Ahh, Golden Corral. One of America’s original all-you-can-eat buffets. Older folk love Golden Corral because they think they’re getting a major value for the money. Here’s the problem…Golden Corral can afford to serve you as much as you want because they’re serving low-quality food.
Younger adults are starting to have major concerns about the quality of food they’re putting into their bodies. Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are shoveling those cream-cheese-loaded mashed potatoes down their faces as fast as you can say senior discount.
We’re not quite sure if Applebee’s even cooks their food or just heats it in microwavable plastic pouches. Several years ago, a viral video leaked showing what the kitchen in an Applebee’s actually looks like…and well…let’s just say there wasn’t much of a kitchen to be seen.
If you’re a college student taking advantage of those dollar margaritas, we get it. But, the only people still choosing to chow down at Applebee’s are the sixty-five and up crowd. It’s not like the food is cheap either, so our only explanation is that Baby Boomers have had a few too many dollar margaritas with the college kids!
Baby Boomers absolutely love Chick-fil-A. It’s fast food and southern cooking. It’s seasoned like a bag of flour, and you can usually find them right outside of a mall! Those are all things Baby Boomers enjoy. If Chick-fil-A started doing meals on wheels, Baby Boomers might not ever leave their homes again!
We get it, though. Those chicken minis have a hold on the rest of us too. However, all good things in moderation, right? Eating all of that greasy fried chicken and buttery bread will start to catch up with you! Next thing you know, the lord’s chicken is sending you to meet your maker.
Have you been in a Chilli’s lately? If so, did you stop and look around at the clientele? Well, if you do…you’ll notice a greasy 16-year-old welcoming you at the door immediately to meet the 50 year old divorcee at the bar, and the fun-loving sixty-five and up crowd having lunch after church.
Chilli’s is tex-mex without the spice. It’s like if you took some salsa and poured some water in it. Their food looks like it’s seasoned, but really, it’s just salt and pepper. When they switched to those table-top tablet menus, we’re surprised there wasn’t a mass uprising. Well, that would be pretty hard, considering it takes a while to stand up after turning 60.
“Roadhouse” restaurants really became a big deal in the 2010s. Everyone started ditching their mom-and-pop diners and opting for the commercialized chain Texas Roadhouse! Texas Roadhouse convinced the most vulnerable of us that paying twenty dollars for a burger means it will be really good.
Baby Boomers can totally afford that because they’ve been hiking our rent prices since the ‘90s! They also save a lot by only tipping two dollars on a hundred-dollar ticket at the end of a meal because their server didn’t smile at them enough.
Wendy’s is another restaurant that’s closing a lot of stores. The only people who are still keeping this greasy hamburger shack alive are those Baby Boomers who never learned what real food tastes like. Wendy’s keeps that whole old-fashioned thing going on, and we guess that’s what keeps the Baby Boomers coming.
Wendy’s is going through somewhat of a hard time financially. Think about it, when is the last time you and your friends all said, “Hey everyone, let’s all go to Wendy’s for a delicious meal.” Probably not in the last 15 years. Food is just way different these days, and Wendy’s didn’t keep up.
The thing about chain restaurants is that they have a handy ability to pop up at the most convenient places everywhere! Any town of a decent size is going to at least have one Outback. Baby Boomers are always hunting for a good steak house. And that free bread? Well, they always love a freebie.
To most Baby Boomers, Outback is a nice place to take your spouse, have a birthday party, or have any sort of celebration. It’s nice, but it’s not too nice. They love it. The rest of us cringe whenever Grandma and Grandpa force us to sit through another dinner at this tacky-themed restaurant.
Baby Boomers took “When you’re here, you’re family” a little too seriously. When they need a place to have a nice dinner, their first thought is Olive Garden! Here’s why Boomers absolutely love Olive Garden: Free bread sticks, unlimited salads, unseasoned food, and massive portions.
Those of us who give a hoot about our general health and well-being know to stay far, far away from Olive Garden! Their food is chocked full of sodium and carbs. Any dinner there could easily be 5,000 calories. That’s enough to feed a horse!
Where does a Baby Boomer go when they want to feel like they’re in a bar, without actually going to a bar? Friday’s, of course! Here’s the thing. Baby Boomers need to feel included in everything, but they need a watered-down taste of what it actually is like.
They couldn’t put down their judgments and morals to step foot in a real sports bar, so to Friday’s, they go! They play pretend at the bar, order some appetizers, maybe an overpriced cheeseburger, and get to live the experience we do on our Friday nights.
What is it with chain restaurants and themes? Sometimes they’re subtle; other times, they’re straight-up tacky! That’s the case with Rainforest Cafe. Without a chain restaurant like this, where are you going to take your grandkids for that once-a-month obligatory visit?
Kids like animatronic animals looming in the corner while they eat a chicken strip, right? Well, ask any Baby Boomer and they’ll tell you kids love it! We wouldn’t step foot in a Rainforest Cafe! There’s no telling what kind of gross things are hiding in all that foliage…and we’re not just talking about the monkeys!
Baby Boomers absolutely love a drive thru. There’s only one thing better…a Sonic drive-thru! Sonic is modeled after one of those old-fashioned drive-up restaurants where servers on roller skates brought your food to your car! These days, Baby Boomers don’t have the patience for that, so they just go through the drive thru.
From greasy cheeseburgers to corn dogs that bring you back to the county fair, Sonic has appetizing bites only someone with half of their tastebuds could love. Sonic is pretty gross, but don’t be surprised to see the seniors in line for half-priced drinks at Happy Hour.
It feels like it’s been a while since you’ve eaten at a Ruby Tuesday; it probably has. With only 209 locations left in the world, your chances of having a meal at this strange wanna-be Friday’s are pretty slim.
So, with only a handful of locations left…who is still eating at Ruby Tuesday? We know exactly who it is…Baby Boomers! The only people who still darken the door of these forgotten chain restaurants are those with nostalgia for what it once was.
One thing all Baby Boomers look for in a meal is something free. If they feel like they’re getting a deal…they’re there! Red Robin has a nifty gimmick of handing out unlimited french fries! This has the senior discount crowd hook-line-and-sinker!
Red Robin has a large menu of burgers and even has milkshakes. Again, with a twinge of nostalgia of the good old days when you took your girl for a milkshake, Baby Boomers love something that feels familiar.
As every Boomer’s go-to chain restaurant on Sunday mornings, we’re hard-pressed to find a place so dedicated to tradition as Cracker Barrel. Entering any of their stores is like taking a ride through a wormhole and transporting yourself into a dimension of cornbread, country CDs, rocking chairs, potatoes, and novelty toys.
Boomers cling to Cracker Barrel’s familiarity like they do the rest of the foods on this list, and it's easy to get used to the establishment as it can be found along the highway in over 40 U.S. states. Talk about consistency. Rocking chairs lining the walls outside and wallpaper decorated with old-America paraphernalia act as a second home to Boomers who long for the “good ‘ole days.”
It’s probably been ten years since most of us have been in the dark, grubby, grips of a Red Lobster. However, if you have been in recently…you might notice a very specific group of customers still lurking in a corner booth.
While we love those cheddar bay biscuits, you can’t even get through the door without waiting in a 45-minute-deep line of Baby Boomers chomping at the bits for some microwaved sea food. Here’s what Red Lobster does for the Boomer crowd: They’re comfortable fancy, their food isn’t really seasoned, and it’s overpriced to make you feel like you’re doing something nice.
It’s time to face a fact in life. Buffets suck. Yes, I said that. At least for the most part. Is it better to eat good food or eat a lot of food? Buffets certainly offer all you can eat at a flat rate, but you really aren’t going to eat as much as you think unless you get to indulge in that forbidden herb – and we dare not speak its name.
And if there is one buffet that is the worst of them all, it would have to be Sizzler. Their food is just plain terrible and only boomers love it because it’s so economical. And they can just sit around there for hours consuming said terrible food. Don’t eat at Sizzler, people; just get a hobby instead. Somehow this chain has been around since 1958 and we wish it would disappear.
Denny’s is like the diner restaurant chain that’s everywhere and it really has no right to be. The food is awful but it’s cheap and that’s the only reason anyone eats there. Their breakfast is subpar and you could make something much better at home for the same cost or maybe even a little less.
And everything after the breakfast menu is just plain inedible. Denny’s is the Pepsi of restaurants. It’s the place you go when there’s nothing else to get. Maybe nothing is open or maybe it’s the only place operating in the middle of nowhere. It’s time to bury Denny’s into the ground but the boomers aren’t likely to help us there.
El Torito is like the Sizzlers of Mexican restaurants. If you want substandard Mexican food, then this is your place. You can get a ton of food for your money but it won’t be any good. From Monday through Friday, you can get all you can eat lunch, but it's a gimmick because nobody has that kind of time.
Well, except boomers who aren’t working anymore. If you are looking for an authentic Mexican food experience, avoid El Torito at all costs. The best place for Mexican food at lunchtime is a taco truck. There should definitely be more taco trucks in the world but there are not. Taco truck is life.
The best thing about Black Angus is when the light on the sign’s G goes out. If you are looking for a low-quality steak that you can make at home but are too lazy to do it, you should come to Black Angus. They also have other low-quality barbecue that you can also waste your money on.
If you are looking for a clue as to whether your dining experience isn’t going to be a quality one, it’s that the restaurant offers coupons – and Black Angus is notorious for spamming coupons in people’s mailboxes. Boomers may love it, but Black Angus is a culinary void. Stay away from there.
This is absolutely the worst takeout establishment there is, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are just plain wrong. You know something is wrong when you go to a fast-food joint and thing, my gawd, I would have rather eaten a TV dinner. They have the most disgusting fast-food burgers in the industry and it doesn’t even stop there.
Everything at Burger King is terrible – even the fries. How do you even mess up French fries? Potatoes are the food of the gods and somehow Burger King has managed to mess them up. They are the blandest flavorless fries money can buy. I’d wonder if they are even real potatoes, to be honest.
The Friendly’s restaurant chain has been around since 1935, and yet you know something is wrong because they’ve been around that long and never managed to make it to the west coast. At Friendly’s, food poisoning and a gross dining experience go hand in hand. They also make you wait way too long to get served. What are they even doing back there? Cause it’s not washing their hands.
Right now, they are even serving a burger with cool ranch Doritos on it. What is that even supposed to be? Is that their way of appealing to millennials? Do they think we’ll just eat whatever without any logic to it? Frankly, I’m insulted that it even exists. Sorry, if I’m not being very friendly. Hardy har har.
IHOP has one thing going for it: It’s better than Denny’s. That doesn’t make it good though. IHOP can provide you with a never-ending stack of pancakes but you’ll never be able to eat that many. Pancakes aren’t even that difficult nor expensive to make, so why would you pay them to do it?
If you want to get overcharged for everything you eat, IHOP is the place to be. They manage to charge you $4 for a small glass of orange juice and that makes them capable of anything. Boomers love IHOP cause it’s a family-friendly restaurant with a fairly relaxing atmosphere. The food isn’t that great unless you don’t know how to make pancakes.
A&W is best known for its root beer, which is great, but you can get that at any grocery store. Their food, on the other hand, is terrible, and you can only get that at any cursed location. It does have the distinguishment of being the oldest restaurant chain in America. But all things must end, eventually.
Enjoy mediocre hot dogs, burgers and chicken strips. A&W has it all. Or just go for a root beer float – something you can also make at home. The A&W restaurant chain never really justifies its reason for existing still because it doesn’t have a single food item worth going out of your way to get.
Wienerschnitzel has a lot of problems but the biggest one is that it exists. When I go out to eat, the last thing I’m seeking is low-quality hot dog for dinner. If I wanted hot dogs, because I’m poor and there’s nothing else to eat on a budget, I would make them at home.
Wienerschnitzel offers lesser hot dogs than those you can get on the street and some lousy hamburgers too. They also make chili, and they put that on their hamburgers and hot dogs, and that chili is awful too. It’s safe to say this restaurant chain will disappear with the rest of the old ones nobody wants to eat at anymore.
Shakey’s pizza was founded in 1954 and it was the first pizza chain in the United States but it being first doesn’t make it the best. In all that time, they never managed to make a decent pie. In 1968, there were about 342 location and now there are 500, globally. The chain might have been more successful if the food had been better.
Today, locations within the United States can be found in California and Washington. There are none in the east, because the people east know better than to eat there. For boomers, it’s a place of remembrance. It recalls a time when the world had no idea what it was doing when it came to making pizza.
Subway is the ideal fast-food joint for losing weight because they don’t even actually offer you food. Servers give you so little meat like it’s coming out of their own pocket. Their lettuce is of the iceberg variety, which offers no nutritional value. All of their ingredients are of the lowest quality.
Subway touts itself as somewhere where you can “Eat Fresh,” but what exactly is fresh there? Those meatballs that have been sitting out all day or the sliced meats loaded with preservatives? There are certainly better sandwich establishments out there, or you can go to your local deli for something even fresher than Subway.
Sometimes you get what you pay for. Little Caesar’s offers one of the cheapest pizzas on the market but it’s absolutely disgusting. Just because you can get a pizza for around $5, doesn’t mean that you should. The Hot-N-Ready pizza is just a pizza that’s been sitting around for a while.
If you are going to load your arteries up, why not load them up with a better-quality pizza? Little Caesars isn’t even worth the calories spent trying it out. Just trust us on this one and leave it to the frugal boomers to buy this pizza for their grandkids. They won’t care until they discover all the wonderful pizza the world has to offer – anywhere but Little Caesars.
Coco’s Bakery is a dying restaurant chain located only in Arizona and California. It was established along the pacific coast highway back in 1948. It no longer does well because even the boomers have stopped going there. Nevertheless, there are some that love it still and those poor lost souls have been keeping 29 of the businesses still open.
In 1948, it was called The Snack Stop but after it changed owners in 1965, it became Coco’s. It eventually changed owners multiple times thereafter and nobody would let it die. As of 2018, Shari's Cafe & Pies has taken over owner ship of Coco's and another chain called Carrows. They are all one bad happy family, I guess.
Boston Market – a place where you can spend more money than you need to on cafeteria food. Eat some disgusting meatloaf, chicken or ribs and have buyer’s remorse after. I could never figure out why boomers like to eat there but they do. I suppose it reminds them of being in a hospital.
Okay, maybe it’s not that bad. But it is pretty gross, and we can’t imagine spending actual money there.. If you really want to eat meatloaf you can go there but I don’t know why you’d pay someone to cook that for you. No wait, I take back what I said. I’d rather eat hospital Jello than eat at Boston Market
Yes, I went there. Let’s get real about Five Guys: because it has to be one of the most overrated fast-food chains in existence. Their burgers are bland; they aren’t even half as good as In-N-Out, even though some claim they are better. But they offer whatever toppings you want because they know they have no idea what they are doing when it comes to making hamburgers.
You have to add toppings to the burger to give it flavor. Toppings should compliment the burger, not overpower it, but that’s how they make food there. They also have the gimmick of giving you too many fries, but the fries aren’t even crispy. You have to get the cajun fries if you want anything with flavor. And too top it all off, it’s way overpriced. You are paying almost as much as a burger at a restaurant – so just go to a restaurant.
