanist

How so u s steel?

If there is any of these restaurants I associate w/racism, it is Denny's, tho I suppose that is as timely as associating Jack in the Box w/E. Coli.

They sent hundreds of thousands of lobsters to concentration camps in cattle cars.

I believe at that point one may refer to them as lobster cars.

I thought Cracker Barrel was the notorious political "baddie" among this bad bunch- superfundamentalist and hardline, I seem to recall some pretty horrible policies about HIV positive employees being fired and a nasty stink/protest in retaliation.

The only one of these I have a distinct memory of eating in is Denny's. I guess they can get kind of gross at times, depending on the place, time of day, etc.

"We got paid off by Cracker Barrel!"

http://www.famu.edu/headlines/UserFiles/Image/Cracker_Barrel.web.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Holy shit, A) your'e in south Jersey / B) you don't like Pat's??

― This object perpetually attempts to sell itself on eBay. (Stevie D), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 11:31 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm from SJ and I also think Pat's sux and is kinda expensive. I'd rather go to Joe's or Mama Ciconte's any day. Scotto's in Woodbury is pretty good too ($6.99 large pizza special!).

Most authentic food on rt 45 imo is a Sicilian Deli hoagie.

^^ I am going to keep these in mind when I return home for the summer

have always wanted to visit that sicilian hoagie shack, but it looked like a money laundering front so I'd always get the too-salty cheap hoagie from shoprite instead. :/ (I suppose all good hoagie shacks look like money laundering fronts tho)

true. doesn't help that it is next to a tattoo parlor.

Guys can we have a SJFAP? We can all get pampered at Hello, Gorgeous! and then pop by Heritages for some sodas and then GO TO THE COLONIAL ON 45!

NO SBARRO NO CREDIBILITY

that's really stretching the definition of restaurant. which is their slogan, iirc.

Also I am usually not v pretentious/elitist but will willingly/sort of embarassingly admit I am a snob and a half when it comes to Comic Sans and Papyrus. Mostly I just don't get why other people don't get it.

i'm not the pampering kind but wouldn't mind stopping by the 'lo. good flapjacks.

sounds good, if I'm back in time

when i was stuck in stockton, ca a year ago for work, i ended up eating @ Macaroni Grill a LOT. the food was surprisingly pretty good, and it was one of the few good restaurants in what was otherwise a foodie's hell.

do they actually grill the macaroni?

Say, when "dyao" get back? (ha ha!) No, they don't grill the macaroni. They just want people to know it's basically an Italian-ish Chili's or Applebees

these places (like denny's) have gotten worse over the years, right? I mean I remember eating at IHOP as a kid (and Denny's, and the unfortunately named Sambos) and they were alright, for the 70's/80's. And I don't think this is just because my tastes have gotten refined; I'm pretty sure these places have gotten much worse. The last time I ate at IHOP it was barely edible.

IHOP has always been known as I-SLOP in my neck of the woods.

def. gone down a notch or two: ihop, chili's, sizzler

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4632991n?source=search_video

Denny's is like the nastiest place on the face of the Earth

I'd imagine K-Lo's kitchen takes the cake, so to speak.

kitchen? is that what you call it?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

i'd so much rather go to denny's than any of these. ruby tuesday chilis applebees can rot in hell

i chose Applebee's mostly for selling something called a "wonton taco"

The nastiest food experience I've ever had was in a Denny's; it involved oil and vinegar carafes that had a thin film of dead gnats floating on top of the liquid inside them and undercooked food served on unclean plates with unclean silverware and water served in unclean glasses. It was beyond vile.

xp: woah that is compelling evidence tho

I don't know what Dennys considers coffee these days, but what I used to drink there late nights was better than Starbucks.

i wanna heart Denny's simply b/c of their Nannerpuss and Paulie Walnuts ads.

wonton tacos:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q--bapvYnos/RvtwhMK60AI/AAAAAAAACOg/l0ukqP_mtW8/s400/Tuna+Taco+23082007498.jpg

wtf is that

do not wont

needs cilantro

it looks like an overstuffed fish taco.

when i was a little kid i wanted to go to red lobster so bad bcuz i had seen and ad for this like ten kinds of shrimp served ten different ways type deal & one of the ways was with lemon and garlic and theyd toss the shrimp as it glistened it seemed like the most fukken delicious thing ud ever taste. but my mom wouldnt take me cuz she thought these type a places were gross & unhealthy but i still think red lobster mb tastes p good.

havent eaten @ any of the places so i cant judge

The ever-present lemon hovering the Red Lobster shrimp looks tasty.

Red Lobster: A Good Value or Ghetto?

when I was a kid, Red Lobster was where lower middle class people celebrated high school graduations and took people on first dates. I imagine it is like Applebee's or any of these other casual dining places today.

Can't wait to see the results on this.

Red Lobster gets my vote. I fucking hate seafood.

Macaroni Grill. I fucking hate macaroni.

i got ecoli from baja fresh in 2006

i knew that there was a story in the archives that accounts for Dan's aversion to all things Denny's -- and here it is:

The year was 1982. My family was in Colorado Springs visiting my oldest brother at the Air Force Academy. Before heading over to the campus, we stopped at the Denny's next door to our hotel where we underwent a series of horrifying restaurant experiences:
- The silverware at our table was CAKED with food; it looked like the previous diners had eaten their meals and then reset the table with their used cutlery. We asked for more silverware but it took them three attempts to find some that was actually clean.

- Shaken, I went to take a drink of water. My mother abruptly shouted, "DON'T DRINK OUT OF THAT!" and grabbed my hand. Puzzled and slightly shocked, I took a closer look at the glass and finally saw the ring of orange juice pulp around the inside of my glass.

- At this point, most of the family had lost their appetites, but my dad is stubborn and wanted to eat right then. He ordered a salad with oil and vinegar salad dressing. He had poured on the oil and was going for the vinegar when my middle brother said, "Dad, before you do that, what's on the top of that vinegar?" Dad glanced at it and said, "Oh, that's just pepper." My brother said, "Since when does pepper have WINGS?" Dad put his gnat-topped vinegar carafe back on the table and ordered the check.

We walked out of the restaurant and went straight to McDonald's. I think I've set foot in Denny's maybe once since then (the whole "we don't like black people" thing from the early 90s was an unnecessary nail in an already-sealed coffin as far as I was concerned).

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, January 15, 2004 10:14 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

The lobster pizza @ Red Lobster if fucking awesome, btw. Pretty much the only edible thing on that menu.

I've been drafted to eat there tonight. Seriously considering a salad one of those...

salad and one of those

I don't know what Dennys considers coffee these days, but what I used to drink there late nights was better than Starbucks.

otm if starbucks cut the shit and started serving good ol coffehouse coffee (even as a novelty or whatever) i'd be as much a sb stan as the next guy

when I was a kid, Red Lobster was where lower middle class people celebrated high school graduations and took people on first dates. I imagine it is like Applebee's or any of these other casual dining places today.

kind of gross snobbery here.

also, that Heart Attack Grille place is repulsive on so many fucking levels.

Careful. I kind of got dumped on for pointing out snobbery in this thread.

ha i had no idea red lobster was not a big deal until i was well into my 20's (it was kinda moot, there was only one close to where i grew up and we went there maybe twice, when i was young). i went to one a few years ago on vacation, well i guess the blinders are off but i can get with those biscuits all day

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

BTW, what the hell is Clam Jumpers?!?

hahaha glad im not the only one who keeps misreading it as that!

oh ok, it's got a California Gold Rush theme going. don't get the point of that -- what do they do, serve baked beans and black coffee over an outside fire to capture that '49 prospector vibe?!?

all you can order is sourdough

I wanted to start a fad diet based on only eating stuff like bacon, beans, hardtack, and coffee cooked over an open fire. Part of the deal is you'd have to carry all your supplies with you in a leather saddle bag all day.

when I was a kid, Red Lobster was where lower middle class people celebrated high school graduations and took people on first dates. I imagine it is like Applebee's or any of these other casual dining places today.

― richie aprile (rockapads), Thursday, March 11, 2010 6:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Red Lobster was definitely a "good report card" dinner when I was a kid

No snobbery intended by my Red Lobster post. My family was in that group. The first time I ate at Red Lobster, it was a big deal. Now it's basically fast food. Times change.

Red Lobster was too spendy for my parents, who still celebrate their anniversary by going to Burger King and sharing one Whopper.

Red Lobster's still ridiculously overpriced for frozen food.

I agree with this order.

All the bad Denny's stigmas about racism and putting pork in that muslim guy's food totally skewed the results of this poll imo. Denny's food is just bland and lame and crappy. so many of these other places on this list are totally GROSS gross

when i was a little kid i wanted to go to red lobster so bad bcuz i had seen and ad for this like ten kinds of shrimp served ten different ways type deal & one of the ways was with lemon and garlic and theyd toss the shrimp as it glistened it seemed like the most fukken delicious thing ud ever taste. but my mom wouldnt take me cuz she thought these type a places were gross & unhealthy but i still think red lobster mb tastes p good.

Man, I remember being totally entranced by that ad too! Also, I vividly remember like my 9th or 10th or 11th birthday when I closed my eyes in the back seat all the way to my birthday dinner, then I opened them and we were at Red Lobster and I was all
http://blogoehlert.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/24/hooray.jpg

i *know* my parents took me to red lobster at some point because i remember the decor, but i don't remember the food at all. if anything says "celebration" on this list for me, it's being in college and GETTING A RIDE to the TGIF at the mall on a friday night or whatever, and sharing one of those big hot wing/mozz stick plates.

man, i remember me and my deepest crew all rolling into chili's on the last day of junior year and having serious convos re: our new lives a high school seniors over nachos and root beers

denny's is strictly a "last resort" option -- like when i'm superdrunk late at night and NEED cheese fries, or when i was in student dirtbag paper-writing mode and wanted something quick that i didn't have to think about too much. last time i went to one, it was next door to the hotel where i was staying, and it was the only food in walking distance.

i think of high school when i think of Denny's at all. although i grew up in NJ (a state well-known for having lots of diners), interestingly enough there was no diner in my hometown when i was a teenager so you had to drive 10 minutes to get to the nearest one. and right across the street from that diner was a Denny's (next to the local fleabag/crackhouse hotel LOL). so it was 50-50 on whether we'd hang @ Denny's or the diner. i think it depended on how destructive we were feeling on that particular night -- the diner was actually kind of nice & the Greek dudes who ran the joint were kind of scary, so if we were in a "don't give a fuck" mood we went to Denny's.

Denny's food is just bland and lame and crappy. so many of these other places on this list are totally GROSS gross

― go haim on em (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:20 PM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

Red Lobster was our special occasion spot as a kid, which always sucked for me because I didn't learn to appreciate seafood until I was a senior in high school working at a good seafood spot. And then I just learned to hate Red Lobster for reasons other than being a picky eating little bastard.

Denny's grosses me out way more than IHOP which grosses me out way way more than Waffle House. I'll rep for eggs, bacon & hash browns at WH any time.

still feel guilty for rolling into Friday's and Chili's in high school 30 deep after a school event, making them put together a big table and splitting checks.

i actually have no beef with the waffle house

horrible confession: denny's makes a good soyburger. loaded with salt and grease, of course, and i don't eat it anymore. but it's good.

cracks me up how Ruby Tuesday is trailing so far behind Friday's and Applebee's, still can't really tell any of them apart and file them in the same place in my brain no matter how many times i've been to each

i confused rt with one of those fake 50's diner ones but i think that's 'red robin'. according to the website there is 4 total in my state

I'll stan for Denny's b/c I used to hang out there w/ my friends late night in high school & have many fond sentimental memories of coffee & smoking but it's always basically been a joke how vile most of their food is. I remember that anything deep fried usually had a subtle green hue. Maybe that was just the fluorescent lamps, but still..

Yeah when I was in college the local Denny's was the only place open to go drink coffee at in the middle of the night but I don't think I ever actually ate anything there. I was at one last summer and it was pretty awful.

I have never been to an Olive Garden but the idea of unlimited breadsticks appeals to the carb fiend within.

stevie d - I'll be back sometime in the summer, dunno when as I haven't booked my tickets...I'll try to let you guys know when I do get back

olive garden breadsticks are kinda gross - really soft and pliable and almost kind of mealy. I like the unlimited butter biscuits at red lobster better. xp

Long Poop Silver's

gotta say the great thing abt growing up in the state w/ the most 24-hr diners per capita was that i could avoid dennys & its ilk--late-night high school eats/hanging out was always possible at weird/fun greek-owned places

Yeah in high school we were all about the diners. Long Island probably has almost as many as Jersey. Upstate New York? Not so big on diners. :(

I used to have sort of this romanticized idea of Denny's from road trips as a kid, until my car broke down in the middle of Oklahoma a few years ago and I was stuck at one of those comfort inn type hotels for three days. The only thing close enough to walk to was a Denny's. So, I figure I had eight or nine straight meals there. Never again.

Man, the Denny's near where I grew up was totally the post-football game go smoke cigarettes spot in high school.

I remember coming back from school one Christmas, going out to a party, and having like four different people come tell me that Denny's had stopped allowing smoking.

This was considered big news in my home town back then.

ditto for us and Perkins

did anyone ever explain what the hell Claim Jumpers was

What is the best one for being vegan at?

Ruby Tuesday has a salad bar, some of the other ones might too.

What about for hot food? (I secretly don't really like salad)

you should probably just bring a bag of trail mix or something

Claim Jumpers, by the way, is a

My old boss took us to Claim Jumper's once, so much worse than most of the other choice for two main reasons:

1. Way, way, way more expensive than yr standard Applebees/Chilis shit but almost exactly the same
2. Ridiculous portion sizes even compared to other American chains

― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 6:22 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

did anyone ever explain what the hell Claim Jumpers was

I not only know what one is, I know exactly WHERE one is.

If a sufficient number of people respond to this post - meaning 10 separate individuals - I will go to the Claim Jumper, photodocument, and post about it here.

OR

We could do an LA FAP at a Claim Jumper.

Just sayin'.

post response one: you should go

Also, I still cannot stop reading this as "Clam Jumpers"

has anyone ever been to a Clam Jumpers?

go to Claim Jumpers.

Stuckey's ruled

The "Clam Jumper" joke was one with GREAT staying power among several of my friends who have come out to visit us here in the Golden State. It still comes up from time to time.

GREAT staying power

unlike their food amirite

http://www.poisonappleshirts.com/ohsofat/061609claimmark.jpg

^^^LOVES Clam Jumpers

is that dude eating a penguin burger

imo this thread just jumped the clam

dude is creepy

none of these places mean anything to me now that chili's has reformulated its chicken fingers but before i could not play so aloof. ruby tuesday's is just a graveyard with self-serve pudding though

the worst is going to one of these in a brand new super wal-mart dress barn asphalt colony and looking out the window at big piles of dirt while you eat your buffalo bbq sliders.

dudes, the count is at two.

Just sayin'.

Denny's makes a great milkshake
that alone should've kept it from losing (winning?) this poll

these are all the same restaurant

― mark roflr (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 3:40 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

I've eaten at all these chains, and the only one I will never go back to is Claim Jumpers.

gross food, uncivilized portions, other?

every time you came back from the bathroom, someone else would be in your chair eating your meal

^^^ I lol'd

Upstate New York? Not so big on diners. :(

― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Thursday, March 11, 2010 7:29 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not true ime?

Well there weren't any in Geneva sadly.

http://www.cardcow.com/images/set199/card00406_fr.jpg

http://www.cardcow.com/backs/images/set199/card00406_bk.jpg

would absolutely eat at Roscoe's

it's just "roscoe" cuz the town is called roscoe

I LOVE THE ROSCOE DINER!!!! I used to stop there every time I did the drive from Long Island to the Finger Lakes. :D

Ample Parking

Was actually going to mention it earlier but I didn't think anyone would know it.

Thought I'd posted, maybe to the wrong thread.

I'm still flustered by the fact that there is a subset of chains that are "fancy," especially for people who live in rural areas without a lot of restaurants. A lot of friends have relatives from small towns who always had to eat at Olive Garden or Red Lobster when they went to the big city. Now the fancy place of choice seems to be Macaroni Grill.

would still eat there regardless, although I am now sad that meeting a jovially friendly owner named Roscoe is off the table

it's a great diner, but it's probably better-known for its ubiquitous bumper stickers than its food. (xxpost)

would still eat there regardless, although I am now sad that meeting a jovially friendly owner named Roscoe is off the table

there's still roscoe's chicken & waffles in l.a.

been there, would go again

me too

next time I'm in CA we should have a FAWAC meetup

gross food, uncivilized portions, other?

Giant portions of crap food with this emphasis of "Look how supersized we made THIS!"

http://jiveturkey.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/boss-hog.jpg

next time I'm in CA we should have a FAWAC meetup

Whether Long Beach, Pasadena or elsewhere, I am ALL over the 'Scoe's. Let me KNOW.

a 'dena thing would be fun

Man, I got the Dena plans covered if it comes to that. 'Scoes, followed by Lucky Baldwins.

we might be in LA/pasadena area memorial day weekend, would be up for a FAP.

BLAM, if you're lucky i'll bring some more of that whittaker's chocolate back from NZ (we're going there beginning of may) for you!

I sometimes think of that kiwi/chocolate bar you sent. That was the BUSINESS.

Let me know if you all want to do a Pasadena area fap. I'd be glad to host.

http://snippets.com/what-is-the-nutrition-information-for-claim-jumper-restaurant.htm

WOW

I've never been to this restaurant -- do people actually clean their plate or is the point that you take half home in a doggie bag? I mean, I am a big eater at times but I don't think I would want to, maybe even physically couldn't, put down 4200 calories at a sitting.

holy shit

4,301 Calories

can I just what is this I don't even

I'll bet the items on the children's menu at this place are actual children.

Not toddlers, I'm talking fifth-graders.

don't even think my li'l bro wd be 4301 cals

the baked potato (side dish) has more sodium than the meatloaf and mashed potato dinner

o_O

One of those rolled-in-coarse-salt baked potatoes, then.

The place is huge, but it’s invariably packed, and you can see why. The typical entrée is under fifteen dollars. The décor is fancy, in an accessible, Disney-cruise-ship sort of way: faux Egyptian columns, earth-tone murals, vaulted ceilings. The waiters are efficient and friendly. They wear all white (crisp white oxford shirt, pants, apron, sneakers) and try to make you feel as if it were a special night out. As for the food—can I say this without losing forever my chance of getting a reservation at Per Se?—it was delicious.

The chain serves more than eighty million people per year. I pictured semi-frozen bags of beet salad shipped from Mexico, buckets of precooked pasta and production-line hummus, fish from a box. And yet nothing smacked of mass production. My beets were crisp and fresh, the hummus creamy, the salmon like butter in my mouth. No doubt everything we ordered was sweeter, fattier, and bigger than it had to be. But the Cheesecake Factory knows its customers. The whole table was happy (with the possible exception of Ethan, aged sixteen, who picked the onions out of his Hawaiian pizza).

I wondered how they pulled it off. I asked one of the Cheesecake Factory line cooks how much of the food was premade. He told me that everything’s pretty much made from scratch—except the cheesecake, which actually is from a cheesecake factory, in Calabasas, California.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/13/120813fa_fact_gawande#ixzz22sJRPuVm

Cheesecake Factory is ironically a factory of everything BUT cheesecake.

Was that written by Marilyn Hagerty?

lol

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2012/10/25/1226503/093989-denny-039-s.jpg

Denny's has been doing that for a few years now, still makes me lol

Moons Over My Smaugy

This is old and I think was probably posted in a Marilyn Hagerty thread, but it deserves to be memorialized herein:

http://www.theawl.com/2012/03/our-week-with-marilyn

one egg to bind them

nice

Chili's has food that tastes like the crap you'd shovel in your mouth while playing Twisted Metal back in 1996

what were you doing in a Chili's

slowly drifting away

ROSCOE DINER RESTAURANT
Where People Eat Like Kings

Accommodations to over 300 People

So this means the place can seat 10,000, right?

arena style banquet seating

Need to read a Hagerty review of Chili's.

"diner restaurant" reminds of a a funny place i've stayed (twice!) in memphis: The Gen X Inn Hotel

are their flannel robes in the closet

Build your own Hobbit Slam

Build your own Hobbit Slam

Build your own Hobbit Slam

iirc Applebees has better bars

you know, I can actually back you up on that one.

(But not babyback you up.)

I once read a fascinating long form article about the granddaddy of all of these, TGI Friday’s. At least for the first couple decades they cooked their food in house, while their competitors like Applebees or whatever just Microwaved literally everything.

history of TGIF pretty interesting. memphis had the first one outside of the og in nyc. was considered the hotspot. maybe big star gigged there? they certainly drank there.

Applebees had those $2 Long Island Iced Teas for a while, you could get incredibly wasted for ten bucks