With dozens and dozens of restaurants to choose from, it is easy to get confused with what one should expect from his or her dining out experience. To make it less confusing, one can look at the vast choices of restaurants to choose from as three different types of dining: fast food, family oriented diners, and fine dining.
The first type of restaurant, fast food, is self-explanatory. To name a few, these restaurants include McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy's. They are all typically characterized by their ability to fix your food the way you want it while you wait in line, or at many locations, while you are driving through the drive thru. The food found in these restaurants is very fast, very cheap, very unhealthy, and to many people, very satisfying. Most chains use many of the same ingredients, including French fries, cheap hamburger meat, and processed chicken nuggets. While most people use these restaurants as a quick "eat and run" stop, most locations do provide a dining room where you can carry your tray of food to a plastic and metal table and chair set. Also, with the exception of Wendy's, most restaurants expect that you clear your table and dump your trash before leaving.
The second category of dining is much broader because it ranges from casual "Mom and Pop" type diners to more formal restaurants such as Ruby Tuesday's and Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen. These restaurants are usually referred to as "family dining" because they target families with young children. They often provide a special children's menu and crayons or toys for the children to be entertained with. They are establishments where you can get a table, a server, and a great meal for the whole family for a decent price. These restaurants have a large range of cuisine, anything from all-American to Italian to Chinese. They are priced moderately for the average income of the average American family.