Uggh, this drives me nuts. Was on business travel in Monterrey, CA (well, actually the business was in San Jose, but we drove thru Monterrey), and one of the older guys in our group insisted on going to Bubba Gump shrimp. Seriously, we were in frickin' Monterrey, CA...there were probably 15 amazing local places nearby, but we're eating crap seafood in a place that exists solely because some popular movie had a character that had a shrimp boat.
I mean, I get the chain thing when you're not sure and 'not horrible' is better than going into a bad place, but in your case, with local intelligence, or in mine (it's Monterrey, CA, a **** restaurant isn't going to last), I really don't understand it.