Bubba Gumps

[€uroMeinke]

Chain Restaurants have their niche, they tend to serve a certain quality of food and experience and deliver it consistently in any market. My beef with them is than they are becoming ubiquitous, so that the great hole-in-the-wall mom and pops are harder and harder to come by.

The chains tend to play it safe, they want to attract the largest possible audience, so the cuisine tends to not be that adventurous - their predicatability being one of their key selling factors. Granted there are more "upscale" chains now of higher quality, but they still lack the authenticity (and flavor) of the places they pretend to emulate.

While I've enjoyed meals at McCormick & Schmicks, Wolfgang Pucks, or P.F. Changs - when I travel to other cities, I'd never stop at one - since they are so alike. And so when going to Fisherman's wharf, you might get a good meal at Bubba Gumps, but you could have the same meal in Chicago. Visiting some of the other one-of-a-kind seafood restaurants allows you to experience something that truly belongs to the city (which might include risking food poisoning if you've nothing to guide you).