Do you actively seek out local restaurants?

[Lounatik]

I have gotten completely disgusted by eating at so called "chain" restaurants ( Chili's, Applebees, Ruby Tuesdays etc.) . I can't stand the uninspired crap, the saltiness, the general lack of anything worthwhile on a menu in these places. How many ways can you serve a hamburger so that they all taste the same? Can you bread and fry chicken and still make it taste like shit four different ways? Hell, at Longhorns or Outback you still can drop 50-60.00 for barely decent steaks for two and that doesn't even include any alcohol. I found a local place that charges about the same, but you get some sweet aged beef that would put Longhorns or Outback to shame.

I went to a local Thai place last night and had a fantastic dinner with my family of four for under 45 bucks including tip. Food was out of this world. Hot, spiced just right and was actually cooked fresh right when I ordered it. I have found so many local restaurants around where I live that depend on locals to keep them open as opposed to the corporate chains that could give a crap less.

Does anyone else try to support your local food establishments? Well, you should!

/rant


Peace

Lounatik

 

[JohnCU]

heck yeah, especially when i was in college. we called them hole in the walls, cheap but good.

 

[Jumpem]

No, because I never know what I am going to get or what to expect. I am almost always dissappointed or disgusted by local places.

I prefer chains.

 

[Dirigible]

No I don't. But only because I'm lucky enough to live in a place where I'd have to actively seek out chain restaurants. There are over ten local restaurants within three blocks of my house and more if I want to walk farther.

 

[kranky]

Yes, we generally avoid chains because there are so many locally owned places to choose from. There's a little cafe we go to on Sundays for breakfast. When the owner says "Thanks for coming" you know it's genuine, not something that page 42 of the training manual tells her to say. If I want something not on the menu, they don't mind. Everything is fresh, not frozen and shipped from 1500 miles away.

I also like that the profits stay in the community.

 

[Bignate603]

I prefer local places. We've got a set of good ones that we frequent.

 

[Farang]

Yes I try to avoid chains if at all possible. Care is put into the product (most of the time anyway), and usually a meal is around $6 which isn't too much more than McDonalds.

 

[BoomerD]

You betcha. That's one thing I've grown to dislike in recent years. No matter where you go in this country, you find the same thing...restaurants, stores, strip malls all look the same, etc.
Locally-owned restaurants usually PWN the chains.
I never understood why people travel to exerience different places...then insist on eating the same food they can have at home. For me, a major part of the fun of travel is new foods.

 

[loup garou]

I've been lucky enough for most of my life to not live in suburban hell where seeking out something other than strip mall crap is necessary.

 

[aircooled]

I prefer local mexican restaurants. I've had some pretty bad steaks at some local family restaurants .

 

[JulesMaximus]

There are literally tons of great local restaurants here in San Diego and I much prefer them to any chain restaurant.

I do sometimes eat at Chili's but really only when we are on the road somewhere and want a place where we can get something for my son.

 

[ponyo]

It used to be lot harder to find a good local restaurant but now with the internet, it's lot easier with reader review sites like Yelp, citysearch, etc. I tend to only go to ethnic restaurants for sit-down so that usually means no chains. The stuff like steaks, seafood, pasta, BBQ, etc., I prefer to make at home since it's cheaper and easy to do at home. I found a great local Japanese restaurant with excellent sushi near my house last week using Yelp. It's really small but clean and run by a Japanese family. Authentic and really cheap compared to other fake Japanese restaurants I've been. The best part is it's only 5 minutes from my house so now I can satisfy my fresh fish cravings fast instead having to drive an hour away to eat at a place other side of town. I also found a hole in the wall Greek restaurant closeby that has awesome gyros. I have yet to find a good Thai restaurant nearby so I still have to drive 30 minutes to my favorite Thai restaurant. Same for Korean and Vietnamese. But I'm still looking.

 

[nerp]

Chains blow. I agree with your statement that the food is bland and uninspired. It's all the same frozen Sysco crap wherever you go.

 

[buck]

Yes, way too much good food here in Seattle.

 

[dbk]

Local restaurants are hit or miss. I try to ask my friends or check the internet for local reviews before I go out to these spots.

 

[Epic Fail]

With a chain's budget, why can't they come up with something good?

 

[HopJokey]

Originally posted by: Epic Fail
With a chain's budget, why can't they come up with something good?

Profit Margins

 

[nerp]

And shareholders and the corporate philosophy of watering down the menu to appeal to the broadest segment of the population possible. This means that the average chain restaurant menu is geared towards 12 year olds who don't eat vegetables and 80 year old women that like their food yellow and flavorless.

Also, at a chain, every dish needs to be 100 percent identical no matter which location you go to. This means that instead of relying on skilled chefs to make consistently good food, you rely on underpaid and overworked high school and college students to deep fry and microwave the food.

You can make amazing sauce from tomatoes in your garden. To mass produce that sauce and put it in millions of jars, you're not going to be using organically grown tomatoes in your back yard and you're going to have to start dumping additives, filler and chemicals in it for it to last on the shelves.

That's why learning how to cook and finding good restaurants liberates you from the humdum tedium of the chains.

 

[Gothgar]

Yes, and I am known for it too, lots of people I know and work with and such always ask me where a good local place is to eat.

 

[Ns1]

yes

chowhound.com

 

[Lounatik]

Originally posted by: dbk
Local restaurants are hit or miss. I try to ask my friends or check the internet for local reviews before I go out to these spots.

And its that experience of eating at a local place that makes it so much better ( or worse) . If they are a hit, they stay in business. If they suck, the community will speak with their wallets. If a McDonalds is crap here, Peoria, Beijing, wherever, they still remain open. It is no experience except a bad one that favors crap factories like McDonalds.

Edit: The reason I posted this is because I remember Magnus the Brewer railing in one of his posts about local places like his and how much is put into a place that is self-owned. And then I started to try local stuff as much as possible.


Peace

Lounatik

 

[Lounatik]

Originally posted by: Ns1
yes

chowhound.com

Nice, I think it gets bookmarked.


Peace

Lounatik

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
hole in the walls

:thumbsup:

 

[fatpat268]

I've yet to eat at a chain restaurant, much less a local restaurant. I just can't justify the price/food ratio.

But at the same time, my gf and I are pretty good cooks.

 

[nick1985]

No, but I actively seek out other things