Frequent Changes in Food Business

Upon starting this blog, I asked several people, "What sort of thing would you like to see me write about?" Naturally, video games was one of them. Another topic was things that happen in my life, like a journal. Both of these are what mostly dominates my blog currently, and honestly, I'm happy with that. But one of the other topics that was suggested was reviews of restaurants that I went to. I can understand this request, but it wasn't one that I was too keen on, as from my experience, many restaurants tend to undergo many changes in a matter of months. Usually from better to worse, since the restaurants I'd be going back to are ones that I liked, until they change things that I enjoyed about the place. Well, I figured, I can always just talk about what changes I have witnessed in several restaurants I've been to and how I felt about them.

One of the restaurants that I would have recommended early on was Logan's Roadhouse. Why? Because they had some pretty awesome steaks for a low price, around $7.99 to $9.99 range. Now a days, it's hard to find a restaurant that will sell you a decent-sized steak for even $12.99, and that saddens me. Steak is one of those food for me that I don't get to eat unless I go to a restaurant. With a deal like that, why wouldn't you go to Logan's for a steak? However, upon visiting Logan's about three months ago, their price on steaks had gone up, to around the usual $15 range. They claim that the low steak prices was part of a promotion, and that the promotion had ended. Well, all I have to say is, "Let me know when there's another promotion, because I won't be visiting as often to find out." It really is too bad that these good deals don't last long, and when they start again, it takes a while of advertising before it catches on as well. At least you can always get some free peanuts, right? Also, if you have peanut allergies... don't go here. There's peanuts everywhere.

Another restaurant that had some good deals was at Smokey Bones. In fact, they've had several different deals going on in their menus for quite a while, mostly in the past year. But around last month, the menus were stripped of any promotional deals, once again, leaving very little to save in your wallet, even if you were to use their 'Save $10 if you spend $20 or more' coupons. I think this change was made by some changes in management, unless I'm thinking of a different restaurant.

When did meals get so expensive? Even a burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, and maybe some condiments start at around $8. In fact, it sounded like you HAD to get something else extra as well, like some unwritten rule about saving money from not getting additional stuff in your burger. So you're forced to spend an extra dollar for a single slice of cheese, or some other thing you may or may not want in your burger. I don't think a single, (normal-sized) burger should cost $8, and this doesn't even include a side! Gotta pay another extra dollar for the sides too. In the end, you just shouldn't get a burger here anyway. You want a burger, go to Burger King and have it your way. I do recommend the chicken wings at Smokey Bones though, but that alone doesn't make a good meal, IMO...

My friends and I used to hang out at Dunkin' Donuts a lot for some reason. They do have good donuts, and I certainly enjoy the iced coffee they serve there. But I just have to ask... "Why do you bother staying open 24 hours?" And that's drive-thru only. At first, that makes sense. Who's going to come into the restaurant at some weird hour to buy donuts and eat inside the store? Honestly, I don't know. Maybe homeless people... ? But that's not the point. Why only have drive-thru open when your donut selections are horribly diminished, and every flavor you can think of off the top of your head is sold out? Either re-stock the donuts before they sell out, or let people come in to see what donuts you DO have available. At the same time though, how long do you leave the donuts sitting there on those trays... ? I've seen flies flying around inside Dunkin' Donuts, and those donuts are just sitting there, un-covered... Sooo... What times do the fresh donuts come out of the oven... ?

And then... there are the restaurants that just failed to impress from the start, I guess. Such as...

Perkins. The place you want to go if you want to pay just as much money as other restaurants or more, for a horribly small amount of food that'll keep you hungry... even after eating it. Maybe you're on a diet, and don't want to eat too much? Or maybe you enjoy disappointing yourself or others with a dissatisfying plate. There's a senior citizens menu that's cheaper, but if they cut back any more food than they already do for the rest of us, you might think that you have alzheimer's disease since it'll feel like you haven't eaten yet.

I'm sure there's more places I could talk about, but I could use a little more scrutiny in the restaurants I have yet to talk about.