Brits hate their own food too. It’s why curry is now the most popular dish in the country.
Dining out is a pretty shitty experience in the Czech Republic because Czech food sucks covid or no covid. That and the large Vietnamese community is why Vietnamese food has really taken off here. Vietnamese food is also pretty good so long as you go to Sapa (Prague’s Little Hanoi) to get it. It’s off the touristy path and looks pretty ugly though.
That sounds unfortunate. Parts of central England are the equivalent of small towns in the Mid West. I’d probably be getting two Nandos a week if I lived there.
Only a few miles away are cities with large British Asian communities where the food is way better than Nandos.
Nandos is kinda tasty tbh. It wasn’t as cheap as I expected.
We used to get one every few weeks - it’s about the same quality as good fish and chips imo and a perfectly decent take away.
Agreed. Nando’s hot sauce is perfectly serviceable. And if you get takeout you’re basically getting roasted chicken plus slightly spicy/acidic sauce. That’s a winner winner chicken dinner, so to speak.
How do you go out enough to chains to be able to rank them like this?
I’m old. Also I worked at Carrabbas while my ex worked at both MG and OG back in the day while we were in school, so between the two of us we were basically always eating food from those places. I did not cook regularly until like the past thirteen years or so, basically since I’ve had a family. Before that I pretty much always ate out. But not always chains, or not even usually. I’m lucky that my area has tons of local options with unique flavors too. Sadly a lot of them aren’t going to survive Covid :(
Best major chain is Halal Guys.
There’s a chain called CAVA that opened in Chapel Hill when I lived there that did decent (not much more than that but still) fast casual kinda healthy food.
They seem to have a shitload of locations now
I’m sure it’s just the natural slow decline of an entity that is trying to deliver “value” food in a competitive market. The natural trend for a place like Outback is to try to find a little something every year to make the enterprise more profitable. Maybe they start sourcing steaks from someone just a little cheaper, without accounting for the decrease in quality and / or consistency. Maybe they try to get by with just one fewer staff per restaurant without really accounting for the decrease in customer experience. Maybe they find a grill that runs on just a little less gas without accounting for the fact that it makes it a little harder to get the steaks cooked to order. All of these sorts of things have the characteristic of looking like a wise business decision when entered into a spreadsheet at corporate, but are less obvious on site.
My first job as a waiter was at Casa Gallardo Grill (which is what El Torito Grill was called in St. Louis because El Torito had bought a local chain called Casa Gallardo). I got hired as a busboy but when I showed up for orientation they said “waiters over here, busboys over here” and I’m not stupid. I wore a teal polyester shirt and a bolo tie. I was high and/or drunk for probably 90% of my dinner shifts. That aside, I was a really good waiter. I’m good at prioritizing and imo very personable.
After college I got a job at a local fine dining restaurant called Portabella. I was the only non-career waiter there, younger than everyone by at least a decade. That was a really excellent job. Living in St. Louis my rent was $300/mo and I could make that in a weekend. Emphasis was 0% on turning tables and 100% on best service possible. The Chef was a CIA-trained screamer/pan-thrower, but he would always make Family Meal before dinner which was always awesome. I got my first “real” post-college job as a result of waiting on a guy who worked for a packaging company, he referred me to their advertising/marketing agency. It was a huge pay cut.
I’ll never forget the best table I ever had: young couple came in for their anniversary, or maybe to celebrate their engagement. Somebody (parent or friend I think) had called ahead to secretly pay for their meal and 20% tip. They took my recommendations for everything, apps, entrees, dessert, wine, and had an amazing night. Happiest and easiest 2-top ever. Their tab was over $300 and the woman cried when I told them it had been taken care of. Despite my assurances that my tip had been paid, they gave me $100 on top.
In my early 20’s I use to go to a chilis once a week because I had a job that required a lot of driving and it was by one of the stores I serviced. There was not much else around. The food was very bland and average but I liked the staff and they took care of me.
Went to Chilis a few years ago and it was completely different. The menu was different and the food was outstanding.
I have a brother that goes to Chilis with his wife and daughter once a month (pre covid) and it is one of their favorite restaurants.
Pro tip if you want authentic food. Sometimes restaurants with lower ratings on google turn out to be more authentic and less Americanized. Not always, you have to read the reviews to see what the problems are. But the most authentic Mexican food I have had has 3.2 starts on google. My GF’s step Mom is Mexican and she signed off on it being authentic.
100% agree about Texas Roadhouse being the best value for money in steak and it not being super close. To beat them you have to go somewhere that costs 10x as much literally. And the improvement will be only a little bit better in some relatively intangible ways.
Carrabas unfortunately is a franchise. The one in Louisville, KY was amazing… but the one in Austin is a shit hole that bought a ton of online reviews. Like seriously the interior is poorly maintained, and the food is incredibly poorly prepared with ingredients that I suspect are quite old. It’s a failing restaurant that hopefully won’t survive COVID. The only thing it has inside it that is similar to the Louisville Carrabas (which is an excellent restaurant of any type and any location) is the menu items and prices.
This, by the way is why franchising as a business model should probably die out now. It made a lot of sense back before computers when your local management team had to have a ton of autonomy and financing was really hard to get, but that’s not the case anymore. Most people who could make money buying a franchise shouldn’t buy a franchise in 2020 too. It’s not a good deal for anyone.
Yeah I was thinking about that the other day. It’s what, a cool $2 million or so to get a McDonald’s franchise now or something? If I’ve got that kind of scratch to throw around why the hell am I purchasing that headache?
In particular because the supply chain value they are offering is worth way less than it was 10-20 years ago. Why not find someone with a ton of kitchen experience at successful restaurants and have them open a local burger joint? The risk is lower and the upside is greater.
It’s fine for the existing fast food franchises… but it’s not an accident that all those shiny new fast food places you see shooting up are usually corporate stores. I won’t be surprised if Five Guys is the last big breakout franchise system. The newer franchise systems seem to be pretty scammy tbh. I can honestly say that it’d be a terrible idea for them for me to attend their sales pitches for potential franchisees… if I’m kicking a franchise systems tires it’s not to buy it’s to copy/steal.
EDIT: To be super clear I find the restaurant business (like all businesses honestly) fascinating. I also know enough about it to know that I want absolutely nothing to do with it and there are massively superior businesses out there. Like mine. My business is massively better in almost every way than the restaurant business. I just get to look at way more restaurants as they operate than I do other businesses. I ate out a lot before the pandemic lol.
A lot of people can probably get a loan to open a McDonald’s but would have a harder time getting a loan for a less ubiquitous business.
Speaking of crappy burger franchises the last Wahlburgers in Florida just closed its doors this past week.
Mark Wahlberg kind of sucks. Anyone who bought a franchise from him is not good at business. There’s absolutely nothing about an actor/sports figure that makes me do anything but scream in terror lol. Free promotion is nice, but it isn’t actually free. Not even close.
Steak in Shakes in my area almost all shut down and are advertising you can buy the franchise for 10K and guarantee a personal income of 150K in the first year.
But, that would mean probably working 16-18 hour days as your 24 hour steak n shake gets off the ground running.
Those are corporate stores in disguise like Chic-Fil-A’s probably. They’re just trying to catch the eye of some career restaurant person who hasn’t been able to save up enough for their own place yet. (the 10k down gives it away… it’s enough to guarantee that the person who does it will try hard, but it’s not a meaningful contribution to the risk of opening a new restaurant)
And yes it’s going to be a brutal job opening a brand new fast food location.