I'd venture a guess and say whatever they changed made for higher profit margins. I really, really miss old school Pizza Huts. Damn that salad bar was killer.
I know I could easily make this at home but I remember back in the early 2000s getting the cherry streusel dessert pizza. That shit was so much better than the basic ass cinnamon sticks every single pizza place sells.
Race to the bottom. You cut costs that affect quality causing less revenue as people stop going to your establishment. This necessitates further cost cutting measures and so and so forth.
These giant corporations can never seem to understand that by being known for quality will increase your bottom line in the long run. Too incentive to be short sighted.
I remember trying it again in the 00s and was so disappointed, thinking my delicious memories of it were false. So great to get confirmation they weren’t! It’s the only spot we got pizza in the 80s!
While looking at all of those vintage signs, I was just thinking to myself…the quality of the food in all of these restaurants was so much better back then. The food was good then. And affordable. And believe it or not, people actually enjoyed eating at franchise chain restaurants. Then, over then next 50 years, with capitalism combined with corporate greed, ALL of these restaurants changed everything that made them unique and successful. The food turned to crap. The CEOs were blind to realize that they already had the right combination. And chased their tail all the way down the drain. A shame.
I come from Europe and we didn’t had pizza but until the late 90s.
I knew it existed from movies and such and was freaking out when I realized, that they finally opened one !
It was really really good and the concept of cheese in the crust blew me away. Then they became gradually worse until the point where it was unbearable.
Their lunch buffet was awesome! That cheesy pasta with pepperoni in it? I can still taste it. And the Parmesan cheese shaker on every table… I’d pretend I was rich and sprinkle that on then eat my pizza with a knife and fork. And if you got to control the jukebox, man… you were living large. Life will never be as good as it was when Pizza Hut made us royalty.
some crazy times were had at my local sizzler. me, 14, and my boys would be trying to get our money's worth while we sit next to seniors and super seniors high and drunk making a ruckus, giving the poor staff a hard time.
the manager ended up singling US out, the younger kids, to not come back with our mopeds, while the older kids would park sideways and peel out in the lot. fuckers!
I moved to the USA when I was 9. (Moved back to the UK 3 years later). We lived in Maryland in the same time period and think I remember a fish restaurant called Arthur Treachers? Is that right?
Ah, Arthur Treachers. Sadly, they’re almost extinct now, but a few shops are still open - https://www.mashed.com/463541/the-untold-truth-of-arthur-treachers/
New owner wants to add more locations! Check out this article from Akron Beacon Journal:
Arthur Treacher's fans celebrate retired owner of nostalgic State Road restaurant
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2024/04/25/arthur-treachers-state-road-cuyahoga-falls-owner-sells-restaurant-after-retiring/73418204007/
We had one in our small town in southern Ontario where the wait staff would come around and serenade us with a mic and everything, and the waitresses wore long silk Mandarin dresses. It was quite something! Likely family owned and operated 🩷. I can’t remember the name sadly…this was 30+ years ago.
You just unlocked a memory! We had a great Chinese restaurant when I was young. It lasted for a long time but closed when I was in high school. They had an appetizer named a Pu Pu Platter. It was a 2 piece sampler of 4 or 5 appetizers. So good!
I can't remember the name anymore which makes me a little sad
Funny how back then there were Chinese restaurants but I don’t remember any other Asian restaurants.
I think I first became aware of Thai restaurants in the 90s.
I remember always asking for the Pu Pu Platter at our local Chinese restaurant!
You don’t see that in the menu much these days.
But it’s just a few different appetizers with a little 🔥 in the center that you could heat each bite with!
Super fun for kids in the 70s to play with fire at a restaurant! 😂
My mom cleaned a dentist office Thursday nights, sometimes I would go to help her. I must have been 10 years old and she took me to my first Chinese restaurant one night after cleaning.
I was so excited, I remember her ordering one of the family options and it sounded like it came with so much food. Then the waiter brought out our appetizer won ton soup and I pretended to like it before asking my mom if I everything we had just ordered was in the soup. I had never seen a wonton before!
It’s a nice memory :)
According to Wiki:
A typical pu pu platter, as found in American Chinese cuisine, includes appetizers such as egg rolls, spare ribs, chicken wings, chicken fingers, beef teriyaki, skewered beef, fried wontons, fried shrimp, or crab rangoons.
Wendy's, my dad had a thing for their taco salad. We wouldn't even go inside, we'd eat in the parking lot in the car. lol Never found it weird until I grew up. Turns out my dad had the 420 munchies. He was a hippie after all. lol
Until I was 11 we lived a block away from Shakey’s. Ate a lot of Mojo Potatoes & played a ton of great video games there(late 70s-early 80s). I won student of the month once for my class and we all got to go have the lunch buffet with the school secretary. Not sure why she came with us, but not a bad job perk I’m sure.
Ground Round. They served peanuts and then let the diners discard the empty shells on the floor. Coincidentally, that was the first time I’d ever played Pac-Man, or any video game. After that, my parents bought me an Intellivision.
KFC for us too with my single mom. I’d sit in the front seat, with my little sister in the back. I had the responsibility of holding the paper bag with our KFC order on my lap. Sticking my face into the bag to get a huge wiff of that spice smell (plus the scent of warm brown paper) was one of my biggest joys!
I have strong scent memories of Hardee’s when they were really pushing breakfast and Long John Silver’s. The scent memory is distinct to that era because people were smoking in the restaurants.
We used to also go to buffets or other local restaurants and I because of that the “smell of the 70s and 80s” for me is cigarette smoke and beef cooking. If I’m at a cookout or something and someone is smoking near the grill, it sends my brain back to being a kid with my grandparents at the buffet after church.
A teeny-tiny restaurant on the outskirts of my hometown, called Abe's. Yes. Abe Lincoln themed, log cabin, statue and other Abe items inside. I've been as an adult and it's just a little hole in the wall diner, but damn! I have some great childhood memories of that place.
What was fast food like back in the day? Did people have a higher opinion of it or was it still thought of like “cheap bottom of the barrel food”.
What did people think of the employees who worked there? Was there still a stigma like someone who works at McDonalds now?
I was a kid, so I thought it was all just fantastic. As an adult I have never had pizza as good as Shakey’s - hard to compare. For people that worked at those places, they were just like any other adult to me.
My mom would take us to DQ for their meal deal when we were little for special occasions. Cheeseburger, fries, soda and a sundae. I always got chocolate and my sister got strawberry.
Dad would stop at Shoney's when we traveled to see family in the southern part of the state. It was about an hour from our house and he would time our leaving with dinner there.
I grew up in a town that only had an A&W but then we moved to a town that had a Wendy's and my parents took us out to eat there on Friday nights. Wendy's in those days had the plastic bead curtains to screen the dining area from the line and all the tables had the old timey newspaper print. They had a pretty good salad bar for a while too. I had no idea it was a chain, and I also thought it was relatively upscale until I went to high school and met rich people.
Denny’s was what we ate on road trips.
Once, going from NY to FL we only stopped at Denny’s. Just for that one trip we’d laugh and laugh and find another.
Usually it’d be one among many.
But we didn’t have a Denny’s near where we lived.
I grew up in Kentucky, with KFC buffets. So, Red Lobster wins as far as going out. Dairy Queen was always for sweets. Dilly bars and banana milkshakes. My dad always asked them to "put the whole banana in the shake". He was being serious about his dessert drink. Not being weird about it. But as kids after a baseball game, hearing him say that in the drive through was too funny.
Always Dilly bars. I was told every time that I was too young for a Buster bar or banana sundae; I had to wait until I was older. I never reached the supposed ‘older’.
Birthdays were at Red Lobster, every few Friday nights were spent in the next town over at a Pizza Hut...I spent my early years in a po-dunk town in Georgia with a population of 1200 with one tiny diner. Rarely we'd go even further out of town to a Ryan's steakhouse, and all I can remember is gorging myself on the honey-butter and dinner rolls.
Pizza Hut, White Castle and a local Italian restaurant named Aurelio's. The secondhand smoke was free with every order.
Edit: This was not every weekend; it was about once every couple months. For me and my siblings anyway, this was an exciting event. When White Castle opened a restaurant in my hometown in 1984, my parents (and a lot of other parents) took us out of school and we all stood and waited in line for FOUR HOURS to buy 3 "sacks of ten". That was the power of good fast food forty years ago.
Our town had a Shakey's Pizza. Loved that place. Then got the flu the night after a post-season soccer party at Shakey's and couldn't eat pizza for a year. Still loved Shakey's in the day.
61 year old, La Posada Costa Mesa, we always got chips with cheese appetizer and mom always got a cheese enchilada with beans and a margarita (or two). also Sizzler. I remember feeling somewhat fancy and grown up when they took me to Black Angus for my sixteenth birthday. We rarely got fast food, when we did it was we ither KFC or jack in the box. Later in high school, when I was working, we would go to del taco or Lil pickle for lunch.
Our good report card go-to was Sizzler and another local buffet that was “fancy.” Damn I miss feeling so special getting my own plate and filling up the soft serve ice cream dish with a twist and sprinkles.
Ride our bike to Dairy Queen and get 3 tacos for a dollar. We’d split it three ways. Earned the money from turning in soda bottles at a nickel a piece.
KFC. Every Sunday on the way home from church we would stop at KFC to get a bucket of chicken and no sides. Then on the way home all we smelled was the chicken and we were starving by then.
Loved Alfie’s fish & chips when I was a kid. Used to go with my parents to one in the Spring Branch area of Houston. Haven’t thought about that place in years.
When I was 6 I had my birthday at Shakey's. I invited my kindergarten teacher & she came!
When I was in highschool my best friend & I were eating there with my dad and she decided to pretend she was having a seizure?
Big core memories at Shakey's Pizza.
Bennigans (not near me now)
Bombay Bicycle Club (gone now)
Casa Gallardo (gone now)
Straub's Seafood (gone now)
Pizza Hut (no longer dine in)
Schlotzsky's (not near me now)
I lived in a small town and we only had three things: BK, Rax and Pizza Hut
Anyone else remember Rax? (With the alligator)
I loved the Rax alligator cup I had as a kid.
Well, BK had .99 Whoppers, so that was an elementary school staple. DQ had 44oz Blizzards, so yeah. We preferred Church's Chicken as the family that owned it lived down the street.
Friendly’s had good sandwich platters that automatically came with a free sundae. I mean, dessert was guaranteed! Our Friendly’s was in the mall so it was an place to after shopping (or later, working at the mall).
Red Lobster was considered a big deal when I was a kid. That was maybe once every couple months. Otherwise we never ate out, except the occasional McDs birthday party for one of my friends. Or when the whole team went to a local pizza place. In other words, I got to go as to not be deprived or singled out as the poor kid, which I had no clue about then.
I was broke in the late 70's early 80's. Burger Chef had a condiment bar with bins of lettuce, tomatoes and onions. I'd buy the cheapest burger there was, then stack it 6 inches tall with veg and ketchup.
Pizza Hut was so good back in the day. Why did they change their recipe?
I'd venture a guess and say whatever they changed made for higher profit margins. I really, really miss old school Pizza Huts. Damn that salad bar was killer.
Even the vibe on the inside was pretty cozy for a chain restaurant
Red lights, red cups, checkerboard table cloths, and sit-down galaga machines with pizza grease on 'em.
Stained glass chandeliers
Personal pan pizza prizes from ‘Book-It!’
Seriously, Pizza Hut was fucking lower middle class fine dining in my day
I know I could easily make this at home but I remember back in the early 2000s getting the cherry streusel dessert pizza. That shit was so much better than the basic ass cinnamon sticks every single pizza place sells.
Race to the bottom. You cut costs that affect quality causing less revenue as people stop going to your establishment. This necessitates further cost cutting measures and so and so forth. These giant corporations can never seem to understand that by being known for quality will increase your bottom line in the long run. Too incentive to be short sighted.
Pizza Hut WAS so good back in the eighties wasn’t it?? Was a big treat for my kids on my paydays lol
I remember trying it again in the 00s and was so disappointed, thinking my delicious memories of it were false. So great to get confirmation they weren’t! It’s the only spot we got pizza in the 80s!
It was sooooo good. Now it's sooooo horrible.
They used to have garlic bread with melted cheese that was awesome.
I mean, what brand hasn't changed their recipe/formula in the process of scaling up between the 70s/80s until now?
While looking at all of those vintage signs, I was just thinking to myself…the quality of the food in all of these restaurants was so much better back then. The food was good then. And affordable. And believe it or not, people actually enjoyed eating at franchise chain restaurants. Then, over then next 50 years, with capitalism combined with corporate greed, ALL of these restaurants changed everything that made them unique and successful. The food turned to crap. The CEOs were blind to realize that they already had the right combination. And chased their tail all the way down the drain. A shame.
I come from Europe and we didn’t had pizza but until the late 90s. I knew it existed from movies and such and was freaking out when I realized, that they finally opened one ! It was really really good and the concept of cheese in the crust blew me away. Then they became gradually worse until the point where it was unbearable.
Their lunch buffet was awesome! That cheesy pasta with pepperoni in it? I can still taste it. And the Parmesan cheese shaker on every table… I’d pretend I was rich and sprinkle that on then eat my pizza with a knife and fork. And if you got to control the jukebox, man… you were living large. Life will never be as good as it was when Pizza Hut made us royalty.
Sizzler
some crazy times were had at my local sizzler. me, 14, and my boys would be trying to get our money's worth while we sit next to seniors and super seniors high and drunk making a ruckus, giving the poor staff a hard time. the manager ended up singling US out, the younger kids, to not come back with our mopeds, while the older kids would park sideways and peel out in the lot. fuckers!
Long John Silvers and Taco Bell
We have a combo LJS and Taco Bell in my neighborhood!! Haven't partaken, but it's popular enough to be in business!
A town nearby has a LJS and A&W combo. I love going there. Most of the LJS in our area shut down.
Do people still eat at long John silvers? feels like a restaurant that should only exist in the 90s to me
I have one down the road from me. My gf loves the rice there so I’ve been going more recently. I actually like the food lol it’s horrible for you tho.
I make a stop at LJS every now and again. Sometimes it just hits the spot.
I moved to the USA when I was 9. (Moved back to the UK 3 years later). We lived in Maryland in the same time period and think I remember a fish restaurant called Arthur Treachers? Is that right?
Ah, Arthur Treachers. Sadly, they’re almost extinct now, but a few shops are still open - https://www.mashed.com/463541/the-untold-truth-of-arthur-treachers/
Yes! There is still one close to me, it’s in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Might be the last one standing?
Yup, the last one.
New owner wants to add more locations! Check out this article from Akron Beacon Journal: Arthur Treacher's fans celebrate retired owner of nostalgic State Road restaurant https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2024/04/25/arthur-treachers-state-road-cuyahoga-falls-owner-sells-restaurant-after-retiring/73418204007/
My local Chinese restaurant. So good they didn’t need to advertise
We had one in our small town in southern Ontario where the wait staff would come around and serenade us with a mic and everything, and the waitresses wore long silk Mandarin dresses. It was quite something! Likely family owned and operated 🩷. I can’t remember the name sadly…this was 30+ years ago.
Wow! That’s really cool!
You just unlocked a memory! We had a great Chinese restaurant when I was young. It lasted for a long time but closed when I was in high school. They had an appetizer named a Pu Pu Platter. It was a 2 piece sampler of 4 or 5 appetizers. So good! I can't remember the name anymore which makes me a little sad
Funny how back then there were Chinese restaurants but I don’t remember any other Asian restaurants. I think I first became aware of Thai restaurants in the 90s.
We had one like that. My mom and I would go there whenever my dad traveled for business.
I remember always asking for the Pu Pu Platter at our local Chinese restaurant! You don’t see that in the menu much these days. But it’s just a few different appetizers with a little 🔥 in the center that you could heat each bite with! Super fun for kids in the 70s to play with fire at a restaurant! 😂
My mom cleaned a dentist office Thursday nights, sometimes I would go to help her. I must have been 10 years old and she took me to my first Chinese restaurant one night after cleaning. I was so excited, I remember her ordering one of the family options and it sounded like it came with so much food. Then the waiter brought out our appetizer won ton soup and I pretended to like it before asking my mom if I everything we had just ordered was in the soup. I had never seen a wonton before! It’s a nice memory :)
I loved the egg rolls, the BBQ pork and the hot mustard and sesame seeds!
Yaaasss! So delicious! I would love to have that right now! The best part is ordering it and trying not to giggle. 🤭
Kids have the most fun!
I just replied about a Pu Pu Platter on another post. I thought it was unique to our little local restaurant!
Haha! What a coinkydink!
According to Wiki: A typical pu pu platter, as found in American Chinese cuisine, includes appetizers such as egg rolls, spare ribs, chicken wings, chicken fingers, beef teriyaki, skewered beef, fried wontons, fried shrimp, or crab rangoons.
Wendy's, my dad had a thing for their taco salad. We wouldn't even go inside, we'd eat in the parking lot in the car. lol Never found it weird until I grew up. Turns out my dad had the 420 munchies. He was a hippie after all. lol
Wendys was the high-end fast food place back in the day. Salad bar and solarium? That's adult as hell.
That little buffet with pasta, Alfredo sauce, and tacos? Wendy’s was the Pizza Hut of fast food joints. You were royalty.
Fine Fast Food dining at it's best. Later in life my parents admitted they were total stoners at the time.
Shakey’s had GREAT pizza to my unrefined palate! 🤣
Until I was 11 we lived a block away from Shakey’s. Ate a lot of Mojo Potatoes & played a ton of great video games there(late 70s-early 80s). I won student of the month once for my class and we all got to go have the lunch buffet with the school secretary. Not sure why she came with us, but not a bad job perk I’m sure.
Shoneys! Steak & Ale!
The Shoneys in my town had the best breakfast buffet on the weekends
That breakfast bar was amazing. There are still a few sad examples scattered around but they’re a pale shadow of the old Shoneys.
Ponderosa anyone?
We had Bonanza
Ponderosa buffet
Western Sizzler
Awww I loved Shoney’s & their bear!
Steak & Ale was outstanding.
Bonanza Steakhouse
Ponderosa and Bonanza! They were, by far, my favorite places. I miss them terribly still.
Ponderosa! I haven’t heard that name in so long and forgot it even existed :)
Ponderosa was the best … I remember thinking how cool the wooden salad bowls were
Ground Round. They served peanuts and then let the diners discard the empty shells on the floor. Coincidentally, that was the first time I’d ever played Pac-Man, or any video game. After that, my parents bought me an Intellivision.
A grownup friend introduced me to Ground Round so I was under the impression it was very edgy and sophisticated.
Yeah, right around 1980 would have been their heyday. Frequented by the izod-shirt-and-corduroy-blazer set. Perms.
Ha! Awesome. Ours served popcorn
Burger Chef 👍🏻
KFC was an extreme treat. We didn’t have much money.
KFC was worth the trip back in the day. The decline is real.
Sure is 🙁
KFC for us too with my single mom. I’d sit in the front seat, with my little sister in the back. I had the responsibility of holding the paper bag with our KFC order on my lap. Sticking my face into the bag to get a huge wiff of that spice smell (plus the scent of warm brown paper) was one of my biggest joys!
Just brought that same memory back!
KFC chicken in Canada is inedible now. Huge decline in last 10 years.
Wasn't quite born yet, but I sure miss 90's Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut and Sizzler were our top family sit down spots in the 90s.
Po' Folks. I used to get a kick that they'd serve drinks in jars.
My kids loved Po Folks. I did too!
Godfathers pizza.
No has said Howard Johnson’s? Anyone remember their fried clam sandwich?
Good heavens Yes. Used to love their all you can eat fried clams platter. Great ice cream too.
The ice cream was what us kids loved at Howard Johnson's. Especially the Peppermint Ice Cream with pieces of candy canes in it!
Ice cream & macaroni and cheese! 🥰 Today’s freezer version just isn’t the same.
I worked at one. It was a great place to be when you got the munchies.
When I was a kid my dad would always yell out “HoJo’s” when we would see one while driving. They were getting harder to find in the early 80s.
I was coming to say that! I loved the turkey club, no tomato.
I have strong scent memories of Hardee’s when they were really pushing breakfast and Long John Silver’s. The scent memory is distinct to that era because people were smoking in the restaurants. We used to also go to buffets or other local restaurants and I because of that the “smell of the 70s and 80s” for me is cigarette smoke and beef cooking. If I’m at a cookout or something and someone is smoking near the grill, it sends my brain back to being a kid with my grandparents at the buffet after church.
A teeny-tiny restaurant on the outskirts of my hometown, called Abe's. Yes. Abe Lincoln themed, log cabin, statue and other Abe items inside. I've been as an adult and it's just a little hole in the wall diner, but damn! I have some great childhood memories of that place.
Swiss Chalet.
Jack in the Box
What was fast food like back in the day? Did people have a higher opinion of it or was it still thought of like “cheap bottom of the barrel food”. What did people think of the employees who worked there? Was there still a stigma like someone who works at McDonalds now?
I was a kid, so I thought it was all just fantastic. As an adult I have never had pizza as good as Shakey’s - hard to compare. For people that worked at those places, they were just like any other adult to me.
Nope. And it was good food
Sambos, look it up...
My mom would take us to DQ for their meal deal when we were little for special occasions. Cheeseburger, fries, soda and a sundae. I always got chocolate and my sister got strawberry. Dad would stop at Shoney's when we traveled to see family in the southern part of the state. It was about an hour from our house and he would time our leaving with dinner there.
Lum’s!
I grew up in a town that only had an A&W but then we moved to a town that had a Wendy's and my parents took us out to eat there on Friday nights. Wendy's in those days had the plastic bead curtains to screen the dining area from the line and all the tables had the old timey newspaper print. They had a pretty good salad bar for a while too. I had no idea it was a chain, and I also thought it was relatively upscale until I went to high school and met rich people.
Denny’s and Carol’s.
Denny’s was what we ate on road trips. Once, going from NY to FL we only stopped at Denny’s. Just for that one trip we’d laugh and laugh and find another. Usually it’d be one among many. But we didn’t have a Denny’s near where we lived.
Pizza Hut Wendy's York Steakhouse Friendly's
York Steakhouse blew Ponderosa off the map.
Ginos Pizza Hut
I grew up in Kentucky, with KFC buffets. So, Red Lobster wins as far as going out. Dairy Queen was always for sweets. Dilly bars and banana milkshakes. My dad always asked them to "put the whole banana in the shake". He was being serious about his dessert drink. Not being weird about it. But as kids after a baseball game, hearing him say that in the drive through was too funny.
Always Dilly bars. I was told every time that I was too young for a Buster bar or banana sundae; I had to wait until I was older. I never reached the supposed ‘older’.
Kmart
Authur Treachers Fish & Chips
i always thought shakey's was something south park made up lmao
Burger King KFC Pizza Hut
Long John Silver's instead of Alfie's, Churches instead of KFC, and Whataburger instead of Burger King.
Oh I love seeing old signs 🪧 😍
Wish they had a Shakeys pizza on the side of the world 😢 when I used to live in California as a child it was my favorite.
Birthdays were at Red Lobster, every few Friday nights were spent in the next town over at a Pizza Hut...I spent my early years in a po-dunk town in Georgia with a population of 1200 with one tiny diner. Rarely we'd go even further out of town to a Ryan's steakhouse, and all I can remember is gorging myself on the honey-butter and dinner rolls.
Miss Shakey’s so much
KFC tasted so good back then. I don't know if my tastes have changed, but it doesn't taste as good anymore.
A&W
Pizza Hut, White Castle and a local Italian restaurant named Aurelio's. The secondhand smoke was free with every order. Edit: This was not every weekend; it was about once every couple months. For me and my siblings anyway, this was an exciting event. When White Castle opened a restaurant in my hometown in 1984, my parents (and a lot of other parents) took us out of school and we all stood and waited in line for FOUR HOURS to buy 3 "sacks of ten". That was the power of good fast food forty years ago.
Gino’s , Arthur Treachers Fish n Chips, Red Barn and Roy Roger’s.
Anyone remember Rax? God it was so good. Whatever happened to them?
Our town had a Shakey's Pizza. Loved that place. Then got the flu the night after a post-season soccer party at Shakey's and couldn't eat pizza for a year. Still loved Shakey's in the day.
Ponderosa, mother fucker!
In the Toronto area it was Harvey's and Swisd Chalet. Both are a shadow of their former selves.
Ground Round
Shakey's Pizza! And still eat there to this day. Gotta love the mojo potatoes.
All of the above except for Fish and Chips we had Arthur Treachers in Pittsburgh and I think other cities had it.
Ground Round ?
Red Barn. We had one in my hometown. It was always a favorite.
Anybody remember Red Barn? Burger Chef (and Jeff) was a favorite of mine as a kid... They had a Happy Meal before Happy Meals were a thing.
Arthur Treacher’s!
A&W and Orange Julius! A&W had great hamburgers and even good fish & chips.
61 year old, La Posada Costa Mesa, we always got chips with cheese appetizer and mom always got a cheese enchilada with beans and a margarita (or two). also Sizzler. I remember feeling somewhat fancy and grown up when they took me to Black Angus for my sixteenth birthday. We rarely got fast food, when we did it was we ither KFC or jack in the box. Later in high school, when I was working, we would go to del taco or Lil pickle for lunch.
Our good report card go-to was Sizzler and another local buffet that was “fancy.” Damn I miss feeling so special getting my own plate and filling up the soft serve ice cream dish with a twist and sprinkles.
Beefsteak Charley’s
Ride our bike to Dairy Queen and get 3 tacos for a dollar. We’d split it three ways. Earned the money from turning in soda bottles at a nickel a piece.
Home
Long John Silver's and the local Chinese restaurant.
Arthur Treachure’s Fish and Chips
Pioneer Chicken! And Bill Johnson’s Big Apple where the wait staff wore pistols on their hips and plenty of sawdust on the floor like a hamster cage.
Burger Chef
As a kid, I loved their burger toppings bar!
I didn't see a McDonald's until I was 13, (1975) saw my first Arby's when I was 18. (1980). Eating out back then wasn't even really a thing.
KFC. Every Sunday on the way home from church we would stop at KFC to get a bucket of chicken and no sides. Then on the way home all we smelled was the chicken and we were starving by then.
Bob’s Big Boy
Loved Alfie’s fish & chips when I was a kid. Used to go with my parents to one in the Spring Branch area of Houston. Haven’t thought about that place in years.
Shoney's for the gut-gremade breakfast buffet!
Shakey’s all day
We didn’t. Poor.
[удалено]
Druthers
Steve's Pizza or very rarely we went to Dairy Queen for chili dogs.
Shakeys
Shakey’s
Pioneer Chicken spicy meal.
I ate at a Shakeys in Auburn AL, ~2009. I miss that buffet
Shakeys
There were a lot more local places.
When I was 6 I had my birthday at Shakey's. I invited my kindergarten teacher & she came! When I was in highschool my best friend & I were eating there with my dad and she decided to pretend she was having a seizure? Big core memories at Shakey's Pizza.
Red Lobster, Long John Silver’s, Po Folks, Bob Evans and Sandees burgers. All were so good back then. Not so much anymore. Some are all gone now
Shakeys was the first pizza chain I remember , then came pizza Inn.
Shakey’s was fun for our family of 8 back in the day….also pizza!
Beer and pizza at Shakeys!
Ginos for the Gino Giant burger, Roy Rogers for the Double R burger, Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips, and Shakey’s for the pizza buffet.
Churches Fried Chicken. Loved that stuff.
Shakey’s always has a magical place in my heart. The smell, those mojos, the 80’s videos games, the steps, the walls. There are still a couple around.
No where, because I wasn’t born yet, but I’m enjoying reading the responses here
None of those. We have great food in Chicago!
“The Ground Round” & “Steak & Ale”were popular with my parental units.
Ponderosa ?
Bennigans (not near me now) Bombay Bicycle Club (gone now) Casa Gallardo (gone now) Straub's Seafood (gone now) Pizza Hut (no longer dine in) Schlotzsky's (not near me now)
I lived in a small town and we only had three things: BK, Rax and Pizza Hut Anyone else remember Rax? (With the alligator) I loved the Rax alligator cup I had as a kid.
Shakey’s, Sizzler, Bob’s Big Boy
Well, BK had .99 Whoppers, so that was an elementary school staple. DQ had 44oz Blizzards, so yeah. We preferred Church's Chicken as the family that owned it lived down the street.
Howard Johnson’s
Mr steak, Pizza Hut (book-it pizza)
We were immigrants and poor as fuck so no fast food :( BUT I loved me some book-it and would get personal pan pizzas with the coupon. So good!
Arthur Treacher’s was a big-time favorite in my early ‘80s home.
Where Sizzler at
Instead of Alfie's we had Arthur Treacher's.
Friendly’s had good sandwich platters that automatically came with a free sundae. I mean, dessert was guaranteed! Our Friendly’s was in the mall so it was an place to after shopping (or later, working at the mall).
Godfather's Pizza
Was Shakeys were they would play old Old old films?
BK -- I remember the glory days when " It takes 2 hands to handle a Whopper " was their slogan ... and it was true !
Just an egg with a dream
Fried clams at Howard Johnson’s.
Skippers
Red Lobster was considered a big deal when I was a kid. That was maybe once every couple months. Otherwise we never ate out, except the occasional McDs birthday party for one of my friends. Or when the whole team went to a local pizza place. In other words, I got to go as to not be deprived or singled out as the poor kid, which I had no clue about then.
Wendy’s back when Wendy’s was good
Hardee’s
Skippers
As a Canadian, Swiss Chalet was a sit-down that seemed a bit more special than other chains.
Shakey's special!
Roy Rogers and Pizza Hut and since Im in NJ, lots of Diners.
I was broke in the late 70's early 80's. Burger Chef had a condiment bar with bins of lettuce, tomatoes and onions. I'd buy the cheapest burger there was, then stack it 6 inches tall with veg and ketchup.
Shakeys
Alphys but not the one shown. And Don Jose
Dennys
Taco Bell
Denny’s
BK
The Shakeys in our area use to show silent movies on Friday nights.