[SamAdams76]

That's the problem with just about anything good when it comes to food. A product gets popular and gains market share. Everything is good. Everybody is happy - both consumer and the corporation. After a while, the market is saturated and the only way for the corporation to increase margin is to cut cost. A little less of this and a little more of that and the product is no longer the same. The consumer becomes dissatisfied and looks elsewhere.

I sort of a restaurant buff and my best restaurant experiences is when the restaurant is brand new and the owner is looking to build a clientele. Once the restaurant is full of paying clients, things start to change as the owner now focuses on profit rather than gaining market share. The waitstaff are asked to work 10 tabletops instead of 6. You now have to ask for condiments instead of having them on the table already. The portion sizes are a little bit smaller. The vegetable side-dishes now appear to have been microwaved from a frozen state instead of being prepared fresh. It's now time to take that restaurant off your list.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I sort of a restaurant buff and my best restaurant experiences is when the restaurant is brand new and the owner is looking to build a clientele. Once the restaurant is full of paying clients, things start to change as the owner now focuses on profit rather than gaining market share.

You're exactly right. In our area it usually takes only 3 - 9 months. Often the chef has a falling out with the owner at about the three month mark. Then Ernesto takes over the kitchen and that's it. Maybe one in ten new restaurants makes it a full year, because rents around here are excessive.

Las Vegas buffets follow the same principle. Go to a new one right after it opens - because the accountants start screaming at about the three month mark, and by nine months the food becomes inedible. :)