If you consider the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am portions, greasy fats, pink donuts, blue cakes, and other un-appetizing artificial colorings, too much sugar and the same bland taste everywhere you go, yep US beats it hand down. IMHO, only the UK seems to have worse food than the US

Many people are comparing Italian food in Italy with Olive Garden in the US. But even in a city like Cleveland you will find many restaurants which are ran by recent Italian immigrants (check out "Little Italy" in CLE).

I really wish the food portions could be reduced here because it really does take away the taste of the meal. I recently ordered jambalaya at a restaurant and after eating 1 pound of it, the taste just disappears and it becomes just another pre-packaged factory food item.

I also like to eat outside as people do in Europe than inside or in a mall.

+1 ^

Usually when I go to places with my mom, we just end up ordering one item and share it together. It's not being cheap, it's just the fact that the size of "one dish" here is just too darn big for a person of my mom's age!

Agreed, many plants are not strictly defined as GMO. Sorry, I should have been more specific in saying that they have been bred more conventionally for characteristics that do not include ideal flavor or texture from an eating standpoint. And as such, does it not affect how the finished meal will taste?

I know I cannot take said wooden peach that can be found in the average grocery store right now and turn it into as fragrant and juicy pie as if I were to get the ripe fruit from an "heirloom" type tree. That same effect trickles down to many aspects of cooking in the US. Sugar, salt, and oil are used to compensate for lack of other flavors. Much of it ends up tasting similar.

As others have said, it's been my experience that the rest stop food in Italy frequently outstrips mid-level Italian restaurants in the US.

It seems we are mostly in agreement in this thread. Amazing; is this really FlyerTalk? The wooden fruits and vegetables are awful, in that I agree. However, wooden comestibles are one reason food prices are so very, very cheap in the US. The real stuff costs much more, to be sure, but it still is not more expensive than is similar food in many other countries and often still less so.

I also am a fan pof Italian and French motorway food. AutoGrill has consistently very good food at modest prices. I have been known to seek out an AutoGrill rather than take a gamble on the sometimes poor choices in many Italian cities. Those who denigrate lousy US food really need to try the lousy options often available, especially at odd times, in Italy, the UK, Ireland and some other countries. Even France is now stuffed full of really horrible fast food places such as McDonald's and Quick while restaurants in some small cities and towns are quite horrible.

It is not my intention to bash food in Italy or France. It is my intention to bring perspective. The US is not alone in offering tasteless nutritionless frankenfoods. It is easy to stereotype the US in this respect, but unfair.

I cannot quite believe I am defending the US for food options, but honesty makes me do it. Even with chains how about Houston's, El Pollo Loco, Pollo Tropical, P. F. Chang's and myriad others? Those places are inexpensive and still manage to deliver decent food quality.

A simple answer for ME, NO. But thats just me.

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I completely agree with this but wanted to correct the GMO issue. I remember my mom complaining about grocery store peaches in the 60s. The industrialization of food is an enormous issue but there aren't that many GMO foods out there. And I doubt any GMO peaches.

Autogrill isn't bad if you are stuck on the autoroute. I can't imagine seeking it out when you aren't on the road. But Italy does have some dead spots. In France however, you find find excellent food anywhere.

Come on! The percentage of lousy fast food in France is infinitesimal compared to the US! Both in numbers of restaurants and revenue. In the US it is a hundred billion dollar empire. It's nothing here in France. And in France it is pretty much only kids that go to these places. At my local McDonalds they serve way more coke, coffee and fries than sandwiches. The teens use it as a hang-out place, but they don't eat much there. You only see adults at McDonalds when they are bringing little kids to use the indoor playground on a rainy day.

The UK and Ireland I agree have an abundance of bad food. How you can screw up fish and chips that bad, I don't know.

I'm curious to know what might constitute screwed up Fish and Chips? AFAIK, you can't screw up Fish and Chips.

In fact, in all my years, I can't say I've ever had a bad meal of Fish and Chips in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland(s), or the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney for that matter. In fact a silly wild ar$e guess would put my lifetime portions of F&C at about 500, and the only bad F&C I've ever had were in the US and Canada.

Like I said above, I don't know how they screw it up. Maybe poorly frozen fish? And low quality chips? While I have had mostly great fish and chips in the UK, I have also had some pretty bad examples.

There is a whole chain in the US devoted to it, initials LJS....they sure managed to screw it all up.

I see. I've not come across, or at least not noticed, the use of frozen fish in any of the fish and chips I've had. But then again, I have not had F&C at any of the touristy joints in Central London, and its possible they use frozen fish.

My understanding is that F&C shops purchase cod, haddock or plaice daily from pre-dawn markets (e.g., covent garden, etc), or if located near coastal towns, straight from the harbour. These days though, now that you bring it up, it wouldn't surprise me if some shops do rely on frozen fish, lower quality potato's and less costly oil, especially in areas of central London where shop leases can top �300-400,000

I don't know about London since there are so many better food options in the capital. Actually in recent years the worst fish and chips I've had have been in the smaller cities of Ireland. I just stopped ordering it. The best I have had were in East Anglia. Scotland is hit and miss.

The key to good fish and chips is fresh ingredients, no preservatives or chemicals, vegetable oil and freshly prepared batter. Secondly, it's the size of the fillet that matters - it has to be long in order to be cooked right - and if it's long, it needs to be placed in a very large fryer.

The problem with LJS is that they don't use cod, have mechanized the process, and have balls'd around with the size of the fillet's. They don't have large fryer's in the US like they do in the UK, and I'm not altogether sure the american consumer would know what to do with a sixteen inch long piece of cod that costs $12-15.

LJS is pure crap and has been for about 40 years. More interesting is LS or Legal Seafood. That started out as one of the best seafood restaurants in the US. Then they turned it into a chain out and the quality went down the tubes. Chains, like airlines, are run by accountants who squeeze pennies and the result is poor quality food.