How Much Change/How Many Mistakes do you Tolerate?

never seen a Five Guys before, they must not be a northeastern thing.

I am generally not too picky, upside to a preference to steak is there are not too many ways to screwup a steak or prime rib. That said I tend to look at cost for what I get as well as taste, $30+ for a fillet that is smaller than a hockey puck barely filling me? meh I will go to Outback and get the Prime Rib.

Now of course some of this is also because I do not generally stay for the full package at a fancy place... because I generally do not care for the fancy cakes and whatever with whatever imported from Europe but they look at you like you are growing extra heads when you try to find the hot fudge sundae... so instead thats why one gets dinner at the nice place and goes and finds a local ice cream parlor.

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

I am generally not too picky, upside to a preference to steak is there are not too many ways to screwup a steak or prime rib.

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I've found that lots of restaurants actually DO NOT know how to cook a steak right, therefore pretty much the only time I eat a steak is when I cook it myself or it comes from a good steakhouse I know the quality of.

There is a sushi place in the building we're in, the first time it was ok'ish, the second time as soon as we got from there to our place on the 5th floor the man ran to the bathroom and was throwing it all up, they're off the list of places to go to. Last night we hit up one of our regular places for a birthday dinner, instead of sticking to burgers and apps, we hit up steaks... it was awful, we won't do that again, even their fries were terrible, whoever was cooking was just off - it won't mean we won't be back but we'll stick to the apps and burgers.

Generally, if it's a new place, one time with terrible results is enough, a regular place and if it's just a one time weird thing and we'll go back but be wary of that stuff, but if it's a place we've only been to a couple times it doesn't get a lot of chances. Luckily there's a lot of great places to eat in the area so there's lots to pick from so one bad place being picked off because of being terrible isn't a bad thing.

Also, I'd take In n Out over Five Guys any day of the week and never look back.

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Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

never seen a Five Guys before, they must not be a northeastern thing.

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They're more prevalent than you think - they really started sprouting around here about 2 years ago.
Voorhees, Cherry Hill, Deptford, Washington Township...

They're even showing up in parts of Canada, when I was in southern Alberta for the summer there was a Five Guys there and there's one not far from where I am visiting here in downtown Boise as well.

There's a 5 guys in Dedham, MA and supposedly there's going to be one opening downtown somewhere. But there are a lot of other good burger places in Boston-- Bartley's, Boston Burger Company, Uburger, Tasty Burger, and Four Burgers for standard grills, then there's plenty of bars with good burgers like Cask and Flagon.

Incidentally, I'm curious what's better about In-n-out over 5guys? Maybe my cheeseburger discretion is not finely honed but it seems like once you reach that tier it's all going to be a matter of preference. Fresh ingredients, well-proportioned and cooked skillfully. There's not much more to a burger than that.

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Originally Posted by Goladus

Incidentally, I'm curious what's better about In-n-out over 5guys? Maybe my cheeseburger discretion is not finely honed but it seems like once you reach that tier it's all going to be a matter of preference. Fresh ingredients, well-proportioned and cooked skillfully. There's not much more to a burger than that.

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Nothing. However, a single at In N Out is $1.79, whereas at 5 Guys, it is a little south of 5 dollars. Apart from that, there is little difference, aside from the 1000 island dressing.

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I ordered a chicken fried steak at chili's, when I cut into it I found they had battered and deep fried the thing while it was still sealed in a plastic pouch.

Haven't set foot in the place again.

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Originally Posted by E.Coyote

I ordered a chicken fried steak at chili's, when I cut into it I found they had battered and deep fried the thing while it was still sealed in a plastic pouch.

Haven't set foot in the place again.

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HAHAHAHAHAHA OH GOD.

I would have gotten myself a whole LOAD of free margarita vouchers out of that.

I am the opposite of a foodie. I'm picky in that I only eat certain types of food, but within that spectrum I don't complain as long as it's still edible. If I don't like something I just don't get it again. I don't eat out much and there are always other choices. It probably helps that it's hard to mess up the kinds of things I eat.

Last night was a bad night, between a bad experience at Applebees followed by another at Target.

I left this on the "Applebees Survey".

Spoiler for complaint:

While we waited for our server, the table behind us was seated and received their drinks and placed their order. We waited over 10 minutes for that table's server Mike (who ended up not being our actual server) to tell us that our server would be coming to help us. Over 5 minutes later, our server Mark finally showed up and apologized for "being out of it tonight." We ordered our drinks and an appetizer. The appetizer (boneless wings) came out first, and was cold. The server came back with drinks then walked away without even seeing if we were ready to place our main order. He came back after we had eaten all food from the appetizer plate and finally took our orders. While we were waiting for our entrees, the table behind us had an entree taken back, and when the manager approached them they complained their burger was badly undercooked. They refused a replacement. The manager asked in a nasty-sounding tone, "you're not going to be sick, are you?" When we received our entrees, my companion's chicken parm stack pasta was cold and the cheese congealed and unappetizing on it. My own ribs were OK but there wasn't much meat on them. Mark came back to get us extra drinks which he delivered quickly but didn't ask about the quality of the food until much later, at which point we asked for our check and said that the food was "not that good." We were never approached by a manager at any point during our visit.

We won't be going back to either location any time soon.

What happened at Target?

I am still wraping my mind around the concept of someone under 65 eating at Applebees voluntarily.

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Originally Posted by Lysandor

I am still wraping my mind around the concept of someone under 65 eating at Applebees voluntarily.

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Not everybody can be as hip and pretentious as you :p

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Originally Posted by Lysandor

I am still wraping my mind around the concept of someone under 65 eating at Applebees voluntarily.

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free meal for veterans on Veteran's Day.

Around here (in South Jersey) it's a pretty popular hangout for teens/twenties while still serving mature clientele (not just retirees), and up til this visit was good for a quick, decent sit-in eat-out meal.

I travel quite a bit and opt for franchises pretty often. The Applebees franchise sucks everywhere I go. I keep trying to give them another chance and they keep screwing it up lol. Chili's and Outback are far superior imho, when talking franchises ~

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Originally Posted by Nerkahia

I travel quite a bit and opt for franchises pretty often. The Applebees franchise sucks everywhere I go. I keep trying to give them another chance and they keep screwing it up lol. Chili's and Outback are far superior imho, when talking franchises ~

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I've had the opposite experience in California. The food is consistently good, and service is fine. Red Robin is where we seem to run into slow and sloppy service with regularity. I do agree with Chilis and Outback, though they both seem mediocre as far as service.


Sent via mental telepathy

The only Red Robin I've ever been to is the one in Roseville, and I can't remember a really bad experience there, with either service or food. To be fair, though, I've never gone there for dinner, only lunch mid-afternoon on a Saturday after one of my daughter's games.

I will also add that Chili's and Outback are consistently good.