Josh's Top Ten Chain Restaurants

10. Chinese Buffets
These probably are not technically chains, but they go on here anyway. I consider myself quite the unfortunate and sad chinese buffet conoseur. Almost every single one of these establishments has food that tastes exactly the same. Some even have the same furniture. That is close enough to a chain for me.

9. Panera
The food here is pretty good. However, it ranked low for three reasons. One: consistency. I only really order one sandwich at Panera, and it is quite delicious. However, the construction of that sandwich varies a ridiculous amount. Often, it is the perfect amount of meat, lettuce and sauce. But I would say about 40% of the time there is either wayyy too much meat, way too little meat, no lettuce, too much tomato, not enough sauce, or it is on completely different bread. I don't want the sandwiches to be pre-made, but a little consistency would be nice. Two: selection. Like I said, there is only really one sandwich and a couple of soups that I eat here. Everything else is kind of "meh." I find that there are a lot of people with this opinion. Not that they eat the same items I do, but that they only like a small handful of items, as opposed to somewhere like TGI Friday's or Cheesecake Factory, where I like almost everything on the menu. Three: service. Due to their silly separate counter for bakery items, not all registers are utilized during peak times. This occasionally makes them very slow.

8. Bagel Factory
I did not even realize these were chains until I saw it on Dan's list. Too many fond memories of over-priced omelletes followed by overstuffed stomachs and trips to the comic store for this restaurant to not make the list.

7. TGI Friday's
I have always enjoyed the food at Friday's. However, it has been a while since the days of 3 for 12.99, which was the best thing ever.

6. Red Robin
Burgers + Unlimited fries + milkshakes = awesome. It's as simple as that my friends.

5. Dairy Queen
In the words of my evidence professor:

Dairy Queen is proof that god exists.

4. Cheesecake Factory
The only down side to this restaurant is their ridiculous "we don't take call aheads/reservations" policy. Seriously, that's it. Everything else is amazing.

3. Qdoba
As Dan said, this blows Chipotle out of the water due to its infinitely larger selection. Also, the queso sauce is amazing, even if my heart does not agree.

2. International House of Pancakes
This restaurant is conspicuously missing in Western PA. It is a great, quick cheap place to go for breakfast at all sorts of hours.

1. Rita's
This is a throwback to everyone from Pennsylvania and a few other East Coast states. Everyone else, you don't know what you're missing. Rita's (formerly Rita's Water Ice) is not Italian ice. It isn't ice cream. It is some sort of magical combination of amazingness straight from Mt. Olympus. Describing it is damn near impossible. Eating it is beyond enjoyable.

Runners Up:
Planet Hollywood
Outback Steakhouse