Wow, elite snobbery at its best.

People do have to live in places besides LON, NYC, and LAX in order for the world to go around. And further, never judge any restaurant by its airport location - yuck.

There are plenty of places in the world where there really aren't small independent places to dine offering "normal" food or "normal" prices.

I had a friend who was fiercely anti-Walmart. Then he moved to a small town that was essentially built around a Walmart and a University and short of going "in to the city" over an hour and a half away there was no where else to buy anything and his tune quickly changed about Walmart. The same situation plays out with chain restaurants all the time.

I'm not a huge Applebees fan but i certainly don't dismiss it when on a road trip (sometimes people and their belongings need to travel!) nor when i want to do dinner/drinks with friends of various socio-economic status.

Btw, places like Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen are chains too.

Well, DFW has at least 2 decent BBQ joints, so Chilis wouldn't even be on my radar there.

Applebees is near the bottom of my list too, but I hardly ever eat at any of them. I'd say Dennys blows them all away.

I'm not a big Dennys fan, more of a Perkins kinda guy - however, a world without IHOP is a sad sad place

and it is overpriced super fat junk too.

The fact that I have good taste in food doesnt make me a snob. The elite places I ate at today were a family owned deli, my cafeteria at work and a pizza place/Italian place owned by the woman that runs it. Hardly elite, but good food. I think Applebees is slop. I would probably get 7-11 Tacos and heat them in the microwave instead. Although it isnt as bad as some of those places. The really horrid one I have put out of my mind. Golden Corral, Lubys (where available) and a few others are good. Applebees simply isnt in my opinion.

One of those BBQ places is quite good I think. DFW also has Popeyes as I recall and its always time for fried chicken

You don't need to live in New York to find really good food.

Cheesecake Factory has got to be the single most overrated restaurant on the planet. I remember the first time I took a New York friend of mine to the Plaza in Kansas City and saw people waiting for hours to get a table at the Cheesecake Factory. I felt like I had to apologize for the lack of sophistication of the Kansas City palate when I saw that, but he said "Dude, it's the same way in New York. For reasons unknown to me, people love that place."

Don't get me wrong: I've eaten meals at the Cheesecake Factory in Denver and enjoyed it. (It was directly across the street from my apartment.) But I'd never wait more than...I don't know...about 8 seconds for a table there. The catch is that you either need to go in very hungry or you need to order something that travels well so you can eat half of it later.

There's good barbecue at DFW? Someone from Kansas City moved down there and opened a restaurant? Cool!!

No, I think someone moved up from Austin to Fort Worth

But it is pretty tasty stuff.

If I lived in a place where there were only chains I would suck it up and eat there or just cook at home.

However, since many of us live in areas with a wide variety of cuisines and price points from which to choose, settling for a chain really isn't the recommended way to go. Besides, if the price point is the same, who wouldn't want to patronize their local small businesses?

CPK is actually a decent chain at their price point. Cheesecake Factory...well others have commented them already.

People wait in line for the Cheesecake Factory in Union Square in San Francisco too...

I said decent, not good. Good would be if someone from No. Carolina opened a restaurant there.

Oh no you didn't

KC BBQ all the way. That is my favorite thing about going home...some good BBQ...I'm drooling

OK, I will confess: as much as I like talking trash about barbecue (and how KC 'cue is the greatest of all), I also love good Texas brisket and Carolina pulled pork sandwiches.

The problem is that none of these airport joints can really do it right. It's not like they can drop a proper barbecue pit out on the tarmac between a couple MD-80's. MCI has an Arthur Bryant's, but it's nothing like the original restaurant on the east side of downtown.

They need to discuss it with the rampers then, I've seen rampers out there cooking up their foods in a few cities

I normally humor the wife and take her out to lunch at Applebees, but absolutely refuse for dinner.

I think it's tolerable food but it doesn't "wow" me at all.

Applebees is one of those place I remember frequenting in college. In my area, they used to run really good happy hour specials, so for a poor college student, getting a couple of appetizers and a beer or two for under $10 was a steal. These days, they're on my list of places to avoid, along with most of the other chains in that price point.

I recently read a commentary on America (I can't remember the title), but the author devoted a few pages to Applebees and described their food as "well slathered." For some reason, that sticks with me and I think of it every time someone mentions Applebees.