Okay, a remote query is usually when you are accessing data across a linked server. Unless user setup to access the linked server has elevated permissions it does not have access to statistics on the linked server so you can't get a truly optimized plan.

What I usually try to do when forced to use a linked server, is to do as much processing on the linked server as possible and bring back a minimal set of data. My best success has been to create a stored procedure on the linked server that I call and use it to populate a temp table which I use in the rest of my query.

Without seeing the query there isn't a whole lot more I can offer.