Modern Food?
We know we're getting old and times are changing but we can't seem to get really quality food at restaurants. Time after time we leave a restaurant with no good reason to return. Usually the food is "...
Forum Discussion
Funny this thread pops up.
I barbeque a lot at home, and with daughter being semi-vegetarian we cook a lot of interesting and good vegetable based meals.
I have found recently (last few years maybe? maybe last 10 years plus?) that restaurant food in general seems remarkably bland - and a lot seems similar from restaurant to restaurant. We've given up on virtually all chain restaurants. Last time we were at a Cracker Barrel (over 5 years ago) all the food tasted like microwave TV dinners.
We got a couple restaurant coupons as gifts a couple years ago, and they could be used at Longhorn Steakhouse. We found one a couple towns away and went there. We were amazed at how mediocre everything tasted. Maybe and hopefully it was just the restaurant we went to, but we haven't been back.
Local expensive restaurants are okay, but not great. Seems like a trend is to spend extra time on "signature" appetizers and have standard main entrees. A few restaurants we just buy extra appetizers and have those as meals.
And what is up with McDonald's?? Even they have gotten worse. They have reduced the staff and now have "order kiosks"... I stopped in one on my home recently and ordered (from real person!) a couple bacon egg cheese biscuits and coffee. He handed me a number and told me to sit down and they would bring out the meal... It was not busy, and there was maybe 1 or 2 cars in the drive thru.... 10 (TEN!) minutes go by and I get up to see if they had forgotten me. They were just getting my food ready. And it was stale. McDonald's used to be fast - for those who remember, as quick as the cashier would ring you up the food would be on the counter... and it was cooked right then, not warmed up in a microwave. That is why it was called "fast food"... not any more.
So, YES it seems to me that restaurants have gotten mediocre. The only thing we can do about it is to find the good restaurants and frequent them. But even that doesn't always work - too often, the good restaurants try to find ways to become "more efficient", and then the mediocrity starts creeping in.
Back to my own grill!
I barbeque a lot at home, and with daughter being semi-vegetarian we cook a lot of interesting and good vegetable based meals.
I have found recently (last few years maybe? maybe last 10 years plus?) that restaurant food in general seems remarkably bland - and a lot seems similar from restaurant to restaurant. We've given up on virtually all chain restaurants. Last time we were at a Cracker Barrel (over 5 years ago) all the food tasted like microwave TV dinners.
We got a couple restaurant coupons as gifts a couple years ago, and they could be used at Longhorn Steakhouse. We found one a couple towns away and went there. We were amazed at how mediocre everything tasted. Maybe and hopefully it was just the restaurant we went to, but we haven't been back.
Local expensive restaurants are okay, but not great. Seems like a trend is to spend extra time on "signature" appetizers and have standard main entrees. A few restaurants we just buy extra appetizers and have those as meals.
And what is up with McDonald's?? Even they have gotten worse. They have reduced the staff and now have "order kiosks"... I stopped in one on my home recently and ordered (from real person!) a couple bacon egg cheese biscuits and coffee. He handed me a number and told me to sit down and they would bring out the meal... It was not busy, and there was maybe 1 or 2 cars in the drive thru.... 10 (TEN!) minutes go by and I get up to see if they had forgotten me. They were just getting my food ready. And it was stale. McDonald's used to be fast - for those who remember, as quick as the cashier would ring you up the food would be on the counter... and it was cooked right then, not warmed up in a microwave. That is why it was called "fast food"... not any more.
So, YES it seems to me that restaurants have gotten mediocre. The only thing we can do about it is to find the good restaurants and frequent them. But even that doesn't always work - too often, the good restaurants try to find ways to become "more efficient", and then the mediocrity starts creeping in.
Back to my own grill!
