I had a burger in Edmonton Airport that was just awful--it was the Molson bar. There's some law there where ground beef has to be well done, and I like burgers rare or medium rare. The thing tasted like mildly seasoned shoe leather, but it wasn't just the fact that it was well-done-it was just plain awful.

The grits that came with the side of my omelette at Grandma Sally's in River Forest. Just truly very unappetizing. Bland, watery and with barely the texture of grits. Grandma Sally was not as impressive as the Mid Century relic she is housed in. Don't think I will be in a rush to go back.

And the coffee was as tasteless as the variety served at IHop and Baker's Square.

The fish in the fish & chips at the Celtic Knot in Evanston.

Eating it was like trying to nail jello to a tree. I don't think it was over or undercooked- I think it just wasn't a good piece of fish. The texture was just...kinda mushy. Every time I tried to fork off a piece, it just fell apart. The first bite I tried to take fell of my fork completely, onto the floor (hitting my shirt on the way, of course, leaving a big splotch of tartar sauce ) The breading kept falling off. It was just not good.

It was really disappointing because usually everything there is so good (Mr. Maki's burger- the one with goat cheese and caramelized onions- was excellent; I'll take his word on that, since I don't do goat cheese), and fish & chips in an Irish pub should be a safe choice.

abe_froeman wrote:The fish in the fish & chips at the Celtic Knot in Evanston.

Eating it was like trying to nail jello to a tree. I don't think it was over or undercooked- I think it just wasn't a good piece of fish. The texture was just...kinda mushy. Every time I tried to fork off a piece, it just fell apart. The first bite I tried to take fell of my fork completely, onto the floor (hitting my shirt on the way, of course, leaving a big splotch of tartar sauce ) The breading kept falling off. It was just not good.

It was really disappointing because usually everything there is so good (Mr. Maki's burger- the one with goat cheese and caramelized onions- was excellent; I'll take his word on that, since I don't do goat cheese), and fish & chips in an Irish pub should be a safe choice.

Well there's your problem; who uses a fork to eat fish 'n chips

It was too wide to just pick up. And it would have just fallen apart in my hands anyway.

brianzee wrote:I had a burger in Edmonton Airport that was just awful--it was the Molson bar. There's some law there where ground beef has to be well done, and I like burgers rare or medium rare. The thing tasted like mildly seasoned shoe leather, but it wasn't just the fact that it was well-done-it was just plain awful.

I've had the Molson burger at the Toronto airport. Hideous. I didn't mind that it was burnt to a crisp because with low quality frozen puck meat like that, you'd probably get e coli just from smelling it medium rare.

gocubs88 wrote:

abe_froeman wrote:The fish in the fish & chips at the Celtic Knot in Evanston.

Eating it was like trying to nail jello to a tree. I don't think it was over or undercooked- I think it just wasn't a good piece of fish. The texture was just...kinda mushy. Every time I tried to fork off a piece, it just fell apart. The first bite I tried to take fell of my fork completely, onto the floor (hitting my shirt on the way, of course, leaving a big splotch of tartar sauce ) The breading kept falling off. It was just not good.

It was really disappointing because usually everything there is so good (Mr. Maki's burger- the one with goat cheese and caramelized onions- was excellent; I'll take his word on that, since I don't do goat cheese), and fish & chips in an Irish pub should be a safe choice.

Well there's your problem; who uses a fork to eat fish 'n chips

I didn't know people ate it with their hands. I've been doing it wrong!

What happened to my childhood favorite.... IHOP. I guess it's been a while since I have visited this chain... as "Gone" are the German Pancakes... as well as their Veal Parmesian. I forgot to look if the Silver Dollar Pancakes are still on the menu.

Evanston location ... 3 weeks ago...
My Minestrone soup was terrible... and my Pot Roast came out with ICE COLD potatoes...
and Mrs Jazzmans Talapia was very - - - - So So. We were not the only customers that sent things back to the kitchen

Then this past Saturday Night .. I was with friends and St Charles IHOP was the only place that we could find open at the hour we were looking. (we wanted more than Steak and Shake but now I think we would have had a better meal there.)

My Ham and Cheese Omlette barely had any Ham or Cheese... and it was so dry, it needed syrup on it to make it bear-able..
btw... the omlette - which comes with 3 pancakes (no potatoe) and Coffee..
came with a a bill of almost ... $13.

jazzman wrote:What happened to my childhood favorite.... IHOP. I guess it's been a while since I have visited this chain... as "Gone" are the German Pancakes... as well as their Veal Parmesian. I forgot to look if the Silver Dollar Pancakes are still on the menu.

Evanston location ... 3 weeks ago...
My Minestrone soup was terrible... and my Pot Roast came out with ICE COLD potatoes...
and Mrs Jazzmans Talapia was very - - - - So So. We were not the only customers that sent things back to the kitchen

Then this past Saturday Night .. I was with friends and St Charles IHOP was the only place that we could find open at the hour we were looking. (we wanted more than Steak and Shake but now I think we would have had a better meal there.)

My Ham and Cheese Omlette barely had any Ham or Cheese... and it was so dry, it needed syrup on it to make it bear-able..
btw... the omlette - which comes with 3 pancakes (no potatoe) and Coffee..
came with a a bill of almost ... $13.

I grew up around the corner from the Evanston IHOP and have never been. I guess I shall continue that trend.

I tend to think that IHOP has always been that bad, it's just that when you're little you're too stoked on being able to choose your syrup to realize it. That's my experience, anyway.

And yes, the last thing I ate at IHOP was tragically bad. Swedish pancakes swimming in a pool of "butter," a dish that managed to be horrifically fatty and yet not at all filling.

(Side note: shouldn't it be House of International Pancakes? It's the pancakes that are international, not the house itself.)

jazzman wrote:What happened to my childhood favorite.... IHOP. I guess it's been a while since I have visited this chain... as "Gone" are the German Pancakes... as well as their Veal Parmesian. I forgot to look if the Silver Dollar Pancakes are still on the menu.

Evanston location ... 3 weeks ago...
My Minestrone soup was terrible... and my Pot Roast came out with ICE COLD potatoes...
and Mrs Jazzmans Talapia was very - - - - So So. We were not the only customers that sent things back to the kitchen

Then this past Saturday Night .. I was with friends and St Charles IHOP was the only place that we could find open at the hour we were looking. (we wanted more than Steak and Shake but now I think we would have had a better meal there.)

My Ham and Cheese Omlette barely had any Ham or Cheese... and it was so dry, it needed syrup on it to make it bear-able..
btw... the omlette - which comes with 3 pancakes (no potatoe) and Coffee..
came with a a bill of almost ... $13.

In the grand scheme of things I never thought IHOP was that great. Maybe at a different time back in 60s and 70s it was a much better place? IDK, I have never been impressed and I have been going since at least high school. I think there were always better options around town for breakfast. Now if you asked me what the hell happened to Golden Nugget's quality I would be all over that one.

AaronSinger wrote:I grew up around the corner from the Evanston IHOP and have never been. I guess I shall continue that trend.

I grew up about a mile from the Evanston one. Went a few times in high school back in the mid 90s and even then I thought it was underhwleming and overpriced. Went once in college with a friend of mine and she thought the Evanston location was disgusting and she always loves IHop. I still go if there is no other choice and I usually stick to what I know and I am happy.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:(Side note: shouldn't it be House of International Pancakes? It's the pancakes that are international, not the house itself.)

Do they even still serve any pancakes that qualifies as "international"?

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:(Side note: shouldn't it be House of International Pancakes? It's the pancakes that are international, not the house itself.)

But no one wants to eat at HOIP.

It's amazing how rearranging a couple of letters leads to people overlooking the near-total suckage of the menu.

Pepperoni slice from Nicola's (400 S. Financial).
From the frozen, perforated, mass manufactured crust to the Hormel pepperoni it was a disappointment from bottom to top.
Free can of pop though so there’s that at least. The Fanta orange was the highlight of lunch

Trader Joe's butter chicken frozen dinner.

The rice is completely unseasoned and the water it cooks in never fully evaporates so you end up with rice soup. The chicken can be a bit gnarly and the sauce is just OK.

I had sworn off them but my wife was about to dump it tonight so my frugality took over.

The tikka masala frozen dinner is better but you get about 4 bites.

As a child, I liked the IHOP chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream. What kid wouldn't and there's no way we would be fed that at home. A truly dismal IHOP is on Cicero just north of Six Corners. Shudder.

Chicken wings from Funky Franks & Burgers at 1648 w. Belmont. Breaded, frozen, and sauce less...what is the point in even having this on the menu...

Not even sure what drove me to order from here, never again. Burgers were bloody rare, despite order of medium (at least had enough sense not to order my usual med. rare), venison and buffalo sausages I ordered were rather bland and served on a cold, plain white hot dog bun. Waste of stomach space.

Because of time and proximity I had to have dinner at Panera. I was going to get one of their generally boring sandwiches but I notice an item called 'Salmon Caesar Salad' that they had just 'brought back' as if people had been clamoring for it. So I got that.

There were two pieces of something that looked like Salmon - pink, grill marks on top - but as if by magic or science, all of the flavor had been removed. It was flaky but there was not a trace of taste at all - not even salt. There were also white chips that I guessed was parmesan, but again, no flavor. I know the Romaine was real, but the dressing was white and, again, through some miraculous act there was no flavor in it.

Maybe they brought it back because they wanted to trumpet their achievement of being able to completely remove flavor from items that generally have a lot of flavor. They certainly achieved that.

Lemon pepper wings from little caesars. Lemon pepper seasoning caked on. Pepper was very coarse grind , and completely stale and flavorless. The "sauce" was fake movie theater popcorn butter. I, being of strong constitution, was able to choke down two. I then selflessly covered the grenade, and tossed the remainder before wife 1.0 or son were ambushed into thinking this was food. I double dog dare any of you to eat an order.

...why were you eating anything from Little Caesar's, especially wings, especially lemon pepper wings? What evil act had you committed that day that you were attempting to atone for?

gleam wrote:...why were you eating anything from Little Caesar's, especially wings, especially lemon pepper wings? What evil act had you committed that day that you were attempting to atone for?

Fair question, indeed.
late work night + gym + 3 yr old + in laws coming to visit next day, and the house looked like a tornado had gone through it + I have actually eaten the spicy ceasar wings and they were actually food worthy + me hungry enough to think I wouldn't care about it too much if they were even worse than the spicy ceasar wings = I'll give them a try for 5 bucks to go along with two slices of "pizza style food product" while I'm running the vacuum over everything.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 69214.html - look who eats Little Caesars

gocubs88 wrote:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577241751742269214.html - look who eats Little Caesars

While I question his taste in pizza (if you're gonna have a chain "pizza" guilty pleasure, at least go for Pizza Hut ), that little exposé makes me like him even more.

haha...so true

"Thin" crust pizza from Giordano's. After reading upthread about the Panera salad, makes me think these chains must have food scientists working overtime to rid us of the horrors of flavor.

The sushi combo at Sagano Sushi in Oak Park. Mr. Pie wanted to know how many pieces the maki rolls were cut into, and it took three tries and he still didn't get an answer. I was excited to see that they made sushi with brown rice, although when I ordered it that way, the waitress didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I did receive the brown rice sushi, but it was either a mistake to order it or it wouldn't have mattered; the rice was bland, as if it had never seen seasoned vinegar. It was also a little gummy, like it was sitting around all day. The sashimi was flavorless, and many of the pieces of nigiri had tears in the flesh—I was certain it was not fresh fish. Eventually I started putting wasabi and ginger just so I could taste something.

Just for shits and gigs, I looked up Sagano here to see what people thought. Funny, we parked over on Jackson and Oak Park or so, right by Sen. We decided to head out closer to downtown, where we wandered for awhile and saw at least two other sushi places. Then we decided for sure we wanted sushi, and we were tired, so we picked the first one we came across.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 69214.html - look who eats Little Caesars

Well, he IS from Michigan. Bet he's a fellow Red Wings fan, too.

Hopleaf Menu wrote:Crepes stuffed w/Raclette cheese & caramelized onions; w/wild rice, sauteed brussel sprouts, romanesco broccoli; black trumpet, hedgehog, & hen of the woods mushrooms; kriek-mushroom reduction sauce

Sounds good. Wasn't. Crepes, folded into quarters, were highly toasted (almost burnt) and crunchy, with only a tiny bit of cheese and onion inside. Dumped over a ton of wild rice, with tiny bits of broccoli, a couple of brussels sprout halves, and maybe a few almost indiscernible mushroom pieces.

Make no mistake about it - I love the Hopleaf, its beer list, and the mussels. But the crepes were a rare must-miss.

A Markets of Meijer lamb cake that was so dry it could be used to soak up oil spills. Absolutely awful. I had ice cream on top of it and it even made the ice cream dry. The absolute worst cake I've ever eaten. Did I say how bad it was?