Splitting off from the Love/Hate Stores thread…
Name the restaurants that you LOVE (list them by Regional, National and Local) & Hate
And…possibly include a mention of your fave menu items at your beloved places
You can copy/paste the following if it makes things easier:
Love ~ and Fave Menu Items
National
Regional
Local
Hate (one category)
Love ~ and Fave Menu Items
National
Cheesecake Factory ~ thai lettuce wraps, dulce de leche caramel cheesecake
PF Changs ~ Chicken Lettuce wraps, their iced tea! scallops
Regional
Cheddar’s ~ Sangria Swirl Margarita! Painkiller cocktail! Lots of their food items
Maki Fresh ~ Crunch Crunch & Samurai sushi and their kokoyashi (ahi tuna dish…yum!)
In n Out ~ burgers, fries, oh my! <= this may be national, but sadly not in my state. 
Mugshots ~(this is going to sound gross) their hamburger with peanut butter & their BUNS!!! wow!
Jason’s Deli ~ California Club w/ fresh fruit & Coke ZERO!!!
Local
Bento Japanese - The Bento chicken! yum and the Sunday Morning Sushi
Rama Jama ~ Swiss Mushroom burger!
Hate (one category)
Taco Casa (icky icky icky!)
Fun Thread mom2collegekids!
Love ~ and Fave Menu Items
National
PF Changs - Crispy Honey Chicken
Taco Bell- Ok I admit it - I love plain crispy tacos.
Regional
In n Out Burger- Our D just returned from out of the country and this is first place she visited. Animal fries are my secret passion (I don’t think this in Nat’l- only located in 4/5 states)
Corner Bakery- The Trio with Asian Edamame salad, DC chicken salad and loaded baked potato soup
BJ’s- Pazooki, giant warm cookie topped with ice cream.
Jersey Mike’s- original Italian Mike’s Way
Local (S. Calif.:Ventura/Malibu/Santa Barbara)
Snapper Jack’s Mexican Food - Potato Tacos!!! ( I could live on these!)
Andria’s Sea Food- fish and chips and chowder
Neptune’s Net- fish and chips (I love the atmosphere more than the food but still good)
Yolanda’s Mexican Food- juevos rancheros
Godmother of Malibu- Salmon Wasabe Wrap and Tomato Bisque
The Montecito Cafe- Papaya Crab Salad w/ Lime dressing. I take my Mom here every year for her BD!!
Marabella Farmer’s Market-any sandwich/salad! Not near our house but we always stop on way to S’s school. (San Juan Capistrano)
Hate (one category)
Subway!!!
One suggestion. If you want to put your area when you mention local, it could give people some suggestions of where to go when in your neck of the woods.
Love: Spados, The Grill on the Alley, da Pasquale, Il Pastacio, Xian, Nate and Als, Izakaia, Il Cielo
Like: Changs, Titos Tacos, Pinks, porta vie, Fridas, La Loteria
Hate: Can’t think of one. Probably because I won’t go a second time to a bad restaurant. Mr. Ellebud would give a restaurant a second try. Not me.
I wouldn’t say I love any national chains, but I ‘like’ the following:
Regional:
Local:
Hate:
National Chains - Cheesecake Factory but I’ve only ever had a salad there. They are huge and I can bring half home to eat for dinner. Cracker Barrel when we are on the road and need quick off and on place.
Regional Chains - Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (Troy)
Local (Cap District of NYS)
Bombers Burrito Bar (Albany)
McGuire’s (Albany)
Cafe Capriccio (Albany)
333 Cafe (Delmar)
Hidden Cafe (Delmar)
Mezzanotte (Guilderland)
Creo (Albany)
677 Prime (Albany)
Yonos (Albany)
New World Bistro (Albany)
Maestro’s at the Van Damm (Saratoga)
15 Church (Saratoga)
DeFasio’s Pizza (Troy)
Illium Cafe(Troy)
Pinhead Susan’s (Schenectady)
Bangkok Bistro (Schenectady)
Moon and River Cafe (Schenectady)
I tried to give my favorites for the Tri-Cities and Saratoga for parents who might be doing college visits at Union, RPI, UAlbany, Siena and Skidmore. Lots of different price points too.
I am not from @emilybee’s area but can also vouch for Dinosaur BBQ (been to the one in Syracuse).
In Saratoga Springs, the sandwiches at Putnam Market are fabulous!
Chains - Soup Plantation and Sweet Tomatoes (our go to places when we are traveling)
Local: Our area was just featured in the New York Times and I can vouch for the excellence of Frutiland La Casa del Sabor!
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/travel/things-to-do-in-36-hours-in-san-luis-obispo.html?_r=0
^Forgot all about Putnam Market. We’ve ordered from them when we go to SPAC. It’s a cool market to browse through and they always seem to be having wine tastings when we are there. 
Love
National
Maybe not love, but IHOP pancakes when we travel
Regional
There are only two, one in Seattle and one in Bellevue, but if I had to choose one restaurant to prepare my dinners for the rest of my life it would be Wild Ginger, asian inspired NW cuisine. Fragrant duck with steamed buns is my favorite, but would gladly eat anything on the menu.
Same deal, one restaurant in Everett and one in Mukilteo, but Brooklyn Brothers Pizza brought some east coast flavor to the PNW pizza desert. Its a savior for transplants like us.
Tom Douglas’ string of restaurants in Seattle are reliably good.
Spiedies in the Binghamton NY area, worth a stop if you are passing through.
Local (Seattle Eastside)
High level - Tosoni’s in Bellevue. It’s an unassuming place in a strip mall but the food is astounding. Despite the Italian sounding name, the owner is from Austria and the cuisine is pan-European. +1 for his house cake.
Mid Level - Tropea Ristorante, downtown Redmond. A small place, reasonably priced authentic Italian, unfortunately discovered by the Microsoft crowd so lines out the door. The “Tropea pour” lets you order wine by the glass and it comes filled to the top.
Grab-n-go - XXX Drive-In, Issaquah, just off I-90. Huge burgers and quart sized root beer floats.
Hate
Olive Garden. Sorry all, growing up with an Italian mother kills the tolerance for bad imitations.
Most fast food like McDonald’s makes me nauseous.
How can I forget? Bledsoe’s barbque and Lucille’s barbeq. The original Bledsoes was in Inglewood (I think) and now is closer to us. Lucille’s is actually going to the Valley…but we go to the one in the Fox Hill Mall. Lucille’s catered our rehearsal dinner (best beef ribs that I have EVER had. Bledsoe’s is my son’s favorite…pork ribs. We bought 10 racks of ribs for the rehearsal dinner.
So delicious!
Don’t eat at national chains, except when traveling, then Im afraid it is usually Dairy Queen or Starbucks.
( Seattle)
Wild Ginger?
Really?
I’ve never been inside the restaurant, but I’ve eaten several times at the Triple Door, and I always thought their food was prepared by Wild Ginger, and it was mediocre at best, while we paid for the privilege.
Maybe I just don’t know what to order.
Favorite breakfast places. ( Since the Mallory hotel is closed and I have not found another place that does a great job with hang town fry)
The Dish- Seattle to Portland scramble
Hattie’s Hat- Swedish pancakes
Seasons Cafe at Swansons nursery. Breakfast sandwich, the better to finish shopping.
We also love Seatown Seabar ( Tom Douglas), but since it’s not in Ballard, we don’t get there as much as we’d like!
Favorite Mexican restaurant in Ballard.
Señor Moose. Or La Carta de Oaxaca.
Favorite bakeries in Seattle- Essential bakery. Favorite in Portland, Grand Central ( also in Seattle)
I get breakfast sandwiches usually. The Essential has grilled one with yams, arugula and pears, that is amazing.
One of our favorite restaurants in Portland.
http://www.pambiche.com
Try the sangria, and most definitely save room for dessert.
The worst TV restaurant reviewer has to be a local Tampa TV station newscaster who does weekly ‘Dirty Dining’ investigative reports where she busts into local restaurants with cameras to show rats, roaches, droppings, and general grossness in area restaurants. The video reports always seem to be on evening news show on our TV just when we are sitting down at home for dinner and her reports on our TV with her stomping bugs in restaurant kitchens waving a red health dept F- report just spoils our dinner at home.
Detroit-area favorites:
Buddy’s Pizza- yum. It’s a family tradition. We’ve had 5 generations eating at Buddy’s from the original in downtown Detroit to the newest favorites.
Antonio’s- a little chain around here of Italian food. I’m not sure why but I’m in love with it.
Regional chains:
Old Chicago- again, I have no idea why I love it but I just do. Yumm
National favorites:
Olive garden. Yes, yes I know but the breadsticks and the alfredo dip are just so good.
On the border. Great happy hour and actually pretty good food.
Hate:
The only fast food place I can really stand is McDonald’s because I like their fries. Everything else is blech.
I’m really a creature of habit. I’ll find a place I like and stick with it. I wish I was more adventurous. I’m working on it
Hmmm. I don’t really love any…but I’ll try.
Restaurant likes chains: Brio, Chipotle, Panera, Bonefish Grill
Restaurant dislikes chains: Taco Bell, Kentucky fried chicken, Chiles (actually sometimes I like them…but they keep switching their menu…and usually remove the things I like).
Local: we have an awesome family owned pizza place Pizzeria Marzano…fabulous thin crust pizza. And a Thai restaurant…the elephant’s trail…excellent really excellent. And a place called Joe Pizza, but I go there for the best eggplant fries on the planet, and their hamburgers…meat ground fresh every few hours.
Yes, @emeraldkity4, Triple Door is the downstairs of Wild Ginger, nearly the same menu, owned by the same guy. They do have different staff and the Triple Door smells like stale beer spilled during the concerts so I never eat down there. We generally go a-la-carte and split a main dish, barbeque prawns or black pepper scallops, with a side of green beans or garlic bok choy. Don’t make the rookie mistake and get the beef or chicken.
Hate:
The mention of rats and roaches reminded me I have to add another chain crossed off the list: Texas Roadhouse. Everything was bad, poor quality, horribly prepared, but we decided to give it one more chance when we were traveling and could not find anything else open. Big mistake - multiple rat poops in the bottom of the bread basket and they did not give us any discount despite the fact we stopped eating our meals when we found it. Never, ever, ever again.
National (not much for chain restaurants - eat at local places majority of the time)
Chipotle
Maggiano’s (national or regional???)
Cheesecake Factory - pad thai, shrimp tacos.
Regional
Piada (Italian Street food in a Chipotle type way)
Five Guys (like once a year I want a burger from there to enjoy)
Wing Stop (take out wings/boneless - their garlic parm - oh man!)
(this category is tough - I don’t really know what is regional vs. national…)
Local (here we go!!!) LOVE AUTHENTIC MEDITERRANEAN, MEXICAN, ITALIAN! (all NW Ohio below)
Grape Leaf - order the family dinner and FEAST
Zingo’s - feta salsa, thin wrapped gyros, hummus, vegan cupcakes
San Marco’s - authentic Mexican - restaurant housed in back of authentic Mexican grocery store
Tony Packo’s - Hungarian food (ala Klinger in M.A.S.H)
Hate (one category)
Wendy’s
Burger King
Texas Roadhouse (don’t get all the hype - I swear people go there for the biscuits only!)
I should add, I really don’t like Cheesecake Factory. It’s always crowded, and the food is meh for the price…in my opinion.
Abasket…we have Five Guys in New England.
Can we add frozen yogurt places? I love Pinkberrys.
Thanks for starting the thread mom2
I’ve lived in Florida and New England. Hands down the best meal in Florida was at Joe’s Stone Crabs in Miami. Outstanding Stone Crabs. If anyone has never tried them before, you’re in for a real treat! Expensive, but oh so worth it!
In New England, we’re known for Clam Chowder, anywhere on Cape Cod or in Boston you can’t go wrong! The best Lobsters are from little shacks in Maine…Red Eats is a shack where you sit on picnic tables, outstanding lobster.
Chains I try to avoid at all costs. Cheesecake factory is the big exception…I enjoy their food.
Hate: All chains!! There’s just too many to name
New Orleans: Commander’s Palace for brunch-Bread Pudding souflee-outstanding
Philadelphia: instead of a cheesesteak, try a pork, broccoli rabe, roasted peppers and sharp provolone sub, yum
San Francisco: It’s all good
I tend to eat Fish & Seafood a lot when eating out just because they prepare it so much better than I ever could.