Originally Posted by
DanTravels
Hmmm... what kind of restaurants are you going to? Popular sit-down chains like T.G.I.Friday's, Bennigan's, Chili's, etc., or slightly more upscale? I have no difficulty finding sides at traditional locally-owned "diners" (on the east coast) or their equivalents... but those places aren't trying to replicate a marketable "experience" across dozens or hundreds of locations, either...
Of the chains I've been to, virtually all list sides on the menu... ditto for local diners. Fine-dining places? Not so much, except when they unbundle entrees and sides as many better steakhouses do.
That said, most of the places where you're getting sides, it's not going to be $2, except maybe as an add-on to an entree... ordering a side separately (around here) seems to pretty consistently be $3-4 at the mid-price family places like Chilis or Outback or local diner-y places.
Then again, come to think of it, refillable soft drinks are creeping up to around $3 around here so it may just be the local area being expensive.