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

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by JR, Dec 22, 2011.

  1. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    I've always hated Olive Garden. In terms of chains, I'm down with Outback and Red Lobster. I have no illusions about any of it. I'm just cool with the occasional trip there.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    We went to a Hooter's after a NASCAR race recently. Yes, I was a walking, breathing cliche. But it was in a pinch. Plus, my two companions were single pervs who are both 32 going on 22.

    It was one of the most obnoxious dining experiences of my life. The waitress telling us every two minutes about how she just "likes to party four nights a week." How she "can't keep up with school because she parties so much." How she was hungover RIGHT NOW!!! How she didn't get up until 10 minutes before her 2 p.m. shift because she PARTIED TOO MUCH LAST NIGHT!!! How she's got a calendar shoot coming up. How she's going to "challenge those Tilted Kilt girls to a fight," wink, wink. And my two buddies were just putting her on a pedestal and eating out of her hand like a couple of fucking idiots the entire time. I'm quite sure she was making every last bit of it up. To impress us. Hung over at work. Failing her classes. To impress us. And guess what? It works. It worked with my friends. Men are pigs.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  3. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    I would eat shit-frosted cake if it were served by these two girls.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  4. We have a place like that here... It's called Hooters. Or Raisins. I can't remember.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  5. Just after college the wife (then girlfriend) and I went to visit her friend in CA and do a wine country pilgrimage. While driving we spotted a Mexican restaurant and stopped to eat. The food was pretty good but the Margarita's were great. We liked it so much we bought a couple of T-shirts. We wished the East Coast had something similar.

    The name of the place we stopped at was Chilli's and one was opened within the month within 5 miles of where we lived.
     
  6. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Three pages and nobody mentions that the endless salad bowl and bread sticks at Olive Garden are great?

    The rest of the food sucks; but the salad and bread sticks, you'll be OK.
     
  7. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    Montana's -- the Ted Turner buffalo burger joint?

    BTW, I'd eat at Red Lobster 10 times before I'd eat at Olive Garden again.
     
  8. dreunc1542

    dreunc1542 Active Member

    $9 for a pint? I lived there for two years and have visited a good amount of other times and can't remember ever paying $9 for a beer. They are usually around $6 and you can certainly find local places where it is cheaper. At our usual Sunday football place, it was $9 for a pitcher of Sam Adams (and like $7 for a pitcher of shitty beer).
     
  9. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    With seemingly at least one Italian restaurant on every block in any direction from that Olive Garden, it's almost criminal that someone would eat there. Or a sign that the diners ar brain dead.
     
  10. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    See, I don't have a problem with this. I like California Pizza Kitchen once in a while. But, I don't compare it to other pizza. It is what it is.

    The Olive Garden exec mentioned dishes that were "craveable" in the article JR posted. That's why people line up for them. That one dish you crave is enough to bring people back -- and it might just be a soup, bread sticks, or a biscuit.

    The other reason is of course because chains are mostly consistent, and a lot of Mom & Pops suck.

    If you watch a show like Kitchen Nightmares, you'll see how so many restaurants will pre-cook items, use frozen ingredients, cook out of a box, call meat "USDA Choice" when it's not, and so on.

    A local restaurant was recently featured on the new show "Chef Hunter". The original chef had been fired for having food costs that were too high. This happens all the time at restaurants. A good chef can turn out a great meal. But, can he do it and be profitable? It's not always so easy. So corners get cut.

    The chains are experts at managing costs.
     
  11. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Same with me. I'm kind of a pizza snob coming from Staten Island originally and spending 10-plus years in New Haven. But I consider California pizza a pizza-like food and I like it. I usually get a thin-crust with sausage and caramelized onion and it never disappoints me. I like this chain.
     
  12. This was about a year and half ago... I went to about a half-dozen bars and restaurants for beer while the wife shopped. At $9 was it.
    I was one place, either the Press Box or someplace close ... They had about a dozen beers on tap, none of which I had ever heard of. I figured they were local brews .. They were $9 a glass.

    This wasn't just the touristy Times Square, which I hate ..
    But after a while I threw in the towel and hit Applebees.
     
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