As far as mom&pop restaurants go, when I travel those local restaurants that service locals can have some of the best food. It depends on where you go, though. In Nepal that means you'll get a super cheap meal that does not really touch on ... western sensibilities that much. But in Vietnam some of the best food I had was at rundown looking establishments that barely looked like restaurants, with all the patrons sitting on tiny plastic chairs. Whenever I ate where the locals ate, I always had a great meal in that country. All the restaurants that targeted tourists were a lot more expensive and sort of hit/miss. At the other end of the scale, fancy restaurants in Vietnam always had great cuisine, but I'm talking about a fancy 5 star French restaurant here for example, I paid like $70 USD after everything for an incredible 5 course meal that takes you on a tour of the whole country. Simply amazing food, and very far from a "mom n pop" sort of experience. In comparison, a pho at a local joint will set you back like $1.50 USD. The 2nd best pho in the whole country cost me about that much, it was amazing.
Here in Canada, all the mid-range restaurants are boring chain places that all have the same food. At least in a medium sized town like the one I live in. If you want good food you have to head to a speciality taco place or some mom n pop place that you researched beforehand. Locally owned restaurants are usually the best here, whether that satisfies "mom n pop" or not.
In Japan and Thailand I had the best food at any place that seemed to be locally owned in some way. Although that was hard to read at times. I had the best gyoza dumplings I've ever had anywhere at a restaurant that was falling apart, not very clean looking, under railroad tracks. Not usually a place I'd wander into, but it came recommended. So amazing, I have not been able to find gyoza dumplings like that since. You'd think a place like that was owned by some local peeps, but then again who knows. It seems to have been around for a while, since there was an elderly local who paid for my meal randomly at this place. The bartender made it sound like this place has been that guy's fav. place to hang out for quite a while. In Thailand I will never forget this tiny place I found just off a busy backpacker ghetto type street (with lots of restaurants targeted at tourists). I walked into a completely empty restaurant instead, with just like 5 seats or something. An old lady made me some of the most amazing food I had, and it was really cheap. Meanwhile all the party tourists were busy drinking pricy beers and eating subpar food on the main strip.
It really depends though, because you can for instance get some really good Indian food at Ao Nang beach, right on the main tourist strip. I believe that's because actual Indians run those restaurants (going by looks, I didn't ask, so I could be wrong). It's still hit/miss, but if you find the right Indian restaurant there, you'll get some really good food.
So it depends I guess, but chain restaurants are so boring. They all have the same food. Boston Pizza, Kelsey's, Casey's, and all those irish pub knockoffs.. Bleh.. I mean, the food can be okay, but we have a couple "restauranteurs" here in town who run a bunch of really good restaurants. We also have some Vietnamese families run some really good Vietnamese restaurants. To get the best food here you have to either look to the top or to the bottom. That's sort of been my experience around the world really. The stuff in the middle can be very hit/miss and is full of chains or restaurants targeted at travellers or those who don't know any better.
One reason I love visiting Toronto is because there are sooo many different food options there. It's a very exciting culinary scene. Not only do you find restaurants from all sorts of ethnicities, there's also all sorts of unexpected fusion style food, "elevated/fancy" restaurants, and people are always coming up with something new. i.e. a place that only sells gourmet sausages on a bun. You can walk around many parts of Toronto and walk past so much culinary variety. It's great. Hopefully all these unique restaurants weather the storm and survive this pandemic.
Now I have another favourite Asian restaurant. No specific cuisine; they advertise as Asian fusion. Some Western stuff, and then some stuff from East Asia. Their advertising and signage is miserable. I originally thought they were a bagel place because they had one solitary poster in their window about fresh-baked bagels in the morning.
