Funny. I ws gonna bring Ponderosa up because it's another joint I associated w/ childhood and decline, but I can't remember if it was always shit. I know it was pretty cool as a kid, but I wasn't a giant steak kid; Me muddah couldn't cook worth a shit back then, and this was back in the day when most steaks coming at me were the in the style of gray buffet steaks. No matter, I was there for tall Jellos and Asteroids/Galaga/Rally X/etc. Didn't go to, or really see one, for the next 20 years.
Finally had a joint nostalgia craving w/ the wife, and we went to one, in Indiana (
side note - best Olive Garden I've ever been to was there). Was a fucking joke. Like for pre-schoolers, and people who never culturally graduated pre-scool. Big disappointment. In fairness to the our memories, and old Ponderosa, it was totally unlike how it used to be - restaurant layout, function and all that shit, at least different than the ones I saw in Canada as a kid. Only similarity was how you ordered your steaks in the start line, and they had Jello, but there was no way I was eating Jello in that specific joint.
Kally's was another Toronto place that slid hard.
Was a later in life thing but I can't believe Dangerous Dan's closed.
https://nowtoronto.com/food-and-drink/food/dangerous-dans-closed-toronto/
Buddy used to live in that corner apt above DD's mid 90's/early 2000's (
there was a strip club across the street; my bud was Jon Jones Santa Klaus.)
{<Mcgoat}