Which is your favorite restaurant chain?

[Richard N Elliott]

Actually I have two:

If I want meat I go to Longhorn's;

If I don't want a steak I go to Taco Mac's;

If I don't know what I want I go to Taco Mac's because of their selection of Porters, Stouts, etc!

[Shawn Pixley]

I don't and won't eat in national chains if it could be possibly avoided. Their are couple of local restaurants that have multiple outlets. The last time I went to one of these (place specializing in fish tacos), the food was unfortunately very disappointing. We let the manager know. We will give it one more trybut if it doesn't improve we will move on. For a local chain, the least offensive is California Pizza Kitchen.

[Larry Browning]

I used to travel quite a bit with co-workers. There were usually 2 strategies when it came to deciding where to eat. One was to always eat a chains that were familiar (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc) The other was to find a local (or at least unknown to us) restaurant that had a lot of cars in the parking lot. The first group said they liked the idea of always knowing what they were getting, while the 2nd group like the idea of trying something unknown, with the possibility of having the best meal ever.(There was always the possibility of having the worst meal ever too!) I always went with the 2nd group and have never even once regretted it. On the rare occasion when the food was terrible, I always went away thinking I would never eat there again, but also glad that I had tried it. I discovered that I REALLY don't like Indian food this way! Where's the fun in life if you never take a chance?

[Mark Bolton]

Where's the fun in life if you never take a chance?

Awesome reply, right on..

[Matt Meiser]

There's a lot less risk to getting a bad meal eating local with sites like Tripadvisor now.

We've eaten at the original Buca in Minneapolis and one in metro Detroit. The latter is modeled after the original.

[Ole Anderson]

To answer the OP's original question:

National franchise burger joints: Five Guys
Sit down restaurants: Red Lobster for seafood, Logan's Roadhouse for affordable steak. My wife prefers Olive Garden, oh and Applebee's.

But to go out for dinner on a whim, locally no big franchise restaurants within 30 minutes other than Applebee's, so we hit our favorite local rib joints.

[Tom Stenzel]

When I would go on bike tours with my friends, when we went into an unknown town we would stop at the fire station. The firemen always knew the best restaurants.

When out with the family i usually try and aim at a Culvers.

If it was my choice I'll head to Al Shallal in Dearborn Heights. I love the food but I doubt if anyone would love me after I eat all that garlic!

Guys, you're all making me hungry. Two votes for Popeyes red beans and rice-I've never had it. Looks like I'll have to go on a road trip...

After I wipe the drool off the keyboard.

-Tom

[Bob Turkovich]

Which is your favorite restaunt chain and what would you order



regards Brian

Brian,

Not all chains are national. (Chick-fil-A comes to mind.) Are you only looking for those in the New England area only for your trip later this month? (For those who don't realize it, Brian is from the UK and visiting the New England area with his family later this month. Since this is the second consecutive year spending his hard earned money vacationing in the US, we need to give him good advice .) Based on my limited experience in New England, I had good success at the smaller, local establishments (ooh, lobster rolls!).

When I would go on bike tours with my friends, when we went into an unknown town we would stop at the fire station. The firemen always knew the best restaurants.

When out with the family i usually try and aim at a Culvers.

If it was my choice I'll head to Al Shallal in Dearborn Heights. I love the food but I doubt if anyone would love me after I eat all that garlic!

Guys, you're all making me hungry. Two votes for Popeyes red beans and rice-I've never had it. Looks like I'll have to go on a road trip...

After I wipe the drool off the keyboard.

-Tom

Don't have to go far, Tom. Haven't eaten at Popeye's either, but there is one on Telegraph just north of 12 Mile Rd...

[Larry Browning]

Let me just say this. If Brian is looking for good seafood in New England, Red Lobster ain't it! New England has some of the best seafood restaurants in the world! It would be a crying shame to go to Red Lobster instead of one of the local restaurants from Maine to New York.

[Matt Meiser]

Best places we found for lobster in Maine are the roadside shacks!

[Pat Barry]

I like White Castle. Buy em by the sack. I still can't believe they don't make turkey burgers any more. A few of those and a sack of onion chips it didn't get any better than that. Now I have to settle for burgers and cheeseburgers. They are good too.

[Mark Bolton]

(For those who don't realize it, Brian is from the UK and visiting the New England area with his family later this month. Since this is the second consecutive year spending his hard earned money vacationing in the US, we need to give him good advice .)

Well, born and raised about 40 miles from Boston, and living a lot of my life on the coast from RI to ME along the coast I would agree that chains are the worst decision to be made in that regard though they are still there for sure.

I understand Brian/OP may have made a general statement with regards to "chains" or perhaps the last go they ate at small local joints and now wants to try the "American fare" that has the bulk of the country in its current state of health, but while there is still some risk, there seems to always been some pretty impressive food at any scale that is not tied to some major corporate bottom line. If I were looking for cheap that may be where Id head, but if I were looking for juicy food Id post a loose itinerary and you may get some very specific recommendations.

[Larry Browning]

We've eaten at the original Buca in Minneapolis and one in metro Detroit. The latter is modeled after the original.

Every Buca I have been to has been decorated the same way. They have lots of small rooms scattered about the building with a couple of tables in each one, and just about every inch of the walls is covered with interesting black and white photos of what I would assume are Italians eating and doing all sorts of things. I also think there is a dining booth in the kitchen so the diners can watch the food being prepared. I have never eaten at that table because they said it has to be reserved several weeks in advance.

[Matt Meiser]

Yep. We reserved that one for my daughter's birthday and took her and a couple friends. It was a lot of fun.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

+1 to what he said. There is a very popular chain here along the Gulf Coast called Landry's; consists of Joe's Crabshack, SaltGrass, Landry's Seafood, Bumba Gump and many others. When you drive by the Kemah Boardwalk and see the Sysco truck servicing all of them, you wonder what the difference is from one to another other than price. Not much. I support the locally owned restaurants. If I go low brow, I'll get a What-a-burger.

Landry's no longer owns Joe's Crabshack. I don't care for Landry's one iota. I avoid every one of their dumps at every opportunity.

Sysco is a supplier. Just like Woodcraft. Send every person from the Creek into Woodcraft for project supplies and then ask to see the results. Chances are you'll see a wide variety of finished projects that don't look anything like the raw materials they were created from.