Originally Posted by
exbayern
I'm regularly amazed at how much business TGIF's and Hard Rock Cafe do around the world; they seem to attract a large number of American customers (who could eat pretty much the same food at home). And some smaller cities even support more than one TGIF! I just walked past one which had a Friday night crowd building while local restaurants were still fairly quiet.
Sometimes you just want familiar, decent food. Although TGIF and the present incarnation of the Hard Rock Cafe barely qualify for that, and the Hard Rock is
wickedly expensive these days (even by US standards, let alone local ones!) in places which are otherwise quite cheap. $20 for a hamburger is robbery even in Manhattan or London -- and the HRC in
Pattaya of all places had a burger at that price (well, 600 baht) with other entrees similarly scaled up.
That and the general crapification of the menu is why these days, I just pick up an overpriced T-shirt and not a meal there. A shame - they used to be reasonably priced and reasonably good.