Hi, friends!
Do you have a restaurant (chain or independent) or meal from a restaurant that you consider the absolute worst?
Is it actually bad or did you like it until you got food poisoning? Or it was fine until that one time at Waffle House where it went downhill? Or did you eat it as kid without knowing any better then adult you had a “what the actual fuck” moment when eating it?
For me, Zaxby’s is the worst. It’s not the fault of the restaurant or the staff, it’s because I went in a horrible first date at one and it was the first time I’d been to a Zaxby’s. There was no second date, there was no second visit for poorly fried chicken.
Red Lobster…
I like crab legs and shrimp.
But I think their various cream sauces are breeding grounds for bacteria that kill me. The last time I ate there (over 22 years ago) I ended up nearly crapping myself on the subway. I was lucky that a coffee shop owner took one look at my green pasty face and mercifully let me use his bathroom (for customers only!)
After that it didn’t matter how one tried to entice me to go for crab legs or bay cheddar biscuits, I would not go. Not going to miss them either as I can make my own garlic shrimp.
Oh no! I just (disparagingly) mentioned Red Lobster i my recent post! Sorry, that wasn’t directed at you personally!
No worries. My gut winces every time I pass a Red Lobster (there’s a couple left where I live.)
I don’t even think Shoney’s exist anymore, but my entire family definitely got food poisoning from one when I was a kid. They weren’t great or anything, it was a situation of we’d just driven home from a vacation and had no food at home and it was a thing of what’s open that we can get a hot meal from. The only thing on the buffet that we all ate was the scrambled eggs, so either it was those or there was a lot of fucked up food on their buffet.
I’ve never been a fan of a buffet, period. Except the old school Pizza Hut buffet because pizza is the only thing I can eat my money’s worth in. Most other buffet food is bleh.
The last really bad meal I’ve had was at Red Lobster. We were traveling cross country and it was a holiday and that was like the only choice. Everything was so salty and dreary.
The local franchise of St. Louis Bar and Grill can go fuck itself.
Not only did they fuck up my order of wings, but I got some racist asshole customer making a comment about he was surprised how I couldn’t eat wings without Chow Mein. I just glared at him and never went back.
What. The. Fuck.
Oh, I remember becoming acquainted with St. Louis Bar and Grill through a YouTube video, of all things: A guy was walking through downtown Toronto during the early days of a pandemic, and the streets were invariably quiet and deserted. When I saw that particular establishment pass into view, I literally had to cue back the video — although more out of puzzlement than out of any kind of civically induced exultation. (I didn’t even think to point it out to brightersider, either — although this was back on Kinja anyway, so things were still strictly public and semi-anonymous between us anyway. But one of the other former GTers who was from the city said that this stretch of Toronto would’ve encompassed about ten stops on the subway and apparently would’ve been absolutely teeming with humanity during normal times.)
Oh, and speaking of St. Louis (and, tangentially, brightersider as well), I had to give . . . what the rest of you know as Panera the slow fade after a good 25 years or so of enjoying one or two of their sandwiches. They took the Combo off the menu and kept making their other sandwiches ever smaller while jacking up their prices, and around the same time, I started finding other, truly local places that could do even better than what they were no longer willing or able to do — and weren’t about to downplay the fact that they were based in St. Louis for the sake of a rebrand. After a while, when I just couldn’t be bothered to get up early enough for the bagels anymore . . . well, that was pretty much that.
I haven’t had Panera since like 2021 unless you count the occasional work catering event.
It’s just not good anymore and their prices are too high for what you don’t get.
I have never heard of Zaxby’s and I am glad of that. HQd in Athens,Georgia, the home of the B-52s and R.E.M., I cannot hold that against them. But I would hesitate to even use their parking lots to make a U-Turn to point me in the opposite direction because they offer Zalads and Zappetizers. Oh no.
There are so many overpriced, shitty restaurants around me. So many. It’s a function of people wanting to feel upper-middle-class but they have no taste, palette and style-wise. It’s only gotten worse since the Red Lobster (that beacon of fine dining) closed down. There are decent restaurants here, but you have to know what you’re going. Our only decent Chinese takeaway, for example. From behind three panes of bullet-proof glass they’re giving the lifers what they want, fried chicken and french fries. but for me they give me staff meals that are high up there on the heat chart. The other crap they serve? Gross. Life is too short.
Speaking of Athens and Zaxby’s – did you know that they stole the entire menu from our much cherished hang over restaurant Guthrie’s that was also in Athens during my college vodka days. Stole everything including the sauce recipe.
My kids gave up on McDonalds about a dozen years ago and I can’t say I miss it.
My kids never had McDonald’s until high school & never missed it.
As a person who eats practically out of the trash, McDonald’s definitely got noticeably worse at some point. Even I don’t eat there. And they had the audacity to get expensive (for fast food) too.
Basically any chain sit-down restaurant. All their food tastes like the same, chemical, shit. I can’t remember the last time I ate in one.
Yeah, I do a few local chains (3 to 5 places) but no national chains. Â We are lucky enough to have every ethnic food you can think of. Â The smaller & more dive-e-er the more likely I will like it!
I generally stick to the most basic things possible if I have to go to a Denny’s or Applebees, like fried eggs and toast or grilled cheese. Unless the person at the grill is new there are a few things they can’t screw up like they can mess up some fancy sounding pasta. But it also means eating out there is just fuel.
I agree with Butcher. Here in town, we’re lucky to have a gazillion mom and pop restaurants run by immigrants. Variety, quality, and authenticity for the win.