People who eat at chain restaurants...
 

...are generally boring, predictable, unimaginative and stuck in a rut. How difficult is it to ask, find, or investigate where a good local restaurant is located? I see these people lined up outside places like the Cheesecake Factory - waiting for several hours for what? For some mediocre pasta and overpriced cheesecake? There's a sucker born every day. That's how I feel - and I'm sticking to it.

I grew up in the burbs eating at chains.. so places like TGIF, Chilis,etc are just like HS spots for me. Oh and Cheesecake Factory is a waste of money. I have been to so many better places with similar size selection and slightly more affordable.. wait and better service!


The few chains I still like...
Bennihanas.. i just love their food.
Del Friscos.. great wine list and great steaks

my problem with chains is that ive eaten there before. I like the adventure of something new.

But local chains are always high on my priority list when i travel. anyone got any ones for chicago?

Roy's is very, very good! :-: :-: :-:

Here are a few. Most of the Lettuce Entertain You restaurants are very good (you may want to do a Google search for names and locations) - several of their concepts have been purchased by others, including Maggiano's, Corner Bakery and Big Bowl. Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza, Potbelly for very good, very inexpensive sandwiches (is quickly becoming national), Ann Sather (known for their cinnamon rolls and comfort food), Flat Top Grill (stir fry and a Flyertalk lunch favorite), Al's #1 Italian beef (although those with discriminating taste prefer Mr. Beef, which is not a chain but Near North).

I am a big Roy's fan too. However, they're not all the same, in that each of Roy's Chefs creates his or her own menu "in the Roy's tradition." Other than a couple "signature" items, the menus are completely different and some are much better than others.

I'll second that!

My favorites:
*Red Lobster
*Cheesecake Factory
*California Pizza Kitchen
*Panera--especially French onion soup
*Olive Garden
*Spaghetti Factory--especially veggie lasagna
*Wildfire (a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant)--salmon to die for when it's available

My family's favorite:

Roys: we just had dinner at the Roy's in JW Marriott at Desert Ridge. We always order butter fish, blackened ahi, and of course the chocolate soufflé. They are as good here in AZ as in Hawaii.

Elephant Bar: love their miso yaki salmon and jambalaya

Red Lobster: my kids could just eat the cheese biscuits and not order anything else. :)

Tony Roma's: like their Carolina style ribs.

In-N-Out: order the cheese burger with the onion grilled. Yum.

With all the choices in Chicago, that's depressing :(

Wildfire is a well executed place, good food. Skirt steak is my fave there.

It's been a long time since I've been to Spaghetti Factory. I thought it went out of business.

No kidding. If Applebee's and Buca di Beppo had been mentioned, I just might have burst into tears.

To be fair, the thread is about chains, not independent places.

But I must admit that I can place the following Chicagoland chains way above those listed earlier:

- Portillo's
- Walker Brothers (a subset of the Original Pancake House chain)

I'd even place Culver's, even though it's regional, above the other poster's list, but not above the Portillo's or Walker Brothers.

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) was one of the first "chain but not quite a chain" restaurant groups. They get a lot of "vanity" venture capital from high-end Chicagoans who want to be able to say that they "own" a restaurant, but they are very good at the execution.

LEYE got Corner Bakery and Maggiano's to the point where they were able to spin them off to Brinker (Chili's, Romano's) in a stock deal a few years ago. Brinker has managed to promptly take Corner Bakery into the toilet, and hasn't done much good with Maggiano's either.

You have a point, although Willie did admit to liking Wildfire, also a chain with in a chain. And, I think there is a thread out there somewhere about really bad chains.

A few of my Mexican faves started in Texas are mentioned here so I figured I would butt in just a bit.

Someone mentioned Abuelos as trying to hard to compete with Don Pablos... actually it couldn't be further from the truth. Both restaurants started on the lonely plains in Lubbock TX (where Texas Tech boasts one of the top restaurant/hotel/institutional management programs west of Cornell). Until the mid-90s, Don Pablos were mostly found in Texas and the "original" in Lubbock went by the name "Don Julios" - same look, but an experimental menu. It was the learning lab for ventures that would eventually make their way onto the menus of the other DPs stores (or be banished to oblivion). Incidentally, the original Harrigans, also owned by the same restaurant group, was in the shopping strip a block away.

Abuelos never wanted the Don Pablos/Don Julios crowd - it tended towards 21 to 25 year old college students in search of big portions and specials on margaritas. It was a favorite happy hour stop and its positioning near the mall and neighborhoods full of rental houses and apartments made it perfect for the off campus crowd. Abuelos, conversely, located its original location in the upscale neighborhood development at 82nd/Quaker where many of the city elite were moving to get away from the university squalor.

Abuelos original menu focused on high-end margaritas (in over a dozen flavors w/ a tequila tasting menu), more upscale Mexican vs. Tex-Mex (grilled topped steaks, seafood items, a variety of specialty enchiladas served w/ fried eggs) and the crowd who was willing to pay. As an "expensive" joint by Lubbock standards, it tended to have 90 minute waits for tables and an older audience. For us college kids, it was a "special date" kind of place.

As Abuelos expanded into the metro markets (beyond West Texas) in the late 90s, they originally kept the look and feel of the original - but slowly have bowed to competition by making their menu slightly more Tex-Mex (but still not like the other quesadilla/burrito/fajita/taco joints) and a bit more affordable. Along the way, prices on the steak/seafood items have crawled up and things like the tequila tasting menu have been replaced by more mainstream frou-frou drinks.

My favorite dish is still the bacon-wrapped steak and shrimp... but now you have to remind the servers to give you the spiced potatoes and creamy Mexican spinach (the traditional sides) because they have grown too used to accomodating the rice and beans crowd. And enchiladas require asking for the egg... that option was not even on the menu the last time I was in.

If anything, its not (as one poster said) that Abuelos is trying too hard... if anything, they aren't trying hard enough. They are attempting to compete with the Don Pablos (with their $12.99 three-course menu and cheap/huge portions) while forgetting that the differentiation is what made Abuelos popular in the first place!

In general I am not a fan of chain restaurant food. So I agree with most everyone's dislike list.

My favorite chains would be Cosi (for food and coffee), Einstein Bros. Bagels, and Chipolte is the surprisingly best Mexican food option in my East Coast city.

The only difference is how many "pieces of flair" their wait staff is required to wear. (Google "pieces of flair" and "office space" if you don't know about pieces of flair...)

As for favorite chain restaurants, I love Penang Malaysian http://www.penangusa.com/

Everything I've ever had there is fresh and fabulous, and works for vegetarians, too.

The 1st time I went to Fat Burger I thought it was decent enough to go back. My 2nd trip to Fat Burger was at the one in Los Angeles on LaCienega and San Vicente. While I was sitting outside eating my burger I thought the burger had an odd consistency. I opened up the patty and noticed it looked kind of like someone had stuck together a bunch of pieces of meat from the grill and piled it together. Not appetizing but things could have been worse. Within seconds of this discovery I hear this loud scraping sound behind me in the parking lot. I turn to look and see one of the "chefs" scraping the spatula on the parking lot asphault to get the burnt food off of it. Never went back and I think they are now out of business...

If you go to Tommys make sure its an original Tommys not one of the hundreds of knock offs. Also I recommend the one on Rampart not the one in Northridge. Oh, and bring a weapon or secruity with you. Yes, its still worth it. ;-)

Best cheap eats chain - In & Out
Best pig out - Souplantation
Best Fancy Date night - Roy's
Best Father Day - Morton's
Best midpriced - CPK or Cheesecake Factory

A vote for Apple Bee's, In & Out, Cafe de Coral (HK), the Keg steakhouse (Canada).

Justin Quek - Jq Concepts
 

HI ALL! As I need a restaurant consultant to set up a new restaurant business - does anybody know how can i contack Justin Quek (ex Les Amis in Singapore) for his JQ Concepts? Does he have his own website? Please do kindly inform me asap.. I do appreciate & thank you for the info! :)

There are so many chain restaurants in the United States it may be impossible to try all of them! I usually stick to small unique restaurants but if friends or family want to go to a chain I'd choose between:
-Carraba's
-The Melting Pot
-PF Chang's
- Jimmy Buffett's Margarittaville

PF Changs is not the best chinese food I've ever had but it hits the spot in the USA since it is hard to find chinese food that is not take-out only.

A couple I haven't seen listed amazingly enough:

Pei Wei is a more casual PF Changs. Great take out on the road.
Smokey Bones - I haven't tried the other BBQ places listed, but smokey bones has good ribs and great baked beans.

Fast food = In-N-Out Burger or Sonic (Hey...at least they're made fresh :p )

Everyday = Outback Steakhouse

A little nicer = J.Alexanders

Very Nice = Morton's

Lettuce Entertain You
 

Lettuce Restaurants have incredible quality controls...Wildfire is the closest to a "chain" at this point and the food is superb. TRU is one of the best in Chicago period. Some independent restaurants are crap. You just have to jusde for yourself.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7520/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3 UP.Link/5.1.2.16)

A more regional choice is Red, Hot and Blue. I've eaten there in Chicago and Dallas.

Nope
 

Nope- they're aren't any. If the world has any hope of retaining any cultural or geographic individuality, you must avoid all chain restuarants (and stores, and letters, and gangs) at all costs.

hurlimann

And sit in your home and never go out to eat and never shop to buy something to prepare to eat. :D Actually, I think there are already places in the U.S. where that would be the case unless you drove long distances - and bought, of course, gasoline from an independent dealer.

Well then the obvious answer is to stay the heck out of the US. :D

I loved eating at The Keg when in Toronto - fantastic baked spuds

I think Houston’s is exceptional for the price. A little on the high side, but fairly reasonable by New York standards, especially as sides are included.. Friendly service and maybe the best pork chops I have ever had. The desserts are not as outstanding (Cheesecake Factory would get my vote here), but definitely okay.

Macaroni Grill, Cheesecake Factory, Smith & Wollensky, Ruth's Chris

This isn't an enormous chain like The Olive Garden but they are in large cities, especially near water and by vacation destinations.

Phillip's Crabhouse

I just went to one in Baltimore, MD and they had a buffett for $25.00 a person. I do not usually go to buffetts but this consisted of crab legs, crabcakes, oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, clam chowder, deviled crabs, clam strips, softshell crabs, hush puppies, and more and a full dessert bar.. it was amazing and so cheap for endless amazing seafood!

Chipotle (McDonald's) and Baja Fresh (Wendy's).
Yummy.

If you include local/small regional chains, then I would have to say Box Lunch in the MA area and Pizzicato Pizza in the PDX area. Pho Hua is another good one, as they have excellent, very cheap Pho, but they're based mostly in Asia. They do have several US locations, particularly in places with large Vietnamese populations. I'm sure someone else has listed this, but In 'N Out Burger.

Yes Chipotle is a fav, Baja Fresh was ruined for me when it was the only place near my office open on summer weekends- something about eating from there when stuck in the office 14 hrs/7 days a week ruined it for me.

Was convinced to go to Abuelo's when I arrived at XNA the other
evening - had a quite decent meal at a pretty decent price (for a
chain). Beers were kind of expensive though.

Baja Fresh is mad good.

I must agree, I love their hot bread. My friends and I have always called it 'poo poo' bread :p and whenever we go to Outback Steakhouse I look forward to the bread... the honey butter is delicous as well!

Culvers, Steak & Shake and In/Out have a special place in my heart for burgers.

A Flyertalker with taste! ^ ^ and ^