Favorite Chain Restaurant

My problem with Panda Express is you can get better Chinese food from any local place, for just as good of if not better a price and just as fast as Panda Express. At least in my area. We've had it for a few school and team fundraiser things and it gets the job done, but I wouldn't choose it over a local place.

 

This might make a worthy threadjack if not a standalone:

The chains I wish would come to my coastal corner of California in order:
Stater Bros. (Grocery store)
Miguel Jrs (Inland Empire mexican)
The Hat (inland Empire pastrami sandwiches)
Sonic. Yeah, Sonic.
Rudy’s (Southwest smoked BBQ purveyors)

I’m not including my personal Holy Grail, Krystal’s (the inclusion of which would probably offend @dixiehack and @OscarMadison).

 

You are welcome to eat trash if you want.

Krystal and I never got along because I am not an onion person. Then later chili cheese pups came along and my brother decided those needed to make up 10/21 of his weekly meal allotment, so after a while the smell just became too much. Their breakfast isn’t bad but I’d have to pass a dozen better options to get there.

 

--There are Stater Bros. all over the place, two in Tustin, one in Lake Forest. One of them in Tustin is in a shopping center that has a Pizza Press, which is great personal pizza place, better than Pieology, Blaze and Metro.
--Miguel Jrs. is the worst of the taco stand places. They hype their salsa, which is so thin it won't stay on the chips. Jalapenos and Chronic are lots better.
--The Hat is legendary. We have the Lake Forest location.
--Sonic, in Mission Viejo, too hard to get to.
--Don't know about Rudy's.

 

What sets Inland Empire pastrami sandwiches from the rest of the pack?

A joint down the street from my new place has ridiculously cheap and huge sandwiches. Their small pastrami might be $6 and it has at least as much meat as a Subway large.

 

Ever since lockdown, I've craved sushi, chalupas, and sliders.

Funny thing about eating out is it always seems better in theory and intention than it does in reality.

And sorry, @dixiehack, I love aromatics of all kinds. Sonic onion rings are verboten for now, but they're worth the personal sense of culinary perdition.

 

Oh I’ll still eat them every great once in a while. Been a handful of years though. But smell can be a powerful memory trigger, which is why I haven’t touched Long John Silvers since it turned out to be my last meal before discovering I had the flu just in time for spring break as a high school senior. Can’t even be in the same room with it now.

 

There might be a restaurant chain here or there missing from our local rotation that would be nice to have, but nothing I can think of at the moment that would be life changing. However I would run over a parking lot filled with grannies if it meant getting a Sheetz somewhere in our area code.

 

That places is the pinnacle of American consumerism and excess. Unless, of course, you need a $500 Traeger grill to go with the 20 flavors of beef jerky, a full tank of gas and some panties with a cartoon beaver on them.

 

My favorite chains are Krystal, Popeye's, CFA, KFC, McAlister's and Newk's.

(Could I BE more Southerner with that list!?!)

 

My wife likes to go to Stater Bros. when we are visiting family in the OC. We hit The Hat in Lake Forest on our last trip. Incredible.