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Chi-Chi's was horrible. It was stock "Mexican food" for suburbanites who have no idea what real Mexican food tastes like.
Good riddance.
Don Pablo's will be the next to go.
Watch.
Thanks to immigration, there are better mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants in most cities. The chain "Mexican" restaurants won't last.
Partly agree. For the longest time, these chains, Chi Chi's, Don Pablo's, and Chevy's, were the only options for a lot of us not living in the Southwest, for Mexican food. I also live in the suburbs, not a city, and driving into Philly or New York can be a pain and quite expensive. So I will say that I really enjoyed the chain mex places for years. Even though in my travels I had enjoyed REAL Mexican food, I still enjoyed the chain food for the most part. I never would have confused it with the real thing though.
Now we are just beginning to see real Mexican restaurants coming into our area, in the past 5-7 years. So far, however, these have just been restaurants, with no liquor licenses. Several of them are just really lunch places in strip malls, not comfortable sit-down restaurants for dinner.
So if we wanted Mexican food and Margaritas or mex beer, we still only had the chains, until they all began to close...
But hooray! Our local (really good) family-owned Mexican restaurant just got its liquor license! So we are now moving in the right direction. I don't know what took the Mexican proprietors so long to realize that we customers want to drink while we eat. BYOB is a PITA. But after 5-7 years of mom & pop mex places with no alcohol, we finally have one (except now it's much more crowded and harder to get a table!)
I also miss Howard Johnson's. Back in the 50's and 60's going out to dinner was such a treat. I would order the kiddy cocktail, shrimp dinner, and have rainbow sherbert for dessert. It was such a fancy place (to me..as a child). Then...the quality went down, they were not kept up...and they are gone...maybe one or two left...
I forgot about kiddy cocktails, I would alway get one with a shrimp dinner when my grandparents took us out, what a treat that was. Howard Johnson hotels are still in service, stayed in one last week.
Partly agree. For the longest time, these chains, Chi Chi's, Don Pablo's, and Chevy's, were the only options for a lot of us not living in the Southwest, for Mexican food. I also live in the suburbs, not a city, and driving into Philly or New York can be a pain and quite expensive. So I will say that I really enjoyed the chain mex places for years. Even though in my travels I had enjoyed REAL Mexican food, I still enjoyed the chain food for the most part. I never would have confused it with the real thing though.
Now we are just beginning to see real Mexican restaurants coming into our area, in the past 5-7 years. So far, however, these have just been restaurants, with no liquor licenses. Several of them are just really lunch places in strip malls, not comfortable sit-down restaurants for dinner.
So if we wanted Mexican food and Margaritas or mex beer, we still only had the chains, until they all began to close...
But hooray! Our local (really good) family-owned Mexican restaurant just got its liquor license! So we are now moving in the right direction. I don't know what took the Mexican proprietors so long to realize that we customers want to drink while we eat. BYOB is a PITA. But after 5-7 years of mom & pop mex places with no alcohol, we finally have one (except now it's much more crowded and harder to get a table!)
our Don Pablos in Texas and our Chi Chi's were pretty bad..Even chains are only as good as the managers.
interesting you would mention that, I was about to mention H.Salt Exquire I think it was called. I haven't seen one in years and hey had great fish and chips. So did Arthur Treachers.
I'm with ya there... there is actually a combo one here i n town but it isn't what they used to be...
H Salt is gone too.
Someone said A&W was but there is one here in Orlando.
Seems everyone remembers Sambos I miss them too.
Tippins Pie Pantry in the midwest
I thought Po Folks was nasty so I don't miss them.
Anyone remember the Drumstick? Der Weinersnitzle? (sp?)
We had Po Folks in No Va, it was not the place to take someone you wanted to impress, that is for sure. NM still has some A&W, but I haven't seen any around here or in our travels. Of course I haven't looked for them either. Good ole Sambos, someone back a few pages here talked about Sambos. You are telling your age if you remember Sambos. At least, as far as I know they have been gone for decades.
Chi-Chi's was horrible. It was stock "Mexican food" for suburbanites who have no idea what real Mexican food tastes like.
Good riddance.
Don Pablo's will be the next to go.
Watch.
Thanks to immigration, there are better mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants in most cities. The chain "Mexican" restaurants won't last.
Chi Chi's was actually Tex-Mex, and in many cities was the closest thing to Mexican that you could get in many cities at the time. I understand that some locations might have been bad but the locations we went to were excellent. Clean, well-managed, good food and excellent service. They were very popular and always busy. Often we would try to go to Chi Chi's but leave when the hostess told us there was a 2 hour wait for a table.
Judging from the number of members who have mentioned Chi Chi's on this thread, there must have been many locations that were very good.
Now, in the area where I live we do have many mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants. A few are excellent, many are average, and some are bad. None have the same atmosphere as Chi-Chi's. Even though the food might be excellent it isn't the same as dining at Chi Chi's for a special occasion with pitchers of margaritas.
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