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    I can't see it now, but someone said that fast-food places should never be called restaurants, and they are right.

    The only chainy place I go to is Wahaca. I like it. Although I did eat in a Wetherspoons on Friday, but that was very far from being my choice of venue.
    Last edited by DCI Harry Batt; 14-02-2020, 17:16.

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      Carluccio's is indeed nice, but its restaurants are disappearing at such a rate of knots that I'm not sure it'll qualify as a chain much longer.

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        Originally posted by Billy Casper View Post
        I find that KFCs have the worst service of any chain restaurant I've been to in general. We once stopped at one at the motorway services and was told that there was a 45 minute wait for chicken. Incredibly, people were still stood there waiting patiently though.
        Because it's a KFC. When I want a KFC, I really want a KFC. I think that of the mix of 11 herbs and spices, at least one of them is heroin.

        Another vote for Pizza Express. GBK used to be really good and still is, just the rest of the burger market has caught up. Prezzo is OK but you can tell that their staffing levels and targets are done by algorithm and would rather have one staff member serving a two-thirds empty restaurant for most of the day than two members serving at busy times.

        I quite like Nicholsons pubs for food.

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          In the industry they're Quick Service Restaurants or QSRs.

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            I’m not interested in any of these places any more. I’ve become my parents.

            I like Panera, I guess.

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              Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post

              Every mall we visited in Arabia had a PF Chang's, including the big one in Dubai by the tower. Signora Rogin was quite taken by their thing of having big monumental horses outside and took pictures of them as we'd never seen one (a PF Chang's, not a horse). I presume the reason they've not taken off in the UK is that we don't really need a chain selling us Chinese food, when hardly anyone in the UK lives more than half an hour from a family run cantonese restaurant.
              That describes the US to a T as well, given we have twice the Chinese population per capita of the UK. PF Chang's locations aren't even in out of the way places, sure Nebraska probably doesn't have a lot of Chinese people, but Omaha will be where they are.

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                There just aren't really any Chinese chains in the UK, for whatever reason. I mean, I guess you could call Ping Pong Chinese, but it's specifically dim sum and not especially Cantonese dim sum at that. It's basically all family restaurants and the odd mini-chain.Same's true for Indian/Bengali food, I guess, though with more mini-chains. Possibly the family restaurants got established everywhere before a chain had a chance to arrive, unlike, say, Mexican or to a certain extent Japanese food, which had much smaller immigrant communities. But I'm just speculating.
                Last edited by Ginger Yellow; 14-02-2020, 16:07.

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                  Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                  I like Panera, I guess.
                  I see those Panera but I've never been in one. I thought it was a bakery chain, but someone said they do sandwiches. Maybe more. Who knows.

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                    Crank, crank, crank

                    No wonder she needs presents to put up with you

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                      There could be some correlation, I'll allow that.

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                        Originally posted by TonTon View Post
                        I can't see it now, but someone said that fast-food places should never be called restaurants, and they are right.

                        The old chainy place I go to is Wahaca. I like it. Although I did eat in a Wetherspoons on Friday, but that was very far from being my choice of venue.
                        I have a lot of love for Wahaca, Mexican food in the UK was in a truly awful state when I moved here and it's far better now. That's mainly due to them. I've taken four San Franciscans to Wahaca and they've all been pleasantly surprised by the food. The one difference is they do turn down the spice a bit to cater to British palates and make use of substitutes (eg feta makes a good alternative to cotija, and is far easier to get in the UK).

                        But I've been to Mestizo, which is the authentocrat's Mexican restaurant in London, and it's maybe 5% better for twice the price. It's a very pricey meal, and I'm often conked out from a carb overload compared to Wahaca's pretty fresh offerings. The best thing about Mestizo is the shop, tbh.

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                          Is the boundary between "fast food" and "restaurant" different in the UK?

                          Wahaca would be "fast casual" over here, which a category that only industry types and securities analysts recognise. Ordinary punters would consider it a restaurant (as opposed to McDonalds or Taco Bell).

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                            I don't think anyone's called it fast food. It was called "chainy", because it's a chain.

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                              Ah, I didn't read the post Flynnie was responding to correctly.

                              "Fast casual" places are by definition "chainy" (and often one of several chains operated by a single corporate parent).

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                                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                "Fast casual" places are by definition "chainy"
                                I don't know if that's strictly true. They certainly lend themselves to becoming at least mini-chains, but in London at least there a ton of single outlets that take that approach.

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                                  Also I don't think Wahaca is strictly fast casual, unless it's changed since I last went. It's table service.

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                                    Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
                                    strictly fast casual
                                    [brain explodes]

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                                      The US has a good selection of consistently decent roadside sit-down places; Applebees, Chili's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, TGIFriday's, etc. You rarely get a shit meal, but nobody's confusing it with fine dining. It's consistently consistent.

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                                        Originally posted by Flynnie View Post

                                        I have a lot of love for Wahaca, Mexican food in the UK was in a truly awful state when I moved here and it's far better now. That's mainly due to them. I've taken four San Franciscans to Wahaca and they've all been pleasantly surprised by the food. The one difference is they do turn down the spice a bit to cater to British palates
                                        That's interesting as I thought that in comparison with other nationalities British eaters could stand pretty fiery food.

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                                          Originally posted by WOM View Post

                                          I see those Panera but I've never been in one. I thought it was a bakery chain, but someone said they do sandwiches. Maybe more. Who knows.
                                          Yes. And coffee, etc.

                                          I think their main trade is sandwiches, salad and soup. You can get soup and a half sandwich for like $7.

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                                            Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                            The US has a good selection of consistently decent roadside sit-down places; Applebees, Chili's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, TGIFriday's, etc. You rarely get a shit meal, but nobody's confusing it with fine dining. It's consistently consistent.
                                            That sector is in decline. ‘Cos millennials.

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                                              Millennials kill everything. Also they spend all their money on avocado on toast. Which they call avocado toast because they can't afford all the words, due to spending all their money on avocado on toast.

                                              McDonald's call their holes "restaurants". We shouldn't ever listen to "industry types".

                                              Wahaca does some stuff that's spicy enough for me and some that's unspicy enough for my other half. That's part of the reason we like it.

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                                                AKA people with better things to do than spend their lives in automobiles

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                                                  Originally posted by Sporting View Post

                                                  That's interesting as I thought that in comparison with other nationalities British eaters could stand pretty fiery food.
                                                  Catalan friends 20 years back could barely tolerate paprika, yet alone chili. Everything was mui picante in the low spiced Indian restaurants for them.

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                                                    Nduja is proper spicy but, Southern Italians must have steel ringpieces.

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