The chain restaurants have just about driven out the small restauranteer. Food
has gone from freshly prepared cuisine to junk that's served "enmasse" from a
food service counter hidden from the customer's view. The food served is close
to be AWFUL in terms of preparation, taste and freshness. Its gotton so bad I
can no longer find a decent place to dine out. Here's just an example to
illustrate my point. My wife and I went looking for a dine out tonight and I
stopped at a Bennigan's Pub and Grill on North May Ave. in Oklahoma City. The
atmosphere was nice but the tables were crowded and uncomfortably close. We
rejected several seatings because the air conditioning was blowing cold and the
corners were drafty. A cute college age waitress named Heather waited on us.
We told her of several special requirements and to be sure to write down our
comments for the chef. She complied with a smile. My wife ordered baby back
ribs (full rack) and I ordered fish and chips, substituting a side salad for
the fries. We also ordered an appetizer. The appetizer was properly prepared
and enjoyable. Our main entrees were anything but good. My wifes rack of ribs
was as cold as if it had been sitting out all day or refrigerated all day and
not cooked at all. This type of meal is prepared in advance and of course came
off a steamer table or somesuch kitchen table. The cook made no attempt to
heat these before delivery hence the barbecue sauce was greasy and cold. The
meat was no where near eating temperature. She ordered green beans as a
vegetable and these were cold, and rubbery. My fish sticks were anything but
fish! A ton of tempura batter surrounded fingers of fish. There was so much
breading I couldn't taste the fish. The "fingers" tasted like fish flavored
Twinkies. I peeled the Tempura batter away from the fish and each of five
fingers has a hint of fish inside about the diameter of a woman's pinkie
finger. The rest was tempura. These were the worst fish sticks I ever ate!
Far worse than supermarket "Grotons" which are also awful. The last time I was
in Ireland the fish and chips was far better fare. In total there was less
fish inside all of the fingers than served in one fillet at Long John Silvers.
I would have been better off if I'd gone there instead of Bennigans. Both my
wife and I were served cole slaw. I don't know who made it but all I can say
is it was shredded cabbage and it tasted like dry shredded cabbage. There was
very little if any liquid, mayonnaise, vinigar or whatever is used to make cole
slaw edible. Now Bennigans wants feedback as evidenced by their website.
However they have no complaint form and no e-mail address. They expect me to
call them during regular business hours to tell them how screwed up they are.
Bottom line is Bennigan's and lots of other like restaurants really suck!
Peanut butter is better!