Finding better than expected food

The New York Times sent nine food reviewers out to sample some of the more popular franchise (chain) restaurants and found they were "pleasantly surprised the food was better than they would have expected.  The restaurants were not fast food, but the commonly seen Applebees, Olive Garden, Chili's, etc.

As a reader of this story, the surprise was not that the food found at these places might really be decent, but that so many of the 9 reviewers had never been in them up until now.  Even one of the reviewers teen-aged daughter was making a first visit.   How does a person get to middle-aged adulthood without ever having been in an Applebees?