JAS_OH1
Forum GOD!
I just did 2 more pizza shops. But my pedicurist who is raising her grandson was happy to take them.
What did you cook or eat today (April 2026)?
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Gone Hiking
Über Member
So are these national chain store pizza shops you are hitting up, or independent local mom and pops? The latter ALWAYS has the best pizza, and the chain store stuff is inedible as far as I'm concerned. We often have vendors who give presentations at my office who typically either bring disgusting chain store pizza or sandwich shop garbage for their lunch 'n learns. Anticipating such, I always just bring my own lunch and don't mumble a word about it to prevent being a spectacle, while everyone else chows down on free garbage.
Gone Hiking
Über Member
Mrs. GH and I were both still fairly full from late lunches today and so it was just a little leftover steak and smoked trout for me tonight and some yellow curry for her. There's probably just enough left yet for a light lunch for she and I tomorrow. Mrs. GH wants to make her mom's chicken pot pie this weekend, when our kid will be home from college. Our's is the Pennsylvania Dutch version, btw, with homemade square noodles, chicken, and raw white onions in a brothy soup, and not what we call "chicken pie" that has a pastry pie crust, which often goes by the same name of "chicken pot pie" across much of the country. To us, that is something different entirely.
JAS_OH1
Forum GOD!
It is indeed a chain, because mom and pop stores can't afford to pay me to do these (and it really wouldn't make sense since the staff are often owners and their family members), and there are probably 20 locations for this chain within a 15 mile radius of where I live. It happens to be one of the only chain pizzas I really enjoy. I can't say who it is, but I can tell you it's not Papa John's (worst pizza ever). Seriously can't pay me to eat that, even though PJs does have a mystery shopping program.
In my experience, all chains are not created equal, and all locations for each chain can put out a vastly different quality of product, which is why they get evaluated. And I've been doing this for long enough to know which locations to avoid!
JAS_OH1
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I wanted to make braised lamb shanks with risotto for my husband's birthday dinner, but he isn't feeling it since it's so rich, so I am making small prime ribcap steaks instead.
Puggles
"I don't like things I hate"
Most chains were great at some point (except Papa Johns
They've always been just terrible) In the past -insert number of years here- have gotten cheaper and cheaper, and it definitely affects quality. I also like a few chain places; they do something different from the others, but the country (and eventually world) is currently being taken over by a giant Sysco conglomerate conspiracy. By the way, they are the same company that serves literal prison food. Have you noticed that food quality in most restaurants everywhere has gotten consistently worse and worse quality that all "tastes the same"? It's all Sysco, they deliver all over the country and put smaller food sources out of business.
Barriehie
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I do the occasional mystery shop on the Asian food places. It's good most of the time. 
JAS_OH1
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The thing is, we only have to eat a few bites of it the way it's served to give it a fair evaluation, and then we are free to "doctor" it up to suit our tastes.I do the occasional mystery shop on the Asian food places. It's good most of the time.
badjak
Forum GOD!
I had my stew that I had wanted to eat the night before 
With rice this time
With rice this time