Do you tend to eat in chain restaurants more than local ones?

[lulu71]

Last weekend, DH and I went out to dinner for my birthday, my choice of places. I had been wanting to try the Melting Pot, but decided against it because I think it sounds a little gimmicky and besides, it's a chain. Chains (unless they are local ones with just a few locations) are usually a deal-breaker for me because where I live there is just no need to even step foot in them because we have awesome local restaurants.

Do you enjoy chains are snob them out?

 

[SandraVB79]

When I am in the US, I prefer to go to chains, because at least then i'll know what I can expect.

Restaurants (and buildings in general) look completely different from the outside from those over here, and so, it's quite difficult to me to "judge" a restaurant from the outside, or to get an idea of what they serve, if it'll be good, ...

When I stayed with friends in Texas, they took me to small local ones, and they were very good, but by the outside of the restaurant, I would have NEVER gone in!

So, we go to chains

 

[Tybug]

Local restaurants. We're lucky to live in a tourist area that has not allowed all that many chain restaurants. All restaurants are packed here but the waits at the chains are unreal! They can have it... I much prefer our local restaurants.

 

[chesirechik]

My DH is a chef is a local family owend restaurant, so we make it a point to go to other local restaurants. We do go to a chain restaurant here and there, but not often because we really don't like the food. Most chain restaurants get their food in frozen and just heat it. Not a lot of "cooking" going on.

Lulu, you should try the melting pot though......it is a fun experience and the food is actually really good. They are franchise restaurants.

 

[mom2boys]

I'd rather go to a good local restaurant any day. When travelling we ask the locals for suggestions & have had great luck. We have actually been more disappointed at chains that aren't local to our area.
Here at home, we do local restaurants for Mexican & Sushi. Steak is a chain. We don't eat out much. DH won't step foot in a Chinesse restaurant and we get enough Italian at home.

 

[kdibattista]

We have 2 local restaurants that we frequent pretty exclusively. We do however go to a chain once in a while.

 

[KelNottAt]

We do both. There are good locals and bad locals. Good chains and bad chains. I see no reason to make a habit of always ruling-out one or the other.

BTW, IMO you did right by avoiding The Melting Pot. Nothing against their food, but you need be prepared for a slow meal. The service isn't slow...it just takes a looonnnnggg time to finish a meal there. On our one and only visit our family of 4 needed 3 hours to eat app, entree, and dessert. Then, to top it off, it was $300!

 

[MushyMushy]

In my town, we just recently got our first chain restaurant (not counting fast food)! It's a Bob Evans, so we've been going there quite frequently for breakfast. Aside from that, for dinners, we'd prefer some of the local restaurants.

Outside of our town, it's a mix. We have some chains where we like their food, and some where we prefer the local place.

 

[Pigeon]

I would much rather go to a locally owned restaurant, where the food is actually cooked, rather than reheated. I have a microwave at home.

 

[Sugardimples]

We prefer local restaurants to the chains. We also prefer local stores, but its getting harder and harder to find local retailers. They're just can't survive.

 

[Crankyshank]

I prefer local restaurants, and I also go to some local chains. By local chains I mean restaurants with a few locations smattered across New England only.

 

[RickinNYC]

As a rule, I HATE chain restaurants! Joe tends to like them so we go, albeit rarely thank God. My mantra is that we live in NYC so why would we ever go to a Houlihans/TGIF/Olive Garden/insert chain name here.

 

[jonestavern]

We got totally spoiled living in Rhode Island where there are outstanding local restaurants in a variety of price ranges. So we did locals, rarely chains

When we 1st moved to central New Hampshire, the restaurants were more expensive &, most of them, just boring, ill prepared food. We are not food snobs, we like a wide range of food styles, but American cheese on an 'Italian' sub/grinder??? Not only American cheese but regular boiled ham!
Yikes! and this was not an isolated 'incident'!
Now it's better!
We definitely do a lot more 'chain' eating here, but maybe only 10% of our dining out

We love trying Mom & Pop places!

And all restaurants should post their menus on the outside!

Jean

 

[Claire L]

We got to both chain and local at home, although predominantley local. When on vacation depends where we are we like some of the chains such as The Cheesecake Factory and Red Lobster as we do not get these at home, but have also found some wonderful non chain restaurants in California, New York City and Florida

Claire

 

[auntpolly]

That depends.

I'd say I never go to evil McDonald's but I really like their coffee. I can't help it, I crave a BK Veggie burger once in awhile.

But for actual meals, we have a couple of really good locally owned ones that I can't do without and there is just no comparison to the chains. I'm not a snob about it - the food is just better.

 

[jspahn]

For the most part, i dont do chains for dinner.

BUT I will make exceptions for small chains - ie there is a restuarant that just opened up here called Wildfire, and its a chain, but they only have maybe 10 locations in the whole US. So i dont mind that.

But I wont set foot in say, Olive Garden or Chilis - which have tons of locations everywhere.

 

[RickinNYC]

That depends.

I'd say I never go to evil McDonald's but I really like their coffee. I can't help it, I crave a BK Veggie burger once in awhile.

But for actual meals, we have a couple of really good locally owned ones that I can't do without and there is just no comparison to the chains. I'm not a snob about it - the food is just better.

Well now, that's a horse of a different color now isn't it? Gimme a Big Mac, a Whopper, or preferably a couple dozen White Castle, and I'm in big fat pig heaven! LOVE me some junk food! Alas, I rarely eat that stuff nowadays.

 

[auntpolly]

Well now, that's a horse of a different color now isn't it? Gimme a Big Mac, a Whopper, or preferably a couple dozen White Castle, and I'm in big fat pig heaven! LOVE me some junk food! Alas, I rarely eat that stuff nowadays.

If you live in NYC you don't even deserve to be in this discussion, LOL (Kidding!!!)

There are soooooooo many good places in New York! I finally got into a place that I've been trying to get into for months - there was a cancellation!

 

[RickinNYC]

If you live in NYC you don't even deserve to be in this discussion, LOL (Kidding!!!)

There are soooooooo many good places in New York! I finally got into a place that I've been trying to get into for months - there was a cancellation!

Which place?

 

[Laura]

It depends on the chain. Some are good, others are a big snooze. Most of the time, though, I like to eat in local places.