Is it me or do canon dslrs produce prettier photos compared to nikon?

I don't really know what other word to use but i took a pic with a canon rebel t3i and a nikon d5100 and even though nikon has a better sensor the canon made the picture look more appealing and dark in the right spots while nikon made it look slightly washed out. I know prettiers not a good word to compare pictures but i want your opinion. I knoww its also the photographer but for just the camera which in the end has a more appealing look in photos

Could be the lens but its probably you. Canon dslr might have more dynamic range

Canon dominates the entry level DSLR market for a reason. Good prices, stellar photos. Nikons big money professional cameras do have a slight quality edge over Canon though.

Its opinionated, not absolute.

Canon cameras tend to take "softer" pictures and Nikon cameras tend to saturate their pictures.

Either way, it is up to the photographer to choose the correct settings for the situation

They look washed out because Nikon doesn't over saturate and use high contrast like Canon to cover up for the softness.
Shoot two RAW format pictures with same settings, get them into Lightroom, apply same settings to both, and you'll see Nikon is sharper.

It could be the default settings. On either camera they are adjustable. Turning up contrast and sharpness looks more snappy out of the camera. Why not. Well, leaving the dynamic range wider and the sharpness turned down (giving a duller out-of-camera image) leaves more room for software adjustment with fewer artifacts.
I don't know about the D5100, but I have found that with my D90 I get the most accurate color setting the picture control to Portrait instead of Standard. I usually have to darken the midtones in software, which is not hard.

It's really a matter of preference but before you make any serious comparison, make sure you do it in a computer. Don't rely on the camera's small LCD. You're most likely to have more people agreeing with you. Canon is the most popular brand after all. Now where's Jim when you need him?

Nikon and Canon use different default image optimization settings. You can tweak a Nikon to make photos that look like a on-default Canon and vice versa. It's all in your own hands, you just need to know what you are doing.

It's not you. Canon's geared more towards mass market appeal, Nikon to people who actually know what they're doing