You can eat nothing but food from 5 chain restaurants for the rest of your life

[Praying Colonel]

Not local chains, but ones with a large footprint.

Who you got?

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Uh...

Chipotle
Panera
Chik Fil A
Five Guys or Smashburger
Panda Express

 

[Schneewittchen37]

1. Subway (it's not good, but it's always easy to find one)
2. Olive Garden
3. Cracker Barrel
4. Chipotle
5. Chick Fil A

 

[Praying Colonel]

I'm going with

Cracker Barrel (to cover breakfast and country cooking)
Chik Fil A (to cover fast food while traveling)
PF Changs (to cover Asian food. I can't think of any others except for Panda Express)
Chuy's (to cover Tex Mex. Is it a large enough chain? If not, I guess I'd go with Qdoba)
Olive Garden (to cover Italian)

 

[soccerdad72]

Chipotle
Jimmy John's
PF Changs
Macaroni Grill
Bonchon (not a large chain, but they do have locations nationwide)

 

[AndreaDM]

Cracker Barrel (breakfast all day!)
Chick Fil A (not on Sundays )
Jimmy Johns (or Jersey Mike's, any sub place other than Subway)
Applebees (cause I'm fancy)
Cheesecake Factory (menu is big enough to provide variety)

 

[BrianL]

I tend to like sandwich shops, so:

Chicken Salad Chick
Schlotzsky's
Potbelly
Jimmy John's
Chick-fil-A

And I reserve the right to Earl of Sandwhcih when at Disney World. I don't have one here and htey don't have exaclty a large footprint, so I am sliding it in.

 

[EmilyGahr]

Outback Steakhouse
Panera
Olive Garden
Moe's Southwest Grill
Domino's Pizza

 

[tasha99]

1. Gyu-kaku (not just my favorite chain, but my favorite restaurant)
2. Din Tai Fung (love dumplings)
3. BCD Tofu House (not sure if this qualifies since it has a smaller footprint, but at least it's bicoastal).
4. Sweetgreen (just to have a salad always available)
5. El Pollo Loco (my favorite fast food chicken, along with Popeyes, but I couldn't eat Popeyes every week. Nando's is a very close 3rd)

 

[Minnesota!]

White Castle because duh

Culver's because fries

Jersey Mike's because way better than Subway

Chili's because my favorite waitress ever works there and she has no problem with my stupid orders.

And.....idk. Maybe Red Lobster since it's nostalgic for me?

We don't go out to eat much, and if we do, it's a mom and pop place, but when we needed cheap and quick over the years, these are where we would go.

 

[fhtpdw20]

Cracker Barrel
O'Charleys
Cheesecake Factory
Papa John Pizza
Dairy Queen

 

[loves to dive]

1. Chick-fil-A (mostly for their milkshakes)
2. Outback (you can get steak or chicken or fish and veggies)
3. Cracker Barrel (breakfast and veggies or sandwiches)
4. Pizza Hut
5. Mexican (we don't really have any chain Mexican restaurants where I live but there has to be one out there that isn't sort of fast food right?)

 

[dcassetta]

Sonic
Jersey Mike's
Golden Corral (since Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation is gone)
Chuy's
Ruth's Chris

 

[luvnwdwgal]

We seldom go out to eat so there are so many that I’ve never eaten at. I guess I’d go with:
Red Lobster
Olive Garden
Outback Steakhouse
East of Chicago Pizza
Red Robin

 

[bcla]

Chili's - best deals in casual dining anywhere.
Romano's Macaroni Grill - one is pretty close to home and it's been pretty reliable over the years.
McDonald's - just ubiquitous and for the most part reliable.
Panda Express - don't laugh. I see Chinese people buying from it.
Chipotle - not necessarily the greatest, but they're reliable and predictable. I was thinking others in the "almost Mexican" category but the footprint is negligible these days.

I was thinking Chevy's, but man their locations have just dropped off the map in 20 years. Another one that was great in its prime was Elephant Bar. It was possibly the best casual dining place I've ever gone to in its heyday. They were all really crowded and doing great business up until about 2013. I think the executive chef (an Austrian guy named Reinhard Dorfhuber) who developed the menu left, and it all fell apart with the new management. I also remember a fairly large regional chain called Pasta Pomodoro, but that fell apart too after the founder left the business. He sold it to a couple of private equity managers and they messed up the formula badly. It was declining before the sale, although some felt that the concept might have been stale and he was shifting his attention to another ventures including a new burger chain.

 

[tvguy]

1) Outback Steakhouse
2) Red Lobster
3) Dennys
4) Cracker Barrel
5) Burger King

 

[easyas123]

Dunkin Doughnuts - coffee
Cheesecake Factory - I've never been to one but their super large menu is legendary, so at least there would be a bit of variety. Plus, cheesecake!
Dominos - chain pizza better than no pizza I suppose
Flying J (do those count???) - closest I can think of in terms of a chain diner type place - because, pancakes
Mission BBQ -

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Chik-Fil-A
Subway
In & Out
Denny's


Ummmm.... McDonald's or Golden Corral, can't decide

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Cheesecake Factory
Chili's
Applebee's
Chipotle
IHop (not necessarily my favorite but I would want at least one option that had breakfast foods)

 

[focusondisney]

Denny’s for breakfast
Wendy’s for fast food. I like their salads, burgers & chili
Pizza Hut
Olive Garden
Cheesecake Factory, I guess. I like Outback & Texas Roadhouse more, but the menu is so varied at CF, I think it would be the better choice.