This is stupid. America is an amazing place to eat, if you actually try and find non-Mcdonald's places, you'll find something decent.
I see you are from around New York, and there is certainly no lack of great food in NYC. It is even possible to find a decent coffee there.
And I have had great meals in other parts of the US too. A Mexican meal in San Diego still ranks as one of my all time greatest. Beautifully presented and full of flavour. BBQ ribs riverside in San Antonio was another highlight.
Mexican should be a good standby in the south-west. A restaurant in Scottsdale was fantastic, while a cool looking place in downtown Dallas was so-so and recently in Pismo Beach the local Mexican was decidedly ordinary.
I remember driving through the beautiful historical district of Victoria, Texas, on my way from the Gulf to the Dallas area, looking for a café or anything original. No luck at all but as soon as I was back on the highway out of town there was a long row of dozens of chain "restaurants", my only option. Other experiences, a hotel lunch buffet in Houston consisting of 5 different flavours of macaroni and cheese, wandering round the loop district of Chicago looking for somewhere decent to eat. Even the "upmarket" restaurant next to the skating rink in Millennium Park had a menu that largely consisted of hamburgers.
The internet is not such a great place to find good eateries, especially in smaller towns. I am a planner and on an early road trip through southern California and Arizona I did search Yelp trying to find good, interesting places to eat. First stop was to be Barstow after leaving LA. I had found a Mexican restaurant in Yelp with excellent reviews and comments like "great food" and "first of the chain, maintains original character". The restaurant? Taco Bell. What did I know? I think the problem is locals tend to write up their favorite eateries as great, whether they are or not on a more global scale. Anyway after several similar if not so extreme experiences I don't bother any more.
When you do find a proper restaurant very often the meals are too complex, over sauced and over salted. I was once given a cheese platter with five different types of cracker. Why? Too often quantity is seen to trump quality. Rather than making a good coffee, you are given a big coffee. I remember stopping at a small café in somewhere in Texas for a decent enough light meal but the coffee was terrible, far worse than normal. I mentioned this to the girl when paying my bill. She apologised, the "good" coffee machine was broken and they knew the substitute did not make very good coffee. The locals did not seem to mind, however.
I think the problem is the sheer dominance of chain "restaurants", the banality drowns out the good. This makes it very difficult for the traveller to find anything decent. Even if you can get a recommendation to a good restaurant do you really want to hop in the car again after a long day on the road and drive across town, perhaps to be disappointed or find it closed? The reason we were wandering the loop district was the blues club we wanted to go to was closed for a private function. When travelling, either as a tourist or for business, you often only have one or two nights in any one place so there is no going back tomorrow night.
