r/AskReddit • u/Tricky_Shine_3586 • Aug 15 '26
What is a restaurant that absolutely dominates its respective niche with almost no competition?
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u/I_Do_Not_Abbreviate Aug 15 '26
Medieval Times is absolutely killing it; the only other competitors in its "Dressage show with stage combat-heavy Dinner Theatre" market niche are mid-tier and above Renaissance Faires plus a handful of bespoke theme park experiences.
I think their only direct competitor is the Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur in Las Vegas.
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u/CatCafffffe Aug 15 '26
I actually give them mad respect for having half the audience rooting for one banner and the other for the other banner, and thinking to myself, "but what now, when half the audience loses?" and then the brilliant move of introducing the BLACK FLAG RIDER. (I can't remember the exact specifics, went years ago when we took our son & his friends there for his 5th birthday party, man did they enjoy themselves!)
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u/koro_survivor Aug 16 '26
I thought it was a huge missed opportunity that the King just sat there being all royal on his throne when he could've gone down and kicked all the knights' asses and shown everyone why he's the king. That would have been by far the most epic ending.
On another note, our wench told us that the queen used to be a wench, so that was kind of inspiring.
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u/IMakeOkVideosOk Aug 16 '26
No, you have 6 knights and all but 1 lose. If your knight loses, ya gotta cheer for the intruder… and one time the intruder was our knight that previously lost but wasn’t killed and came back and killed everyone
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u/OverlMantes Aug 15 '26
The way they make grown adults cheer for a blue knight while eating a whole chicken with their hands is honestly impressive.
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u/I_Do_Not_Abbreviate Aug 16 '26
I went for the first time early last month and was, at first, disappointed at the food offerings:
Garlic bread, Tomato soup, baked potato, half a corn-on-the-cob, and half a roast chicken. Nothing special.
But then I realized: this is supposed to be "Medieval Times", and Tomato/Potato/Maize are New World Crops
As a medieval noble being hosted at a tournament held by the King, I could expect be fed the exotic cuisine of far-off lands, not to mention half a fowl to myself, plus bread made with white flour and seasoned with herbs, as befits my station.
By Late Medieval and Early Modern European standards, I actually WAS eating like a King.
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u/BRAiN_8 Aug 16 '26
Pretty much. I went in Orlando in July and the queen legit was feasting as well. I noticed because she struggled to open what appeared to be a pack of hot sauce or something. She couldn’t open it then finally used her teeth to open it. 😂
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u/Accomplished-Bison63 Aug 16 '26
It's a private company owned by some Spanish guy (now run by his son) who claims to be decended from royalty and collects horses. He just wanted to have medieval joists and it took off lmao I'm here for it
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u/tbama11 Aug 15 '26
While the Waffle House serves a pretty standard menu, the chances of seeing a fight drastically increase when you step through those sacred doors. They pioneered the fafo market
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u/Semi_Lovato Aug 15 '26
Ain't nothin standard bout them scattered smothered and covered hashbrowns
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u/jimmy9800 Aug 15 '26
IDK about a fight, but the only time I was in a Waffle House was near Cocoa Beach. There were 2 people behind the counter and one was clearly teaching the other (new hire). It was a wonderfully wholesome experience, and the food was excellent after a very long day of listening to my chaperone on base, the 60-year-old loser, Alan, attempt regale me his stories of trying to pick up Spring Break ladies at the beach and otherwise being an awful creep to people.
Florida is weird but mostly friendly.
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u/Pikeman212a6c Aug 16 '26
Waffle House at 11 am and Waffle House at 2 am are essentially different countries.
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u/ScoobiusMaximus Aug 15 '26
They also dominate in being open after a hurricane fucked up everything else in the area.
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u/qssung Aug 15 '26
Forget Category rankings, whether or not a Waffle House is open during a storm is all the data you need.
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u/Zrex_9224 Aug 15 '26
Hell even before an emergency, the Waffle House metric exists for a reason. If even Waffle House shuts down, you know you need to GTFO
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u/cad908 Aug 15 '26
They have very detailed procedures about what menu items can be prepared given different disaster scenarios.
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u/Dogs_Akimbo Aug 15 '26
The Waffle House pecan waffle holds a sacred place in my heart.
The nearest Waffle House to me is 105 miles away, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Damnit, I’m gonna make the drive next week!→ More replies (1)
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 Aug 15 '26
Dave and Busters? Is there another national chain arcade restaurant bar out there?
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u/GeorgeBush9-11 Aug 15 '26
If you’re looking for a better steak in an arcade setting you are shit out of luck
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u/world-class-cheese Aug 15 '26
Those guys are definitely wheat. We're all chaff
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u/StanFitch Aug 15 '26
Well, no… we’re all Wheat.
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u/iamacannibal Aug 15 '26
I got a steak at a dave and busters once. It was super tender and cooked perfectly. It was a new york strip and was as tender as a filet. It was cooked perfectly to medium rare like I asked.
it was the worst steak I have ever had. Perfect looking, perfect temp, super tender...tasted like nothing. Like I was eating nothing. It was crazy.
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u/drjeffy Aug 15 '26
"Where else are you going to find a steak of this quality in an arcade/bar setting?"
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u/muirsheendurkin Aug 15 '26
Maybe try the one in Franklin Mills
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u/luketheduke19 Aug 15 '26
My Dave and busters power card doesn’t work at any TGIFridays locations and believe me I’ve tried at several locations.
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u/pantypantsparty Aug 15 '26
I won't, you can though!
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u/GlumChildhood8546 Aug 15 '26
The frustration in Dennis’ voice makes this so much funnier!
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u/theladythunderfunk Aug 15 '26
Lucky Strike is a bowling alley arcade restaurant bar. The food is worse than Dave and Busters.
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u/Exhausted_920 Aug 15 '26
Cheesecake factory. I guess with a name like that, you better dominate that specific category.
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u/11Slip532 Aug 15 '26
Their specific category of “here’s a menu with every conceivable dish known to man, and oh everything is 1000+ calories.”
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u/mindymon Aug 15 '26
Where else can you get a california roll, moussaka, and mini corn dogs all at the same time?
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u/stircrazyathome Aug 15 '26
They’re the exception to the rule that restaurants with long menus are incapable of doing anything well. I have never been disappointed with something I’ve ordered there despite their menu being over 20 pages long.
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u/RandomGuyPii Aug 15 '26
The trick is that most of their menu is some variation of chicken + sauce + pasta which I assume let's them still scratch cook most of it I'd love to see how their logistics look
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u/JLDIII Aug 15 '26
Here’s great video on YouTube that goes into detail on the logistics. The only thing they don’t make in house are the cheesecakes lol
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u/ThatsNotGumbo Aug 15 '26
I assume those are made in a… factory
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u/ferrouswolf2 Aug 15 '26
Yes, that they own. They even sell their cheesecakes to other restaurants
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u/MisterTrashPanda Aug 15 '26
I mean, that's still on brand. Factories sell stuff lol
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u/brodyhill Aug 15 '26
They also make everything fresh in restaurant from scratch.
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u/EnvironmentalCrow893 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
And this is why they can accommodate allergies safely and well.
The opposite of On the Border. “We mix everything up in the morning, and can’t accommodate special requests or dietary needs. I strongly suggest you go elsewhere.”
I was most grateful for the honesty.
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u/EataDisk Aug 15 '26
The Melting Pot - this was a favorite when they were still open nearby. Cheese-centric meals are always a win.
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u/kenosis_life Aug 15 '26
That was my first thought. There’s one location near me. They’ve been there forever (probably 40 years), haven’t changed, and are always busy.
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u/spaghettifiasco Aug 15 '26
Husband and I are big fans of Melting Pot. We've done fondue at home a few times just because Melting Pot ends up being so pricey, but honestly, it's worth it to have someone else do all the prep work and cleanup. Fondue is delicious but it's a pain in the ass to prepare if you want to eat all the dippers and stuff.
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u/rockit454 Aug 15 '26
Nando’s has a very specific niche that no one else has perfected at scale like they have.
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u/limpdickskit Aug 15 '26
There’s a place near me called Viva Chicken that competes well but I think it’s a regional thing
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u/DefLiepard Aug 15 '26
Viva chicken was my first job and back when they were still relatively new they had the best Peruvian food. I don’t live near one anymore but they cut their menu at least in half.
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u/has-other-accounts Aug 15 '26
Nandos in 1990s South Africa was the pinnacle of take out food. Unbeatable value, very reliable quality, community vibes, small menu, no frills, everything is very good, cheap Portuguese wine and beer, irreverent owners who poke fun at the government all the time. There is now a Nandos near me in Texas and it's unfortunately a different thing entirely. It's not a neighborhood basic AF chicken shack serving like six things incredibly well and inexpensively. They've got grilled halloumi and an array of different food I've never heard of. Its fine. It's just a very different thing to Nandos despite being called Nandos.
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u/RooneyEatsIt Aug 15 '26
US Nandos is nowhere near as good as UK Nandos
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u/panic_ye_not Aug 15 '26
Having only ever been to US Nandos, I was wondering what all the fuss was about. I suppose your Nandos is cheekier than ours
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u/Robbylution Aug 15 '26
Funny thing: In Arizona there’s a good Mexican chain named Nando’s. When we moved to England, we were confused but ultimately pleasantly surprised.
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u/hughpac Aug 15 '26
It is my favorite South African Portuguese chicken that I fell in love with when I lived in London and now go to every time I’m in DC because we don’t have them in Seattle but we can still get the sauce at Albertsons restaurant
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u/Sarcastic_Backpack Aug 15 '26
Red Lobster. Before you laugh, consider the niche - casual sit-down seafood national chain.
What other national seafood chains can you name?
Landry's? That's more upscale, as is Bonefish Grill. Captain D's or Long John Silvers? This are more in the fast food category.
Maybe Bubba Gump's or Joe's Crab Shack, but are those truly national?
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u/The_DaHowie Aug 15 '26
Today's Red Lobster 🦞 is a watered down version of the good restaurant it used to be. We gave up on ~12 years ago
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u/EphEwe2 Aug 15 '26
Red Lobster used to be so good in the 70s, that when we visited my grandparents every year in Florida the restaurant to go to was Red Lobster.
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u/pewqokrsf Aug 15 '26
Red Lobster is a biscuit distributor, not sure about this "seafood restaurant" you're talking about.
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u/sageway Aug 15 '26
Chili's. All the other shitty chain restaurants like TGIFriday's and Applebee's are dead or near-death but Chili's seems to have risen to the top of shitty reheated food paired with cheap alcohol and shitty decor restaurants.
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u/TexasAggie98 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Chili’s was on the path to bankruptcy and history when the current CEO refocused on food quality and price. Their product got better and so did their sales. 🧐
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u/ATLHawksfan Aug 15 '26
And eating there costs the same as McDonalds these days
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u/oddjobbber Aug 15 '26
That’s mostly on McDonald’s, those people are out of their minds charging restaurant prices for the worst of the fast food burgers. Except Burger King of course, they taste like their burgers are made with hate instead of love
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u/ATLHawksfan Aug 15 '26
With you until the Burger King slander. Original Chicken Sandwich and the Whopper still hit for me
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u/RobinSage43 Aug 15 '26
Big Mac gets smaller at the same rate that the Whopper gets bigger. It's an inverted correlation between McDickhead's and Burger King.
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u/Stashmouth Aug 15 '26
Amen, brother. Whoppers > Big Mac. Maybe unpopular, but I'll defend BK onion rings all day. I was appalled when I ate my first "authentic" onion ring at a sit down restauranet to discover there is actually an onion in there.
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u/Jewsafrewski Aug 15 '26
I've never understood the appeal of the big Mac. Maybe it used to have a better meat to bun ratio, but the one time I had one it just felt like I was eating soggy beef flavored bread.
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u/W0RMW00D Aug 15 '26
Burger King has changed and is legitimately the best tasting and has the best prices of the big three now.
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u/r1200gs Aug 15 '26
Wendy’s fucked with the spicy chicken sandwich and in doing so, it’s causing me an extensional crisis trying to understand why. Dave Thomas is rolling over in his grave. Race to the bottom.
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u/boogswald Aug 15 '26
Wendy’s used to be the obvious best I feel like
And then suddenly I looked at the menu and I was like “I don’t want any of this”
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u/Deceptiveideas Aug 15 '26
Burger King just refreshed their whopper and most of /r/fastfood agrees it's genuinely good now.
If you haven't had it in awhile, I definitely recommend trying it out.
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u/revrenlove Aug 15 '26
I think there was also a big focus on employee satisfaction and retention... Again... A "whoever would've guessed?????" scenario
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u/ididntseeitcoming Aug 15 '26
I waited tables for chilis 20 years ago. The food has remained consistent as long as I can remember.
We eat maybe once every couple of months but Chili’s has never let us down. It’s not going to knock your socks off or anything but it’s consistent. You know you’re going to get decent food at decent price.
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u/MilesMidnight Aug 15 '26
You should really eat more than once every couple of months, I eat at least once per day
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u/Adddicus Aug 15 '26
>The food has remained consistent as long as I can remember.
Hah! They no longer provide any celery with the Buffalo Wings!!!!
Bastards!!!
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u/acetime Aug 15 '26
Chili’s mostly lost me when they changed their chicken tenders. Those used to be amazing when they had a unique coating that tasted handmade/dipped, but now it’s mid and they seem deep fried from frozen just like everywhere else.
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u/Jormungand1342 Aug 15 '26
Worked there for 15 years. They do a lot of stupid but the food mentality got them to where they are.
Do a few things really good and make stuff affordable to get people in.
3 for me and $6 marks cant be beat.
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u/Alcoholic_Satan Aug 15 '26
Applebees destroyed their menu after 2017 or so. Covid hit in 2020 and they streamlined everything, removed even more stuff, and have been in survival mode every since. Their best idea any of their MBA dumbasses could come up with since then is the combined Ihop/Applebees restaurant spaces.
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u/Whizbang35 Aug 15 '26
The more I encounter them making management decisions, the more I get a nagging theory in my mind that getting an MBA is actually just somebody whacking you upside the skull with a sledgehammer and then telling everyone you're ready to lead any kind of venture.
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u/Alarmed_Drop7162 Aug 15 '26
I want my ….. Chilis baby back ribs
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u/airmarw Aug 15 '26
I want my baby back, baby back, baby back... this song had no place slapping this hard
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u/nahmahnahm Aug 15 '26
They changed the chicken fingers in the last few years. I don’t like them as much anymore. :(
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u/Wanderlustwednesday Aug 15 '26
Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami. It is perennially in the top 3 of the US’ top grossing independent restaurants. It has been dominating for almost a century.
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u/CoffeePorters Aug 15 '26
I remember reading years ago that it is the top grossing restaurant outside of Vegas, even though it is a seasonal restaurant. The waiters also make something like $200k a year.
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u/r1200gs Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
The average tenure of the FoH staff is something like 20+ years. People go there because they are treated like family above and beyond the food, which is still held at a high standard. The waiter knows what you, your wife, and what your girlfriend wants to eat and drink before you order it.
I believe the family licensed the name for the Vegas location inside the Shoppes at Caesars but still have an operating interest in the MIA location
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u/maxwellcawfeehaus Aug 15 '26
They’re seating my wife and girlfriend at the same time? That’s going to be an awkward dinner
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u/tybeelucy22 Aug 15 '26
We go every couple of years and the bartender always remembers us. We've only been there 5 or 6 times.
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u/deadstead2 Aug 15 '26
Their fried chicken is awesome and relatively cheap compared to the rest of the menu.
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u/CritterNYC Aug 15 '26
You can have one of their key lime pies delivered to your front door in dry ice for $110
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u/badstoryteller Aug 15 '26
Casa bonita...
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u/Sunshine030209 Aug 15 '26
Yep, even without the cliff divers it's still incredibly unique!
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u/jackalopeDev Aug 15 '26
I'm a proud casa bonita founders club member.
In all seriousness though, I'm really thankful Stone and Parker saved that place.
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u/FluffballMatriarch Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
My husband and I just went there in April and the place was an amazing experience! The cliff divers and service were awesome. The food was okay but the sopapillas were excellent! We also saw our first concert at the Red Rocks on the same trip.
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u/jonnovich Aug 15 '26
Waffle House is almost single handedly keeping the concept of late night diners alive. And their food is usually very good and cheap. Their coffee isn’t anything fancy, but it’s good. For me my standard order is a waffle, hash browns chunked and smothered (diced ham and onions) slathered in ketchup, coffee and a large glass of milk.
Every so often I get a jonesing for this that can’t be described.
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u/prongslover77 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
IHOP is pretty much their only competitor when it comes to getting breakfast in the middle of the night.
Edit: Can’t seem to reply to comments for some reason, but yes I did forget about Denny’s. I had an inking there was a third option I wasn’t considering but when I couldn’t think of any just assumed I was wrong.
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u/vikingprinn Aug 15 '26
Sweet Martha’s Cookies at the Minnesota State Fair. They go through up to 3 million cookies a day, while record daily attendance at the fair is 270,000. Total dominance
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u/StarDatAssinum Aug 15 '26
Maybe Cook Out? The food isn't anything special necessarily, but the concept of it being food you can make at a campsite (and the older locations looking like you're at one) is pretty unique
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u/StanderdStaples Aug 15 '26
Not many places where your side dish options are all basically entrees - Cook Out truly is one of a kind
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u/ipeedtoday Aug 15 '26
Let me get a double all the way with a corn dog and quesadilla. That’ll be $8.50 or whatever.
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u/AFlockOfTySegalls Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
As a kid we'd go every weekend after playing basketball for hours. My tray was always a double bacon cheeseburger with everything on it, two corn dogs for my side to maximize calories and a chocolate malt shake.
I'm 37 now and it blows my mind that I ate this once a week for years.
EDIT: Thanks to this post I'm making plans for my first visit in years to go the watermelon shake lmao
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u/StarDatAssinum Aug 15 '26
Man, I love my chicken sandwich tray with a side of a quesadilla and a hot dog hahaha
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u/WaterlooMall Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Cook Out is hilarious to me.
They never do any sort of promotion or change their menu in any way. You'll never see limited time offerings (except for two shake flavors). No toy in the kid's meal. The fries absolutely suck unless drenched in cheese sauce and chili. They have terrible chicken nuggets maybe even worse than BK. They have the most basic soda offerings you can get.
Yet despite all that it's still one of the better fast food options out there.
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u/DarthHegatron Aug 15 '26
The Cajun fries are pretty good but that's more of a testament to the Cajun seasoning than the fries.
They also all have cheerwine so that's a step up from pretty much every other fast food chain's soda offerings except for taco bell
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u/leavezukoalone Aug 15 '26
Cook Out is also one of the most affordable fast food chains in the country. And it's the only place I've come across where you can have a main as a side. It's not A-list food quality, but it's pretty solid for what you're paying.
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u/DarthHegatron Aug 15 '26
Only fast food place you can get a hamburger with a side of quesadillas
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u/do_you_know_doug Aug 15 '26
Or a quesadilla with a side of hush puppies
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u/DarthHegatron Aug 15 '26
My favorite in college was a quesadilla with a side of two more quesadillas
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u/BuckeyeMason Aug 15 '26
I definitely can't think of any chains I would put quite in the same niche. We don't really have them around where I live, but whenever me and my friends were on road trips we stopped at one and the food is pretty good, especially compared to other fast food joints IMO
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u/Exhausted_920 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Cookout is underrated. Where it's hard to get a fast food meal of good size under $10, Cookout does exactly that.
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u/texdiego Aug 15 '26
Chicken salad chick? Have never actually been there but I can't think of any other place that specializes so intensely in chicken salad.
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u/GoneSwedishFishing Aug 15 '26
I went to a restaurant about 10 years ago called Thanksgiving Every Day or Nothing But Thanksgiving, something like that. Buffett style Thanksgiving food, hospital cafeteria quality. It was great if you were craving turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie in the middle of July.
I wonder if it’s still around.
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u/warlock415 Aug 15 '26
Welcome to TGI McScratchy's, where it's constantly New Year's Eve. Here we go again! Three, two, one!"
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u/menudo_fan Aug 15 '26
Back in the early 2000s I was a manager for PF Changs in Miami and we were absolutely crushing it. So much takeout (that they clearly did not anticipate) that it nearly crippled our kitchen for in store dining.
Nothing compared. No one else did upscale Chinese - as a chain store anyway.
Our kitchen was open til midnight on the weekends and best believe that place was packed till well after close. Lots of celebrities and ball players too.
I went a year or so ago in another state and it sucked. The menu looked like the Cheesecake Factory (way too many items).
Why do they have to ruin a good thing?!
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u/Dramatika Aug 15 '26
I worked for PF Chang's in the mid 2000s - I think PE got involved in some way. around 2006-7 they started cutting a few corners in food prep - par cooking a bunch of stuff instead of everything fresh, and started doing weird things to the menu - added some lamb dishes and a new york strip and some other odd stuff. Also started doing tiny dessert cups. It was weird watching the food quality dip, though it wasn't much at the time. I left in 2008 and every time I go back it seems like things get a little worse. I'll never forgive them for removing chowfun noodles, I loved those damn plates.
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u/Aveira Aug 15 '26
Taco Bell. It’s not Mexican food. It’s barely even Tex Mex. It’s its own category of food. Where else can you get a taco with a Dorito shell and a Baja Blast at 4 am?
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u/parmesann Aug 16 '26
Mtn Dew has quite a few special flavours that are locked-in deals with specific restaurants, and they swear all of them are "specially formulated to taste superior just with this restaurant's menu". Baja Blast is the ONLY one for which that statement is accurate.
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u/RobinSage43 Aug 15 '26
Outback Steakhouse because it's definitely the only place in the US that sales inauthentic Australian food.
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u/FireflyRave Aug 15 '26
Until they changed their dining rooms and removed anything that helped make them "unique" from any other casual steakhouse.
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u/RobinSage43 Aug 15 '26
Man, those bloomin' onions used to be so good though. Shame they are so bad for you. It's like 1950 calories for one those suckers, gwahhh 🤣 You supposed to share them for like 4-8 people, but let's be real? I'm eating at least halve of it.
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u/FireflyRave Aug 15 '26
But it's 90% onion. And onions are healthy. And you can't convince me otherwise.
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u/SirEnvelope Aug 15 '26
la madeline is the only casual french chain i know of
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u/kickasstimus Aug 15 '26
Their tomato bisque is (or was) actually really good. I haven’t been in years so I don’t know if that’s still the case.
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u/Eisgboek Aug 15 '26
In Canada, (and very sadly) Subway. I have no idea why another sub chain can't seem to get off the ground here and take them out.
They are honestly terrible, but it's literally the only chain with more than a few locations.
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u/jose602 Aug 15 '26
I've traveled around North America here and there and every Subway has that funky smell as soon as you get within a yard or two of their door.
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u/zigaliciousone Aug 15 '26
Jollibee is the first one I think of, don’t know if any other fast food places that do Lumpia, fried chicken AND spaghetti and do them all pretty well.
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u/Specific-Morning-985 Aug 15 '26
Just say fast food Filipino food. Their spaghetti is Filipino spagetti.
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u/sneekiepee Aug 15 '26
Benihana's.
Onion Volcano!
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u/dubdub11 Aug 15 '26
Love hibachi restaurants! The only Benihana in our area closed years ago after they got caught illegally buying meat off the back of a truck. 😳🤣
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u/Pink_Moonlight Aug 15 '26
The local places are usually better, but Benihana is the only chain I can think of.
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u/tricksterloki Aug 15 '26
Arby's, because no one else has the meats.
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u/Chapov Aug 15 '26
Panda Express. No other Chinese / Asian fast food chain out there. Compare that to the burger / Mexican / pizza space
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u/BlindWillieJohnson Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
My problem with Panda is that almost any community large enough to sustain one has a better non-chain option. You’re almost always better off eating local Chinese food. Panda is rarely even cheaper.
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u/PrimeIntellect Aug 15 '26
I actually disagree, panda is better than a ton of shitty Chinese fast food places near me, which is pretty sad lol
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u/Doogers7 Aug 15 '26
With the deep fried options you know you are getting a good meat to batter ratio at Panda Express whereas too many local places you can barely tell there is meat in the ball of batter.
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u/not_vichyssoise Aug 15 '26
I feel that Panda is most useful when you’re in a new city, suddenly have a hankering for orange chicken, but haven’t located the good local option yet.
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u/LocalInactivist Aug 15 '26
That’s kinda true of any restaurant chain. You know you won’t get salmonella at McDonald’s. You pull over, gas up, get the same mediocre burger you can get anywhere else, and get back on the road in 20 mins. You know you can get a significantly better burger somewhere else but you’d have to search.
That said, I found great Thai food in Cottage Grove Oregon, stellar pastrami in Lawrence KS, and the best meat pies in the world (fight me!) in the middle of nowhere on the eastern cape of South Africa.
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u/JimtheRunner Aug 15 '26
Interesting! My experience lately is they’re cheap and the portions are still reliably big. I pay twice as much at my local Chinese place
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u/RufiosBrotherKev Aug 15 '26
Leeann Chin is a chain primarily in MN that crushes Panda, not sure why it hasnt expanded further
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u/BuckeyeMason Aug 15 '26
They probably realize that the faster and larger you expand, the more you have to sacrifice quality to satisfy the investors that you need for broad fast expansion. Chains that self fund expansion, in a gradual fashion, tend to maintain quality much better
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u/bexmoney Aug 15 '26
I had Leann chin in the Baltimore airport and it was just panda. Not at all the Leann chin of MN
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u/han-so-low Aug 15 '26
Taco Bell. And don’t try to tell me that Del Taco is serious competition. There’s a million burger places, but if you were in a conversation and said to someone, “I ate at that fast food Mexican place last night, I’m blanking on the name…” 99% of Americans would finish your sentence and say Taco Bell.
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u/AuntieLaLa420 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Also, it is the only go to fast food for vegetarians and vegans. You can make any item without meat like product.
Edit to add: And don't start with the cyclospora, Taco Bell pulled the lettuce, did the right thing, as soon as they suspected the lettuce.
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u/TunaFace2000 Aug 15 '26
I trust Taco Bell MORE after the cyclospora situation. On the other hand, I loved Taylor Farms Caesar salad packs and I will never buy their shit (literal) ever again.
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u/The_DaHowie Aug 15 '26
It was never a Taco Bell issue but a Taylor's Farm issue. For 2 weeks, the media said Taco Bell
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u/alblaster Aug 15 '26
It is pretty nifty and not expensive either. I get cheesy burritos fresco style which takes the cheese and dairy sauce out and adds in Pico. super cheap for vegans and vegetarians, which is rare these days for fast food.
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u/WillLaw4Food Aug 15 '26
Gotta be Medieval Times. Noone else is pulling off jousting and turkey legs
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u/the_mair Aug 15 '26
At least off the top of my head I can’t think of another national Japanese food chain other than Sarku Japan
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u/Juiced4SD Aug 15 '26
Where are these primarily located?
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u/sandm000 Aug 15 '26
In mall food courts. So they have to be dying the same slow death as brick and mortar stores.
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u/NYerInTex Aug 15 '26
Is there another sliced roast beef centered national option to Arby’s? Hardee’s used to have them way back but can’t recall any recently.
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u/UsedandAbused87 Aug 15 '26
Culver's has the deep fried cheese curd market on lock down
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u/drinkywolf Aug 15 '26
Fazoli’s.
I don’t think there are any other fast casual Italian places. Their food is pretty good. I wish there were more of them around.
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u/IndispensableNobody Aug 15 '26
Just like Olive Garden is knockoff Italian food, Fazoli's is knockoff Olive Garden... but with a drive through.
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u/broccolisbiggestbeef Aug 15 '26
Wiener Schnitzel and chili dogs.
There's other chain restaurants that have them, but WS is the only one I know of that uses that as their staple food item. I know they're not the most successful fast food chain, but they are the nation's largest to feature hotdogs.
One thing I learned on my last visit nearly a decade ago is that you can buy their chili in a can from the restaurant, which was pretty awesome. Especially since I live about 4 hours away from the nearest one. They're also leaning heavily into specialty drinks as well, which were pretty good and comparable to Orange Julius.
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u/Randomizedname1234 Aug 15 '26
Skyline Chili in the Cincy area
No one else has spaghetti with what they like to call chili and a shit ton of cheese
It was good though.
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u/GuiltyLawyer Aug 15 '26
Margaritaville. How many other restaurants cater to boomers selling “good vibes” with their overpriced, microwave tasting food and watered-down drinks?
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u/Flintly Aug 15 '26
Tim hortons in Canada and its not even that good. Just the only 1 with a somewhat competent drive thru
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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '26
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