I never ate in a Denny's, I knew so little about them that I think I confused them with Arby's which I suspect is quite different. I just read the Wikipedia article about Denny's, it doesn't sound bad. One thing, apparently, they are mostly 24hour - I wonder if the UK ones are.

I think it's an odd phenomenon, in general, that people around the world seem to have a craving for US food chains, to the extent that new ones opening seem to have an easy path to success. I remember when McDonalds first opened in the UK (late 60s, early 70s maybe) they were seen as quite superior! (Compared to the Wimpy Bars, they probably were!)

A related phenomenon in the UK is fake American food chains. (At least I assume they're not really American.) Two that spring to mind are Garfunkels and Frankie & Benny's.

I wasn't on the roads much in England, but when I was, I noticed that almost every petrol station on the major routes had an M&S food store/coffee shop, and/or a Starbucks or similar. Much easier to grab 'n' go rather than sit down to a greasy meal at Little Chef.

We don't have those up here. Was just in FL, saw them everywhere. We weren't eating out down there though, since it was an intensive "visiting various cousins & friends" trip! Some of these cousins are gluten-free which makes eating out excruciating.

Waffle House is very good, but I do prefer Denny’s for the greater selection.

Talking about great selection, we went to lunch in Florida with the SIL & BIL to Cheesecake Factory, a place I'd never been before. Their menu is unbelievably extensive. Both my meal and my wife's were piss-poor though. Was that just bad luck, or is it a crappy restaurant?