I am about as un-domesticated as a person can get when it comes to cooking.   I eat out or order in at least 5 days a week.   My girlfriend will not be offended when I say that she is right there with me.   That adds up to a lot of restaurants and opportunities to critique the good, bad and the ugly.   We are pretty low maintenance in types of restaurants we choose.  You are more likely to find us at Chilis, Olive Garden or Cheesecake Factory than any place striving for a coveted star next to its name in Zagat.  We also love sushi.  While do we like to hit the 4 star now and then, consistency and convenience are our monikers when it comes to selecting a restaurant.   That being said I have several observations with regards to our experiences in this regard.

It is logical to assume that the restaurant industry is being hit hard in this economic recession.   People have less money to spend so they spend more time spent at home instead of eating out.  Makes perfect sense.  How are restaurants dealing with this?  Profit margins are razor thin as it is.   Some are outright failing.  There is a very noticeable uptick in restaurant closings in Dallas, Texas.  Dallas is said to have more restaurants per capita than  New York City.  I have noticed a considerable decrease in patronage at restaurants that I regularly frequent.   People are pulling up to the door of their favorite establishment only to find that it closed the day before.   How are the ones that are staying open making it?   Even the chain restaurants are losing business.  Where are they cutting corners to stay  close to profitability and ride out this economic tsunami?  For many restaurants and their customers it seems to be the food.   There has been a noticeable decline in food quality in many of the restaurants I regularly frequent.  In the alternative restaurants are leaving the more expensive ingredients off dishes and camouflaging with more of  less expensive parts of the dish in the hopes that it will not be noticed.  Here is one example.

I love nachos.  I have eaten nachos from restaurants all over Dallas.  While I generally get the best ones at Mexican restaurants, I have also gotten them from places like the Cheesecake Factory, Chilis etc.   The other night on my girlfriend’s suggestions, we decided to try Applebees.  I know what you are thinking.  Nachos from Applebees?  There had to be safer choices.   I frankly had never eaten at Applebees.  We pulled up the menu online. The pictures looked good.  My girlfriend had a good experience the last time she ate there.  We threw caution to the wind . We called in the order for nachos for takeout.    When we got the nachos home we were ready to eat!  We opened the container and this is what we received for our money:

Whats wrong with this picture?  Cold chips, a few shreds of un-melted cheese, about 6 jalapenos and half a head of lettuce. Total cost to make if I had gone to the supermarket?  Less than 3 dollars pro-rata.  We paid just over 8 dollars. We could have done better at Taco Bell!  In fairness to Applebees, when we called and complained, they refunded our money without asking questions.  Our dog was thrilled!  Lesson learned?  Being consistent in an economic recession is not necessarily a virtue.

Has anyone else noticed this decline in food quality?  What are your experiences?