Is it fair to say that big foodie cities like NYC/LA/SF also happen to differ radically from the rest of the nation in their attitude and expectations of food quality?
Foodie cities have great farmers markets, but in much of France that's just ordinary in any town. Foodie cities have a wider diversity of ethnic restaurants than French towns, but in the towns every restaurant is always solidly great. There's just no room for Olive Garden.
I don't mean to get all utopian. I've had some so so food in France. But you can get great wines in every convenience store, for shockingly little money. The French really do care about food way more than Americans do. Those Americans who try are seen as being kind of weird.
This is just so untrue. There's tons of fast food restaurants all across Europe. There's a McDonalds in most historic city centers in Europe, and often a Burger King and a KFC as well. You picked Olive Garden as an example, and it's correct that they don't have any franchise locations in Europe, but there's plenty of American fast food (and fast casual to some extent) in Europe from other brands.
Look at this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fast_food_restaurant_c...
The US section is significantly larger than any other country. Having lived in Paris, the French are missing out on a ton of amazing fast food options.
What they don't have is that sit down casual niche, of deeply mediocre and inexpensive food. It's filled with trattorias and bistros, which make the food in house. It's slower and pricier and smaller portions, but the food is made with more care and they feel that deeply.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/07/08/200106073/fr...
One thing I hate about Paris is that everything is closed up pretty early. I'm forced to buy stuff from those convenience stores run by middle eastern folks.
Often times, Random neighborhoods in NYC have better food scenes than most major cities in the US. (including Phoenix).