You can eat at both chains and mom-and-pop restaurants.
Sometimes I really (and I mean really want a Filet-O-Fish) and I have yet to find a mom-and-pop restaurant that will do a good Filet-O-Fish, not a fish sandwich per se, but a Filet-O-Fish, which is a sandwich all unto itself. A new genus of sandwich, if you will.
And other times, I want a dish passed down from someone’s grandma and made with hands born and fashioned out of hours toiling over a gas stove and cutting board.
They are not mutually exclusive.
You can enjoy one, without disparaging or neglecting the other.
My stomach, at least, has room and a place for both.
Ha, I’m smiling at the fact you consider the Filet O Fish a new genus of sandwich, when after all, it’s about 50+ years old! But it is a classic, and personal favorite of mine - long may it survive. And, have never had a knock off as good.
A personal favorite. I have made my own without the deep fried fillet . Cheap hamburger bun , sauteed red snapper, tartar sauce, American cheese. Fabulous. It’s a genius combo
Great! I’ve had wonderful fish sandwiches elsewhere, time to time, but nothing to come close to Filet O Fish, if you’re jonesing for that particular thing. Better fish sandwiches out there, or homemade? Oh yeah! A pub near me has a to die for fried cod sandwich.
It was a dark and rainy night. I had 5 or 6 restaurants in mind for a takeout dinner after a 9 hour drive. I could have stopped at a chain. I circled my hotel 3 times on one way streets I’m not familiar with before being able to park out front to check in, then missed the alley to the parking lot so I had to circle again to park. Once I got to my room, 40 minutes after first getting to the neighborhood, I decided on Italian over seafood. The first restaurant wouldn’t be able to have my order ready for over an hour (ready at 9:20 pm, a 15 minute walk away), the second wouldn’t offer takeout, double-checked the timing at the first place, went back to Google. I spent 30 minutes looking at menus, decided on an indie Italian place that could have my takeout ready in 20 minutes.
It tasted good, although the salad dressing was too salty—— so salty , plus my main must have been salty, so my nice indie $54 Italian meal had me up drinking water all night. I would have been smarter to go with takeout from Wendy’s, because I would have known what I was getting!
Well, it does look quite beautiful - perhaps diced into poke, and on a slider bun for the win, maybe…ha, just now seeing what’s pictured in the bun. Just gotta love that wonderful squishiness of the FOF though.
My point is that I want the best meal possible under the circumstances. If that’s a chain, fine. If that’s a locally-owned place, also fine. I don’t believe that it’s always better/nobler/the true “foodie” choice to eat at a locally-owned place. And I certainly don’t believe that Sysco supplies chains exclusively. If people have never seen those trucks unloading outside a mom-and-pop diner, they haven’t been paying very close attention.
OK folks, it seems like this topic, which started as a friendly food discussion has veered off food and into topics which are specifically prohibited on Hungry Onion. There are plenty of sites on the web that allow (and even encourage) discussion of politics, discrimination, etc. Please restrict discussions here to food-related topics.
Sounds like an adventure and a nightmare! Seriously though, we all on this board love to eat and love to find gems when we travel. But it’s hit and miss, right? And no one ever talks about the work that is involved with finding great eats outside your local eating zone, then the possible disappointments of making a big plan only to learn the place is closed that night, or that week, or is slammed with diners and not doing takeout. Sometimes even an onion doesn’t have the energy.
Back before we started planning ahead and making sandwiches for longer car trips, BK was our go-to (over McDs). But one time the Whopper Jr. was such a shit show – think slimy, brown iceberg, it was the last time.
I also tried McDs fries about a year ago since people can’t stop raving about them. They were straight out of the fryer, and crispy, salty & hot. However, my mouth felt like it had been wiped down with vaseline. No, thx.
For the “everyday” (as opposed to “upscale” / more expensive) chains, on the road it’s often a guilty pleasure and nothing else. “We never eat at XXXX unless on a road trip.”
Sometimes it’s the fastest in and out when you’re driving a long distance — no time or inclination to get off the road.
One of the worst chain restaurant meals I ever ate was at Olive Garden, where we only stopped because someone’s electric car needed to be charged in their parking lot for 45 mins (bec they “forgot” to charge it before we embarked on a long road trip, separate issue). But, one and done, and I don’t need to eat there ever again.
I couldn’t understand why friends insisted on eating at Capital Grill in nyc vs a “real” steakhouse, until it struck me that for them where they lived, that was the real steakhouse. So there’s access and branding playing in to decisions. Also why there’s a giant Olive Garden in Times Square that tourists actually eat at.
For travel, expectation of picking and planning being superior also presupposes one is traveling with amenable people.
Ideally, perhaps, but like all things in recent history, hypercapitalism and corporatism have drastically tilted the field in favor of the franchisors. See: The recent lawsuit/kerfuffle over McDonald’s icecream machines, and how the only approved vendor/maintainer of said machines purposely kept info out of the hands of franchisees to drive up repair fees. Also see: Subway’s recent economic nosedive as they increasingly forced untenable fees and mandatory unprofitable promotions on their franchisees. (surprise, $5 footlongs are not profitable, no matter how rock bottom cheap your ingredients are. They’re being ordered by corporate to lose money.)
Jack in the Box will, in some locations, have a fish sandwich through the Easter/Lent season in the spring. I suspect it’s an optional promotion that varries by region (and by franchisee, no doubt) but seems to be fairly common in CA. This last years wasn’t bad, with an especially crispy panko-like coating and a strong hint of toaster-oven fish sticks that hits right in the childhood nostalgia centers.
Some McDonald’s, esp, I’ve noticed, those in southern CA (or, I suspect, other places with heavy Latino/Catholic concentrations), run Filet o’ Fish promos for Easter, often knocking them down to $2.99. I’ve even seen 2/$5 specials.
iceberg, it was the last time.