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Carabba's is pretty good, at least it's all scratch-made not frozen and microwaved.  Started in Houston.

Actually, the exact same statement can be made about Pappadeux.  Those Houstonians know how to export a decent chain restaurant.

We dined at Papadeaux's once, that was enough for me.  It was a solid "OK".  Carabba's was "OK".  Some of this is because I had low expectations.

McDonald's can be "OK" if you have low enough expectations.  I guess they all can be.

There is a seafood place near us we tried, once, "Oceanaire", I later learned they are in the Lindy's group (?).  It struck us both as over priced "OK".  Never went back.

We can be a bit hard on restaurants.  My wife's favorite nicer place near us is called "Ecco", it's part of a group of about 8-10 restaurants of differing styles, and they are all pretty decent.  They have outdoor seating which is often a plus for us.

There is a new sports bar type place that opened near us I haven't tried because I'm fairly sure they have ... bar food.  Its close to a place called the Sugar Factory, which is always crowded with a very high percentage of black folks, they serve a pretty typical menu, I'm not sure why it has such a racial disparity.  I think they have way too many menu varietals and not enough focus, we've never dined there.  My wife bought some candy there once or twice (they have a candy story on the side).  


Sugar Factory Atlanta Menu - Sugar Factory

Carabba's is pretty good, at least it's all scratch-made not frozen and microwaved.  Started in Houston.

Actually, the exact same statement can be made about Pappadeux.  Those Houstonians know how to export a decent chain restaurant.

Ive actually met with Chris and Harris Pappas when I worked for a living.

They are good people and smart as hell concerning restaurant operation

Chains that are horrible usually don't survive long.  Chains usually offer an OK meal for the money, there no doubt are exceptions, which could be local.  I've dined at both decent and bad Applebies for example (not in a long time for either).  The McDs near us in Cincy was good for breakfast, had nice folks working there.  

The chain food items are usually predictable and consistent but the service can vary widely.

That's what we would do as well when traveling and staying somewhere where options are otherwise limited or uninteresting.  We had lunch a while back at a Longhorn and it was fine and I had a burger.  It met expectations.

Given a reasonable option, I still avoid chains.

In the south, there often will be a BBQ place near an exit if we're staying at a motel heading somewhere.  I'll try those, I'd say most of the time they are pretty OK and sometimes quite good.  At a point the objective is merely to have food that won't make you sick. and we're lucky in the US and in Europe that getting sick is pretty rare.

I'm reminded me of the cafeteria style place we had lunch at in Korea, the ladies were really slinging stuff out there for a pretty large group.  And it was quite good I thought, but the kimchi was as advertised.

What IYHO is the best of the midlevel chains?  I don't have one really, I'm OK with most of'em.  But I'm not going to dine at any of them when we're at home.