My Top 5 Restaurants

And now – for something completely different. It’s my current Top 5 Restaurants within 5 miles of my home. In traditional #CountUp fashion I’ll start with # 1 and work my way to # 5.

Can you tell I love steak ? We have 3 major chains of steakhouses less than 10 minutes away (in normal traffic), and I love all 3. Longhorn opened in 2009, and I’ve blogged about it often over the past dozen years. They used to be my runaway # 1 smash restaurant for many years, but recently they’ve been trounced by both the brand new Outback Steakhouse in town, and Olive Garden (next door to Longhorn).

I’ve only been to Outback twice since they opened late last year, and I’ve been impressed both times. Their warm, soft, and curiously dark “Honey Wheat Bushman Bread” that you get with every meal while you wait for your meal is absolutely scrumptious. I actually thought it was Pumpernickel until I did a Google search on it. My first two times at Outback I got their Outbacker Burger with swiss cheese. Again – mouthwateringly delicious. It comes with Aussie Fries. I think they are the best fries of the 3 steakhouses.

Olive Garden tops my current list. You know there are places where the food is great, but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired. There are some places where the food is average, but the customer service is top-notch. Other places have food and customer service that fluctuates back-and-forth and is not very consistent. My local Olive Garden is none of these things. The food is great. The customer service is great (perhaps the best of any restaurant in the local area). Both are very consistent. They used to have a popular slogan – “When you’re here – you’re family.” Well whenever I visit my local Olive Garden (almost always during the first Lunch hour) I feel like I’m part of their family there.

Incidentally it was a tough call for that # 5 spot. I went back-and-forth between Red Lobster and Applebee’s. The former has the better food, but the latter has the better customer service. Also the food is less expensive at Applebee’s. I eat at Applebee’s far more often these days than I do at Red Lobster – almost always on Sunday afternoons after church service. Ultimately it was Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits that catapulted it over Applebee’s. Red Lobster’s house bread tops the house bread at every other restaurant in my Top 5.

Who’s hungry ?