re: I don't see how the restaurant industry can survive in its current format.

I don't understand why people go to chain restaurants. They aren't some amazing value. I'd rather pay a bit more to get quality food from a local joint.

Rather have home cooked food vs a chain.

There's some good value to be had at some chains. The Chili's 3 for me and BW3s pick 6 deals are better price and quality than fast food meals.

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I know that I just ate at a Chinese buffet for the last time. $13.99 for lunch in the middle of the week, not including drink or tip.

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Maybe I'm crazy but 14 bucks for an all-you-can-eat buffet seems extremely reasonable.

Watching the number of Uber Eats deliveries to the shitty apartments near my office truly blows my mind. Their cars are falling apart, trash everywhere, and yet the people have money to spend on a luxury like food delivery…

Some restaurants will survive, some will die, new ones will open. Business models will adapt. It’s not the time for starting a new restaurant with no experience though. Seasoned operators will do better in this environment

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Chilis is fast food. It’s all just reheated in a microwave.

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No, it isn’t. They absolutely use Chef Mike for some things. Guess what? I work in a high-end “scratch kitchen,” and we microwave certain components too when it makes sense. That doesn’t mean the food is “all microwaved.”

Chili’s also uses plenty of pre-prepared food, especially appetizers that basically go straight into the fryer. But they absolutely grill burgers and cook chicken and ribs in actual cooking equipment. Hell, I was surprised to learn they even bring in whole avocados and make the guac fresh.

The whole microwave myth surrounding chain restaurants has always puzzled me because anyone who isn’t in a coma being fed through a tube should be able to tell the difference between a hamburger patty, chicken breast, or rack of ribs cooked from raw in a microwave and one that was grilled, fried, smoked, or oven-cooked.

I’ve worked at chains that people are convinced are nothing but microwaves and bags, including Olive Garden. Believe it or not, we barely used the microwave there. Broccoli, kids’ mac and cheese(the sole pre-made 'boil a bag' item on the menu btw), and maybe one or two other things I’m forgetting were about it. We boiled the [premade] pasta, made Alfredo every couple of hours from garlic, butter, cream, milk, Parmesan, salt, and pepper, and made the soups from scratch, then bagged and ice-bathed them until needed.Lasagna is made in house and baked in the oven (and collected and stored for food banks if any is left after four hours). Sausages are done in the oven. Multiple items like the chicken and shrimp carbonara and scampis are sauteed the same way you would do it at an upscale place (and scampi sauce is made in house from lemon juice and butter). All the meat is grilled on a flat top or sauteed.

The food just isn’t particularly good. That’s a completely fair criticism. But “it’s all microwaved” is something people repeat because they’ve heard other people say it. And frankly, if you genuinely can’t tell the difference between microwaved meat and something that came off a grill or out of an oven, you’re kind of telling on yourself.

There is a certain wing chain that does everything through a conveyor belt pizza-style oven. Wings, pizza, rare steaks, well done steaks... all get thrown on the belt and cooked at the exact same time and temp. I found out about that after hiring an "experienced" cook from there who didn't know how to cook a thing.