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Of the options listed (besides "other"), I picked Outback. I used to love TGIF, back when they had a tex-mex-tower thingie with tostado nachos, breaded deep-fried jalapeno slices (not stuffed), and a third thing I can't ever remember. And then they did away with the tower, but they still had the tostado nachos. I liked it then too. But then they did away with the tostado nachos, and I lost interest in going.
Outback has reasonable prices for the "quality" of food (it's standard - nothing amazing, but still tasty and perfectly edible), plus it's in walking distance so it's a convenience for when we want waiter service but don't want to spend a fortune.
Out of these, I'd go with Ruby Tuesday. Their salad bar is like no other.
Their salad bar is so bad here, that none of us go there anymore. Brown-edged lettuce, no field greens at all, most of the time they're out of half the things we want. I asked last time for olives, and they said they're not offering them that day. I asked if I ordered a menu selection that came with olives, would they put the olives on that selection? They said yes, of course. I said great - just skip the menu selection, and give me a little cup of olives on the side, and I'd have the salad bar. They just kind of looked at me funny, so I walked out and went across the street to Friendly's instead.
It wouldn't have mattered much anyway - the oil carafe was disgusting, and they had just run out of blue cheese dressing. They had no bacon bits, and the cherry tomatoes looked mushy and one was caved in. All this -might- have been understandable if it was near closing time - but this was at 11:30 in the morning; we were hoping to beat the lunch rush.
Their only redeeming quality is their rolls, which I can make at home with bisquick and sugar.
Like most chains the quality of food and service depends on management. Longhorn was not on the list or I would have voted for that. We don't have an Outback here or a TGIF.
We do have a terrible Applebees but I have been to them in other locations that were ok.
The Ground Round is no longer the messy place with peanut shells on the floor and it has a decent selection. Last time we were there a couple weeks ago I had something new onthe menu called the Athens. It was a Mediteranian dish with linguine, shrimp, kalamata olives, freeze dried tomato and feta with some kind of great sauce.
Even chain restaurants vary by location. In many Sizzlers the meat is sub-par, but at the Sizzler in Klamath Falls, the food is fresh, top quality, and, while not cheap, it is reasonable. At least it was, I haven't been there for a couple of years.
I thought Subway was good, becasue the local subway is excellent; very fresh and nice. But, sadly, that does not apply to any other Subway I've been in.
The Outback was excellent in my local town. but they gave out free coupons and I had a very bad meal with that coupon, so now I won't go back. Seriously, the food was burned and the normally stellar service was very lackluster. How weird to give out coupons to bring in new customers and then give them a crumby meal?
If I'm going to a chain, it's likely to be Outbck. Good food, good to excellent service in most stores, decent prices, and a wine list that has well chosen, middle of the road wines with appropriate prices. That kind of wine list is getting harder and harder to find these days, resulting in our staying home to eat more often.
When we pick a chain, which is pretty rare, we pick Outback or TGIF's. Outback because of their gluten-free menu and they carry gluten-free beer as well.
TGIF's because our nephew is the bar manager there.
Of the listed choices, I went with Outback. In Carson City, however, there is a place called Teds Old 395, that is a favorite haunt. Mmmmm....chicken wings!
Here I am, almost a week later and we ate lunch at Outback last Sunday. The salad was all I could have hoped for and the wine was wine, but the 1/2 French dip sandwich was awful. I will take their word for it, the meat was prime rib, but it was hard to tell cause there was almost no meat. In fact I had to open it to see if there was anything inside the 2 pieces of bread. I will say, the service was outstanding...
I will add one more thing: I know food is very subjective, but anyone who thinks Sizzler has even middle of the road quality meat doesn't know much about meat.
Nita
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