Slate has brief reviews of a number of chain restaurants today. Most surprising was the generally positive review of Olive Garden, which I loathe completely. (The one near where I live is an atrocity, and I’ve never had a good meal at an Olive Garden.) My general bias is that chains suck. Some chains have dishes that I like pretty well, but for the most part, I avoid chains like the plague. Not only is the food often utterly least common denominator, but I don’t like dumping money into the coffers of chains when I can support a local business that might even be buying food produced locally. I’ve eaten at several of the restaurants reviewed in the article, and I can’t say that I liked any of them.