Elle at A Complete Thought tagged me for this meme based on eating out — one of my favorite things to do! Thanks for thinking of me, Elle!

The instructions are:

1. Link to name of person that tagged you.
2. Include state and country you live in.
3. List top 5 favorite local restaurants.
4. Tag 5 other people and let them know they’ve been tagged.

I am in South Carolina of the USA.

It helped me to think of this in terms of favorite types of restaurants, so I’ll do it that way.

1. Favorite fast food place: Wendy’s. Love their singles and fries! I think Fuddruckers probably has the all-time best burgers, but only a couple of us like them, and they don’t have a drive-through. 🙂 Wendy’s is probably where we go for hamburgers most often.

2. Favorite Mexican food place: Corona’s. Love their chicken chimichangas! I did look up the recipe for those once — but when I can get them so expertly done, why would I go to all the trouble? 🙂

3. Favorite all-American restaurant with a little shop: Cracker Barrel. I tend to order the same favorite things at particular restaurants, but for a while there a few of us were going to Cracker Barrel for lunch pretty often, so I tried several different things there. Love the chicken and dumplings, meatloaf, and sugar-cured ham, and in the fall they often have a baked chicken with gravy and dressing entree that I am nearly drooling just thinking of. Sadly, my family doesn’t like to go there much and my lunch buddies are teaching, so I haven’t been there in ages. It is decorated with a lot of antique-looking signs and pictures and objects and has a fun little shop connected to it.

4. Favorite Australian restaurant: Outback. Honestly, I don’t like the atmosphere — it’s too noisy and dark. But I love the Drover’s Platter — ribs and chicken with a baked potato and side salad. And because I can’t eat all of that at one sitting, there is enough for lunch the next day. It’s pretty expensive, though, even with getting two meals out of it per person, so we only go once, maybe twice a year, usually for someone’s birthday or our anniversary.

5. Favorite “nice” restaurant and steak place: Steak and Ale. We actually don’t eat steak a whole lot, but I like theirs. I like to go there for anniversaries. This was the first “nice” restaurant that I ever went to on a date, and I remember when the waiter came to our table and told us his name was Vincent and he would be taking care of us tonight — well, it sounds silly now because I’ve been to many restaurants where the waiters do that — but I was just so impressed! That one also definitely had more of an old English feel to it.

Now that I am thinking types of restaurants, I am also thinking of favorite place to go for breakfast, favorite Italian place, etc. — but I’d better stop since I am at five.

You’ll notice that these are mostly chains (at least in the southeast) and not local, unique restaurants. One reason for that is that I don’t want to reveal my city or name a place that could be g**gled and traced to my city — I don’t think anyone would go to the trouble to stalk me, but I just want to play safe. And we tend to go more for the tried and true rather than the local places — we should try those out a little more. But I’m afraid I haven’t liked some of the local indigenous places. There is one in particular that is only in our city that’s pretty famous — and I was so disappointed in it when we tried it! My husband and I even discussed whether it was an “emperor’s new clothes” type of thing, where everyone was saying how great it was while secretly they all thought it was awful. 🙂 But I don’t think so — I think we’re just out of the loop on that one. There is another little place that is an old house converted into a restaurant. It’s reservation-only because it is not very big and it’s very popular. The meal is served buffet-style and is always great. My husband has taken me there for an anniversary or birthday lunch a couple of times and I’ve gone with my friend Carol a few times. Love it!

Now I am supposed to tag five people. But I have seen this around a lot and I can’t remember who has and hasn’t done it. So if you’d like to, consider yourself tagged and let me know in the comments, or let me know in the comments what your favorite restaurants are.