Zagat Survey Discussions

Occasionally there is talk on the boards that tends to “dis” chain restaurants. The NY Post has an interesting piece about the evolution of T.G.I Fridays. Why do you think chain restaurants have such a bad rep? They had to start from somewhere, right? Do you know the history of your favorite (or more appropriately, least favorite) chain restaurant? 

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Here is my deal with chain restaurants: there are plenty of them that have good food I enjoy. However, I live in New Orleans, I refuse to eat at a chain restaurant because there is nothing special about them. I can eat at a chain anywhere. But I cannot eat at August, Stella, Herbsaint, or any of the other hundreds of restaurants that are local to New Orleans with local celebrity or nationally know chefs. The food, service, and quality of these local restaurants cannot be equallyed by a chain resetaurant. My problem with chains is not so much with that the chain is bad but that the local restaurant is incredible.

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I live to travel.

It so happens I do know the history of some of the chains (in the late 1950's we used to go to McDonald's before they had even posted "1 million sold."; Pizza Hut, I believe, originated in Wichita Kansas at a time when I was a student at the University of Kansas. Both these chains have gone to the dogs over the years; I never patronize either of them. 

You mention TGI Friday's - I haven't read the article you cite - in the 1980's they had an original approach and produced some pretty good food. But one of the attractions was that they had so MANY choices; no matter what your mood you could find something to fit it, and often of pretty good quality. At some point, Friday's began to drastically reduce the variety of their offerings to the point where there wasn't much reason to go any more. That's a key mistake that more than one chain has made.

But yes, a very few still do a good job. Red Robin is good (but was better when they were more focused on chicken that burgers), Olive Garden can produce a pasta that actually has some flavor (whereas most highly rated "gourmet" restaurants produce pastas that are insipid and flavorless, more notable for their exotic ingredients in tiny quantities than their taste); Popeye's has fried chicken you just can't get anywhere else. Each of these places, we patronize maybe once a year.

Last, there are certain chains that don't stretch around the world. Near D.C. we have a branch of an outfit called J. Gilbert's - basically a steakhouse, but an excellent one, with truly outstanding burgers of house-ground chuck. But they have only five locations across the country, not 500.

The strength of chains is also their weakness: their sameness from place to place. In any medium-sized metropolitan area these days you can find local places doing excellent and interesting things so why pick a chain?

Chains strength is their sameness and relatively reliable medium quality. A local gem will be better every time, but when you travel you don't know where to find the local gems. Also, chains appeal to a broad range of people, so are good choices for meeting a group of friends for dinner and not worrrying about the one who can't eat spicy food, the vegetarian and the one with allergies having trouble finding somethign they can eat.

Chains weakness is the same - the offer medium quality food that appeals to a broad variety. If you're craving ethnic food (other than Italian) - tough. My husband and I love Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Indian but it is often disappointing and after a few "strikes" on the Asian it is comforting to go to Olive Garden or Applebees. 

Also, have you noticed that after the pool and beach you want fish and chips or seafood, but after winter sports you want hearty pasta and hot chocolate at night? National chains can't change too much to deal with huge regional and seasonal differences (Seattle vs. Miami) but local chains get to cater exactly to the state or region's seasonal produce and local activities. I wish there were a travel guide to local chains. Anyone in the Tampa/St. Pete area should try local seafood chain Crabby Bill's which is a big step up from Red Lobster or Joe's Crab Shack, but tourists have no way to know.

it's not that not-chains are automatically good... it's that chains are inherently something automated, distant, and corporate. you can have some chains that rise above this and conversely you have many local restaurants with the same problem. but it's much more common to find local single-location restaurants where the owner is personally involved with and cares about the quality of the food and service.

to cement this impression, you also frequently find that single-location local restaurants start to go downhill soon after expanding to new locations. why? well expansion is almost always driven by financial motivations: certainly not an uncommon goal. but it usually indicates a shift in the owner's priorities from creating a good product to making more money. logistically speaking, it is also much less feasible for even a dedicated owner to take an active and personal interest in multiple locations. instead, he/she has to hand over supervisory positions to less interested parties. 

my rule of thumb is that three locations is about the max a chain can have before quality starts to suffer noticeably, and i much prefer single-location "gems."

everything the above posters have noted is true too

Chains serve a purpose when you live in an area without good restaurants. I have never understood why I would go to a chain for pre-packaged portioned controlled food, when I can go to a local restaurant and have fresh food that is better. Yes some locals have pre-packaged but I avoid them as best as possible.
Some chains, steakhouses especially, serve very good food, but most are medicore in my opinion. If I was rating a chain I would say the food isn't bad nor is it good so why go back. Always try to find a local spot to eat.
I live in the NYC/NJ area and like the New Orleans resident don't see a reason to patronize chains on a regular basis. We go to them rarely.

First things first... Yea New Jersey!

Now that that's out of the way, I would like to identify the single greatest problem about chain restaurants. And, for as cheesey as this is going to sound, there's no love in the food. A chain restaurant like Applebee's will make the same chipotle salsa grilled chicken as every other Applebee's in the rest of the country. Why is it this way? Because this is what they're forced to do. They must replicate the same quality of every other Applebee's in order attract customers who identify their meals as consistent. Consistently mediocre. I worked at an IHOP in Bloomfield for a decent amount of time and the food that was served was either microwavable or (in a very good point brought up before) totally portion-controlled. The chefs had a bare minimum of culinary training, and, honestly, who really needs culinary training when all you're doing is throwing some frozen food in the microwave and then maybe grilling it if need be. Every thing about the preparation of every meal seems so distant and impersonal.

While I will agree that finding local flair when you're traveling is somewhat difficult and sometimes you will find some local clunkers. I recently took a 9 day cross country road trip and we made a point of only stopping at what the local popular restaurants were, even though it might've been out of the way or a little pricey. To say that it's hard to find local flavor while either a) having a zagat account or b) having access to the internet/google, is a totally outdated mindset. If you can't find local flavor, then it's because there was the minimal amount of searching involved. To a certain extent, that's not even an excuse anymore.

My final point that I would like to raise about chain restaurants is that the employees are never treated very well. The middle management that is usually hired by chain restaurants run the restaurant based on the guidelines given to them by the franchisee, which is usually and ultimately unfair to the employee. Employees must smile and raise conversation with their tables, as they never know which table that they sitting could possibly be employed by the franchisee to test the servers. Employees in small restaurants usually identify with the struggles and potential opportunities of the owner and are good employees, not because the book tells them too, but because they want the owner to succeed just as much as the owner himself does.

Don't eat at chain restaurants. It really does take the bare minimum of effort to find good, local restaurants while traveling. Eating at a Fridays or Applebee's really is a disservice to the small business owner. Chain restaurants are the Wal-Marts of the restaurant world, and hurt small restaurant owners just as much as Wal-Mart hurts small businesses. There's no way they can compete with chains that have that much capital resources, so give the small restaurant a break and try to seek them out.

DanielC8539 wrote:
my rule of thumb is that three locations is about the max a chain can have before quality starts to suffer noticeably, and i much prefer single-location "gems."
 
I couldn't agree more. I think a good example of this can be found in the DC area. Jaleo has 3 locations and isn't as good as Zatinya or Cafe Atlantico... all of which are by the same chef, José Andrés.

I like Houstons as a chain because they allow for some regional flair. You don't get the EXACT same thing in LA as you do in Atlanta. 

The biggest reason I hate chains is because they think Iceburg Lettuce is acceptable as the primary and often ONLY form of lettuce in a salad. Fix the salad and I will return to the chain. Oh yes, and could they also figure out a salad dressing that actually tastes decent??

ZAGAT Administrator wrote:
Occasionally there is talk on the boards that tends to “dis” chain restaurants. The [I]NY Post has an interesting piece about the evolution of T.G.I Fridays. Why do you think chain restaurants have such a bad rep? They had to start from somewhere, right? Do you know the history of your favorite (or more appropriately, least favorite) chain restaurant? 
[/i]
 
Most chains, not all, do not cook food locally. They assemble it from parts brought in frozen. These 'parts' come from primarily 3rd world countries with 3rd world standards of hygiene. If you visit the kitchens in many chains you will find no real cooks, never a chef. Simply low paid, exclusively migrant, workers preparing food to written instructions. Often there will be a picture with these words, 'Should look like this'. Some of this food however is good, much is not. All of it is uninspired. But as I said some chains do a good job, but you probably already know who those are.

The benefit of some chain restaurants is the reliability of the product. It may be mediocre, but it is reliably mediocre. While I live outside a city full of excellent restaurant choices it is still a 30 min drive and a $20 parking fee before I even walk in the door of those fabulous restaurants, which can be prohibitive based on time and budget. The majority of the local non-chain restaurants have decor and menus more typical of restaurants I went to as a child in NY. At times, the local Carrabbas or BoneFish Grill offer better quality food than most around me. I choose convenience over fabulousness at times. Kind of sad, but truthful.........

There are certainly desirable, dependable chains that deserve our patronage...just as there are horrible chains that should be avoided like the plague. Just as a local restaurant will eventually/rightfully sink or swim on its merits, a chain must be evaluated in the same manner. The best chains replicate a good concept and offer interesting, freshly prepared quality food that can be prepared to order, comfortable ambiance and good service: I would offer Carrabbas as an example of a chain that does it the right way. In addition to being able to depend upon freshly prepared dishes that are identical across locations, they have no fear of tweaking the menu and offering new and interesting seasonal dishes, much like a local entrepreneur will. The proprietor of our local Carrabbas always takes great care of us and makes us feel like we are family. I first discovered Carrabbas while in Houston during the early 1990's and had a memorable dining experience that featured simple, fresh food that was well prepared in a nice environment...what was NOT to like? I returned to the restaurant whenever I was in Houston for business. I must admit to being somewhat skeptical when OSI acquired the concept, but have been pleased with the way they maintained the freshness and quality as they expanded throughout the US. Although we will always do our homework and seek-out wonderful local restaurants when we're traveling, it is comforting to know that there is usually a Carrabbas nearby where we can enjoy a wide variety of familiar quality menu items.

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Life is too short to eat bad food

My problem with chains is that they tend to approach everything from a cost/revenue perspective.

Their goal is to maximize revenue while minimizing cost at the expense of everything else. The quality of the food and service is incidental or sometimes even in direct conlifct with the bigger-faster-cheaper business model.

What's worse, most chains actively seek to "dumb down" their clientele by doing endless focus-group studies, coming up with the most widely accepted, likable, most unadventurous "new" items possible --- like iteration #45938 on the bacon cheese burger or the pepperoni pizza.

Chains serve their purpose of reasonably OK food at a reasonably OK price. But if you want invention, arttisry and a watch on quality that goes beyond meeting the minimal requirements, you have to pay the extra money and go to a real restaurant.

The comments above about finding good local gems is exactly the reason I subscribe to Zagat. I travel around the US and Europe constantly for my job and I NEVER eat in chains and I almost never eat at a loser. Sites like Zagat let you suss out the local flavor better than any concierge ever could have.

"Olive Garden can produce a pasta that actually has some flavor..."??? The only thing I ever tasted in Olive Garden's pasta was the saltiness! Granted, those experiences were over 10 years ago - but so frequent that I vowed never to go back.
I cannot fathom why a New Yorker, with the wide range of choices we have, would go to Olive Garden, or TGIFriday's, or Red Lobster, etc. I do understand why some out-of-towners would go there - comfort, a taste of home that they know, a standardized meal. But it's the "standardized" that I will not settle for in a chain!