Worst chain restaurant

I got the idea for this off of the best burger thread.

Here are the qualifiers.

1. It must have at locations in more than one decent sized city (50,000+)
2. It must have waitresses. This eliminates fast food chains.
3. You have to back up your selection with at least a couple of facts or maybe an amusing story or two.

Have at it.

 

Shoney's is the one that immediately came to mind. Perhaps Der Wafelhausen.

I don't mind Denny's or Perkins or IHOPs.

 

I will start with my nomination for Buffalo Wild Wings.

If it isn't running out of my favorite beer (unscrew the handle when this happens idiots so I don't get my hopes up) or running out of boneless wings or serving just a crappy sandwich, this place is just full of fail.

It always seems just a little dirty, and they will always have trouble finding the one person who knows how to find the Michigan and Ohio State game me and my friends want to watch.

If it takes 30 minutes for my craptacular sandwich to arrive, "the cooks getting into a fight in the kitchen" might not be the best excuse.

When my second choice of beer comes, please try not to have chips alongthe rim of the glass.

No matter how many of these I am roped into going to, the song always remains the same.

I nominate BWW3 as the Kings of Restaurant Fail.

 

Boneless wings? Yikes.

Just because of that they have my unconditional vote.

 

I don't know about worst -- maybe Denny's based on the ratio of restaurants in which I've encountered a lack of cleanliness. Think cockroaches, filthy bathrooms, etc. Can't get fresh fruit there, either. I'm big on hygiene.

On the other side of the spectrum, I'm a big fan of the recently departed Bob Evans' chain -- great menu, plenty of healthy food available and each of the eight or so at which I've dined has been exceptionally clean with friendly and seemingly motivated staff.

 

Macaroni Grill and Olive Garden in a dead heat.

The homogenization of Italian food. Best one word description: bland.

If you have any Italian in your blood, these two places just won't do.

 

Captain Kirk is right about the Macaroni Grill and Olive Garden, but the one chain I avoid the most assiduously is Applebee's. It's the poor man's TGI Friday's. In fact, it's the poor man forced to exist on roadkill's TGI Friday's. Bleah.
Where I live, there are plenty of neat, inexpensive little neighborhood eateries, and a wide variety of chain places. Somebody recently put up an Applebee's in the parking lot of rebuilt shopping center. The place is always packed. I really don't get it.

 

One saving grace of the Oklahoma City Macaroni Grill... the servers will break out into opera, just because. Many are vocie majors at nearby Oklahoma City University. It makes up for the food issues.

 

If you're worried about cleanliness, food inspectors will tell you you are better off eating at a chain restaurant. But some of us don't call that eating.

Eat local.

 

TGI Friday's. To me they epitomize the homogeny that infects so many restaurants of that ilk. And they always do funky stuff with their menu items like a cucumber watermelon paste on a burger or cajun seasonings on fettucine alfredo. Just make the stuff like it's meant to be made.

The one thing they did right, recently, was a thick macaroni and cheese concoction with grilled and seasoned chicken. That may be the first time I've left there happy with what I ordered.

 

Applebee's keeps trying to make borderline cuts palatable, to broad customer chagrin (riblets . . . gag).

Like putting lipstick on a pig.

Have also had serious problems with management figures at these places, and I'm not into picking fights with management figures at restaurants. But the 'bee's
must have access to a very special pool of assholes.

 

Another vote for Macaroni Grill. Food really isn't that good, and their kid's meals are the size of a meal that would fill me and then some.