Most large cities have locally owned restaurants of various ethnicities, especially those run by recent immigrants. I avoid chain restaurants unless the people I'm meeting in that city insist on it.
Especially now that I have books loaded on my iPhone, eating along is not a problem. It's a chance to sit back and relax and get some leisure reading done. Even before the smartphone era, I always carried a paperback book, so that I was never bored during down times.