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You don't sit down at the McDonalds?
Not when you order. When I say "sit-down restaurant", I'm referring to places where you're seated and given a menu, as opposed to fast-food.
T.G.I Fridays now promising UNLIMITED food for only $10
- Thread starter Wrymouth3
- Start date
Not when you order. When I say "sit-down restaurant", I'm referring to places where you're seated and given a menu, as opposed to fast-food.
Well... yeah! What's the point of going out to eat of the place you go to doesn't deep fry food?
Farm Boy
I hope you dance
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No kidding rite? If I want a straight cut chunk of cheese I'm going going to go to the store and buy some cheese to cut up. But I don't feel like going out and buying a frier.
civvver
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I think it's a gimmick because the portions are so big anyway, why would you want unlimited of any singular item? I might eat a double order of wings (there's probably 6 in an order) but I don't usually want a meal of all wings. More like wings and fries or some chips or potato skins. If it was like hey $10 and you can get a plate of mozzarella sticks and wings and potato skins, now that's a good deal! It'd have to be for one person though.
Friday's mozzarella sticks kind of suck. Other places do them better. I think the issue is the size, friday's are unusually wide so you get a huge glob of cheese in the middle. A proper mozzarella stick needs to melt all the way through and you consume it before it gets hard again so thinner is better for that purpose. Mozzarella cheese though is kind of bland, it's only really good on pizza and maybe caprese with some added flavors from balsamic and tomatoes, so the highlight of a stick to me is the sauce.
Friday's overall isn't bad though. Their jack daniels sauce is good, it's more like a sweet teriyaki though than a bbq. I like the jack daniels burger. Also the jack chicken strips are pretty good. Their ribs and steaks are overcooked imo.
As far as other all you can eat things, I mean buffets rock in general if they have a little variety. There's a really expensive one in my wife's home town, it's a brunch at a non chain and it's like $40 but it has all sorts of brunch items (waffles cooked in front of you, omelettes to order), plus a prime rib carving stations plus snow crab legs. It is quite amazing. You basically eat one meal all day and maybe a small salad later lol.
Red robin has bottomless fries with all their burgers and sandwiches. I almost never order a refill of fries though cus the burgers are so big and I'm so full. They also let you sub bottomless broccoli, coleslaw or sweet potato fries which is kind of nice.
My favorite bottomless deal though and really the only one that makes a lot of sense to me is Chili's express lunch. You get a huge chips and salsa as an app. Their salsa isn't amazing, it's kind of watery, but it has spice and the chips are made in the restaurant so they're really thin and crispy and hot. Very tasty. Then you get your choices of soup and salad, all with free refills. You can try a side caeser or house salad and any soups as much as you want and they have like 4-5 varieties. Depending on how hungry I am I have gone no salad and eaten four bowls of soup before. I mean soup is filling but not that filling. I usually end up getting a small caesar salad and two bowls of chicken enchilada soup though. And it only costs $6.99. It's a GREAT deal when you consider a pick 2 combo at panera is like $7-9 depending on the items you get and you get a side salad and one cup of soup or a half sandwich. I love panera's soups but I equally love chili's chicken enchilada one and panera's pick two soup cup size is pretty small.
Friday's mozzarella sticks kind of suck. Other places do them better. I think the issue is the size, friday's are unusually wide so you get a huge glob of cheese in the middle. A proper mozzarella stick needs to melt all the way through and you consume it before it gets hard again so thinner is better for that purpose. Mozzarella cheese though is kind of bland, it's only really good on pizza and maybe caprese with some added flavors from balsamic and tomatoes, so the highlight of a stick to me is the sauce.
Friday's overall isn't bad though. Their jack daniels sauce is good, it's more like a sweet teriyaki though than a bbq. I like the jack daniels burger. Also the jack chicken strips are pretty good. Their ribs and steaks are overcooked imo.
As far as other all you can eat things, I mean buffets rock in general if they have a little variety. There's a really expensive one in my wife's home town, it's a brunch at a non chain and it's like $40 but it has all sorts of brunch items (waffles cooked in front of you, omelettes to order), plus a prime rib carving stations plus snow crab legs. It is quite amazing. You basically eat one meal all day and maybe a small salad later lol.
Red robin has bottomless fries with all their burgers and sandwiches. I almost never order a refill of fries though cus the burgers are so big and I'm so full. They also let you sub bottomless broccoli, coleslaw or sweet potato fries which is kind of nice.
My favorite bottomless deal though and really the only one that makes a lot of sense to me is Chili's express lunch. You get a huge chips and salsa as an app. Their salsa isn't amazing, it's kind of watery, but it has spice and the chips are made in the restaurant so they're really thin and crispy and hot. Very tasty. Then you get your choices of soup and salad, all with free refills. You can try a side caeser or house salad and any soups as much as you want and they have like 4-5 varieties. Depending on how hungry I am I have gone no salad and eaten four bowls of soup before. I mean soup is filling but not that filling. I usually end up getting a small caesar salad and two bowls of chicken enchilada soup though. And it only costs $6.99. It's a GREAT deal when you consider a pick 2 combo at panera is like $7-9 depending on the items you get and you get a side salad and one cup of soup or a half sandwich. I love panera's soups but I equally love chili's chicken enchilada one and panera's pick two soup cup size is pretty small.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Not in Canada
But I always get the medium anyway, the large is always way too giant.
Never tried those.. I don't know if I will
Hey, I have my amazingly amazing figure to watch out for.
Goodfella
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warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
So wait.. is it every single fast food chain in the U.S. that does free refills?
Can I just assume that and refill at heart's content?
Can I just assume that and refill at heart's content?
Farm Boy
I hope you dance
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Not every, but most, yes. Especially if the fountain is out and self service.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I wonder how many Americans get yelled at in Canada for trying to do that here.. And how many Canadians go home thirsty in the U.S. because they just don't know..
Yeah, I would -always- assume it is free refills if the drink fountain is in the customer area and you're just handed your empty cup and expected to fill your initial drink to begin with. If some Canadian yelled at me for that, I'd just tell said Canadian to stop yelling and get back on my head like a good little hat.
Timsup2nothin
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For a couple of NFL seasons I spent Sunday's in a place that was comparable to a TGIFriday's. I would show up between ten and ten thirty (west coast so games start at ten) and be let in by the bartender even though they didn't open until eleven. I would generally eat an appetizer combo plate for lunch, and either another one or some sort of burger and fries for dinner, while consuming enough iced tea to float a boat. I would watch both day games and Sunday Night Football, flirt harmlessly with the bartender and a couple of waitresses, and seriously with any customers who seemed up for it, compare notes with some other regulars about their fantasy football results, occasionally help rein in someone who was apparently encountering their first beer, and overall have a rollicking good time. If they had had a deal like this I'd probably have participated...but they did have good food.
Farm Boy
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Hehe. That strikes me as odd. Once they have a self service fountain set up I think you need to drink an astronomical amount before the beverage isn't in the ballpark with the expense of the cup. Fountain drinks have terrific profit margins.
Farm Boy
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For a buck for a cup and some soda I have to pour myself? Yeap. The larger sizes are for leaving with, the small for dining in.
I remember being frustrated while jet lagged driving around Ireland. I didn't want coffee and the tiny sizes of diet soda were inadequate caffination for a long trip.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I guess from a purely economical perspective it seems more efficient then.
But it also seems kind of crazy.
So we don't do it (too much I hope, I don't hang around many pop fountain machines). But wouldn't it also make fast food joints even more money to sell non all-you-can-drink cups. 1 time use only, like we do here? No? There must be some overhead I'm missing in my mental calculations (they're not really calculations).
Timsup2nothin
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Cost effectiveness.
You pay the same price and you fill your own cup. If you fill it twice the refill cuts into the profit margin a barely perceptible amount. To significantly affect profit you would have to have significant numbers of people going for multiple refills, and that doesn't happen.
On the other hand the time-labor savings created by staff not doing the 'one time fill' are substantial over the course of a day. Basically two counter workers in a fast food place with self serve drinks can process as many customers as three in a place without.
Goodfella
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But it also seems kind of crazy.
What Tim said and customers like free refill policies. Freedom refills aren't expensive so there's no reason to take them away.
ParkCungHee
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You also have to factor in labor. The soda is so inexpensive at a fast food place they don't really make a profit off it anyway. It's there because it would be an inconvenience to you if they didn't.
And if you had to go up and order a new drink two or three times, you'd occupy a spot in the line two or three times. And occupy one of their employees time two or three times. That's time that they could spend selling a product they actually make a profit on.
And if you had to go up and order a new drink two or three times, you'd occupy a spot in the line two or three times. And occupy one of their employees time two or three times. That's time that they could spend selling a product they actually make a profit on.
Timsup2nothin
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The soda is so inexpensive to the fast food place that they can afford to give away refills. That's a much different thing than not making a profit. The sodas are generally among the highest profit margin items they sell.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
In this case, I think it's less that the United States has a culture of excess, and more than the UK has a culture of skinflint-old-bastard-ness. Soft drinks cost very little, but most British restaurants charge both too much and repeatedly, and they get away with it because Britons don't know any better.
