Yes, but maybe not to the extreme that it happened to you. We were referred to a little Italian restaurant in a neighborhood where an art festival was happening. One of the artists recommended the place. It was mid afternoon, in between lunch and supper, so the place was not crowded. At least, I thought that's why it wasn't crowded. Granted, we didn't order the dish the artist suggested, and that might have been our mistake, but the food was barely ordinary. And, the service was very, very slow. We probably waited 30 minutes for our food, and it definitely wasn't worth waiting for. Luckily, we were only out maybe $30 at most.

Sally

Yeah.....and it was Mexican too.
There's a beautiful lake in northern Iowa where we used to go for 5 days or so every summer. And another couple's parents lived there, so they would go to the lake often.
They talked about this place and one time wanted to meet us there for dinner. Now mind you we were on a 5 day vacation and wanted to eat at "nice places". We wanted to have the "go out to dinner" experience not the "eat out because I don't feel like cooking" thing. This was a taco joint...in NORTHERN IOWA for cryin' out loud! They had no idea what a taco even was! Like bread dough with Van Camp's beans on top!
Then there is my fri9end who doesn't cook....at all! If you ask her to contribute a salad for a potluck, she brings a bag and a bottle.
A week ago a friend called and said that a bunch of us are getting together for dinner. I asked what I could bring and she said that she was grilling burgers and had some baked beans in the oven and so and so was bringing potato salad and etc....and The One Who doesn't Cook was bringing cookies. I didn't think much of that, I figured that surely she could make some cookies or brownies even if from a mix.......but she waltzed in with a package of Chips Ahoy!
When it came time for dessert she said....they're good aren't they....as good as home made! I said I thought home made were better....and she said that she couldn't tell the difference!
so...I think some people really CAN'T tell the difference! They don't taste artificial vanilla or that stuff in mixes that gives it a mix taste or the taste of preservatives in spice mixes and boxed foods.....
Peppi will agree. The last time we met for lunch in Chicago we ate at a very "up scale" place that was much talked about. The place was beautiful! The waiter very attentive! The Martini cold and dry....but we agreed that the food was just "OK".
Remember....we are Foodies! We are fussy about good food! Everyone isn't.
Linda C

We had friends rave about a local pizza place so we finally went. Talk about disappointment! There was no place to sit, it was just a pick up place. It had the worse pizza we have ever eaten. The crust tasted like a stale cracker, the sauce was watery and thin, the veggie toppings were limp and tasteless, and the cheese was nasty tasting. Both of us had the same reaction, so it wasn't just me. DH and I still talk about it every time we drive by. So there is no accounting for taste.
Clare

Fish and Chips in London was a HUGE disappointment - and both places were recommended by locals as well! I guess I'll have to travel up to AnnT's digs to get the good stuff, LOL.

I cook for myself most of the time because nobody can do it the way I like. To have something that is just what I want requires I do it myself. I also notice restaurants can't cook the same dish twice. Local place the delivers to my workplace made a wonderful pizza... perfect in taste and texture. This I thought was worth buying again. Alas, next pizza looked the same but didn't have the same spice and was just a tad undercooked. Again the next week I hoped for a return of the wonderful and was rewarded with the bland and soggy. My dog Dolly does not mind bland and soggy pizza. I'm so glad I didn't rave and recommend based on one good pizza. Not just me as the table I eat lunch with agrees as we shared the same pizzas.

In the end cooking is an art not a science.

: )
lyra

Another Mexican eatery disappointment... It's a friends favorite, and when we meet her and her husband there for dinner occasionally, it's all I can do to eat ONE taco. The taco meat is a mixture of hamburger and oatmeal - no spices. The taco sauce is insipid... Canned tomato sauce and black pepper - YUCK! The odd thing, she claims she loves Mexican food. When we suggest another place across town, she acts like the food there will kill her... YEAH, kill her with a bit of flavor and texture in fresh-made chunky salsa.

-Grainlady

Eileen - You don't happen to be talking about Blue Parrot, are you? Place was for sale forever; two friends looked into it. I believe it's now owned by Ron Perlman. In any case, if so, I'd have agreed with you a couple years ago, but can't speak to today.

Interestingly I'd say that Mexican is the number one cuisine I'm disappointed by recommendations. I think maybe people base it on their taste in margaritas rather than the food.

Definitely! I will often read raves on Chowhound.com about a local place and I wonder if we're talking about the same place! Different strokes, but maybe if you're a cook you have different tastes than restaurant foodies!

My biggest disappointment was a BBQ place in Nashville that was recommended by many as having "the" best BBQ ribs and pork south of the 49th! The line up when we got there was huge so we knew this was going to be as billed....NOT!

The ribs were fatty and literally falling off the bone in that all the meat and connective stuff came right away from the bone at first bite. You were left to eat the meat with your fingers, picking meat from grissel. I don;t mind messy eating but this was impossible! On top of that the beans seemed straight out of a can.

On a better note, this was the one and only BBQ joint, on our entire road trip, that disappointed.

I had a huge disappointment when hubs and I went to EPCOT (Walt Disney World) and ate at the Italian place in "Italy". It was horrible! The Olive Garden does it much better that that place. But we heard great comments from everyone on this place so we went. Never again.

I've often wondered how McDonald's stays in business! Their food is gross. But nowhere near as awful as KFC.

Daisy, I have had the same thought....both of KFC and McDonalds. I live across the street from a McDonalds....I can see it from my front porch. I have been there 3-4 times in the last 11 years! KFC is horrible, just plain bad. Skinny chicken with no meat and all skin. Yuck! How can they stay in business? And they were not that bad when I was young. We had KFC in around 1974 that was GOOD! And to be fair KFC in Hawaii was awesome. Apparently they grow chickens there with some meat on their bones!

I am OT for sure, but speaking of mexican places...I got a coupon for 35.00 off of a 50.00 meal or something like that. Oh boy. The tacos were grisley pieces of meat...just a bit of cilantro...no cheese..no onions.../???? WTF?...the 'guacomole' had such a neon green color I knew it was that fake 'crap'. This place is still in business. The only thing I can think is that it is a front for an illegal business or a writeoff for a mob enterprise. Disgusting food.

Okay, anyone on Chinese and whether they serve cat? LOL.

Duane

Reminds me of a family reunion we attended recently. One of the children at our table was heard saying, "I don't want homemade!" HUH? I think she was talking about fried chicken - parents had brought KFC in a bucket! Wonder what kind of food she is being raised on..LOL

I don't have any Mexican food stories, but it is definitely NOT my favorite type of ethnic food. Everything else, I like - French, Chinese, Thai, Italian, whatever, but not Mexican.

LOL! Duane....speaking of a "front"!!
Quite a few years ago 4 couples went to Omaha for the weekend to do the races and just have fun.
One of the women in the group had grown up in Omaha and had fond memories of a Chinese place her family went to in the late 40's.
So after the races we went back to the motel, cleaned up, had a cocktail or 2 and went in search of the venerable Chinese place.
There was only one other couple in there when we went in and they soon left so we had the place to ourselves. The food was good but not amazing, the atmosphere vintage....but there was constant activity at the cash register....constant "ba-ding ba-ding ba-ding" So I watched tos ee what was going on....and there was a steady stream of "nicely dressed" women, who would go to the register, hand the cashiere something....and the register would ring and ring, and the process would repeat...??
As we left, well after dark by that time, we realized we were in the middle of the district frequented by "professional women". LOL!
Ever after we referred to that place as Foo Kings!!...which is very close tot he real name of the place....which I won't mention!!
The food was pretty good though!

LOL Linda...great story!!!

Our thoughts about "cat" weren't if they were serving it in the kung pao chicken!
The place is still there by the way...

Linda that's hilarious. I don't think it "fronted" as anything, but in suburban Minneapolis near the home of a coworker stood one of those Chinese all you can eat buffets. It was called the "Fu Xing Buffet". You can imagine what we called it! I had never been, but she had a number of times and said it wasn't half bad.

Speaking of Mexican, in the small beach city where my employer is located (El Segundo for those who live here) there is a small family operated Mexican restaurant in a strip mall, off the beaten path between a convenience store and laundromat, I still don't know how my friends ever found it. It has a menu like a Chinese restaurant where everything is numbered and it's the size of a novelette. If you pay more than $5 or $6 for an entree, you're paying a lot there, but it is outstanding! Even their "American" menu items are good. There is another such restaurant in another strip mall that's more upscale but also very good, which features a woman in a 3 sided stand on the open floor making homemade tortillas and things. It's really cool! Maybe the fact that we are in California is somehwat at play here, however.

In this neighborhood, you get a lot of menus from local establishments hung on your door. The first time I wanted to order pizza, I ordered from one and hit the jackpot. I order pizza from nowhere else. OTOH, there is a Thai restaurant, and I don't do Thai that often, but when I do I really like it, but they get horrendous reviews from other people on the internet, so I guess you just never know.

FOODSONASTUMP: The places name is FUNCHOS....they are on West Main Street in Riverhead. I do highly recommend the Ice Cream Parlor next door SNOWFLAKES ( I had the Banana Walnut Black Cherry Ice Cream) delicious!! The scarey part is they (Funchos) have a 2nd location in West Hampton and one soon opening in Sayville (near me). My thoughts are "Watch she's been there and loves it"! Where do you live? (I forgot your town)

"Other tastbuds not my tastbuds" is almost an understatement. I've tried so many restaurants and foods that people raved about,yet I found almost unedible that I rarely listen to anyone anymore. Oh boy, are we all very different creatures when it comes to taste!

Went with a friend to the local M*r**tta's mexican restaurant a couple of months ago. I'd been there before with no complaints except that the salsa (served as soon as we sat down) could have used some special attention. We ended up getting the combination plate, and I was very much disappointed and promised myself to never go there again!

The rice was unpalatable, the beans had a burned flavor to them, and the cheese enchiladas were awful (gee, how much effort does it take to make a good cheese enchilada?!) and the sauce had the flavor of tin. My friend thought her dinner was soooooo scrumptious! I was silently aghast as I pushed food around my plate, knowing my pooches were going to get lucky later that night with leftovers.

My friend and I spoke later in the week, and I asked her how the dinner "set" with her. I didn't want to offend her because she apparently loved her dinner and I didn't want to come off as a food snob. She said she was fine, but I said y'know, it just didn't set right with me, so I'm not going to be in any hurry to return. (priming the pump, so to speak, for future dinners to be elsewhere!).

Funny thing, taste buds!
:O)
Sooz

Sooz, if you mean you ate Mexican in Marietta, GA, oh, what an awful experience. I used to live in Marietta and would not accept green bell peppers imitating Mexican peppers. I grow the real thing! That stuff was poison!

Eileen, I live out East and it is funny,,I never heard anyone talk about it! Thanks for the info..we are not Mexican food fans anyway..We go over to the North Fork from Southampton almost every week to shop and eat out.
Yes, Snowflake is good...
Foodonastump, you sound like Fenworth??

Hey, beachlily, we ate at a restaurant that had the name of "Marietta's." Ghastly!!!! From what you say, i'll be staying away from mexican restaurants if I ever get to Marietta, GA too!
:O)
Sooz

Jessy, I made several attempts to find good fish and chips all over England on three different visits and never did find fish that was really fresh. It always had a taste that indicated that it had been dead for too long and hadn't been properly stored. The chips were then fried in the same oil as the fish, so they picked up the stale fishy flavour. It was than that I finally understood why the British like stuff like vinegar and HP sauce on their chips.

Chase, I had a similar BBQ ribs experience, only in Salt Lake City. The place was touted by a newspaper food critic as the only restaurant in the whole state of Utah to serve genuine Southern style ribs, and they were supposed to be delicious. Well, they were dry, the sauce was bland and basically the only thing on my plate that was good was the salad.

I think Daisy hit on something when she mentioned McDonalds and KFC. So many people these days eat at places like that so frequently, maybe even as their primary diet, that anything even a step above their food tastes good to them. Basically, their taste buds have been ruined. I think a lot of people really don't know what good food tastes like.

One thing I try to remember or learn when traveling is the local specialty, which I know you did on your trip, Sharon. I guess you got burned on the bbq in Nashville, which should have had some of the best bbq. There's no excuse for bad bbq in Nashville. My dd lived in Boston for 4 years, and whenever she visited home we had to go out for Mexican food because they just don't understand Mexican cuisine in the Boston area, (salsa made out of ketchup, for instance) and she was starved for good Mexican food.

Sally

You're right, everyone has different taste buds. For instance, I detest coffee from Starbucks, but I kind of like the McDonald's Mocha. I also admit to an occasional order of McDonald's french fries, but I don't eat anything else there.

We have a local (and expensive) coffee shop that my boss raves about, but I think is only average.

The best meal I got while traveling was in a dumpy little biker place in New Hampshire, and they had great coffee, good service, amazing pancakes and a great burger. Yeah, we got both at 10 a.m. and the waitress didn't even bat an eye.

The worst, I think, was in California at The Cheesecake Factory. I got a salad with some kind of pomegranite dressing. The greens were slightly wilted, not at all crunchy and it was swimming in a very tart dressing with enough pomegranite to make my mouth sore. I couldn't finish it.

As for Mexican food, I couldn't tell you the difference between good stuff and bad stuff. Here it's all meat, cheese, beans, with an awful red enchilada sauce and wilted lettuce from being heated. And yes, we have a large Hispanic community, I think they are trying to "Americanize" to appeal to the community at large. I didn't get anything I thought was exceptional when I was in Texas either, I clearly didn't know where to look. I can tell you that there is no good Mexican food on South Padre Island, LOL, or much good food at all!

Annie

Any of you needing to taste some really good texmex, c'mon down and I'll take you to a few places here in Houston. Sally, like your DD, my DS who is currently going to school in NY, craves good Mexican and we have to eat a bunch of it when he's home.

I will say that you do have to know where you're going, even here in Houston where the TexMex is abundant. There are lots of Mexican places that I would NOT recommend, practically next door to the ones which are excellent!

And speaking of recommending places, we were just talking about this the other night. Doncha just hate it when you rave about a particular restaurant to someone, and then on the very night you take them, nothing is how it should be. Yeah, I've had it happen plenty of times. And you say, oh, it's not normally like this! Uh huh...

And on a related note (getting further off topic!) sometimes a really good restaurant can get permanently messed up by expanding. I've seen it happen -- wonderful food and service and always crowded so they build out or move to a bigger location and it all goes to pot. They messed with a winning combination. I guess that the ones who CAN expand without missing a beat are the truly good ones.

Ok and one more comment. Your impression of a restaurant can sometimes really depend on what you order the first time there. I'm a creature of habit and usually get the same thing at a give spot every time, or switch off between a couple/few dishes. But once in a while I get adventurous and try something else. If I like it, fine, but many times I don't, and I think, wow! What if I'd ordered this the first time we came here? I'd have never come back!

This sounds sort of nuts, but DH and I have found some of the best places to eat at hole-in-the-wall, family owned type of restaurants. For instance, there's an old 7-Eleven out on the beach that was turned into a Mexican food place. Best we've ever had! In fact, no one in there spoke English and the local Hispanic/Latin people went there to eat.

There's Thai place near here that's similar...looks so-so on the outside, but it's the best Thai I've ever had! Was referred there by a friend who is a Marine and has been to Thailand; he said it was as authentic as he could find locally.

Same with a few Itallian places, German, Chinese, etc. around here. We stay away from the places that look like they try hard to impress, although we do have standards too. LOL! The greasiest spoons or dives are always the most interesting to me anyway. Once in a while, we'll venture to more upscale, but we've found we've enjoyed more meals at family or out-of-the-way restaurants than any other.

Which is to say that our friends think differently. They think if it's more upscale, ritzy, or hotel/theme park, that it's got to be good! There's nothing more disappointing than paying a lot of money for a meal that was average/bad service IMO.

"They think if it's more upscale, ritzy, or hotel/theme park, that it's got to be good! There's nothing more disappointing than paying a lot of money for a meal that was average/bad service IMO."

Gardengrl, I totally agree. In India, the best food I ate was also the cheapest: freshly made street food. The three times I ate in upscale restaurants there the food wasn't that good, and in two instances I got Delhi belly, which I never got from eating street food. However, the air-conditioning was worth every paise ;-)

Chains are bad...local home owned are good....
Well sometimes!!
About 4 years ago, a new Italian Restaurant was due to open. We knew of the owner, she had experience as a co owner of another place. We knew that she was a good cook....and we knew that she had "management issues".
Well the remodeling of the building was taking place....and as the sign went up it said "reserante Italiano"...with an accent mark over the E...going the wrong way! I knew at that moment!! And was not proven wrong. When an ad was placed with a preview menu....and it contained lots of misspellings, I REALLY knew! I mean what idiotw ould go to the expense of printing up menus without having them proof read?...at the high profile grand opening people waited 1 1/2 hours to get a drink...some never ever got their dinner, just a bill....and it continued. Many of us supported it to some extent because we wanted it to succeed. Sometimes the food was wonderful and promptly served, other times it was barely warm. The last time Iw ent it was just me and my friend and another couple....and the piano player.
A week later she just left town......leaving behind bills and equipment etc.
Actually that first expensive large wooden sign with the cutout letters "resterante" were the clue! She had no business sense, didn't know how to do what she was doing and wouldn't seek advice from anyone who did know.
Good cooking alone doesn't make for a good restaurant.
Linda C

Must be something about Mexican restaurants! A few years ago, we finally ate at a restaurant called "Los Barrios" in San Antonio. It had been highly recommended by almost everyone we know as serving THE BEST Mexican food, we should go, what are we waiting for, we are gonna love it, etc. So we went with high expectations, and were extremely disappointed. :o)
The rice looked and tasted like Minute Rice with some food coloring thrown in, it had zero flavor. The guacamole was warm, the chips were stale, the chicken enchiladas were fatty and flavorless, and one of mine contained a very sharp bone that could have done a lot of damage if I hadn't discovered it. The beans were watery and flavorless, and the sodas tasted like chlorinated tap water. The waitress was very unfriendly and inattentive. We didn't even finish the meal. Not too long ago, that place was even featured on Food Network and one of the owners has published several cook books featuring recipes used in the restaurant, which is mind-boggling.
A few weeks ago, we were in Del Rio and ate at a Mexican restaurant called "Don Marcellinos". Now that was excellent, the staff was Mexican and didn't hardly speak English. The beans were fantastic, made with lard, and the Carne Guisa and Chicken Enchiladas were really, really good, as was the rice. Lesson learned to stay away from overhyped places.

All I know is, the better I get at cooking, the worse everything else tastes, even the stuff I used to like.

Chase? Where in Nashville did you have BBQ? I just gotta know!