I suppose I'm the only one to disagree. 5 years ago when regional jets were uncommon, I thought of the SAAB 340 as the favored choice.

In those days, one had a choice of:
ATR42, Fokker 50, Dash 8, and Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias. Of those, I liked the Dash 8 best, but the SAAB wasn't too bad. The Brasilia and ATR has gotten bad press, but I can't say if safety concerns are justified. I have been on Brasilia flights were passengers were offloaded claiming weight restrictions, but I don't have numerical weight data.

There were other odd balls out there, such as the BAe ATP, Fokker 27, Dash 7, Metro III, etc.