Your Top Chain Restaurants

Roadfood and Chain Restaurants (Middle) - Longhorns/Texas Roadhouse

Lower end, McDonalds for breakfast, but Wendy's for lunch--their spicy chicken sandwiches are my comfort food.

Middle end, Chipotle. I love a double meat burrito bowl or salad after a workout.

(Very) high end, Capital Grille. Steak au poivre with creamed spinach and asparagus is the bomb. Great place to wine and dine clients, too.

Im not a fan of chain restaurants but Carrabas aren’t bad, most of your high end steak places are chains think Ruth’s Chris, or Morton’s, but Peter Lugars blows many of them out of the water we have several Indy restaurants down here in my neck of the woods that are terrific Tramontis, comes to mind as does the Okeechobee Steak House, never ever hit the popular franchises like Mickey Ds or that crap we have locally owned restaurants that make great breakfast and lunch pretty cheap, I just don’t get you folks supporting non local businesses if I have a choice it’s always going to be local or privately owned but hey y’all do what you want.

Yes, Texas Roadhouse has the best steaks of any of the mass market chain steakhouses. I wouldn't call them high end, though. The only large chain high end steakhouse that comes to mind is Ruth's Chris, which is good, but I don't think their steaks are really in better than Texas Roadhouse. You just pay a lot more for the ambiance.

For fast food, Five Guys. Awesome burgers, and their breakfast sandwiches are good too.

Capital Grille is a chain. Morton's is a chain. Eddie V's. Truluck's.

Low end- Yep, McDs for breakfast. Egg McMuffin, hash brown and/or yogurt parfait.

Midrange - Chick fil A for lunch or dinner. Southwest salad with nuggets (slightly healthier) or nuggets & fries (more decadent). Plus diet lemonade.

Higher end - I generally stick with local / independent places.

Low end fast food- Wendy's or Chic-fil-a

Middle tier fast food - HotHead Burrito or Firehouse Subs

Casual dinning - Texas Roadhouse or Applebee's

High End - Never found a high end chain, if you want high end read the reviews of local restaurants and find a good one

Chains when I travel...

Lower - subway. Its everywhere and its okay

Middle - paying more for a chain when out of town seems pointless. Local stuff is probably cheaper and better

Upper - i avoid expensive chains. It seems like a waste to me. I'd rather try something one of a kind

^ Derp

@scrubby
GFY
Do you need clarification?

Waffle House is the first to open after a disaster.

Not all 5 Guy's serve breakfast. Mine doesn't.

ROAD WARRIOR here, after I type my list it's amazing I'm not obese as much as I eat out. Keep in mind I'm a lot of places where there isn't a Panera or a Chiptole or a Chick-Fil-A. So it's either Taco Bell, Wendys, McDonalds, Subway, or starve.

My Favorites:
============
Eating while driving:

Chick-Fil-A (breakfast and lunch)

McDonalds (breakfast & only either Fish Filet or McNuggets for lunch/dinner. Probably best fries for fast food)

Wendys

Popeyes (that gets messy while driving)


If I'm going in and sitting down (quick):

Chipotle

Panera

Moe's (better than Chipotle IMO, regional chain)

If my only option is a Pilot truck stop in the middle of nowhere then Subway will do


Casual Dining:

Bonefish is my favorite but some of the states I go to don't even have one

Everywhere has a Longhorn, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Chilis, BW3. I actually like Logans (less common than Road House or Longhorn) and Red Lobster because you can actually order an entree that isn't 5,000 calories like most the other restaurants mentioned in the sentence above. Red Lobster has some of the best Lobster Bisque soup out there. I get that, and something off their "Today's Catch" (which means "just thawed") menu and I feel less guilty about those McNuggets and fries I had for lunch.

Oh, and Ihop has the best breakfast of all the chains, hands down.

Luger's has two locations. Williamsburg Brooklyn and Great Neck Long Island. Not sure if you call that a "chain" but it's not a "single store" restaurant. Never been to the Long Island location but I go to the Brooklyn one now and then. Without question the best steak you'll find. The way they pour liquor you'll get bombed off of two drinks. And you can go there in shorts and a tee shirt.

Since I don't get out to Brooklyn too often, I do go to Morton's sometimes. It's very good, just not as good as Luger's. And the drinks have gotten ridiculously small, almost like a rip-off strip club. Not a fan of Capital Grille. The one time I went, the food was excellent, but the rude uppity clientele and pathetic ass kissing by the staff was unbearable to watch. They were busy though, so who am I to say?

I have sworn off of any fast food place with a drive-up, at least for now. It's because during the pandemic while traditional restaurants were all going bankrupt, they were thriving. Here in NJ all capacity limits and other restrictions were lifted weeks ago, and they still haven't opened their indoor seating. Probably making more money doing drive-thru only. Nothing against them, but it's time to support the businesses that actually suffered with the shutdowns, whatever ones are still around anyway.

For breakfast, I agree if I were forced to go to a fast food chain, McDonalds would be the one. But these days, that's never necessary. You can find a coffee shop -- chain, or better yet, not a chain -- and get a great coffee and whatever breakfast wrap/melt/sandwich or pastry, and it won't weigh you down like McD's. Since this is about chains, anything but Starbucks, since I find their black coffee undrinkable. Happy to hit a Blue Bottle, Philz, hell I'll even slum it at a Peet's.

If it's a sandwich I want, 100% with you that Jersey Mike's is the stuff. Not too many of them around here, but no brainer for sure.

Low: Chipotle, Biscuitville
Mid: Cracker Barrel
High: Houston's/Hillstone

I like Outback, esp. their Ahi appetizer. Most everything is good.

I really like the breakfast at Bojangles. The bacon egg and cheese biscuit is really good and add the Bo Fries (round tater tots). The cajun Chicken Biscuit is pretty darn good also.

Mister orange - don’t know about nj but around Nevada if a drive thru location hasn’t opened its dining room it’s because they can’t find staff to run it. Everyplace seems hard up for help.

I’m not a traveler anymore. But in terms of road food - my favorites are below.

Fast type food - Chick fil A, Panera, Dunkin’ Donuts (for a quick coffee).

Chain type spots - Texas Roadhouse, Cracker Barrell

OTC spots with whores - Red Lobster!

I'm on the road over 100 days a year on average. Even came close to that last year so I do have restaurant chains where I know I will like something (sometimes it's the drinks even). No particular order just off the cuff.

Habit for burgers
PF Changs, Applebees, and Chilis. These are pretty prevalent in a lot of places I've traveled. Used to do 2 Presidente margaritas when changing planes in Dallas and slept the whole second flight.
Ruth's Chris, Longhorn and Outback. I put Ruth's Chris in because there is an Embassy I stay at in Alabama that has a Ruth's Chris in the lobby. I would get negative feedback about expenses if I went all out with a nice steak but usually find something in the cheaper part of the menu that won't get frowned upon.

You damn dirty apes and your “high end” chain restaurants. Don’t get me wrong (or “rong” as the local hairless ape population spells it), as a rick I like the finer things....

But when it comes to food there ain’t nothing better than two-day old possum on the pavement. Squawk!!!

Capital Grill - I agree - food and service is always good. Expensive but don’t mind for occasional splurge cause it’s consistently excellent. Staff is a little to ass kissy to my friend who’s a regular - kind of annoying.

Seasons 52 is also good.

I used to like Outback when my kids were little but would never go there now

What kind of Outback would be good for kids??? Are you thinking of a different steakhouse chain?

Red lobster was good before they shrunk portions and raised prices

I can’t say I love any particular chain

When I have breakfast I usually hit IHOP and have their Breakfast Sampler

For fast-food I depend on Chipotle and Chick-Fil-A – not a big burger-guy but once in a while I’ll do Fuddruckers (I used to like their Wild-Boar exotic-burger but they don’t carry it anymore; now I order the Buffalo but I used to like the Wild-Boar better)

For mid-level I hit Olive Garden – I hit OG b/c I don’t have a decent Italian restaurant near me that I know off – I like the OG soups and it’s often the reason I go – they have unlimited soups; I usually have the Pasta Fagioli soup b/f my meal then have a Minestroni soup at the end, and take half-the-main-entry home w/ me – I find Applebees and Chili’s pretty-mediocre and don’t hit them much these days – I used to like On The Border but the one near me closed a few months b/f Covid and for some reason always seemed fairly empty although it was in a good-location

When I’m in the mood for steak I hit Longhorn since it’s nearby and it’s pretty-good – other than Longhorn I have an Outback near me but I like Longhorn better and the service at my local Outback is pretty-mediocre.

I don’t hit sub-shops but when I lived in Dallas I used to like Jason’s Deli since they had them all over the Dallas area – the nearest one to me now was one county over and that one seems gone and it was often slow also

I used to hit Taco Bell but it’s too inconsistent for my taste – often times I order the Quesadialla w/ extra-chicken and half of it it’s just the plain tortilla

Lately I’ve mostly been ordering from a Cuban restaurant near me and on occasion a Venezuelan place - I also hit a Cuban bakery near me for lunch sometimes when I don't feel like eating a full-meal

I don't really like chains much.

If im out of town subway is a safe cheap staple. Only fast food burgers I eat are in n out. I like some taco chains. Taco Tijuana. King Taco.

If rather explore and try some local hole in the wall or some really old restaurant.

I mostly cook now. A lot of restaurants near me have really gone down hill

Does it have to be national chains or can it be regional/city ones as well?

For national I’ll pick…

Fogo de Chao
Texas Roadhouse
Taco Bell
Sonic
Dairy Queen
Wingstop

breakfast: Hardees biscuit sandwiches
cheapest food possible: McDonald's, everything is at least decent and always a deal on their app. biscuit sandwich, mcgriddle, fries, big mac is still unique, mcdouble
middle: Cracker barrel, biscuits, mashed potatoes and veggies, cobbler
high: Cheesecake Factory, huge menu, brown bread

Of course @shadowcat is correct. It's breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner at Waffle House. Accept no substitute!