Originally Posted by
deubster
My work sends me to lots of small towns (30K - 75K). I'm tired of almost all the chains, but I don't mind sitting alone in a restaurant as I usually have my nose buried in a book. I'll research restaurants online as much as possible (not a reliable method for small towns), and will ask for recommendations from clients and hotel staff. Even with these, it's a crapshoot.
But I admit that in lots of towns I'll skip local fare altogether (I defy you to name a decent restaurant in lots of the towns I visit) and stop at the grocery store on the way to the hotel. I tend to get lots of ready-made salads - the kind that are in plastic bowls and contain dressing/crouton packets. In my luggage I always carry a couple of plastic utensil packs from my hometown restaurants.
Room service, when available, is usually worse than the local restaurants.
This is the other part of my issue, now that you mention it. I'm not a big fan of the chains, so when I'm in smaller cities, and the clients recommend Olive Garden or Chilis as "the" spot to go, I'll head to the local grocery. On the other hand, I do like to try new restaurants, and have been lucky to find a few diamonds in the rough. While slogging through the rough, instant oatmeal starts to look like a great alternative.
As far as the grocery stores, I find that even if I don't need to, I'll still walk up and down most aisles, just to see what they have that might be different from the stores at home. Or I'll be looking for a specific item that I can't get at home. It's relaxing, being in the store, as opposed to a restaurant.