I went to Olive Garden last night for the first time in forever..wow it was bad

[SAWYER]

I hardly eat Italian but when i do we have a local place called Lazzari's that I really like, everything I have ever had there has been great.
http://www.lazzariitalianoven.com/index


I had a gift card for OG so that is the only reason I went. The last time I ate there I ordered a pizza which surprisingly was pretty good but they no longer served it. I ordered the fetticini alfredo and it tasted like a frozen dinner you could buy for a few bucks at the grocery store, just unbelievably bad. One of my kids got spaghetti and he really liked it other than the meatballs. I tried a bite off one and same thing, terrible. The only good things were the breadsticks with alfredo sauce to dip in, the bill was 72 bucks for four people, outrageous for such a mediocre meal.

This isnt the typical AT food snob chain bash thread, I love chain places but man I do not get how this place is popular. So people who like chains and Italian, what do you think of OG? Did I just eat there on a bad night?

 

[purbeast0]

last time i went there was about a year ago. they served pizza then because that is what i had, and it was pretty good.

what did you all order? when i was there i remember the pasta people were getting was like $10-$11 each. my pizza was about $11.

whichi imo, is on par for the quality of the place. it's basically just a notch above fast food prices, which is fine by me for that quality, since you are being waited on and have unlimited salads too.

 

[JM Aggie08]

The only things we purchase there salad and bread sticks, for use with out own meals.

 

[SAWYER]

We have a fast food Italian place called Fazolli's that has better fettuccine alfredo imo

 

[Markbnj]

We don't go there often because, well, New Jersey. But my daughter worked at one for a year, so we went a couple of times. I mean, it can be ok. The food is engineered to taste decent like all those Rubyappledaybees places. But it isn't anything to write home about.

 

[Newell Steamer]

I haven't had it in a while, but, I am not surprised. Chains like this go up and down in quality (probably some MBA screwing things up in HQ,.. ha-rumph!).

I think Pizzaria Unos has been consistent since my 1st experience.

Applebees was great, but it's turned into a salt mine in the last few years.

TGIFs was great, but has turned into a festering trash heap. It really smells like trash in most TGIFs I've walked into.

 

[Gunbuster]

This is a company that stopped using salted water to cook their pasta so they could save on pot warranty costs, because shareholder profit above all else!

 

[CraKaJaX]

I received a GC for Christmas for one of the Darden restaurants as well. The GF and I decided to go to Bahama Breeze over Red Lobster & Olive Garden for just that reason. The last time I had OG was a year or so ago, but like you said.... overpriced for such a mediocre meal. Bahama Breeze isn't a 5 star restaurant by any stretch of the imagination, but it actually wasn't too bad. It was my first time eating at one...

 

[SAWYER]

I ate at a Bahama breeze in Memphis and thought it was pretty good

 

[Insomniator]

Olive Garden is hilariously bad. They have wheels on the chairs I guess so the type of people that eat there regularly can roll themselves around. I got chicken parm because I figured how bad can they mess up the most basic american/italian dish ever and it was the worst I've ever had. Pasta stuck together, dry and overdone. Dish basically tasted like a frozen dinner.

As for a chain italian place I DO like, I thought Carrabas was pretty good. Haven't been there in a few years though. Italian restaurants are just so freaking popular in my area that I could probably try a different one every single time I want italian and never run out of ones to try. Thats Jersey for you though.

 

[Nograts]

Soup and Salad every time. It's cheap and fills you up. Get the Zuppa Toscana. I made my wife learn the recipe for it. It is now in an almost weekly rotation of our foodstuffs. Hers is 100x better than Olive Garden's. If you've never had Zuppa Toscana, you haven't lived.

 

[Nograts]

We have a fast food Italian place called Fazolli's that has better fettuccine alfredo imo

Utah?

 

[minendo]

Olive Garden is horrible. It is over priced shit on a plate.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh, its not particularly awful, but, I can eat better meals at many places for 1/2 the price.

 

[mmntech]

Good food and chain restaurants go together like oil and water. A lot of these places get their meals pre-made from a factory. Staff just boil it in a pot or nuke it in the microwave. You're paying good money for a glorified TV dinner.

Support your local independent restaurants. Not all of them are expensive. I've had some fantastic meals for less money than what these chains want for their garbage.

 

[manimal]

We have a fast food Italian place called Fazolli's that has better fettuccine alfredo imo

came in to post this lol



also I take a church group out occasionally and they insist on OG and I discovered their Chicken dumpling soup is actually passable as is their minestroni. Both soups that get better the longer they sit there so if their shit isnt fresh as it usually is then its probably ok

 

[Rakehellion]

I went to Applebee's a while ago and it was seriously worse than a frozen TV dinner. How do they get away with this?

 

[manimal]

Soup and Salad every time. It's cheap and fills you up. Get the Zuppa Toscana. I made my wife learn the recipe for it. It is now in an almost weekly rotation of our foodstuffs. Hers is 100x better than Olive Garden's. If you've never had Zuppa Toscana, you haven't lived.

pure questo

 

[mmntech]

We have a fast food Italian place called Fazolli's that has better fettuccine alfredo imo

There's an Italian grocery store up the road from me, that I've mentioned a few times. Food from their hot counter is fantastic.

Here's today's menu.
Homemade All Natural Soups of the Day:
- Italian Wedding Soup with mini all beef meatballs, chicken, spinach and mini pastina pasta
- Beet and Carrot Soup (vegetarian)
Buffalo Style Breaded Chicken Wings in a medium bbq sauce
- Slightly Spicy Sausage Potato Pepper Medley : homemade pork Italian sausages with fennel in a medley of sweet peppers and roasted potatoes
- Oven Roasted Stuffed Pork Loin
- Fregola Pasta : roasted pasta with a five medley , olives, cherry tomatoes and veggies in a light olive oil sauce (vegetarian)
- Broccoli Polenta : slow cooked corn meal dish with broccoli and cheese (vegetarian)
- Pasta with Grilled Chicken and Sautéed mushrooms in a light extra virgin olive oil white wine sauce with fresh tomatoes
- Spinach and Ricotta Rotolato Pasta : ricotta cheese and spinach swirled within pasta and served ;in a homemade creamy rosée sauce (vegetarian)

That Rotolato is one of my all time favourites. So good. I'm hungry now.

Everything there is under $10.

 

[TheSlamma]

Sorry OP this is all on you and doesn't sell well.

1: You actually referred to Olive garden as "Italian"
2: You went to Olive garden despite all the info out there that screams how bad the food there is. Between them not using salt cause it lowers the warranty on their pots to the satire it gets in many comedy shows.. for example:

From Big Bang Theory
Howard: Enough with the guilt, ma. We'll still see each other. I'll come over every night and have dinner with you.
Mrs. Wolowitz The hell you will! What am I running here, a fancy restaurant? Does this look like the Olive Garden?

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJxnAR8Vs0I

 

[tynopik]

Support your local independent restaurants.

. . . that buy all their stuff from Sysco . . . .

 

[MetalMat]

We have a fast food Italian place called Fazolli's that has better fettuccine alfredo imo

I worked at a Fazoli's for a little while early in college and of course it's nothing great but is decent for what it is, kind of hard to screw up a baked spaghetti. The breadsticks are terrible for you, they are caked in garlic butter. I always recommended the subs but the bread was better before they switched to the pre-sliced loaves, the new bread kind of had a "fake" taste to it. I usually added extra seasoning and spices to the standard tomato sauce recipe cause I found it a tad bland, the customers liked it.

My brother has worked at quite a few restaurants including Olive Garden. He has nothing negative to say about the food at any of those places except the Olive Garden, he said the only thing worth a damn are the salad and breadsticks which is surprising cause he is not a picky eater. I have not eaten there in over a decade so who knows

 

[Blitzvogel]

Stupenda Authentica Italiana Cusina

Yeah I don't go there. I can cook Italian (or Italian style) better than they can. Couple nights ago I made linguini with Garlic Shrimp and it was pretty goddamn delicious. Italian is pretty easy to make from scratch if you have a recipe. If you don't, it's not too hard to find ingredients that work together for a simple pasta sauce. I really enjoy Orzo pasta too.

I also hate the hell out of OG because they were the first of the big commercial restaurants to start using hipster music in their goddamn commercials.

 

[Krazy4Real]

All I ever get there is the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks whenever we go there for lunch.

 

[TheSlamma]

Yeah I don't go there. I can cook Italian (or Italian style) better than they can.

Anyone can rehydrate American Beauty

http://americanbeauty.newworldpasta.com/index.cfm?

that is literally all it takes to outdo Olive Garden