Why do so many people seem to look down on chain restaurants?

Because they’re gross and impersonal.

P.F. Chang’s

& Buffalo Grill (yes it’s true) in France

@eponymoushipster
Please specify: which ones have you eaten at and what exactly was gross?

In most chains, the food arrives in plastic bags fresh from the truck that traveled across the country from the factory where it was produced.

Many privately owned restaurants use fresher ingredients and therefore serve healthier and better tasting food.

@jamielynn2328 Hm, do you KNOW this for a fact or is it what you have been led to believe by, let’s say, the people who for some reason hate chain restaurants but have never eaten in them nor worked in them?

@johanna My husband has been a cook for 12 years. I know it for a fact.

Over here in the UK I would have to say chain restaurants are not my favourite but if you want something to eat and you want to know it will be good go to a Pizza Express, even the name sounds cheesy but they are really good. The link to my local one is above, my fave is the Sloppy Guiseppe

I can say one thing good about them, they are the same everywhere. So if I am in a place with questionable food choices I always know what I will be getting at TGIFridays.

@jamielynn2328 Oh so he has worked in both kinds of restaurants and in many different kinds of chains as well as in many different privately owned (I believe the chains are privately owned too though…) to be able to generalize so widely?
Personally I have also worked in many restaurants but I only know anything factually about the ones I have worked in or eaten in.

@RareDenver
I really like pizza express. Like you said you get what you want AND they serve wine, right!

@johanna yeah the food is reasonably priced and tasty but the booze is quite expensive there

@johanna He has worked his way up to executive chef in two restaurants. He does the ordering and menu planning and also has a degree in restaurant management. I am not saying that every chain is bad. I’m saying that in comparison, it is a much higher likelihood that privately owned restaurants shop locally for their food.

Chain restaurants have the same general menu no matter where you go. An Olive Garden in New York will have pretty much the same menu as one in Florida. If you own a chain restaurant, you are contractually obligated to order your ingredients from the parent company.

Just preference. I like the taste of food at chain restaurants better than the “mom and pop” ones.

I don’t “look down” on chain restaurants; I count on the fact that they will be similar or the same everywhere. (I’m not talking about McDonald’s, though.)

As to chain restaurants I like: Rubio’s and Islands. Granted, for the most part, they make their own food (although it’s based on the recipes the other stores use, too).

There’s nothing wrong with a chain restaurant unless you’re looking for, say, a vegan menu made up of nothing but organic produce and fair-trade goods. You’ll probably have to go to a non-chain to find that. :P

@jamielynn2328 makes a very good point here. All chain restaurants, even if they are franchises (i.e. individuals own the individual restaurant) are obligated to buy the ingredients from and serve what the parent company dictate. This will never result in you having that amazingly original dish that you never expected and blows you away.

It also means you will never go in and get what you didn’t want. Each have there place.

@jamielynn2328
First of all good for him!
Second, yes, chains usually have the same menu and some of them buy from the parent company (and the parent company usually buys from many producers just like the restaurants you call private by which I presume you mean smaller, individually owned ones?)and some do not but that doesn’t mean the food is worse – either cooked or uncooked. Just because someone buys in bulk, versus, not doesn’t say anything about the quality, just about price. Especially not since most producers are part of major corporations or sell to major corporations (and yes even the so called organic ones are usually big corps too) and even if a restaurant buys locally it doesn’t guarantee that the stuff is actually grown locally or that it is better.

So back to my original question which was why do people have an opinion without even having tried the restaurants in question?

I’ve been to plenty of chain and non-chain restaurants. I like them both for different reasons. All I judge by is the food. I’ve been to some non-chain restaurants where the food wasn’t that great and I’ve been to some chain restaurants that I absolutely love. I don’t like the way people are so snotty and smug about food. Sometimes I’m almost embarrassed to talk about the places I like to eat at, but it shouldn’t be that way.

@DominicX I’m with you here. If the food is agreeable with you why the hell not!!

Me and my wife eat out quite a lot, apart from a couple specialist places her favourites are a few of the chains because as a vegetarian she feels safer there that what they say is veggie on the menu is really veggie on the plate.

@DominicX
Don’t be embarrassed…. that is exactly what I am trying to get at here. What is all the snobbery about? Great food is great food regardless who makes it. I do not understand about dissing things offhand with no facts or experience. I love my chains (but hate some of them after trying them) just like I love/hate boutique ones depending on the quality of food. What I normally also like about chains is that the staff is rarely snotty and if something is not good they do not argue and you get a replacement and/or refund. And the wime is usually cheaper too!

A while back, Appleby’s bought a bunch of TV ad time to advertise their new Asian specials, like stir-fry and egg rolls. I was watching a lot of TV at the time, and every time it came on, it made me want to go there to try it. So I did. And I was treated to a bland dinner of overcooked limp vegetables of the sort you could tell was previously frozen, a soggy previously-frozen egg roll, and overdone white rice, smothered in think goopy sauce from a jar. And as I was sitting there eating it (because I had to pay for it), I realized that if what I wanted was good Asian food, there were easily a dozen other Asian restaurants within a five-mile radius that would have done this food properly. And why I thought I would get “exciting new Asian cuisine” from a restaurant that specialized in blandish bar burgers and predictable side dishes for people who think that garlic is an exotic spice, I’ll never know. Chains cater to the lowest common denominator of acceptable flavor.

I’m not saying that all chain restaurants are bad – I’m saying that if you want a good meal at one, you have to go in for what they are known to do well. You can get a pretty good steak at Outback, for example, but I wouldn’t try their seafood. And what chain restaurants do well is “predictability” – a Panera sandwich in one state will be pretty much exactly the same as a Panera sandwich in another state. (My MIL makes a hobby of eating at Panera’s all over the country wherever she goes.)

Often, though, when I’m paying good money for restaurant food, I want to try something new. I don’t want the same predictable food, because I’ve already had that. And I want to go somewhere that doesn’t cater to white-bread middle-class folks, because I like a lot of foreign cuisines and those often can’t be found at a chain place. New Thai place in town? I’m there! New McDonald’s in town? Maybe if I’m stranded there, and starving.

The sort of people who go to chain restaurants regularly strike me as being as unoriginal and homogeneous as the food served there, so I guess you are what you eat. If you like that sort of thing, you will probably like chain restaurants. Me? Not so much – I have to be in a pretty lazy, conformist mood for that.

I don’t know if a Wawa sandwich counts, but they’re great.
I also love Red Lobster.

The sort of people who go to chain restaurants regularly strike me as being as unoriginal and homogeneous as the food served there, so I guess you are what you eat. If you like that sort of thing, you will probably like chain restaurants. Me? Not so much – I have to be in a pretty lazy, conformist mood for that.

But see, it’s this kind of judging that’s ridiculous and completely unfair. You can’t tell a thing about how a person lives their life based on the type of place to eat at they prefer. I go to Chipotle all the time because I love it. I also go to this one authentic non-chain Mexican place all the time. If you’re going to one place all the time, you’re still not “broadening your horizons” and it doesn’t depend on whether the place is a chain or not. A non-chain restaurant will still serve the same stuff no matter how many times you visit it. And just because there are chain and non-chain places I visit frequently doesn’t mean I’m not always trying new places and new foods. I’ve been all over the world and had all different kinds of foods. But there are still certain things that I like that I want over and over again. If you like something, don’t you want to have it more than once? Not necessarily in a row (I would get tired of it if it were all in a row), in but more than once every now and then? That’s how it is with me, at least.

Face it; you think you’re better than other people because of where you eat: that’s the problem, in my opinion. That’s the “food smugness”. Of course people should be trying new things; that’s never a bad thing. But you can’t tell whether people do or not just because they really like a certain place or a certain food.

Most chain restaurants don’t give the cooks and dishwashers a shift beer or shift meal (a free beer or meal) after their shift. Thats my biggest complaint.

@laureth Sometimes I am lazy and hungry

Because they are the Wal-Mart of dining out.

@DominicX – Hey, I like Chipotle too. I think of it as comfort food. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the little place one town over that’s run by Mamita and her family from Mexico. They have it seriously going on!

@RareDenver – Sometimes I am lazy and hungry too. That’s when I’d go to Chipotle and eat with a bunch of other lazy people. ;)

I worked in a chain restaurant in NYC for my first job here, Houlihan’s. Even the manager called it “KFC with a bar”. Everything came in daily from the SYSCO truck in a city lousy with meat and produce markets, bakeries by the score and cheesemonger, wine sellers, etc. But such food is very expensive and Houlihan’s most expensive dish was $15.

The chefs didn’t so much cook as zap a lot of food in plastic bags in microwaves and slide them onto plates. Even the meat was SYSCO-provided meat, though it was thawed and cooked to order in the broiler. None of the employees actually ate there; we went to The Ginger Man on 64th off Broadway.

New York City, in particular, has so much good food from so many world traditions, it would be a shame to take one’s taste buds to Red Lobster. And I grew up in an environment where a place like Red Lobster was a once-a-year treat.

@laureth I don’t know what Chipotle is

@RareDenver – Chipotle

@aprilsimnel I do like Mexican food, although it likes me less as I get older.

Gone are the days that I could snack on a jar o Jalapeños, even if there is a sniff of them in my food now I pay in the morning :-(

I think there is a big disparity in what passes for “good food” based upon location. In some cities, the only choice you have is chains because there’s not a lot of variety outside the chains. Chains are safe and predictable.

It implies that quality (vis-a-vis personalization and customization) has been sacrificed to achieve economies of scale and scope. That, the owner/s is not living their dream, but rather tapping into a well honed formula to make money.

@johanna: @jamielynn2328 has it right. The food product that goes into the dishes at the chain restaurants just isn’t as good (quality). Many posters here have tried to tell you that, but it just seems like you don’t want to hear it. So eat wherever the fuck you want to.

So eat wherever the fuck you want to.

Thank God someone finally said it. Seriously. No one should give a fuck where you eat. Eat and let eat is what I always say. :P

Perhaps I should clarify. Some people think “Why should I pay $21 for a steak when I can get one at Schmapplebees for $10?”
Well restaurants (in general) make a tidy profit when they keep their food costs down to about 20%. Some of the larger chains have to keep it even lower than that to cover all of the nationwide advertising they use. So when you gloat that you’re able to get a tasty lunch at the Kentuschmucky Fried Chicken for $5, you should know that the ingredients in that meal cost them around a buck. What kind of quality do you think they’re able to get for one dollar?

I don’t, and never have, given a fuck where anyone eats. ;) I just give a fuck where I eat.

@laureth Remember the days when everyone the media gave a fuck about where Bill Clinton ate? I feel old. ;)

I think for many people it is the idea of supporting local business over chain business. Fighting capitalism and industrialization and all.

Local businesses are still Capitalism.

@laureth of course if you want to argue semantics I meant corporate capitalism

Applebee’s is disgusting, Friday’s not far behind, and Olive Garden is good for soup and salad but everything else is gross.

I really enjoy Ruby Tuesday’s, J. Alexander’s, Outback, PF Changs, Cheesecake Factory, and Chili’s.

Very mediocre in my opinion are On The Border, Macaroni Grill, and more.

When I am on a long road trip and wind up in the middle of nowhere I am happy to see a familiar chain restaurant. In cities like NY, Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, Miami, etc. I would much rather eat local than national chain.

@johanna Chilis, CiCis “Pizza”, TGIFridays, Pizza Hut, McDs, Wendy’s, BK, Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesdays, Langhorn Steak House, Outback (where i got food poisoning, as did a friend).

The only chain i enjoy is PF Changs, for whatever reason.

I’ve never had a good experience at Applebees. Cold food, terrible service and just craptacular food all around. Tyler Florence is a sell out.

I will admit that Cracker Barrel has the best pancakes with blackberry topping and a side of sausage in the area.

Oh, and Houlihan’s is awful too. Houston’s is good though.

@jonsblond, I have to agree about Cracker Barrel. They have a great veggie plate, too. I don’t eat there very often, but it’s the only place I don’t mind waiting for a table. We’ve always stopped at Cracker Barrel when driving along the interstate. The food is compatible with car trips.

Here’s how I see it:

Pros of chains: you know what you’re going to get, it’s a familiar menu, it’s quick and easy for people to agree upon as a destination (menu items that appeal to a wide variety of customers), and they’re generally reasonably priced. The menu rarely changes as well, so you can go back for the same thing.

Cons: They’re predictable, which can be boring. The menu and the atmosphere are not original, and they can certainly be cheesy. The food generally isn’t of the highest quality, and the corporate environment can draw servers who could give a shit less about their jobs.

Personally, I don’t go to chains often, but there are definitely some that I can stand and will go to. I’m okay with Red Robin, Applebee’s (though I always get the same thing), Steak and Shake, PF Chang’s, Stir Crazy, Cheesecake Factory, and Panera (although I know it by it’s real name – St. Louis Bread Company). I can stand Macaroni Grill too, sometimes. I consider fast food to be an entirely different ballpark, but I love Jack in the Box, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Bell. I think I mostly go back to these places because I’ve found one specific item that I will have a particular craving for (at Jack in the Box, it’s the Ultimate Cheeseburger, at Taco Bell, it’s the steak quesadilla, at Applebee’s, it’s the spinach-artichoke dip and the ribs, and so on and so forth). I don’t find myself to be limited because I do go other places and try other things. Living in New York City has definitely facilitated my culinary expeditions too. Sometimes, I just want something specific, and if that thing happens to come from a Bread Company or a Red Robin, so be it. Food is food is food, to me.

When does it become a chain? Is it when there are more than one restaurant owned by the same person/company? More than two, three, four or what restaurants? Or doesn’t it have anything to do with numbers?

If it has nothing to do with numbers and is more of an attitude then that would explain some excellent chains and some decidedly awful boutique restaurants. If it is a number game then Mario Batali and Hubert Keller (with a bunch of Michelin stars etc) et al are chain operators and worthy of scorn according a some of you above.

bunch of hippies

This is so interesting – my original question was why do people judge chains restaurants without having tried them. Many of you got that, but many just kept on dissing them without any seeming reasons. Like the guy who calls them the Wal Mart of restaurants.
What is wrong with owning many restaurants. Why do some presume that a guy who owns one restaurant is less of a capitalist than a guy who own 50? Maybe the first guy is just not as clever at his job. And as to quality of food – isn’t that just preconcieved notions? I mean some restaurants, chain and otherwise, serve shitty food, others do not. Most food comes from the same place, the same corporations and it is mostly a matter of pricing. But many seem to presume that boutique restaurants buy ‘better’ stuff. It is probably the other way around – boutique restaurants have to watch their costs even more – so they have to fins less expensive produce.
So once again, without having tried these places why do people hate them?
I mean i do not like Appelbees, I have tried it. I do not like jack in the Box, I have tried it. I like others that I have tried. But at least I have a reason for either position.

To directly answer your question, for some, it’s the ability to project out what the dining experience is going to be like, and automatically having distain for the experience. For others (and probably your friends), it’s the self-identification with counterculturalism. It’s an anti-suburbia, anti-mall, anti-clone, anti-mass marketing posturing. “If it’s advertised, I’m not buying it.” So yes, reverse snobbery.

@johanna I’m a girl and I never said that Wal-Mart was bad. interesting that you assumed the worst. I’m one of the few on this site that shops at Wal-Mart because it is what I can afford and one of the few that doesn’t laugh at ‘The People of Wal-mart’. I was making the comparison with chain restaurants. People go to these restaurants because they are often affordable and you know what you are going to get (like you would at Wal-Mart or K-Mart, etc.) If I want something different and I have a little more money to spend I will go to a ‘boutique’ restaurant/clothing store.

Also, I did give you a reason why I hate Applebee’s.

When a chain gets bigger than one or two places (hence a chain), they seem to have to all buy the same food from the same source, to standardize the experience and take advantage of the economies of scale. When a place is just one location, they seem more free to make individual, independent choices about what to serve, use fresher ingredients, etc.

To some extent, grocery stores are like that too. A national grocery chain opened in my area, and being the first one within many hundred miles they weren’t on the same supply chain as the rest of the stores. They were free to sell local food, make sales that were relevant to the local community, and support local charities, etc. Now that there are many of this grocery store here, they are obligated to buy their supplies from a regional source, which means they can’t patronize local producers, and their charitable giving seems to be to larger, regional or national charities. They’ve lost the local focus altogether.

There are local restaurants that buy ingredients at the same Farmer’s Market I go to, and source their rolls from local bakeries, etc. – this food is more delicious and fresher than the stuff trucked in from the regional hub. I think many people here have been trying to say this same thing. We’ve not dissed the chains without trying them (at least I haven’t).

I don’t think of independent restaurants as being “boutique” – I just think of them as not being the Borg.

I don’t prefer chain restaurants, but I do enjoy their convenience.

I don’t judge people who go to them, since I myself go to them. I do think it’s odd when people rant and rave about one, since they all serve the same ingredients…I can tell you (in my area) where a restaurant gets its food from just by eating a meal there. I know practically all the large and small vendors for the area, and can pick out their fish or their sauces just by taste. And I will say, sometimes I do prefer the Sysco brand over the “fancy” brand, but not too often. sysco has good pre-made desserts!

Maybe people look down upon corporations? I dunno.

I think everyone should go eat at a Mellow Mushroom. Except maybe @RedPowerLady, if she’s a part of the group she’s referring to.

@StephK Never heard of Mellow Mushroom and I just saw there is a location in Delray Beach, I used to live there. I’ll have to try it next time I visit, no locations where I live now.

@JLeslie : It’s delicious. Well, ours is anyway.

@StephK: I love Mellow Mushroom! They used to put weed on their pizza back in the day, so I’ve been told.

I think people look down on chain restaurants due to the fact the cheaper the product, the cheaper the quality. Taco Bell has great prices when you’re low on cash, but they use extremely low grade meat. And it usually makes me throw up at some point after eating it.
I like some chains. Perkins (though completely mediocre, it has a meal that I know will be pretty consistent and I’ll get cravings for that specific meal so it works), Noodles, Chipotle and Panera. The one thing is that I tend to get sick from restaurant chains pretty easily. I don’t know if it’s due to lower quality or sodium levels or the guy making the food didn’t wash his hands, but it’s been pretty consistent at various chains.
I don’t get the chance to eat at nicer restaurants as much as I’d like, but I can taste the difference and feel the difference.
Anywho, back to the looking down at chains… I think most people that look down at chains notice that the lower the price, the lower the quality. Even just looking at a burger and fries from McDonalds and then a small business restaurant or a homemade burger and oven made fries…. well it’s pretty obvious the difference of quality right there.

I feel that Cracker Barrel Restaurants do not fall into this category. why? its good to know that when traveling, the Cracker Barrel out on the road, is going to have the same good food you are use to having at your hometown. i hate eating at a restaurant that i have never tried before. i do not have this problem with Cracker Barrel.

One wonders how you came to try Cracker Barrel for the first time?

Because they never had to wait three days for the UN relief truck to bring them a litre of millet they had to make last a week, and they only get it if the rebels don’t hijack the truck or the road wasn’t washed out.

I’ve eaten in many, many, many Cracker Barrel restaurants. Their HQ is in my metro area. It is the only chain I regularly frequent…..but NOT because it serves good food (It doesn’t). Or has good service (It doesn’t) or is clean (It isn’t). But it most certainly is consistent. I have eaten at CB so many times that I entertain myself examining their flaws…which are numberless.

Their one shining quality is consistent mediocrity. All stores have the same mediocre food, the same mediocre to bad service and every single solitary CB bathroom I have ever entered is filthy…without exception. Further, I almost always have to stand in a line to pay.

But I go back, and back, and back to Cracker Barrel, as do so many others because if you are traveling they are right on the interstate with the same familiar mediocre food, which happens to be the best anywhere near the interstate.

The service is sorry and is designed to be so….for whatever reason.

And the bathroom stinks.

One last thing….their customer help line exists, but only to take a complaint. Not to do anything about it. They don’t do that either.

With apologies to @john65pennington

@plethora I really hate chain restaurants, but Cracker Barrel is my favorite. I know if I go there I will always get a good breakfast. Their waffle with fresh strawberry topping and a side of sausage links is really good. Good for a poor person I guess, but I’m poor. The breakfast is better than any other small diner I can afford. And the bathrooms and service have always been exemplary in our area.

@jonsblond I agree 100%. That is probably the only meal which I do absolutely love there.

And with all I said above, I gotta admit, CB really knows how to sell consistent mediocrity.

@plethora yeah, I never order anything else. haha

@jonsblond Not even Mama’s Pancake Breakfast? With grits added?

grits? you be crazy! :P

@jonsblond and certifiably so….here I am again fluthering at almost 2am….have a good sleep