What's your Most Overated Place to eat...
 

Ruby Tuesdays
And Japanese restaurants where you sit around the stainless steel grill...

Applebee's

Agreed..........

Outback is over rated and The Olive garden too

Among chain restaurants, I once liked those steakhouse buffets like Golden Corral. However, I don't know if my taste has gotten better or their quality has gotten worse, but they seem to produce pretty low-quality food. I tend to value quality over quantity these days.

Pick a chain, any chain... Applebees, Outback, Olive Garden... they're all junk.

I worked in a few in the old days & they cant even make a steak right, kept cold right up until they go on the grill.

Joe's Crab Shack.

Bubba Gumps

The mid-tier restaurant chains, as mentioned, can't be overrated. They knowingly serve average food.

Golden Corral. I ****ing hate that place.
Applebee's. Overpriced declining quality food
McDonalds. Garbage

The Red Lobster
Chili's

Both of these also suck.

Pei Wei or PF Changs.

But yeah pretty much any Chain restaurants serve mediocre food at best.

Applebees was good 15-20 years ago. Now it's crap.

This.

Also, I typically don't eat at any place I find to be overrated. In my book, a restaurant gets a certain number of chances to impress me:

Food quality: 2 times (cooks can have an off night)
Service: 3 times (if service is bad 3 times, it's a problem with management, not the 20 year old serving your food)

Macaroni Grill

The Golden Corral has to be the worst food joint on the face of the earth, I wouldn't feed that crap to my dogs.

souplantaion: $11 for salad with no protein anywhere.

i thought everybody already knew applebees sucked

Their entree offerings never really captured me, but I really enjoy their salad bar.

Used to be turned off by Cracker Barrel [too many tiny, cold entrees came my way], but they've improved quality in recent years.

I don't know how highly they're rated by others, so I can't comment on OVERated, but O'Charley's has never impressed me at all. Yet they continue to do business.

I say Outback especially considering the price you pay for shit there.

Good one, meaning you're right to choose it, not that it's one good restaurant.

Bite your tongue. Chili's is a masterpiece of good food at a good price. Their chicken crispers are the Mona Lisa of ... fried chicken nuggetylike things.

Denny's is garbage too.


Worst breakfast joint.

I was afraid I'd take a beating for not liking Golden Corral. I'm surprised that other folks are agreeing.

How can any of these places be overrated? Nobody claims they're any good.

I'm going to catch hell for this, but Strouds is overrated. Gibson's in Chicago is also overrated.

Bingo, never ate at Chilis though

Yup The Salad bar is good especially them brown croutons but everything else I have eaten there sucks to me

I can't eat them anymore but their pancakes used to be good when I did

Agreed, however i've seen hayseeds get dressed up to go to Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc.

Shoneys was always over rated to me, They would sell all you can eat shrimp, 5 on the plate you order and then when you re-order, they would bring you 3 more

PF Changs

Yeah, "overrated" is a tricky term. I guess I was thinking that it wasn't necessarily based on culinary reviews but more on popularity. If lots of people go there and it's not very good, it's overrated, at least on a value scale.

Westport Flea Market.

Not that its bad....because it isn't at all. But it doesn't come anywhere close to the talk it gets around town.

Same thing for Herford House.

Outback
PF Changs
Red Lobster
Bobo's Drive-in (Topeka folks only)

I agree with PF Chang's.

Went there many times as a child for "kids eat free" night.

Good one. That place is like a hamburger folk hero. It's got a ****ing fake Kraft Single slice on it. No great cheeseburger has American cheese on it.

Never been to Red Lobster...but yea...I always imagined a seafood type Olive Garden. I would try it out.

I'll give you this much, if someone had a gun to my head and told me I had to eat at either Applebee's, or Chili's, I would pick Chili's.

Oh and toss TGI Friday's on the overrated list.

Also, somebody's going to say Chick-Fil-A. I will stab them through the internet when this happens.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Depends on the location. The old shack off of Holmes (now gone) was always delicious, especially their chicken noodle soup. The one in Liberty is usually pretty damn good. However, the one off of SM Pkwy can burn down for all I care.

I've only been to the old one. If you want legit food like that, go to RC's in Martin City. You'll never miss Strouds.

Hold on, how the **** are restaurants like Applebee's overrated? Is there a high opinion of them amongst anyone, which you disagree with? I call it forgettable food that id get if nothing else was going on and i was tight on funds. In KC, PF Chang's, McCormick& Schmicks (and it's god-awfully overrated whore sister, M&S grill), and Extra Virgin come to mind. As a price-to-experience ratio, those have scored the lowest with me. I don't mind paying for good quality, even at Michael Smith's or Justus Drugstore, and we're pretty spoiled with great quality for the price in this town.

Yes.

1000x yes...

I forgot about that and no doubt! Nasty nasty wings.

That place sucks balls. So does Hooters. Their food is terrible. If you want to look at slutty women wearing shorts, panty hose, and giant socks, I'm not mad at you. Just don't tell me that you're doing it for the wings.

In the KC area - I would say Bo Ling's. I used to love that place, but it's gone a bit downhill in recent years. I think it lives on reputation mostly.

Been to RC's many times. Martin City was always a food destination for my family growing up. Jess N Jims, RC's, original smokestack...mmmmmmmmmmmmm

I am not a 6 fork restaurant kind of guy... I can afford it but it's not my scene, I am just a country boy so when I say over rated it may seem like a funny to you guys but places like Longhorn or Texas Roadhouse are considered about as good as I really visit...

Both of those are vastly underrated.

And there it is. Had to get that little tidbit in, didn't you?

We have a chain here called East Coast wings... people rave over them, I think they suck... Oh they can make some wings that will burn your throat and anus out but they just don't taste good, I like hot food but I like it to taste good too

Love Smokestack. Might be the best all-round BBQ joint in KC. I'm ashamed to say that I've never been to Jess N Jims. If I go that far, I can't pry myself away from RC's or Smokestack.

That 20oz Outlaw Ribeye is good eating to me, when I don't ask for steak sauce the steak is good and I have never put a drop on that steak.

Skyline Chili in Cincy. ****ing terrible.

Pretty much. I do admit the cheese biscuit things are good.

its alright not THAT great

Well I can but I can afford it because instead of me buying all the shit that makes others not afford it, I choose to keep my money ...

I do have a good amount of money but I don't live like it... Why Lie?

They have great sea urchin ceviche.

Ok, how about the metric ****-ton of Midwestern Tex-Mex places that have the following:

99 cent cheese dip with an entree
99 cent margaritas on a specific night
BLAND ****ING FOOD
and the same ****ing menu no matter what the name of the restaurant, and a waiter that informs you that the plate is ****ing hot!

I like Mi Ranchito's fajita quesadillas.

Olive Garden

I have hope for you yet.

If the staff isn't all Mexican, its not good Mexican food.

Oh, yeah. That reminds me. My wife and I went to an "On The Border" at one point when we were out of town, and decided that we would never go to "On The Border" again. It wasn't like we had a terrible experience, but we both suspected that we had a representative experience. Bland, cheap food prepared without heart.

Yes, that is worst than the aforementioned midwestern tex-mex places.

Heh, if you walk in and yell, INS! and some people don't start running out the back door, leave. :)

Montana Mike's

I know a lot of people who love Applebees, and I don't get it.

I used to think Chili's was pretty disgusting, but they redid their menu and I think it's now decent for that kind of restaurant.

I like Buffalo Wild Wings... not the best wings ever, but it's just chicken. The sauces are good (better than Hooters, IMO), their fried pickles are much better than the thin slices elsewhere, and they carry the Boulevard seasonal on tap. But, I've been saving money lately by just walking in and buying a couple of bottles of Wild and Blazzin. :)

Yeah, I don't see how the food they serve could ever live up to the hype... I can't imagine the best fried chicken ever being considerably better than decent fried chicken.

Yes, sir.

I don't mind the wings at BWW - just don't care for the NASCAR/UFC/KU basketball crowd there.

I've only eaten at 3 maybe 4 different ones but I assume that's enough. The one we have here in town in bloody awful. My daughter likes boneless wings and BWW can't even figure out how to coat the whole wing in sauce. Truly staggering to me. Not to mention that they're often on the hard side and have very little meat in them.

We have a couple of all day wingfest contests here each winter... one is made up of home recipes and the other is restaurants and BWW hasn't even placed in the top 5 (top 5 get prizes) in the 4 years we've had the event. You'd think maybe a place named for their wings would have a half a clue how to make a non-shitty product. I swear Wendys is better than them.

Kind of surprised by some responses. Alot of these places are what they are. Like...I don't know how Olive Garden can be overrated.

It is what we thought it was.

I thought all women liked Olive Garden.

Zio's is much better at that price point for "Italian" food. Their Tomato Florentine soup is excellent, and their lasagna is pretty good.

Chick-fil-a owns

Try to go to an Olive Garden on a Friday night. The place is packed. The fact that there is a wait to dine there means its overrated.

See bucks Mexican/BBQ thread for my thoughts on texmex

Pretty much all chain restaurants suck so ya

So is McDonalds. Cheap and convenient doesn't equal highly rated, but a lot of people seem to think that Olive Garden is good.

I was watching "The Girls Next Door" years ago, and Kendra had a birthday party. Her favorite gift was a gift card to Olive Garden. WTF? She's got gourmet chefs on call 24/7 at the mansion, and she wants to eat that crap.

I was going to also say Chick-fil-a just to piss off Saul Good... but I've never eaten at one.

:)

They're just barely a step away from Institutional Food, i've had Army chow hall food that was better.

Overcooked fish, blah fried chicken, dangerous meatloaf & delicious gourmet steaks, if you're a dog.