Chain Restaurant Eats
Everyone eats at chain restaurants once in a while, even the most pretentious Riverwest or Bayview Hipster has probably eaten at a chain in the last month. They are inevitable. With that being said there are some chains that I really like. Number one on the list is Buffalo Wild Wings (the chain formerly known as BW3). I love this place. I love their wings, the great tasting selection of sauces, and the awesome beer selection. I love meeting friends there for happy hour and sporting events. Call it a guilty pleasure, but it is probably my favorite chain and one of the best places for wings around.
Second on the list is Qdoba, though 90 percent of the time I order the same exact thing: a chicken mole burrito, black beans, and habenero salsa with sour cream and cheese. Its awesome and has been one of my favorite chain meals for at least 5 years.
Next up, PF Changs. I have never eaten anything bad here and to tell you the truth, most Chinese places in town wish they could be this good. There are exceptions, but we are served such crappy Chinese food at 75 percent of the places in town, it’s a refreshing change. You can actually taste the ingredients and identify the meat in your entree. The King Pau chicken is excellent and the Beef ala Sichuan is very very tasty (and hot as hell). The availability of brown rice is an added bonus.
Houlihan’s is another chain that shed its cookie-cutter Applebee’s style décor and menu for a more contemporary twist on the sit-down chain restaurant. I read in a recent Food Arts magazine that they hired an up and coming chef and gave him free reign to update the tired image of this chain. The results are pretty good. The menu is very impressive and most everything I have tried is awesome. The salads make awesome entrees with my favorites being Ahi Tuna, Calamari, and BBQ Salmon. What I enjoy most is that I can get a good, somewhat healthy lunch near by place of employment, which is essentially a culinary wasteland. Watch for a review on EatWisconsin in the coming weeks.
Second on the list is Qdoba, though 90 percent of the time I order the same exact thing: a chicken mole burrito, black beans, and habenero salsa with sour cream and cheese. Its awesome and has been one of my favorite chain meals for at least 5 years.
Next up, PF Changs. I have never eaten anything bad here and to tell you the truth, most Chinese places in town wish they could be this good. There are exceptions, but we are served such crappy Chinese food at 75 percent of the places in town, it’s a refreshing change. You can actually taste the ingredients and identify the meat in your entree. The King Pau chicken is excellent and the Beef ala Sichuan is very very tasty (and hot as hell). The availability of brown rice is an added bonus.
Houlihan’s is another chain that shed its cookie-cutter Applebee’s style décor and menu for a more contemporary twist on the sit-down chain restaurant. I read in a recent Food Arts magazine that they hired an up and coming chef and gave him free reign to update the tired image of this chain. The results are pretty good. The menu is very impressive and most everything I have tried is awesome. The salads make awesome entrees with my favorites being Ahi Tuna, Calamari, and BBQ Salmon. What I enjoy most is that I can get a good, somewhat healthy lunch near by place of employment, which is essentially a culinary wasteland. Watch for a review on EatWisconsin in the coming weeks.
posted by Jeff @ 9:36 AM
1 Comments:
At 8:32 AM,
Timothy said…
The antipast at Strada is amazing, it's one of the few chain restaurants I keep going back to.
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