Modern Food?

Those darn kids. I'm 37 so I probably qualify. Trust me, we young people like good food too. But unfortunately, a lot of people aren't willing to pay what it costs to get good food, and food costs are higher than they used to be, so restaurants have to find ways to cut costs... that usually includes buying lesser quality meat and doing exactly what you describe, or buying pre-made frozen stuff since it's hard to keep staff around to cook food. Just watch the show Restaurant Impossible on Food Network and you'll see this happen over and over again.

Also, I'm a pretty good cook, so why would I go out to eat to get something like roast beef? I can make a good roast beef at home pretty easily. When I go out to eat, I want to eat something I either can't make at home, or would be a big pain to make at home (like good BBQ).

I've found that we can't eat out for a good quality meal for less than $50 including drinks anymore. Often it's closer to $75. So many people still expect a good meal for $10/plate or less. These days, even fast food can get near the $10/meal mark.

If you consider Steak 'n Shake, and Texas Roadhouse places to get quality food, that could explain part of the problem. One has decent, not great, but decent burgers, the other one is barely adequate. I've eaten at Texas Roadhouse twice, two different places, and it was mediocre both times. Franchise food is rarely top drawer. But stay away from the Outback restaurants and you'll likely survive.

Sauces add flavor, sometimes meat is merely something that adds flavor, not the main part of the dish. That's something that a lot of people can't get around. I used to love Oriental food when I was overseas, because they used meat as seasoning, not a lot of meat with a little other stuff like you find at a lot of Oriental restaurants in the US. So maybe people just like stuff that you don't, that doesn't make it not good, maybe you need to expand your palate.

Just about every time we go to a chain restaurant my wife says “isn’t as good as it used to be”. Could be lower grade ingredients, could be the “Chef” is inexperienced, could be a number of things. Could also be the wife’s taste buds have changed. I eat anything and just about anyway it’s prepared. ( but I refuse to eat beets or Brussel sprouts! ) You think prices are high now for mediocre food? Just wait till everybody at the restaurant gets $15 an hour minimum. Of course I assume they will remain in business.

Lessor quality cuts. Order "PRIME RIB" and get Choice or less, not prime. Most meals are commissary and boiled in plastic bags then plopped on plate.

wildtoad wrote:
Just about every time we go to a chain restaurant my wife says “isn’t as good as it used to be”. Could be lower grade ingredients, could be the “Chef” is inexperienced, could be a number of things. Could also be the wife’s taste buds have changed. I eat anything and just about anyway it’s prepared. ( but I refuse to eat beets or Brussel sprouts! ) You think prices are high now for mediocre food? Just wait till everybody at the restaurant gets $15 an hour minimum. Of course I assume they will remain in business.

Our memories are curious things. We tend to embellish favorable memories and exaggerate the bad ones. When you compare your current meal with one in the past the highlights of the past meal are competing with the entirety of the current one. It is likely to current one will never win. (and you probably won't often be returning to a place with bad food memories, so that comparison seldom happens).
As for the economics of higher wages, prices will obviously rise should those higher wages be mandated. However, incomes should also rise and in the end everything will be the same. Raising the minimum wage will not happen in a vacuum. The guy currently making double minimum wage will see his income rise as well. If he is worth double a minimum wage worker today he will be worth that tomorrow.
An hour of work will buy the same amount in goods and services as it always has. When minimum wage was $2.00 an hour you could buy two Big Mac sandwiches. Today, wages fast food wages are around $9.00 an hour and that will buy about two Big Macs. When wages become mandated at $15.00 an hour, you can bet a Big Mac will cost about $7.50 and at the end of a working hour you will have just enough to buy two. And then the whole hamster wheel will spin anew.

https://roadfood.com/

Be relentlessly selective. Reward great food and great service. Otherwise eat at home.

We always try the local places, and I read reviews online most of the time before we go.

I rarely get steak, or pork chops when dining out, I've found that my whole family likes what I do at home much better. Occasionally I'll get BBQ out if it is a well known place, but typically we prefer mine.

Typically I'll get something I normally don't cook like a pasta and sauce, or seafood, and we don't fry anything at home, so hot wings, or fried shrimp are options.

With meats like steak, and BBQ, I think it is tough to do great quality when doing large quantities, and having to have it available over a number of hours.

I know it seems counter intuitive, but at Texas Roadhouse, try the chicken sandwiches. Some of the best I've had.

I worked at several different McDonald's in the 1970's - 1980's for over 20 years. Back then, a hamburger was still a hamburger. I don't know what they are using now. But even McDonald's admits that French Fries are not real potatoes any more. That's pretty bad. Forget their shakes, that's been artificial stuff for the last 50 years.

I suppose that's why we do our own cooking at the campsite. Fortunate, we still have a local small Mom & Pop grocery store not to far from where we live that still cuts their own meat, purchased from local farmers in Indiana. I refuse to cover them with sauces and gobs of seasonings when cooking, because the flavor is in the meat! If it's a good meat, it does not need all the additional stuff to try to make it taste good.

And I agree with the OP. Finding places that still serve fresh cuts of meat and non-pre-processed fruits and vegetables are far and few in-between.

Even Hostess Ding Dongs aren't the same any more, and when fast food restaurants went to non-trans-fats deep fried grease for deep frying... well ... it's simply never been the same.

I enjoyed going to a Mom & Pop shop a few years ago. I think it was somewhere in Tennessee. They had written on the walls across the top, near the ceiling in great big lettering, something like: We use grease, we use fat, we use lard. If you are looking for good taste, this is place to come. If you are looking to loose weight, go somewhere else. We don't make excuses for good food taste.

That is where the REAL problem is. Restaurants are trying too hard to do the politically correct "cooking", and crumble to the dictates of those who scream the loudest, they've erased the rich history of what true food is.