Guess I'm not as cynical as others here. While I'm not naive enough to think there's not some house motivation to push a special, I've often found them to be quite good. I guess there's a difference between blindly accepting a recommendation or a special and asking a few probing questions and making a somewhat informed choice. And, if you don't like the way something sounds, by all means, don't order it just because it's the "special"!