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Chain restaurants

Did anyone else grow up thinking chain restaurants were fancy? I had 4 brothers, so you can only imagine how little we went out to eat. I always wanted to go eat at Ponderosa or Olive Garden. I didn't even figure it out until just a few years ago there were more fine dining choices. Not that I still don't love Red Lobster's cheesy biscuits!

Big Smile

 

Re: Chain restaurants

  • sizzler was the sh!t when I was a kid.  and that placed was always packed!

    I'd rather eat cardboard now.

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  • my mom always took me to independent restaurants as well as chains, so no, i wouldn't say i thought they were "fancy."  although i didn't really know the difference back then.

    i still love chains, though.  i like being able to go somewhere and knowing exactly what i want to order.  that may sound dreadful to some, but to me, it's comfort food. 

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  • [raising my hand]

    In fact, my mom still looooves Olive Garden and requests to go there every time we celebrate her birthday. Oy. My mom is just like D.?

  • Absolutely!! OMG, I had two younger sisters that were 13 months apart + other siblings...and as you can imagine, we didnt go ANYWHERE! Even to go to Lampost Pizza was a huge treat!
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  • I used to think Sizzler was for rich people.  Indifferent

    After 2 rounds of IVF & 2 rounds of FET, we were blessed with identical twin girls!
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  • my mom didn't cook much (single mom, worked), so we ate out a lot.  when i first met the bear, my mom took us out to el torito, and he thought that was fancy whereas it was just a slightly more special dinner for me.  we would go out to a mix of chains (grew up in land o' chains) and independent places, although most of the independent places were for asian food.  i had a few friends in high school whose parents were more well-to-do and appreciated good food, so i got to experience a lot of good holes-in-the-wall and a little fine dining eating out with their families.
  • oh and yes, we ate at sizzler quite a bit, but we still thought it was an awesome treat.  every. time.  bleh.
  • I have three older brothers and we almost never went out to eat. In fact, getting McDonald's was going out to eat for us.  I was always so excited for this "treat."

    My grandparents lived with us when I was growing up, and my grandma cooked all the time.  The only non Filipino food she ever cooked was spaghetti and chocolate oatmeal.  lmao.  I was always excited to eat at a friend's house cause I could eat "American" food.  Now, of course, I live for going back to MI and eating good Filipino food.  Sadly, my mom did not learn any of my grandma's skills and neither did I.  Sad

  • My mother was a health food nut so we rarely went out to eat. Any food away from home = special to me.
  • My parents always thought eating out was a waste a money SO whenever my mom took us out for breakfast to McDonalds to have the Deluxe Breakfast Platter we were excited!!!

  • imageWan-naBe:

      i like being able to go somewhere and knowing exactly what i want to order.  that may sound dreadful to some, but to me, it's comfort food. 

    I feel the same. I do love to go to a chain every once in a while. It really is like comfort food. We don't normally go to "fancy" places that often. When we do, that is a "treat" for us now as adults.

     

  • We rarely went to chains because my mother is a wonderful cook.  Nothing could hold a candle to what we ate at home.  Moreover, when we did go out, we would usually go to family-owned restaurants or holes-in-the-wall.

    So, no, we didn't think chains were fancy.

  • imagethemarshmalo:

    I always wanted to go eat at Ponderosa or Olive Garden.

    Wow I forgot about Ponderosa until I saw this but I use to think that was the coolest place ever. Plus there was an Italian chain on the east coast called Bertucci's. We use to always go there for special occasions and I <3'd it

  • I will give a nod to Bertucci's.
    That is a pretty good chain.
  • imageWeeMo:
    I will give a nod to Bertucci's.
    That is a pretty good chain.

    The last time I was there almost 2 yrs ago, the food wasnt as good as I remembered. I'll be back in Boston in 10 days so I'm hoping this experience will be better otherwise it may end up off my list of fav chains.

  • I haven't eaten at Bertucci's since 1998. Wink
  • I've never really thought chains were fancy. Not even as a kid.
  • We would go out to eat occasionally, but we rarely went to chains because there weren't very many in SF when I was a kid. Not even Olive Garden had a location there until the early 90s.
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  • Oh, I also thought Old Spaghetti Factory was high class because of the velvet chairs and "fancy" lamps.  I remember being 7 years old or so and telling my mom that when I got older, I wanted to be a hostess at the Spaghetti Factory.  Embarrassed

    After 2 rounds of IVF & 2 rounds of FET, we were blessed with identical twin girls!
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  • We never went out to eat outside of a five-mile radius from my house. I had no concept of what was a chain and what wasn't until I got my own car and drove other places to see that some of these restaurants we went to had more than one location.
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  • Mimi's Cafe was extremely classy. I loved that they sang a special birthday song. I also LOVED Sizzler, Fiddler's Three and Texas Loosey's.

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  • We ate at Sizzler and Home Town Buffet all the time when I was a kid.  Won't step foot in one, now.  Buffets skeeve me out.

    My mother cooked a lot, but I remember eating out a lot too.  We'd go to Del Taco, Taco Bell, etc, family owned type restaurants (Los Castillos in Westminster - miss that place), and stuff like Olive Garden.  Never thought they were fancy. However, I've never had fine dining.  Too much money.  Even now, I just can't bring myself to spend much money on food.  

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  • omg this thread!

    My daddy would put on his Hush Puppies when we went to Sizzler.  And my daddy is an overalls kind of grease monkey.  Does that say anything?

    So yes we thought certain places were fancy, like Sizzler.

     

  • ?

    I loved Ponderosa! I haven't seen one since I was a kid. Sizzler was totally fancy for us. We usually had birthday dinners at Pizza Hut (back when they had an eat in restaurant) so Sizzler was a real treat.

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