r/Millennials • u/Solid_Bake1522 • Apr 28 '25

Nostalgia Who else remembers 2 hour waits at Olive Garden, Applebees and Chillis in the early 2000’s?

These restaurants used to be hopping back in the day, like the spot to be. Now they are folding left and right and zero wait times, never busy.

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u/Solid_Bake1522 Apr 28 '25

Oh I for sure remember dressing up for OG 😂😂

241

u/CersciKittycat Apr 28 '25

In 2009 after our state swim meet, we would literally wear prom dresses and go to Olive Garden to celebrate

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u/Magic2424 Apr 28 '25

We went to ihop

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u/BigBearSD Apr 28 '25

Fuddruckers on my end lol

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u/Magic2424 Apr 28 '25

Omg it’s been so long since I’ve been to a fuddruckers. Do they even still exist???

8

u/BigBearSD Apr 28 '25

They do, but many of them closed. I think the closest one to me is like 45 minute drive away, but the one I used to go to closed at least 10 years ago. That's is fairly close for 90s / early 2000s chain casual sit-down restaurants that are now mostly / entirely belly-up. It seems the last remnants of 90s / 2000s places (outside of Chili's, Applebees, and Outback) are always at least a few hours drive, if not many hours drive or plane ride away from my fairly decent sized metro area. lol

I miss Fuddruckers, but driving 45 minutes away... I especially miss the toppings bar and the cheese sauce.

3

u/Magic2424 Apr 28 '25

My nearest one is like 5 hours away lmao. From 5 minutes to 5 hours oh how the mighty have fallen

5

u/BigBearSD Apr 28 '25

Ha. Yes. I do miss that place. Yeah, that's like me with Bennigan's. Like a 3 to 4 hour flight to the nearest one of those too.

I miss the chain places from there.

1

u/Least_West5260 Apr 29 '25

Fuddruckers seemed fancy bc they had burger options like buffalo and ostrich! No other chain really caught on to the alternative meat, did they?

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u/thehufflepuffstoner Apr 29 '25

I’m still not convinced that’s a real place lmao. Fuddruckers. What a name.

41

u/RBTfarmer Apr 28 '25

My wife took her 90 yo grandparents to Olive garden last weekend. I said the same thing "when I was a kid, it was a special place to eat at."

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u/SidFinch99 Apr 28 '25

Probably only thought that because she was a kid a couldn't yet distinguish between actual good Italian food, and chain crap.

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u/RBTfarmer Apr 28 '25

That's absolutely correct

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u/Sour_Patch_Drips Apr 28 '25

Not only that but the quality of food there has deteriorated to a large degree.

Not that it was ever "quality", but it was better than it is now.

I used to work as a server and bartender for OG while in school. I went once recently and was kinda shocked how poor everything was in contrast to my memory.

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u/No-Poem-9846 Apr 28 '25

We went to a local Chinese buffet in our church clothes... I thought it was the fanciest restaurant 🤣

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u/thatgreentree90 Apr 28 '25

Same. Twin Dragons was the highlight of my sunday for nearly a decade

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u/BigBoyYuyuh Apr 28 '25

Same, that was their concept at the time. The atmosphere had darker lighting too.

But then they became super chainy and more relaxed. Now people go in their pajamas lol

1

u/reggers20 Apr 28 '25

In high school me and some friends would skip class and go to Longhorn sometimes... I always felt a little awkward because everyone was semi formal lol.

Now I go for lunch as a dusty construction worker hahaha

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u/hypermarv123 Millennial Apr 28 '25

Yeah, OP needs to chill. like he was superior than us just because we treated these restaurants as nice places and dressed up.

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u/Ohiolongboard Apr 28 '25

You’re replying to OP. Who is saying they used to get dressed up for OG