Olive Garden: serving fake Italian food across North America for decades

The article JR posted is interesting.

New menu items are a big deal for chain restaurants.

And, how you describe a dish on the menu can make a huge difference foe all restaurants.

You offer spaghetti and meatballs, and maybe no one orders it. You offer linguini with house made marinara and mom's meatball's and all of a sudden it sells.

You'll see chains like Fridays offer a Jack Daniels barbeque sauce. (And will pay a licensing fee to use popular brands on their menu.)

High end restaurants list the farms their meat and produce come from.

Just cooking good food isn't enough to be popular and successful. And, if you're a national chain, being authentic can be a detriment.

 

The "best" Thing OlivevGarden offers is the all-you-can-eat pasta special. That brings in the high-brow crowd.

 

I much prefer "steel cut" oatmeal.

 

Hose-made is an apt description.

 

I pretty much despise the chain restaurants — Applebee's, Chili's, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays, Red Lobster, Outback (really, any of the chain steak places), Houlihans, Bennigan's — but Olive Garden is the worst.

If I'm going to pay money for a babysitter, Miss L and I sure as hell aren't going out to eat at a chain. The best restaurant in town is a mile away, and five or six others are within three miles. Funk the chains.

 

It's so stupid, but it appeals to people. "Oh, they use 'steal cut' oatmeal." Even if they don't know what it means.

I remember years ago, Yugo -- the shitty car -- advertised all of its attributes. One of them was rack and pinion steering, which basically meant it didn't have power steering. But, they said it in the commercial like it was some great feature.

 

The only chains I can bear to suffer through are Logan's Roadhouse and Longhorn, because both do a pretty good steak.

 

I actually really like Outback and Texas Roadhouse is also a good chain, but beyond that, I almost never step foot in chain restaurants.

 

I much prefer the steak at Morton's over most local restaurants.

 

I was not impressed with Ruths Chris.

 

Have you tried the other soup? The toscana? It's great.

 

I wonder if that's because you can't really "dumb down" a steak?

If you're offering ethnic or regional cuisine, you almost have to dumb it down to attract a national audience which can't handle spicy food or "weird" ingredients.

Even the article JR posted mentions how a place like Olive Garden will put a dish or two on their menu that will appeal to a more upscale pallet. (And they can charge a premium for it, and make a higher profit on the item.) But they can't push it too far. They need most of the menu to appeal to the masses.

The thought of what Olive Garden considers an "upscale pallet" is also funny. A truly adventurous eater would probably find them to be picky eaters.

I hate dining with a picky eater.