Your Neighborhood Microwave

It's always special when someone who doesn't know your personality gives you a gift card for a place you would never go to.

This scenario is how my wife and I found ourselves with a $25 gift card to Applebee's this past weekend.

This particular gift card was one that I didn't want to spend more than I received, which means I had zero intentions of spending a penny more than $25.

With this plan in mind, we invited two of our other cheap friends to our house for a small, yet free Applebee's party.

Knowing our budget, we ordered two Appetizer Sampler Platters ($12.49 each) to get the most food and the most variety. The Sampler platter included: Spinach Artichoke Dip, Mozzarella Sticks, Cheese Quesadillas and Boneless Buffalo Wings.

When placing my to-go order the Applebee's employee told me it would be ready in 15 minutes.

15 minutes! Wow that's fast....wait a second.....how are they cooking this food? Technically I have no idea, however after getting this quoted time I began to form a theory that the food might actually be cooked in the microwave.

About 20 minutes later, my theory was proven true when I opened up our to go packages to reveal the two Appetizer Sampler Platters. The Spinach Dip was nuked to oblivion with a nice thick cheesy skin on top of the dip. The Mozzarella sticks were still slightly hard and the cheese was chewy. Thee buffalo wings (which I assume were originally frozen) had breading that was nice and dry even with the buffalo sauce on top.

All symptoms of food cooked in a microwave.

Is what has happened to Casual Dining restaurants? Should we expect fast food quality food at a significantly higher price?

Before I go on in my riff against Applebee's let me just set one thing clear - the food didn't taste bad.

But, what frozen microwaved food does? Hot Pockets taste good. Digiorno Pizza tastes good. T.G.I Friday's has even gone as far as selling their microwaved food in the frozen section of your local grocery store.

So maybe I'm just the one with the whacked out thinking. All signs point that we should anticipate that food from Casual Dining restaurants like Applebee's should be microwaved and then served to us.

I guess I just always hope for more.