A restaurant has to have incredible confidence in its product to encourage 'false waits'. Whether that product is the food, the ambiance, the 'see and be seen' factor or simply snob factor (e.g., I went to Le Cirque last night), the product must be strong enough to overcome the desire for the client to move on. Unless there are unusual circumstances, I am rarely willing to wait, even when the product is extremely strong. The snob factor/see and be seen don't play with me. Food and ambiance are more likely to have an impact, but I can get a reservation for those.

While I respect the moderator's admonition that this shouldn't devolve into a food, atmosphere, menu thread, you can't completely ignore them either. For me, chain restaurants simply don't have the food, atmosphere, or menu to pull off real waits, let alone false ones. However, I do see chains which regularly manage to sucker people into waiting for their (imo) mediocre product.

I think that's about right. When I'm in the USA and lazy enough to eat at a chain restaurant I'm certainly not going to wait - I can almost always get the same crap at some other restaurant in the strip mall.

Inertia is a powerful force. There are many here who would wait a reasonable length of time rather than go back and get in the car and drive to the next restaurant down the road. Not everywhere in the US are chain restaurants lined up next to one another as far as the eye can see.

I have to admit that upon reflection there is at least one chain restaurant where I would wait a considerable amount of time before leaving - Guapos. I have a fondness for chain Mexican restaurants, and that one in particular

Sadly, I have no support from Mrs BamaVol when it comes to exploring dive-y Mexican restaurants. So we patronize a local chain, "Peppers" rather than take our chances with something that might be better. She's not necessarily wrong, either. Independent Mexican restaurants haven't, in my experience, been better in most cases.

IMO, when it comes to Mexican food, oftentimes the less fancy, the better.

Almost universally, especially if the place doesn't identify the region of Mexico the food is from.

I've had great high-end Mexican food, in Mexico, but it's regional fare and not Americanized stuff. I've had two really good regional Mexican meals in the states. I suppose in theory you could do high-end pan-Mexican food here but I've never managed to make it to the place, and when I've been taken places that claimed to be the food was basically ritzed-up Americanized stuff.

For Cali-Mex and Tex-Mex food, if it's good, it's catering to locals and not trying to be fancy food -- it shouldn't be any pricier than say, Chevy's, and often a lot cheaper. The best are in general little taco shops; if there's no self-serve jar of radishes, it's probably not that good.

My local Olive Garden was notorious for creating wait lists, even if half the restaurant was empty. One of the reasons, other than crappy food, I stopped going there.

The 294-page presentation by hedge fund Starboard Value criticizing Darden can be found online. Apart from false waits, there is also harsh criticism on food quality. Some amusing quotes below:

"Olive Garden currently uses inauthentic Italian ingredients, serves dishes that would be unacceptable in Italy, and does not promote wine with meals".

"The pasta is overcooked with sauce simply ladled on top, breadsticks have lost their quality and specialty dishes have been replaced with unappealing and unhealthy choices".

"Now Olive Garden serves dishes that are astonishingly far from authentic Italian culture, such as burgers and fries, Spanish tapas, heavy cream sauces, more fried foods, stuffed cheeses, soggy pasta, and bland tomato sauce".

Funny also the comments on Olive Garden no longer salting the water for cooking the pasta in order to get a longer warranty on its pots.

Ouch...

The full presentation can be found here: http://www.marketfolly.com/2014/09/s...tation-on.html. The interesting section starts around p. 160

Read recently that Starboard managed to boot all 12 current members of Olive Garden's Board of Directors and replace them with their candidates, so perhaps some of the proposed changes will be implemented.

Too funny. Sad to think that many OG regulars have probably never had real Italian food. On my first trip to Italy I almost got a tear in my eye at my first meal. Practically an out-of-body dining experience

Walked with my family a couple of years ago into an Outback Steakhouse on a rainy Sunday afternoon, the place was 70 percent empty, with plenty of staff milling about. Hostess said, reflexively, we could be seated in about 20 minutes and pointed us toward the bar. Obviously straight out of a revenue-enhancement playbook. We left immediately and have never returned.

Or a captive / hostage position in the local market. My kid's college town is Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Olive Garden is literally one of the nicest places to eat in town. There is always a small mob of people waiting in the lobby / foyer no matter how many tables are open. But business never drops off because (A) it's a habitual monthly treat for many, (B) there aren't that many other, better options, especially for kids, and (C) inertia: ahh, we're here now, might as well get a beer while we wait. Result: crazy profit.

Wow! This has obviously been their objective all along, but such a radical plan is almost never successful. CEO is also going to be replaced next.