Anyone had a crappy meal at a cheap joint lately?

[stalker]

I am not a big restaurant eater, but really you can't get a decent steak at home. There is nothing you can make at home that can compare to a good dry aged steak. What's great in our current time is that several of the real top steak houses around the country are opening restaurants in resort areas that are excellent. I am not talking about franchise swill like Ruth's Chris. I am talking about the real deals. Morton's of Chicago, Gallaghers, Smith and Wollensky. The Old Homestead. Man, I am getting hungry.

[ice grillin you]

ruth and chris steaks are fine and no more of a chain than mortons

[Seabiscuit36]

i can understand if youre MA and have zesty restaurant choices but i will never understand how someone from the northeast could ever eat at one of those places...i mean maryland has incredible seafood yet there are red lobsters everywhere...and theres olive gardens in the philly new jersey and nyc area like there isnt incredible italian spots every two blocks

I've never eaten at a Red Lobster, and have been to Olive Garden twice in my life and hated it.  Premade Italian food FTL

[ice grillin you]

never been to olive garden...i went to red lobster once in my life about a year ago because i figured if that many brothers are going theres got to be something good about it...like maybe backspin is the music channel they pump thru their system


it sucked

[stalker]

Jigy, I am not an expert on many things, okay maybe not anything, except BEEF. I don't drink fancy micro brews or single malt scotch. I don't smoke fine cigars. I LOVE great steaks. Ruth's Chris is average at best. The meat is previously frozen. Morton's dry ages in house and it is easily detectable. Is Morton's as much of a franchise? To me they don't have that franchise "feel". Of all of them, I would lean toward Gallagher's. Steak Oscar at Gallagher's (blackboard special) is damn near a religious experience.

[Seabiscuit36]

i would never ever touch the Lasagne from pizzahut, that shtein makes me sick.  We went to the pizza hut buffet one day since PizzaHut is 5 minutes from work, their mac and cheese was the worst mac and cheese ive ever had. 

[ice grillin you]

Jigy, I am not an expert on many things, okay maybe not anything, except BEEF. I don't drink fancy micro brews or single malt scotch. I don't smoke fine cigars. I LOVE great steaks. Ruth's Chris is average at best. The meat is previously frozen. Morton's dry ages in house and it is easily detectable. Is Morton's as much of a franchise? To me they don't have that franchise "feel". Of all of them, I would lean toward Gallagher's. Steak Oscar at Gallagher's (blackboard special) is damn near a religious experience.

theres mortons all over the country...shtein theres at least 6 or 7 of them in the balt/dc area alone

theres just a not chance in the world if you were blindfolded you could tell the difference btwn a steak at ruth chris vs mortons

one time you might be able to identify which one was mortons then the next time you would pick ruth chris but out of ten chances it would be like 5-5 or 6-4

[stalker]

No way. I can definitely tell the difference. It's not worth debating. Morton's though on my all-time list isn't in my top 3 anyway.

3- Old Homestead ( I am picking OH over Keene's because OH has more than 1 location)

2- Smith and Wollensky

1- Gallagher's

[phattymatty]

i'd kill every one of you for some red lobster cheddar biscuits right now.

[stalker]

i'd kill every one of you for some red lobster cheddar biscuits right now.

They are pretty farging good.

[shorebird]

I've never ate at a Red Lobster or Olive Garden, and I don't eat at over priced Seafood restaurants very often, maybe once every few years. I live around 10 miles from the Chesapeake, and find it much more affordable, and also more tastefully satisfying to either hit one of the many seafood markets in the area, or just go down to one of the many piers and buy right off the boat directly from the waterman. Imo, it's much, much more important that your seafood be fresh for the best flavor. And really, seafood isn't that hard to cook. It's messy as anything, but usually it's steamed, broiled, or deep fried. Not hard to cook at all. Oysters are in season right now, and I had some fried ones this past weekend. They were some kind of friggen' good, too!

As far as steak goes, I've never eaten at a Ruth Chris. I've heard they serve good aged beef, but they are way, way to pricey for me. As far as I'm concerned, I can find a good steak on sale, USDA pime, or even Safeway's ranchers reserve, and cook it on my weber for as good a steak as I'm ever going to get for the money.

[ice grillin you]

what the hell are you some kind of frontiersman

[Diomedes]

I ate raw oysters out of the Chesepeake on my last job.  fargin' fresh and delicious as it gets.

[ice grillin you]

i want my seafood served to me by some surly crusty voiced waitress from dundalk who isnt getting my beam and cokes filled fast enough because shes in the parking lot on her fourth smoke break since i arrived

[shorebird]

No, I'm practical. Why pay upwards of 40 bucks for a steak when you can buy one and cook it for a third of the price? Same with seafood.

Remember those pics of the crabs I posted this summer?? The crab cakes were friggen' awesome and no one will tell me that a 18-20 buck platter from some restaurant taste any better. For one thing, most restaurants use homogenized crab meat, and while it's not frozen, it ain't fresh.