It has always been my experience that chain restaurants end up going downhill eventually. I think what happens is there is always pressure to keep improving the bottom line so they are always looking for ways to take out cost. It could be one less slice of cheese on your sandwich, making you ask for a straw, or having waitstaff run eight tabletops instead of six.
Eventually the service and product will not be what it was.
I remember when Applebees first came to my area in the late 1980s. It was the place to go. It was brightly lit, extremely clean and everything just shined. Food portions were huge and you had a gleaming wrap around bar in the middle of it all with polished wood and sparkling glasses hanging from the racks above. It was actually an upscale place. Yuppies used to go there after work.
Go into an Applebees now and you have a totally different experience. It's a shoddy operation that is running on fumes. Much more downscale. Yuppies wouldn't be caught dead there nowadays.
With independently owned restaurants, the owners might be satisfied with a fixed bottom line (as opposed to always trying to increase margin). They don't have a corporate HQ spreadsheeting them to death with metrics and tying manager compensation to YOY growth in operating margin.
I agree, 100%. Not always easy to do here in Phoenix. I tend to find we are driving more into the older parts of Mesa where the rents are cheaper and the restaurant choices are more varied and unique
Chilli's used to be good too. Last time we went it was borderline inedible.