The worst resturant.....

[matt]

what is the worst resturant you have ever gone to and everyone tells that they like it? For me a couple of years ago my friend Bob and I we were in Tennesse and lots of people recommended to try The Loveless Cafe and that was really nasty. The ham was so salty you could sell it to deers as salt licks. The jams were so sweet it gave me a jolt. Just had put my cents worth

[emilycat]

Far and away, The Olive Garden. It makes my teeth seethe....

[JHolcomb]

I second the nomination for the Olive Garden. Everyone here loves it, but twelve bucks for a plate of pasta with bad canned sauce on it just makes me down right angry. Yuck!

[Gina O]

A third for the Olive Garden... Not a single thing about it that I like.

[lindrusso]

There are probably many restaurants that fall into that category - around here Ponderosa can be popular! Recently, however, I was very disappointed with Ruby Tuesday's. I ordered a spinach dip and when it came it was like a spicy con queso dip with spinach - yuck! That's what I get for not reading the menu carefully. One of the kids meals was overpriced (over $5, I believe) and my turkey sandwich was less impressive than Subway.

Olive Garden just doesn't bother me the way it does some people. I've only eaten there once in probably the last 4 years or so, but I do like the salad and breadsticks. There are too many other restaurants that I could find fault with that Olive Garden just doesn't stand out as particularly bad to me. People like to pick on chain restaurants - I don't expect gourmet quality from these places because that rarely happens with any chain (though there are SOME exceptions). I expect average food for a pretty decent price - and that's usually what you get.

[hhcowgirl]

Matt--

I live in Nashville,so hopefully you will have some sympathy for me when I describe how much my BF adores Loveless cafe and begs me to go every weekend. And I'm a vegetarian!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/frown.gif. As for bad restaurants, there is one here called Zola that is chef-owned and has received many raves. However, I loathed every single part of my meal--the tuna, IMO, should have been served seared or at least very rare. The bread almost cracked a tooth, and my BF's paella was pure salt. PLus, the mussles tasted ancient. All of this to the tune of $36 an entree.

[Kristilyn1]

Far and away the worst restaurant ever is The Red Lobster.

I've eaten at three different ones, and they were all horrible. We actually had one up here that went out of business because no one liked it.

Kristi

[lsdesign]

My husband and I have had a bad spell with restaurants ever since moving to New Hamphire this past fall. As a result of incredibly slow service (35 min.!) at two different Chilie's we're not going back, the food isn't worth the wait. At a small cafe I was served a fish chowder that tasted like flour and water with a few fish chunks. I sent it back but the owner refused to take it off the bill, insisting that it was "a good product". Never mind the lack of good food around here, the service stinks!

[lsdesign]

Red Lobster: Actually we were suprised at how GOOD the R.L. was up here. It must be that the seafood doesn't have far to travel.

[SandyM]

Olive Garden gets my vote too - pre-made, microwaved meals.

Thanks to Applebees, I am no longer able to enjoy chicken caesar salads, so they're 2nd on my list.

Slow service must be a requirement to work at Chili's, because that's how it is here too.

[emilycat]

I agree, lindrusso, I think we often pick on chain restaurants, and I for one avoid them as much as posssible because I don't expect much in the least.
I think what irks me so much about the olive garden is how far they go in advertising to push it out there as something divinely authentic...that drives me up the wall.

[food girl]

I think Olive Garden and Red Lobster are actually owned by the same parent company - Dardens. We own stock in this company and we get a coupon to use at either one of these restaurants, it is promptly thrown in the trash.

I worked under Morrison's management for a time and I cannot stand any Morrison's restaurant ( Ruby Tuesdays & Silver spoon)
I can taste that "beef base" or "chicken base" in everything. Plus I am not giving them any of my $$$ because of the crappy treatment that women get in the company - IMHO!

Lisa

[AD]

The Olive Garden would actually be good if everything wasn't doused in TONS of garlic and gobs of olive oil. Anyway, I think that all major restaurants have gone downhill over the past few years. All the good places go out of business or change their recipes or just don't taste as good. Boston Market used to have wonderful roasted chicken; in 1997, they added a nasty new marinade. All chains and fast foods have all gotten worse over time.

[Beth H]

I also have to say Red Lobster -- the few times I've eaten there, I always feel stupid for paying so much for bad seafood.

[donleyk]

We recently got a O'charleys. This place is packed every evening, even as early as 5 on week nights. And I don't get it. We have eaten there twice and the food was unremarkable. I doubt that we visit again.

Red Lobster is pretty nasty. I don't eat the entree's at Olive Garden, only the soup, salad and bread sticks. And I would agree that the wait at Chili's is pretty universal. TGIFriday's is even worse tho'.

[MrsReber]

The Olive Garden popped into my mind before I even read these responses! I do like the salad and breadsticks, but the place just looked dirty to me and I didn't like that. Also, Chile's was never my favorite. I had lunch there with my mom one day and there was a bug crawling around in my salad (I swear this is the truth). Well, they gave us the meal for free, but I haven't been able to go back since then. Ugh!!

My sister is big on Mexican food and she recommended this one place where she loved to go. Well, I went there and thought it was just awful. It didn't seem "Mexican" to me at all and it seemed dirty with crumbs all over the floor. People don't like to see that when they're eating! It's an awkward situation because you never quite know what to say to the person who recommended the place.

I am saddened to see the vote for Friday's. I actually love to eat there. Or maybe it's just the drinks and desserts I love so much?? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[Kristilyn1]

lsdesign-

NH! That's my native state, I just moved to RI about 3 months ago. The Red Lobster that I referred to that went out of business was in Concord, NH. I can give you tons of good restaurant recommendations--I've eaten at them all (ok, slight exaggeration).

Let me know if you just want the simple, good food type or the "worth driving to, but more expensive" types.

Kristi

[sneezles]

I agree that chains are often picked on but then it could be that there food is meant to please a wider variety of people. The Red Lobster we had closed but then in the Gulf Coast area why would you eat there when there so many to choose from. Ruby Tuesday's didn't even last a year but Olive Garden seems to be thriving all over Houston. I'd rather go to Fred's Italian restaurant on Greenbriar and Holcombe (for all you Houstonians) because it's more like eating in a little place in Italy-all the tables are crammed together but you don't notice because the food and atmoshere is so great.
I do love Los Tios or Escalante for Mexican, especially the margarits at Los Tios (their food is more the original Tex-Mex).

[Vanessa]

Olive Garden came to my mind too. Another rest I was not impresed with was Don Pablos. I am willing to give it another try since they opened one near our house and its mostly packed. Many rest are not bad but service is awful and way too noisy.

[Jessica]

One more vote for Olive Garden. As far as I am concerned, they have terrible food and try to make up for it with bad service.
We do avoid chains, although there is a decent pasta chain in Minneapolis called Sidney's. I think the food all tastes the same at places like Applebees and Friday's.

[Ramen]

IsDesign:

I live in Nashua too, and I wanted to say 2 things. First, the Red Lobster up here IS pretty decent, you must be right about the food not having to travel ;^) Its not as good as I recall Skippers being in Montana, but I was young then...lol...

The second thing is, I HATE Jambalaya's! The food is ALL spicy. Not cajun. Just spicy. Even the salads. Also the service has been terrible, and we got food poisoning once there. Unfortunately my bf loves it...

Ruby Tuesday's I've heard nothing but bad about too.

[laughsandlaughs]

Applebee's is from the devil!!! It has singlehandly the worst food of any restaurant I've visited. Granted I don't usually visit chains, but this is the WORST! It seems EVERYTHING is prepackaged, you can't get anything made to order and the quality is just gross.

O'Charleys makes a close second for yucky food!

[Abby]

I second all of the yucky restaurants: Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's, Olive Garden (except for salad, breadstricks, and minestrone), and TGI Friday's. What I don't understand is how so many people LOVE Applebee's! These poor people must be so deprived!

[Leanne]

OK - We avoid all chains - unless you go in expecting mediocre food for a fast lunch or something.
That being said, I'm in Atlanta & there is one restaraunt that everyone raves about - Camille's. I ate there once & I will NEVER go back. It was the most disgusting meal I've ever had (besides one at Denny's in Mexico). I had a hair in my food & the person I was with had a fingernail in theirs. GROSS!! (And before the findings, we weren't impressed with the food.)

[SusanD]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Chi-Chi's. Ughhhh.....

I agree with everyone on the Olive Garden, though. I've only been there once about 5 years ago and I was less than impressed. The place was clean enough and the atmosphere was fine (about what you'd expect from a chain), but the food was just BLAH! Tomato soup poured over egg noodles. It's like the italian version of Perkins - I think it's so funny that they sell it as this authentic, old-country type place.

Jessica - I love Sidney's! I grew up in Mpls. and try to get there for pizza every time I go back for a visit. They have some fantastic salads, too. There are some great local chains throughout the Twin Cities - D'Amico & Sons, Famous Dave's, Green Mill...although my folks say that's gone downhill lately.

[karen w]

Ditto for Olive Garden, "Dead Lobster", and Chili's.

With regard to Olive Garden, it's nothing awful, but nothing too memorable either. I do like their Minestrone soup and they are very kid friendly which is important to me with 3 small children...BUT I would not go out of my way to go to O.G.

I haven't been to R.L. in years since my husband and I had two absolutely awful meals there shortly after we got married.

And as far as Chili's goes...again the food is edible, but nothing to rave about. However, when you have kids that are young(AND HUNGRY)and just don't understand the concept "dinner takes time to cook," you want to go somewhere where the service is consistent. And yeah, we all have our off days, but it seems everytime we have gone to Chili's we have very very slow service, or orders that have been forgotten, or prepared wrong.

As far as the other chains mentioned, we just haven't been to them recently to judge one way or another.

[donleyk]

We quit going to Chi-chi's years ago.... It always seemed dirty. And the food was only so-so. Don Pablos is getting there, too, although it isn't dirty. The food is just okay....

[cas]

Just ate at Ruby Tuesdays last night for a quick sandwich and it was terrible. I haven't tried Olive Garden yet, it's opening in a few months though. The worst is Pizzeria Uno in Orlando.!!Disgusting!!!!!!!!!

[claire]

Another vote for Chi-Chi's. It seemed the restaurant was always the dirty and the food mediocore. The one is my area went out of business. No tears shed here!

[luv2cook]

Olive Garden - yuk. Definitely canned premade food. Second for me is Cafe Adobe. Ate at the new location -yuk. Overpriced cheap food and meat...

[AndreaU]

My worst experience has been at Ground Round. My husband & I went there once and were basically forgotten once we were seated (that alone took forever)- we ended up getting a free meal because we were accidentally seated in a 'closed' section. A couple years later we went to a different GR location, only to be seated next to the kitchen door. We asked for a pitcher of water so we wouldn't have to keep asking for refills- as we started to pour it, water came streaming out a crack in the pitcher! Then, to top it all off, when we finally got water in our glasses & took a drink, the glasses smelled like dirty gym socks! Yuck! Needless to say we'll never go back to a Ground Round ever again. Oh, I also can't stand Burger King (if you consider that a restaurant)- the smell alone, even if I just drive by, makes my gag relex kick in!

[SusanD]

Holy cow...I didn't even know that Ground Round still existed!

[kwormann]

We lived in a small TN town where only chain restaurants could be found. Now that we are in donwtown Houston, we havent looked at a chain....we are moving to the burbs soon, and part of our discussion whether to move or not was the lack of local restaurants w/o traveling 40 miles back downtown! As far as restaurants, Joes Crab Shack is one of the best chain seafood restaurants Ive been to and Macaroni Grill seemed so much more innovative than Olive Garden! Basically all others mentioned here I agree with (although I still think Fridays is fun....ESPECIALLY the one in Indianapolis!)

Kim

[luv2cook]

you traitor, kim, moving to the burbs!

[lu lu]

The first thing that came to my mind was the Olive Garden too. I probably haven't even been there in 10+ years, but I just think of it as being dirty and gross.

[darthchrista]

Just about any chain restaurant except Outback Steakhouse. We love their steak.
Also, there is a local restaurant in Austin, TX called the Texican cafe. Everyone we know loves it, so we tried it. The food was so bland and gross we just didn't see what the big deal was. Fortunately there are tons of other great restaurants to choose from.

[lsdesign]

Ramen, thanks for the heads up on Jumbalayas. We sometimes drive home from church and want to take a chance with some of the restaurants on the way. Last Sunday we almost went to that buffet place that has Japanese, Italian, Chinese and a couple of others. Amazing!

[MrsReber]

My dad lived in Hollis NH for about 11 years. He loved to eat at a restaurant that I think was called Charmin's. I believe it was more of a seafood place, but he loved it. That area is so beautiful. I am sad that he moved from there because I used to be able to visit him there. So peaceful.

[traci]

I live in New York City so I am fortunate that there is such a great selectionof restaurants. However, I am shocked that there is an Olive Garden in Times Square!!! Of all the restaurants....and it is still in business! I agree that is one of the worst. One popular place in NY that people recommended that I found tasteless and bland is the Manhattan Ocean Club. $30 for Salmon, I expected more than a simple grilling job with a oily sauce!

Sneezles - I am from Houston and I agree on your Italian pick. My favorite restaurant there is Ruggles on Montrose. Brunch is great.

[SETH885315]

wow, olive garden has incurred quite a wrath...
i am not very impressed by chains, either, and i found the olive garden to be less than stellar after all the advertizing hype and feedback from friends, but i should add here that i live in providence, and we have a ton of truly excellent restaurants, due in part to the fact that we have johnson & wales, a top-rated culinary school right here in town. we also have federal hill, THE italian neighborhood in town, so if i want something more than just good breadsticks and salad, that's where you can find me. and if all i want is great breadsticks, i usually just make my own. i love to make dough http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif
but when pressed, i guess i'd have to say that either applebee's or friday's is the worst i've been in, but that's probably just as much because of the decor as the lackluster food. the friday's near me has an old reo speedwagon lp FRAMED in the foyer, like it's some ancient artifact. i mean, i'm not THAT old, and i own some records. not many, but some... and my parents still have a turntable. jeez!

seth.

[SETH885315]

pizzeria uno was very disappointing, too... they didn't even TRY to mask the fact that their burgers are just pre-formed assembly line cookie-cut hamburg rounds. just awful.

seth

[This message has been edited by SETH885315 (edited 02-03-2001).]

[laden]

Matt--I'm with you on Loveless Cafe. I live in Nashville and the Loveless is listed in guides all over the US as one of Nashville's best places to eat.

Several years ago I would have agreed but either it has gone waaaaaayyyyyyy down hill or my tastes have changed tremendously.

The biscuits are always burned, the ham is dry and they treat you so rudely when you come in. Years ago it used to be such a great and novel place to blow all your fat grams for the week.

There are so many great "Meat and threes" in Nashville that it's a shame Loveless gets all the recognition.

One positive note...I really still do love their blackberry and peach preserves.

[katygirl]

Add another to Friday's. Not so much the food. Chicken fingers and potato skins would be pretty hard to mess up, and the drinks are ok but the service is awful at our Friday's. It just opened in September and I thought maybe they just had some kinks to work out. But here it is 5 months later and they are still so disorganized!! Oh well, as said before there are too many great restaurants to worry about the bad ones!

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Katy

[Don]

I think my worst restaurant experience happened in L.A. on my birthday about 11 years ago. Most of the seafood I had eaten in L.A. was terrible (I grew up in Baltimore, where seafood is king), and I was dying for a lobster. So, I talked a friend of mine into going to Red Lobster, figuring that at the very least they would have lobster. Was I wrong! Not only did they not have lobster, but the scallops I eventually ordered were cooked to the point of being rubber. My friend ordered a well-done steak and it arrived with ice crystals in the middle. The experience was so bad (and ruined my birthday) that I have never gone back to any Red Lobster.

[Tiger]

My vote is Red Lobster. I eat anything! Years ago I tried this resturant 3 times ( in my dating days) and was disappointed everytime.