Yeah it totally amazes me that there are people who refuse to set foot in a McDonald's but they'll guzzle antifreeze straight from the bottle.

Most people share them :)

They are ridiculously large. Not exactly an appetizer unless you share, heh.

But then, that restaurant isn't what it used to be.

They are known for those onions. Yeah, you really need to split it among 3 or 4.

it's not as good as it used to be. more grease these days. But it's all about the horseradish dipping sauce. One can make the blooming onion themsleves if you have a deep frier or a pot with lots of oil. Up to you of you do the slicing yourselves or use the tool that gets marketed.

I'm finding a lot of the once-popular chain restaurants we have here in the US have elected to tighten their belts to such an extent that the food really isn't that great anymore.

Melvin and I find ourselves going to small mom-and-pop type restaurants for a decent meal, as they tend to remain pretty good.

Back when our online community was a bit less geographically spread out, we had weekly meet-ups at the local Applebee's. Now there's a place that has gone downhill. Their prices have become extraordinarily high and the food is not all that great.

I suppose part of the Blooming Onion experience is pulling it apart at the table. I don't know; I've never set foot inside an Outback and I've never had a Blooming Onion. Since it bears the same acronym as Body Odor and/or Barack Obama, I suppose it's not high on my list of things to try.

I've had battered and fried onion pieces with horseradish dipping sauce elsewhere, though. A nice app but it's not something I'd want to eat in large quantities.

Unless things have really gone downhill, Applebee's and Outback share one item on their respective menus that I've always found truly good - French Onion Soup.

Keep in mind that I haven't been to either place in quite a while - although the nearby "city" of Chico is "home" to one of each.

Chain restaurants are never a win anymore.. Unless it's something like 5 Guys.. And even that has it's limitations. True good food is definitely mom and pop or cook yourself.

I just noticed that "Chain" is an anagram of "China" implying that the worst possible value is chain restaurants that serve chinese food? (I've never been to a PFChang and I don't plan on it)

The conclusion is good enough for me.

THE best "Chinese food joints" are those small places you find all over south Jersey and most likely in the NYC area.

You know - the place that has the "greatest hot and sour soup on the planet" (China Cafe in Mount Holly NJ) or the absolute best Shrimp with Lobster Sauce (the un-named place - because I forget the name - in Browns Mills NJ), and so on...

Basically, all corporate Chinese restaurants suck. I have yet to find any exception on either coast.

And you really have to be careful of those so-called single-venue "must visit" spots.

Example - Empress of China in Chinatown, San Francisco.
This place is rated as everything better than Extraordinary by just about every tour book, etc. that I've seen.

Been there.
Twice.

Better than average? Only slightly.
The venue is extraordinary. The room is exquisitely beautiful.
The view out the windows is indescribably perfect, at roughly 300 ft above street level.
The table service is beyond faultless.

But the food?
YAWN.

This reminds me that I should make a video about neck ties.

Crabcake doughnuts.

I'm a tad surprised nobody in Maryland sells such a thing.