I avoid restaurants with too many items on the menu. It's better to do a few items very well rather than a whole bunch of items poorly. Also, there's no way a restaurant can keep enough fresh products in the restaurant to do more than a few items, so more than 8 or so main courses on the menu tells me that my meal is probably coming from a box or can labeled "Sysco".

Ditto on Sysco reference. Sysco reminds me of the awful food that you would get in college or High School- I see the trucks and have an instant gag reflex. To give them credit, I know that they have different grades.

I guess I am a food snob. When I was in the dorms (20 years ago), I would go to the store, buy an artichoke, cook it in the microwave surrounded by wet paper towels, and then eat it with lemon butter, or a homemade hollindaise sauce I made in a blender. That would really freak out my room mate and fellow dorm mates. They did not even now what I was consuming, meat or greens.

BUt why go out to eat to a restaurant that is basically just serving reheated frozen or canned food. You can do that at home, much cheaper.

Personally, I go out to eat to eat food that is either a pain to cook at home, or impossible because you can not get that type of food in a grocery store.

By way of example, sea food or oysters. I have bought a bag of oysters, shucked them at home, and ate them. But it is a pain in the but, plus it smells your home, and trash up.

Much easier to go to an oyster bar.

Also, a lot of Mexican food (mole, tamales etc...) is not worth it to make at home due to the time and labor involved.

You'd be missing a lot of good, real Chinese restaurants if you follow that criterion solely

Some of my favorite places have been more than 100 feet off the ground, including Heaven on Seven in Chicago, Everest in Chicago (which is an excellent restaurant by almost anyone's standards), another above Leiscester Square in London (can't recall the name at the moment), Jules Verne (Eiffel Tower).

I agree about most of the chains you mention, but a burger at Chili's is probably the best burger you're going to get at any chain, IMO.

I seriously doubt whether anyone in the restaurant business, particularly anyone who has been successful at it, would say it is "easy." Nobody works harder than a good chef. I can recognize that and I'm not even in the business. Perhaps what you meant was "keep it simple."

I did not imply easy as in work, I implied easy as in conceptually easy. Ie no Brainer to use good ingrediants. I have had restuarant owners complain about their lack of business, but some of them are so worried about cutting cost, and maixmizing profit, that the food s#cks. They spend all of their time trying to cut costs or look for the cheapest supplier. Food cost are important, but if your restaurant is good, consumers do not choose it because of price, but because it is good.

I agree, keep it simple. If I had a restaurant it would be limited to a few items and the menu would change to my mood and the season.

It is a balance, but I for one, go out to eat because it is something that I can not do at home, want to do at home (too much trouble or can not get the ingrediants at the retail level), or the chef/cook is truely gifted and it is an honest pleasure to be eating at that restaurant. Why go out, if I can get better at home.


My family has restaurants, and I have worked in them. Plus, I have, as a favor for friends, catered and cooked for parties of upto 500 people.

It is a lot of work, and you do not make a lot of friends. I still am getting sh*t from volunteers at the last party I catered. Naturally, and with the pace, you tend to be very authoritarian. They implied I was an A-hole because I would order them around and not ask nicely and told my wife I failed to say please. But when you are cooking for a large group, timing is everything, so politeness falls to the side ( I did appologize).

I hate chain restuarants because they are always to trying to maximize profits and the food goes to the way side. Plus, the service is usually bad. Although, as previously posted, some chains are actually quite good. They still care about the food.

Chili's started of good, but has gone way down hill. Applebees is truely gross. I ate their once (no choice-on the road with others in a strange town, and out voted). I thought I would play it safe, and order a grilled chicken sandwich. The chicken was pressed. What are they thinking? How hard is it to grill a chicken breast that has at least been marinated in italian dressing and put it on a toasted bun?

I love to find the neighborhood restaurants that are a treat to eat at, because of one dish or another.

I am lucky in that I have a gift where I can taste something at a restaurant, and duplicate it. I can tell by taste what is in it. At least to the cuisine I have been exposed.

My favorite past time is to got to a good market, start with the entre, what is fresh, in season, and what catches my interest. I then build the meal around the entre.

My biggest fault, as my wife and kids say, is that I tend to use every pan. When I cook, I actually prep everything first, and have it on individual plates. Tends to make a mess but I am learning to clean up after my self.

'China Buffet'
'salad bar'
a neon martini glass


When any of the above are part of the signage... move along. Nothing to see here.

I'm sure there's PLENTY more. My uncle used to have what he called 'iron-clad' rules about where not to eat. Included but limited to:
If there's a salad bar
If they announce your anme over a speaker when your table is ready
If you are handed a vibrator when giving your name for a table

If you are handed a vibrator when giving your name for a table :eek:

If I see the staff walking around and refilling water glasses by picking them up, I get suspicious (and stop drinking from my glass if I can't stop them in time). From germ-laden glass, to the next, to the next--yuck! Makes me wonder if they wash their hands after picking up used plates, etc.
I also hate places where there are bottled condiments on the table! I never touch the salt and pepper, so at least that's not an issue.

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

You'll be surprised to hear that some really nice places DON'T leave greasy bottles of catsup, mustard, hot sauce, etc. on the table. Really--do you want the guy who coughed and sneezed into his hand and then drank his water, directly connected to you by that person wandering around with a water pitcher, picking up all these folks' glasses, then yours? But then, I have to use a paper towel to open the restroom door on the way out...paranoid, but cold-free since 1997 :cool: !

Having bottled condiments on the table definitely is better than having those little plastic, condiment-filled packets. By the time I manage to open one, my food is cold.

Really, any place that actually serves ketchup is not a good restaurant.

In localities where the health department issues letter grades that are posted at the restaurant entrance, be good to yourself. Avoid any place that doesn't have an A.

Exceptions to every rule...Flat Top Grill violates both your rules, and is the favorite spot for frequent FT lunch Dos in Chicago. :)

If it has to say "Fine Dining" on the signage, it probably isn't.