In Paris, if you want to eat in or near a tourist trap, you find a good number of the restaurants serve food, but the staff can be, too often, thieves. As the French elections have shown, France is full of nazis, and, of course, being evil, they have no respect for their superiors (e.g., those who oppose genocide). I don’t know how many times I’ve been given the wrong change when paying by cash. Pay electronically. Beyond that conman problem, though, Paris food lives up to its reputation.
In London, the ‘restaurants’ near tourist traps are mostly fast food junk places, or chain junk–a–likes, with honourable exceptions. It’s mostly chains, thus mostly pretty standard Brit crap. London is full of good food, but they must be local regulations banning the decent stuff near railway stations.
In Beijing, from my limited experience, the restaurants near tourist places are like the Brit, but the food is far better. They’s cheap and, to me, different. The meals are also tasty and filling.
Beyond the tourist traps, American restaurants can be fine, and they can be absolutely awful. The worst meal I’ve ever bought in a restaurant was in Dallas. It was supposed to be pizza, but it was salt. It was absolutely appalling. On the other hand, we went to a Tex Mex that was recommended by my nephew, and I can assure you he knows his Texan restaurants. It seems American restaurants suffer the same problem as the Brit; you have to seek out reasonably good food, most restaurants are at best dull, and too often a punishment for people for getting hungry. In China and France, you can be reasonably confident that a random restaurant has someone preparing the food who understands the difference between chow and a tin of dog food.