+1

The Caribbean chicken soup is excellent as well - and for $4, you can make your own "Tropichop", which is a bowl of white or yellow rice, beans, various vegetables and chopped rotisserie chicken. Add a cup of soup and you have a full, satisfying meal for under $7.

I must add one:

Rascal in SP and Rio. It has a buffet that has the highest quality fresh ingredients, including superb artichoke hearts as well as a stupendous fresh homemade pasta selection. It is not cheap, but it is outstanding. I know of none better anywhere. There are a dozen or so in SP and a half dozen in Rio, AFAIK

+1 I've been going to the one in Scottsdale twice a year for four years now and I always enjoy it. The wood fire grilled shrimp is excellent.

Outback IMHO has really stepped up its game in the last year or two. They actually make a decent steak. My problem with them is there always seems to be a wait.

Did anyone mention Wagamama yet? Their soups are delicious.

I think the filet at Outback really isn't bad at all. I was in a hotel near an Outback recently and ended up eating there 3 or 4 times in a 10 day period. I'm always at the bar though, solo diner. I get it with a caesar salad and the baked potato soup (one of my favourite dishes) so I get a nice big plate with this steak looking all lonely in the middle :) I get some weird looks but it works for me

Wagamama isn't bad, although I think they always stick you with less meat than they should. I spend a lot of time in Asia so I don't really choose to go here. Some of the better 'Asian' food you can find though. i struggle to define it as particularly Japanese or Chinese as they take so many influences from both

Speaking of a UK chain... Anybody on here as big a fan of Nando's as me? Sorry but half chicken with spicy rice, fries and extra hot peri peri sauce is an absolute winner

Oh I don't doubt that you can find better if you're actually in Asia but it's at least a cut above your usual local chinese/thai/japanese takeaways without breaking the bank. Although if anything I usually find that they give me too much food, each time I've been there I've been hard pressed to eat everything on my plate.

I wish there was a good chain that did dim sum, Wagamama should really get into that market ^

My flatmate absolutely loves Nando's and I've never been able to understand it. Chicken and chips, I can make that at home :td: I did have a pretty divine chicken ceasar salad the other day though. The half chicken can be hit and miss. Sometimes I order it and get two quarters with plenty of meat, and sometimes I've ordered it and got two extremely small and stringy quarters with barely any meat. It's quite nice with mash though. And the houmous/pitta they do is pretty tasty.

Oh another one for the lucky Southern California residents....

California Chicken Cafe.

Here's a vote for Black Bear Diner. They're a chain in the Western US.

http://www.blackbeardiner.com/

We hit Mt. Shasta, CA late at night earlier this summer on a road trip. Late, I'm tired, very hungry, small town, very limited options. I went in with very low expectations and was pleasantly suprised.

We ate breakfast there the next morning before we left.

Hmm. I would (and do) take Dennys over Black Bear for breakfast. Black Bear is all about ridiculously large portions, not taste IMO. Also very, very inconsistent.

Carluccio's London
 

I ate at 2 of their restaurants in London recently. Good service, very well prepared delicious food, perfect temperature on the wine(s). Reasonably priced. ^

I don't know most of the places mentioned. But I like Chipotle and Chuy's...

A good chain from Germany is Vapiano.

wow just wow......not sure which black bear you ate at but this only makes sense if you are a dennys franchisee:p

I live in 'Black Bear country". I've eaten at several including Mt. Shasta. And nope, no personal connection whatsoever with Dennys, other than that I have eaten breakfast there well over 300 times in the past 45 years at probably 40 different locations. I seriously don't get why they get the bad rap that they do. Out of 300 meals(it's probably closer to 400), maybe 10 were off the mark somehow, and most of those were in the late 70s. They are dependably decent.