Which Restaurant Has Fallen The Hardest?

Quote.

Well, America is getting fatter, dumber, lazier, and more depressed by the day. So…

Which one happens first?

Chilis used to be pretty good. Fresh, healthy-ish alternatives (tuna steak sandwich!) Been about 10 yrs, but now it's, "remove from bag, place in deep fryer ", or , This is getting tired, let's add bacon to it.

Remove your chilis slander! 3 for me is the best deal in the chain business!

Subway annoys me a bit as they make it out to be ultra healthy (or they used to) and most of it isn't that great.

I think it's because if someone mentions their local chinese joint no one is gonna know what they're talking about. Speaking of which, there was this fast casual japanese place that used to have great terriyaki chicken. Now they just steam their chicken instead of grilling it. Zero char. So that's my vote.

As far mainstream stuff, pizza hut used to be good in the 90s. Long john silver's, popeyes and chik fil a used to taste decent but you can hardly find any meat now between all the fried breading. most other fast food have always been trash, with a special shout out to cane's for having the most bone dry chicken in history. I guess nasty americans who just cover it in sauce wouldn't notice though.

There was a decent Chinese takeout place near me that recently changed their entire menu to Mexican food. I though that was really strange. Same ownership.

On the west coast, Souplantation was epic, but closed all of them. Great post run salad soup carb buffet 😞

Fuddruckers was amazing.

Has anyone mentioned Marie Callender's yet? When I was a kid I thought it was amazing but later I had it and it was low quality.

There's a BK around the corner from my house. I've lived here for more than twenty years and never set foot in that place. I eat fast food once in a while but that place? No way. I glanced in the window as I drove by today and noticed they had those paper crowns (remember those things?) lined up in the window. Like that would make me go in there. I guess if you're a cheese-eating high school punk.

chuckEcheese.

Subway fell the hardest. They use to have good deals , $5 foot longs existed in 2012-2013. That would be like what $7 today ? It’s $11 for a mediocre Sandwich which replaced a lot of its meat with chum meat now, cut into little pieces

Restaurants no longer around (at least not like they used to be):

The Brown Derby

Steak and Ale

Houlihans

Current restaurants that used to be pretty good and are now quite bad:

Carabba’s

Outback

Chili’s

Chipotle

Some of these restaurants have survived in small towns, often in the Midwest.

Ludington MI had both a Ponderosa and Big Boy open until last year. Regrettably it looks like the Big Boy has closed. Ponderosa is still open. There are very few Ponderosas left in the midwest -- maybe 3-5? A few more Big Boys hanging on Eastern Michigan.

I'm going to stop by that Ponderosa in Ludington the next time I'm in the area.

When I was younger and raced criteriums and rode my bike 300+ mpw and would run maybe about 20 mpw, I would get so ravenous that I would eat about anything and not worry about putting on weight. I also seemed to always crave salt. We didn't go to Outback very much but every now and then, maybe one or two times a year or when traveling on the road, we might go in. I prefer a ribeye if I'm eating steak and they didn't do a great job doing those. For me the only steak better than a ribeye is a top sirloin cap, aka picanha, but if I don't grill that at home myself the only place it can be found is a Brazilian steakhouse.

We also would get a bloomin onion for an appetizer and maybe 2 or 3 people would share it. What a nutritional nightmare that is. Here are the nutritional facts. It's insane how unhealthy these things are.

Calories 1950(8159 kJ)
Total Fat 155 g 238% of daily value
Saturated Fat 56 g 280%
Trans Fat7 g
Cholesterol 130 mg 43%
Sodium 3840 mg 160%
Total Carbohydrate 123 g 41%
Dietary Fiber 1 g 4%

With Chipotle it seems like it really depends on which one you go to. Some are really good and others suck. There is a Chipotle on Hillsborough in Raleigh that is probably the worst I have ever been to. I went there a few years ago and it wasn't good. I went back a few months later thinking maybe they were having a bad day the last time and it was even worse if that is possible. I'll never go there again. Other people have told me the same thing about that location. Chipotle's issue is consistency with their restaurants.

Wendy's seems like it is also inconsistent across the board. We were traveling through Atlanta a few years ago and stopped at one south of the city off of 75 and it was awful. Culver's and Smashburger are my preferred burger places but I remember awhile back thinking Wendy's was good.

Ground Round was great in its day

Outback Steakhouse - pretty much cannot find one of those still open

Eliot Lounge, on the Boston course (closed 1996)

Coogan's, near the Armory NYC (closed 2000)

Oregon Electric Station, Eugene (closed 2020, Saladbar gone long before that)

Wild Duck, University of Oregon campus (closed 2022)

Brothers 4, finish of Falmouth Road Race (closed date not known)

The one at the top of the World Trade Center.

Captain D's anyone??