I haven’t had Bojangles yet, but I agree with your other assessments. KFC used to be pretty good back in the day, but I don’t go there anymore. Brutally bad.
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I LOVE lees famous recipe. and I hadn’t ever had it but the popeyes was packed so I went in on Lees. Holy shit to me it’s so much better. and it was like $5 for a couple pieces of chicken and a drink.
Not to mention fast. Order at popeyes and you’re gonna wait a bit. Lees it might be a minute, and that’d be a long wait for them.
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When it’s right, the Popeyes chicken sandwich is actually quite good. But there’s a 20% chance that it’s not going to be made right and it’s going to taste like shit.
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As one who travels a lot I do everything I can to hit independent family own restaurants. What helps me is I usually travel with reps who live in the market and they point me to the right places.
The chain I hit the most is Walk-on’s usually eat off the appetizer menu. Smaller portions for one thing and usually grilled or seafood app.
I also hit food trucks at breweries, food is amazing, unhealthy but really really good. Burgers, bbq, tacos, seafood… so damn good.
@Weaselpuppy ate at Texas de Brazil for the first time last month in Tampa was very good.
The best restaurants I have been too in the last six months were in Barranquilla Colombia in October best dinner(s) I have had in years. everything was served shareable vs your own meal.
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so I’m going to be uber trashy and say my favorite chicken sandwich is the burger king original chicken sandwich.
yes..it’s ‘chicken’ but goddamn is that good. Super good at slowing down blood flow too in case you were feeling too healthy.
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Innisfree, lol, came up in a meeting last week when I mentioned I had been in Tuscaloosa the prior week. Two guys were AL alums and asked where we went, said I wanted Jack Browns but was overruled for Innisfree.
They both laughed and said it brought back some great memories as they love that place.
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Blessed as I have a gem here in South OKC…
The full service food cafe at the heart hospital… Lemon baked Salmon, beef begogi, meatloaf, cod, beef stew etc with all the sides and it’s made fresh daily…. Cookie are made fresh there as well as the soups…
Soups are pricey but worth it imho and I get my 10% discount for being a super nice guy…. Well ok because I am old!!
Everyone I’ve taken there is blown away and how good it is, how fast they are and the prices are decent
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One area where i found this to be absolutely true is the home inspection field. Two of my kids plus me have had home inspections before buying a place inthe past three years. It used to be that a guy would dig into the roof, electrical, HVAC, plumbing systems in a home and give you honest feedback on what is in great shape, what is suspect, and what is bad an needs immediate attention.
Now, everyone comes with their moisture detectors, and lap top programs, takes pictures of everything, and classifies everything as suspect because God forbid they tell you something is OK when its not. Then they send you a useless email report 15 minutes after the walk-through. Basically, you’ve paid for nothing. The report is 48 pages long and tells you how to maintain a system. Disclaimers and recommendation like - “Chimney is suspect. Get your chimney professionaly inspected”. So, yeah, they value speed over quality. But also meaningless feedback vs. finding real problems or certifying something as OK.
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It is ridiculous. We used to go out to eat as a family of 3 once per week. Food was always cold etc. On top of that a meal is like $20 - $25 per person now. With tip and tax it’s damn near $100 for us to go out to eat. We stopped going out to eat and found better ways to allocate that $400 a month. I don’t miss it one bit.
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I have always loathed food chains.
I always look at these problems like a business opportunity from somebody ambitious. Like if HVAC companies are charging an arm and a leg that should be good for local mom and pop shops. That might make somebody say, “I can do this for less and still kill it”. In this day an age, it doesn’t take much of a marketing budget to get your name out their on social media either.
Restaurants are tougher I think. Its a low margin venture for a lot of local eateries. Down where I live I see attempts to open new places fail at about a 75% clip it seems like. But I agree the food quality in general has went down in restaurants since Covid. Like objectively worse, and not just because everybody has Covid tastebuds. It just looks like crap, its overpriced, and its like things just sort of fell apart in the industry. I will say its rebounding some lately. We went to Outback, for instance, a couple of years ago, a place we pretty much liked. It was never terrible. But it was really bad and we didn’t walk back in there until just recently on a road trip. It was pretty much back to normal.
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Eating out is just a huge waste of money these days. Groceries are expensive enough. Very easy to spend over 100 bucks for 2 people. Crazy
And @Pdono mentioned above very difficult to get a healthy meal eating out. I prefer to cook myself, at least I know what ingredients I’m using. And my food tastes better anyways 
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I’ve gotten into making copycat stuff at home. I LOVE mcds breakfast burritos. it’s crazy how easy they are to make at home and taste…better. plus at home you can make it low carb pretty easily.
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My son makes the ham egg cheese mcmuffin at home quite bit, as you said about the burritos, so easy to make.
My wife has been doing the breakfast burritos/tacos for years albeit her own version.
I generally don’t eat out anymore – unless it’s for special occasions, because I want something I generally don’t make on my own (hello, sushi), or if I’m just dog tired and need something quick… and I’m not on keto.
For special occasions, it’s never a chain restaurant. Typically it’ll be while visiting family in the Chicago area. Used to go to Angelo’s in Elmhurst before my Mom died, it was one of her favorite places. Ki’s Steak and Seafood in Glendale has remained strong. Capital Grille, a chain, was still good about three years ago, haven’t been back in a while.
Here in the Atlanta area, where I’ve been for three years now, found a halfway decent sushi place in Sugar Hill, but it’s not superb. Not that I’ve had a lot of luck finding superb sushi around here. Strangely enough, the McDonalds in Sugar Hill has also been strong, even though I really don’t like McDonalds in general, but their bacon cheeseburgers with fries have been hot and fresh and tasty.
My elderly aunt in Chicago lives in a retirement community, just moved there this summer, and at first the community restaurant had really good food. By this winter, though, the quality had already gone downhill.
Because going out is so rare (and because I don’t drink), I haven’t really noticed a big spike in prices. But I’ve certainly noticed the high prices at the grocery store. Used to be able to get a boston butt for 99 cents a pound on sale; after covid it’s typically 2.49, and the best I’ve seen lately was 1.49 a pound. Prime ribeye at Sam’s club got up to $28/lb, though it’s recently dropped back to $23/lb. I need to find a way to get like a half a cow at some point.
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Down here is Brevard county FL, there is a FB group called “Where Brevard Eats”, and all kinds of restaurant feedback is given - and its generally useful. Recently, a post of mine from four years ago came up, where I did a survey of where to find the best burgers in Brevard.
In the introduction, I was giving the criteria I used to include places i visited. One of my exclusions was: “I did not go to a place that charged more than $14 for a cheeseburger.” Mind you, this was 2022.
If I used those same criteria today, I would have a survey of only fast food places and maybe three or four others. Probably today I would not include places over $20, as most of the time I see burgers are anywhere from $13-$18. I’d say 40-50% higher in just four years. I can’t get over how prices have increased, and I think part of it is just that the feel they CAN do it, because everyone else is doing it.
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This is the only way to operate. It is so miserable to see good businesses turn to garbage because somebody who doesnt care about anything but short term profit buys a stake from NYC.
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It is sad because I think we’re going to see a lot of restaurants and other amenities closing soon because people just can’t afford it or at least don’t want to pay for the shit they’re serving at that price.
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Now this is slightly off topic but related to restaurants.
I don’t order take out often but the last few times I have they are asking for tips on take out items. Like I’m not giving you a tip for picking up the bag of food and handing it to me over the counter.
The chef might deserve a tip but not the cashier. What’s next tipping the cashier at the grocery store.
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