Olive Garden:
I have recently come to accept that I like Olive Garden, despite the fact that it is chain Italian. Since my family is Italian, I should be snobbier about this, but my family is really just white from a practical standpoint, so I'm not that particular. Regardless of being founded in the early eighties in Orlando, Olive Garden actually runs a respectable culinary institute in Tuscany, Italy. Their free item of choice is delicious garlic bread. The bread provides for a great snack while you wait for your overpriced pasta.

Hops:
While one of the Hops in my hometown recently closed, the one where I live now still remains open. Hops is named as such because they pride themselves on making their own microbrews in house, made only from Czechoslovakian hops. According to their website, they have 12 different types of lettuce in their salads, which are served in frozen bowls. If there's one thing I always bitch about, its that there aren't enough types of lettuce in my salads. Thanks, Hops!

Hops takes complimentary appetizers to the next level. Their butter-honey rolls are among the top complimentary appetizers offered in any restaurant. Not only that, but they dont even wait until you have a table before they start giving you free food, as their "lobby comfort" policy has them serving up samples of menu items while you wait for a table. I think this is awesome and every restaurant should do this.

Red Lobster:
To me, nothing says "mom wants to go here" like Red Lobster. In my family it is the de facto dining option for all mom-related events, namely Mother's Day, mom's birthday, and my parents' anniversary. My parents like it because they are always satisfied, never dissappointed. I like it because of their famous complimentary appetizer: Cheddar Bay Biscuits. These are so good that 33% of the wikipedia entry for Red Lobster is about the damn biscuits. See? Told you free appetizers are important.

A Florida Thing?
In writing this I discovered a trend among these restaurants. They were all founded in Florida (Olive Garden/Orlando, Hops/Tampa, Red Lobster/Lakeland). Perhaps complimentary appetizers are a southern thing. Either way, it should be a national standard. If I ran a restaurant, this would definitely be a policy of mine. I always feel like I got my money's worth if I got something decent that was free and unlimited along with my meal. Olive Garden also offers unlimited soup or salad with an entree, I go with the pasta e fagoli (Italian chili). Bennigan's also has a lame, kind of pseudo unlimited free thing: unlimited fries with any entree. While I like the fact that you get unlimited fries, and their fries are pretty good, they always give you enough on the first pass anyway. Bennigan's loses two points here for half-assing it. In any event, unlimited anything with your meal allows you to stretch your food so that you can fill up mostly on the unlimited stuff (unless its fries) and take a portion of your meal home as leftovers to eat for lunch the next day, giving you two meals for the price of one.