'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

Good morning,

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US, mainly
in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to Florida,
New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you can for
$5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable quality food
and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.

Any suggestions as what is the best option nowadays.

Thanks

Neville
Queensland
Australia

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

On Wed, 6 Jun 2012 23:03:37 +0000 (UTC), Neville MADDEN
wrote:

Good morning,

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US, mainly
in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to Florida,
New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you can for
$5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable quality food
and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.


$5.99 would be *very* cheap these days. I don't think you can find
much, if anything, at that price. But in many places you can find
all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets for around $12 in the evening, and
even less at lunch time.


--
Ken Blake

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

On 06 Jun 2012 in rec.travel.usa-canada, Neville MADDEN wrote:

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US,
mainly in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to
Florida, New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you
can for $5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable
quality food and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.

Any suggestions as what is the best option nowadays.

Second what Ken Blake suggested - Chinese buffets at lunchtime.

There's a national chain of buffet restaurants called Golden Corral
(http://www.goldencorral.com/). They run about US$10 for dinner
(current special is 2/$20); no idea about lunch pricing. It's been a
while since I ate there, but the food should be OK if uninspiring.

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

"Neville MADDEN" wrote in message
...
Good morning,

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US, mainly
in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to Florida,
New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you can for
$5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable quality food
and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.

Any suggestions as what is the best option nowadays.

Thanks

Neville
Queensland
Australia

I doubt that you'll see prices like that again as $5.99 is roughly what a
low-end combo costs at Burger King these days. Roadfood is a website (and a
series of books) about unfancy places to eat around the country
(http://roadfood.com/). At the very least they'll give you some insight to
local specialties, but they do actually eat at all the places they
recommend.

You didn't mention when you're coming, but from now until a few weeks into
September you'll be able to find some kind of festival just about every
weekend no matter where you are. These will be put on by churches and clubs
usually, but they can also be fundraisers for just about any purpose, and
they will sell food that can be very good. They are the kind of affair that
you really have to keep your eyes open to find unless you happen upon the
event itself. Look for posters on lamp posts or on car windshields, in
store windows and the like, or just ask around. From August into October
there will be some overlap with harvest fairs, where the food won't be cheap
but it can definitely be odd (particularly in the midwest)

Most supermarkets now have prepared food sections where you can pick up
pretty decent food at reasonable prices to eat at a scenic area or at your
lodging. This may be your lowest cost option, but be aware that even 24hr
stores don't cook through the night. Buy early.

Good luck,
Keith

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

"Neville MADDEN" wrote in message
...
Good morning,

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US, mainly
in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to Florida,
New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you can for
$5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable quality food
and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.

Any suggestions as what is the best option nowadays.

Thanks

Neville
Queensland
Australia

My wife and I have taken to having a good (cooked) breakfast in either
Dennys or, more usually, a local diner (we tend to stay in small towns, not
cities). Then buy a few simple snacks in the local supermarket and then an
early dinner sometimes in a diner but occasionally slightly more upmarket.
The supermarket food allows us to eat the greens and fruit we sometimes
can't get at a diner.

The first supermarket we come across we can usually find a small cool bag so
we buy that and every couple of days buy a little ice to keep the food cool.
We've had very basic white polystyrene ones (which while effective squeak
all the time when driving), big rigid ones with wheels (when we had children
with us) and most recently ones that you can carry over your shoulder and
fold down when not in use. We've bought two of the fold down ones back to
the UK and (if we can get them back from people we've loaned them to) very
useful they are too. The big rigid ones (which cost us maybe $25) we gave
to the maid in the last hotel we stayed in.

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

On 06 Jun 2012 in rec.travel.usa-canada, Neville MADDEN wrote:

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US,
mainly in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to
Florida, New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you
can for $5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable
quality food and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.

Any suggestions as what is the best option nowadays.

I didn't think to mention Chinese buffets in my last response, and in a
general sense they're probably your best bet. The better ones serve much
more than Chinese food, too. The last one we went to had some normally
pricey clam dishes (including clams on the half shell), shrimp (prawns) done
several ways, southern fried chicken and a lot of other non-Chinese things,
including sushi and some Thai items. Normal price for the buffet was $12 +
beverage cost. We happened on a 2 for $20 deal. Sodas were $2 with free
refills.

If you're staying in hotels and motels, many now serve some kind of
breakfast that's included in the rate. Some of those offer full hot
American breakfast while at most it's 'continental' or something meager like
a muffin and coffee. A handful (Embassy Suites comes to mind) have a
complimentary cocktail hour in the late afternoon.

Another thing I didn't think of are the big truck stops along the
Interstates. Many of those offer buffet meals all day and all night long,
but not for 5.99. I'm not really sure how you go about finding those -
there may be a locator on the Internet.

Keith

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

"Graham Harrison" wrote in
:


"Neville MADDEN" wrote in message
...
Good morning,

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US,
mainly in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to
Florida, New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Thanks to everone that replied. Our last trip was in 2001 so prices have
gone up since then. Adding everybody's replies together gives us a great
lot of options.

Neville
Queensland
Australia

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 20:20:19 -0500, "Keith"
wrote:

I didn't think to mention Chinese buffets in my last response, and in a
general sense they're probably your best bet. The better ones serve much
more than Chinese food, too. The last one we went to had some normally
pricey clam dishes (including clams on the half shell), shrimp (prawns) done
several ways, southern fried chicken and a lot of other non-Chinese things,


My experience is the same with regard to most of the above things.


including sushi and some Thai items.


I've only been to a few such places, but regarding sushi, yuck! I'm a
sushi lover, but I pass it up at these places.

They mostly have only sushi rolls, and very heavily americanized sushi
rolls--nothing traditional. And regarding nigiri sushi, they either
had nothing or a very few kinds. And none of the sushi was any good,
mostly because the rice was very Chinese, not Japanese sushi rice.

--
Ken Blake

'On-the-road restaurants in USA
 

"Neville MADDEN" wrote in message
...
Good morning,

My wife and I are planning a three month driving tour in the US, mainly
in a big loop from Los Angeles to Seattle to Niagara to NY to Florida,
New Orleans, GC, Las Vegas and back to LA.

Last time, about 10 years ago, we used to eat at the "eat all you can for
$5.99" restaurants for the main meal of the day. Reasonable quality food
and helped keep the travel budget reasonable.

Looking at Denny's and Wendy's web site this option no longer seems
available.

Any suggestions as what is the best option nowadays.

Thanks

Neville
Queensland
Australia

Denny's has a $2, $4 $6 $8 deal

While driving north from LA , across from Hearst Castle is a Best Western
Cavalier.
Great food - cheap prices and the best apple pie you'll ever have.

I travel a lot and like the Perkins Restaurant chain. Good dinners for ~$10.
Their pot pies are excellent ( but regional).

Chinese buffets are a thing for the past few years. I see them all over the
country by various names. Usually about $6 for lunch, $10 for dinner. "
China Buffet " is a chain in New England.
In Ocala,FL there is another that has Alaskan King crab legs on Friday
nights . It's more money on Fridays, but it is amazing to see much food some
people can eat. Most people get JUST the legs. One little old lady made
several trips of 4-5 each.

What TYPE of food do you like ? Turkey, steak, fish, veggies ?
Readers here can tell you about local chains for your preference.

Also, if you will have a GPS, for many of the chains you can download a file
that will add a file to their locations.
http://poidirectory.com/poifiles/uni...s/restaurants/

We use the links to hotels/restaurants as nighttime/ dinnertime approaches.
If another ... 37 miles to a "Comfort Inn with a Perkins nearby" then
THAT's where we stop for the night. If nothing for 100 miles then it doesn't
matter. Some of the parts of the country you'll travel are remote and good
to have all of the hotels/restaurants loaded into GPS before you hit the
road.

On the road hotels are really good to have better food in less money, while traveling US, you can look for street food restaurants which are cheaper in price and will provide delicious food to satisfy your hunger.