Celebration Restaurant?

[AJL67]

What restaurant your family would go to for celebrations that you didn’t realize wasn’t a 5-star restaurant till you grew up?


For me it was Sizzler or a bday would be Red Lobster (well once).

 

[proteus]

Ponderosa Steak house and another place called Steak and Stein.

 

[PA Piper Mike]

Oh man, I remember my grandparents taking both me and my sister to Ponderosa and Sizzler when we were kids.

With my parents, it was always Pizza Hut with the salad bar, Pac-man/Donkey Kong Table video games and the red plastic cups.

 

[Kobold]

Ground Round.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Lived in a pretty small town until age 15, so whether there or near where my grandparents lived family celebrations that involved a restaurant were at family owned restaurants so to speak vs. franchises. Doubt if any would have been highly rated in general, but very much so by the customers in the town/area they served. Ponderosa and Wendy's were up there as favorite spots when in the "big city", lol, along with Pizza Hut back in the day, but I still gravitated to the non-franchise and still do, but rarely eat out.

 

[username]

Dennys is a birthday tradition always got my birthday grand slam. I think they changed the promo a few years back unfortunately so haven't been in a couple years.

 

[mso489]

Though my dad was intensely thrifty, he would occasionally spend on upscale restaurants for family occasions. He also had some pretty good instincts finding unique restaurants with great food that weren't particularly expensive.

However, I do remember how intensely I enjoyed a hamburger, fries, and a milkshake at Robin Hood's Barn, with a neon sign which was Robin Hood firing an arrow at a bullseye. It was strictly burger joint, but my pleasure was unbounded.

Incidentally, my dad was the cook in the family. Mom dutifully had supper for the family after school and work, but Dad did Sunday dinner, and as he got older and had more time, he got even better. He could take a simple dish and make the ingredients sing. He had an old double boiler that went back to my folks' first household that he seemed to use for everything. After he died, my brother-in-law flattened out the bottom again, it had become so rounded with use. Dad had little kitchenware -- it was all knowhow.

 

[AcesAndEights]

Oh man, I remember my grandparents taking both me and my sister to Ponderosa and Sizzler when we were kids.

With my parents, it was always Pizza Hut with the salad bar, Pac-man/Donkey Kong Table video games and the red plastic cups.

Pizza Hut. Definitely Pizza Hut. Throw a fist full of quarters in the juke box and play arcade games till your personal pan ‘za dropped. We were kings.

 

[solideogloria86]

Guadalajara. I know you can't tell from the name, but it was a Mexican restaurant. We'd go on special occasions. You could tell it was a special occasion, because my Papaw Maurice would put on his bluest pair of blue jeans and a collared shirt. Enchiladas have never tasted so good.

 

[warren]

I've never dined at a one star let alone a five star. But, no one here would have heard of either of the places my family often held celebratory meals in. The were both a bit pricey and rightly so though.

 

[AJL67]

For the Sizzler folk there are still a couple of them left in California, at least there was, but there was one by a dispensary i would use in SD back in the day and it was right there so i'd hit them up for Malibu chicken and steak and their cheesy toast. Freaking fried chicken breast and and a sizzler sirloin steak was pretty much at 20 bucks lol

 

[LeafErikson]

Classic Tex mex was where I went growing up. Or a little Italian place. Neither were chains. The Italian place had incredible coconut cake.

 

[Servant King]

It's perplexing for me to see the word "family" within at least seven words of the word "celebration."

 

[jpmcwjr]

You said it, though until my sisters passed into bitchdom, outings were a treat. Also a family owned restaurant, single floor, unknown outside a fifty mile radius, but it had good food, tablecloths and real ceramic plates!!

There were no Mickey D's, Ponderosi, Pizza Huts, Wendy's etc. back when I was young enough to be ok with family outings.

 

[tfdickson]

I've never dined at a one star let alone a five star. But, no one here would have heard of either of the places my family often held celebratory meals in. The were both a bit pricey and rightly so though.

I‘m in the same boat, no one here (except you and @alaskanpiper ) would have heard of the places my family enjoyed a celebratory meal. For us it was The Corsair, The Quarter Deck, or The Crow’s Nest.

 

[AJL67]

I think if i asked the raccoons they would say Adam’s Place, appetizers, entrees and bottled water with every meal.

 

[daveinlax]

With my family growing up it was the Nankin.When we moved it was Billy Moy’s and for us it’s been The Freight House where we celebrated our Anniversary Friday

 

[sablebrush52]

The folks were extremely careful with money, having been through the Great Depression. So celebrations were held at home. Occasionally they would order pizza and spaghetti from Donofrio’s, which is still around, or burgers from Fabulous Eddies on a weekly special night when the price on burgers was 50% of normal. Maybe twice a year we went to a restaurant, and when we did it was pretty damned nice, like the Sea Lion, in Malibu, or Moskva Cliff in Studio City.
They didn’t piss away money on crap unless it was highly discounted crap, which was quite possible 60 years ago. They didn’t believe in debt, which, with a very few exceptions, like a mortgage, they considered a trap built for imbeciles.
So celebration dinners in restaurants? Didn’t happen.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I bet you have a lot of company wrt the above.

And I thank the Lord there were no Chuckie Cheeses when I was a kid, though I'd like to think my Mom wouldn't have foisted that on me or my sisters.

 

[Sidehatch]

Our place was a Mexican place where I always ordered a smothered burrito as big as my leg. Always ate it. Always had a stomach ache trying to eat the whole thing. That whole finish your plate thing I took very seriously. Despite physical pain and discomfort.