I was just wondering who's found a new favored restaurant while shopping that you'll return to even without the reimbursement incentive? For me, so far, I've found Buffalo Wild Wings and Cafe Zupas. On the other hand I'll probably never go back to Village Inn.

Carrabba's. They used to get mystery shopped once or twice a year and I was hooked after the first time. There is this chicken trio dish that has Chicken Bryan, Chicken Marsala, and Pollo Rosa Maria that I always get and they have this housemade creamy chunky parmesan dressing that I get on the field greens salad. The Marsala is some of the best I have ever eaten. But, I went to Phoenix and ate at their Carrabba's and it wasn't good. We went with a group of people, some who had never been, and pretty much everyone was dissatisfied with their food so it wasn't just me. Everything was waaaaayyy too salty. I went back to ours here in NE Ohio a few months later and it was just as good as always. I haven't seen it as a shop in awhile, hopefully I will again soon because I would rather "work for food", LOL.

I shopped three restaurants in my town that I love: Larsen's Steak House, amazing steaks, but really pricey so can't go on my own. They give a $200. reimbursement. Gyu Kaku, Japanese BBQ I really enjoy and have gone back on my own and Lucille's BBQ, great ribs and chicken and many other things, extensive menu. Never had a bad meal. I also love Urth Cafe in Beverly Hills which I do every 2 months, great breakfast and a 90.00 reimbursement, Steve and I had a good time last month, love it, fun and hip. Discovered several great Mom and Pop's through my Foodie group, unusual and wonderful food, one burger place is shopped and the best burger with excellent meat which you can get medium rare.
I ate at Carrabba's in Sarasota,Fl., and thought it too commercial, not great...once you've had smoked chicken at Lucille's BBQ,, nothing compares. I'm on a 3 month halt and miss it I agree chains are not all good.

I agree about the chains, for sure. I have eaten on shops at Fleming's, once a year for the past five years. Only once was it amazing. It's always pretty good but not fabulous. Over $200 with food and wine and I would never go back on my own dime. For some reason, though, our Carrabba's is great. Oh, yeah I ate at the one in Tallahassee, FL once and it was okay, but not great. The Applebee's in my part of the city is awful, but the one about 25 miles away is pretty good. I used to shop them, too. I got to the point where I quit taking their shops because the one by my house was consistently terrible and the other one was too far away. I'd never go there on my own.

Both Applebee's and TGIF's both closed in my town. I used to enjoy Roys especially in Sarasota, Fl., had wonderful dinners there, but i don't see it shopped here anymore. Flemings is hit and miss, I don't take it anymore, it's 30 miles. I'm trying to find Ruth Chris, I heard they have an early bird at good prices. I'll tell you a great burger is at Red Robin which is shopped but fly's off the board. I don't know if you have them, they have a good rewards program, buy one get one free and different promotions. Olive Garden sucks....ooops, can I say that? I only do the shops where I love love the food.otherwise why bother......

The restaurants worth discovering aren't shopped by MSCs. They are small, privately owned, and obscure. They certainly are not chains.

Yeah, we did the Red Robin twice this month, once as a take-out and once as a dine-in. The burgers were great both times but I prefer the take-out. It was not an enjoyable dine-in experience. The place was full of children, most of them under the age of 10. Each table other than ours and one other had between two to five children seated. The kids far outnumbered the adults in the dining room! They weren't bad kids, just really loud and there was food all over the floor because, well, young kids are just messy! Our poor server was frazzled and in a hurry to leave, and he came by before we were finished eating and asked if he could go ahead and check us out because his shift was almost over and he had some end-of-shift tasks to take care of before he could go home. I will do another RR take-out in a heartbeat.

I like Olive Garden only for soup, salad, and breadsticks. I used to take my husband's grandma once a month when she was at the nursing home before she got too sick to be able to go anywhere, and she passed away last year so I haven't been in a long time. For some reason she loved OG and Red Lobster. Talk about a place that sucks! Our RL is a dirty, overpriced restaurant with mediocre food. But, it wasn't about me, it was about her, so I would always let her pick and those two places were where she wanted to go.

I'd love to find out who does Ruth Chris as well. Maybe it's time for me to go back through the official list and see who I am not signed up with. But, I would end up having to drive 40 miles because there isn't one in my city.
Coyle has some good restaurants that are small regional chains that are pretty good, but they also are 40 miles away. After a glass of wine and a good meal, that's a long drive home.

I agree about doing shops at places you love. I usually give a place a few tries just to be sure that it wasn't a fluke when I went and it was bad. Applebee's was just that bad. I take the Fleming's when it shows up because I don't normally go out and spend $200 on a steak dinner and I also am in hope that they will get it together and it will be an awesome experience. Like I said, it's good, just not $200 worth of good.

Yes, we know. But that's not what the OP asked.

@Rousseau wrote:

The restaurants worth discovering aren't shopped by MSCs. They are small, privately owned, and obscure. They certainly are not chains.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Yeah, we did the Red Robin twice this month, once as a take-out and once as a dine-in. The burgers were great both times but I prefer the take-out. It was not an enjoyable dine-in experience. The place was full of children, most of them under the age of 10. Each table other than ours and one other had between two to five children seated. The kids far outnumbered the adults in the dining room! They weren't bad kids, just really loud and there was food all over the floor because, well, young kids are just messy! Our poor server was frazzled and in a hurry to leave, and he came by before we were finished eating and asked if he could go ahead and check us out because his shift was almost over and he had some end-of-shift tasks to take care of before he could go home. I will do another RR take-out in a heartbeat.

I like Olive Garden only for soup, salad, and breadsticks. I used to take my husband's grandma once a month when she was at the nursing home before she got too sick to be able to go anywhere, and she passed away last year so I haven't been in a long time. For some reason she loved OG and Red Lobster. Talk about a place that sucks! Our RL is a dirty, overpriced restaurant with mediocre food. But, it wasn't about me, it was about her, so I would always let her pick and those two places were where she wanted to go.

I'd love to find out who does Ruth Chris as well. Maybe it's time for me to go back through the official list and see who I am not signed up with. But, I would end up having to drive 40 miles because there isn't one in my city.
Coyle has some good restaurants that are small regional chains that are pretty good, but they also are 40 miles away. After a glass of wine and a good meal, that's a long drive home.

I agree about doing shops at places you love. I usually give a place a few tries just to be sure that it wasn't a fluke when I went and it was bad. Applebee's was just that bad. I take the Fleming's when it shows up because I don't normally go out and spend $200 on a steak dinner and I also am in hope that they will get it together and it will be an awesome experience. Like I said, it's good, just not $200 worth of good.

I agree with the noise at RR, but since there is no time on ours, I go after 2:00 and it' not full of kids.

We went at 8 p.m. because my husband worked out of town that day. I had thought by then kids would be home in bed, but I sure was wrong!

@Rousseau wrote:

The restaurants worth discovering aren't shopped by MSCs. They are small, privately owned, and obscure. They certainly are not chains.

You're right of course. But still there are some decent chains out there that I might never know about if I didn't mystery shop them first. But I do patronize some non-chain restaurants too. My dad is an expert on finding the best of these.

I would have never tried BWW but it was really good! I love Chedders but never go because its expensive. Was super happy about that shop.

I love Cheddars but there are none in my area. I've only gone when I went to Colorado to visit family. I wish there was one close by me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2017 03:47PM by sassymmmm.

They have them in Texas. I go there once a year to visit my brother and my cousins. I always stop in. I didn't know they were shopped, but I don't like doing shops when I am visiting relatives, as it diminishes time spent with them (unless it's a hotel shop and I stay there the first night in town)..

Buffalo Wild Wings and Panda Express. I had never eaten at either restaurant. I am more of an organic, non-gmo eater on my own dime but chicken wings, breaded chicken, & basically anything poultry is right up my alley.Throw in some potatoes and we have a party. Also, Beijing Beef is Ahmazing.

I love the Teriyaki Chicken at Panda Express!!!!

I like the orange chicken.

I loved Lucille's BBQ. Awwesome! The Jimboy's Tacos near my house is mediocre. The other Jimboy's location that I shop is way better. The food looked like it was made with love and care. I agree. Some chains are better than some. It all boils down to who's behind the counter. Since I do the Chipotle shops, some locations are better than others.One location cooks their chicken down to a science. You know, where you are chewing on the chicken, you get bursts of chicken juice. Some other locations overcooked their chicken where it is dried and bland. Love Gott's Roadside. Frequent there before I was shopping.

When I first got into mystery shopping in the 90s, I was sent to a Mexican food restaurant in downtown Dallas. It was a privately owned shop, and had great food. Went back once more, then moved. It has since closed, but had I remained in Dallas that would have become my go to place.
Yes today it is mostly chains that are shopped, but independent places can still be found (I've seen a couple on Coyle in the last year)
So far most of the places I've shopped chain wise I've known about, so I'm still looking for that new place. . .

I'm not a chain lover, but have found several small chains with about 5 restaurants that are great....I'm lucky to have great small places here in my town, of course they're not shopped. I take that back, the one pizza place {Mods)" has about 5 places, is shopped and my kind of pizza, sorry Pappa Johns fans, not buying it!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2017 09:05PM by Irene_L.A..

I am not a fan of Papa John's. I do it for the money. I don't eat the pizza. I don't think there are really many fans in here, maybe a few. And people with kids--well for some reason kids like it.

@MountainCacher88 wrote:

Buffalo Wild Wings and Panda Express. I had never eaten at either restaurant. I am more of an organic, non-gmo eater on my own dime but chicken wings, breaded chicken, & basically anything poultry is right up my alley.Throw in some potatoes and we have a party. Also, Beijing Beef is Ahmazing.

Mountain Cacher, if you have any Cafe Zupas in your area, you might really like them. If they have any in Colorado, I'm going to recommend it to my daughter who likes the same things you do. I kind of like Panda Express (didn't discover while msing though) especially the honey walnut shrimp. My biggest problem with most of their food is most of it has mushrooms. I have never liked mushrooms so I won't order anything with mushrooms.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2017 09:58PM by sassymmmm.

Oh, sassy that's a shame. I find mushrooms a great vehicle for other foods, as I love stuffing them with a variety of cheeses, herbs, sausage, seafood, etc. They also make a great addition to pasta dishes. I imagine you probably got ahold of some slimy ones at one point in your life. What a turn off, I know. But there are so many good things about them, as well as nutritional benefits. But there are people who feel the same way about seafood.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Oh, sassy that's a shame. I find mushrooms a great vehicle for other foods, as I love stuffing them with a variety of cheeses, herbs, sausage, seafood, etc. They also make a great addition to pasta dishes. I imagine you probably got ahold of some slimy ones at one point in your life. What a turn off, I know. But there are so many good things about them, as well as nutritional benefits. But there are people who feel the same way about seafood.

Very true and I find it hard to get past my memory of those. My oldest son tells me there are good mushrooms out there (he discovered them after he got married) but I just can't get my mind around the past. Plus when I go to a restaurant and get a dish with mushrooms, either because I forgot to tell them no mushrooms or I did ask and they forgot, the mushrooms I see look slimy to me then too. Maybe someday I'll be surprised to find out something I like actually has mushrooms in it and change my mind. But until then. . .

So his wife made him see the error of his ways (JK, LOL). Yeah, there are these wonderful types of mushrooms that are even good raw in salads, not slimy at all. And if properly sauteed with garlic and wine, there are oyster mushrooms, crimini (baby portabella) mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and so many more that are fabulous with pasta. Mushrooms actually are super high in protein and have medicinal properties as well. I really love them, but I have been eating them since I first grew teeth.

I so wish we were allowed to say which companies mystery shop each place. I would love to try Red Robin or Carrabas or some of the others! Saw the Flemings shop and it looks great but don't have the $400 to put out for two months till I get paid. Ruth Chris was the best meal that I have ever eaten! Even better than my husband's Friday night steaks but please don't tell him!

The Flemings is only $400 if you take several people. It's $200 for 2 people (plus bar and valet). Carrabbas is shopped by the same MSC but I haven't seen it in awhile.

Red Robin is shopped by a company that has very simple shops; they do a lot of electronic shops and they don't normally pay very well unless you get PAD (you'll never get PAD for RR). I haven't found Ruth Chris but like I said, it's a distance to drive so I am not in any hurry for that.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

The Flemings is only $400 if you take several people. It's $200 for 2 people (plus bar and valet). Carrabbas is shopped by the same MSC but I haven't seen it in awhile.

Red Robin is shopped by a company that has very simple shops; they do a lot of electronic shops and they don't normally pay very well unless you get PAD (you'll never get PAD for RR). I haven't found Ruth Chris but like I said, it's a distance to drive so I am not in any hurry for that.

What does PAD mean?

Ahhh it was a clue to the MSC. You haven't signed up with them yet, apparently. It's paid authorized distance or something like that. Same thing as a bonus I guess but you have to rationalize it in writing more than "I want more money" lol.

When they call you, you don't have to justify diddly