What is the world coming to?

I just heard someone brag that they were going to Olive Garden.

Thats like someone bragging about ordering pizzas from Dominos.

It's the world's largest and most successful Italian restaurant chain, so you can't knock their business model. They must be doing something right.

Now that being said, I wouldn't eat there on a bet. But I respect the hell out of them for their business savvy.

It's defiantly not authentic Italian but the foods still pretty good.

Olive garden sucks

Pizza hut is the worlds largest and most successful pizza chain . What is your point? (Not trying to offend you, just asking a simple question and making a valid argument)

Being a large successful chain doesn't mean you serve food with quality ingredients. We both know that Olive Garden's stuff comes out of a can and boiled in a bag.

Pizza hut and dominoes are pizza places for non Italians who don't know good pizza if the fell over it.

And Olive Garden is a restaurant that serves spaghetti for non Italians who don't know what good pasta is if they fell over it.

We don't have them in the UK...yet. We did used to have a bar years ago called the Olive Garden, which i did go to, cos it was a bar!!!

Spaghetti was shit though

I already told you I wouldn't eat there on a bet. What more do I need to say?

My point was that from a business point of view, their marketing department should be commended for turning canned and frozen food into a a company that has grossed over a billion dollars. Because that's all that company is about: Marketing. How else could anyone explain the success of a place that sells fake Italian food?

It's remarkable, really. I don't eat McDonald's either (except for their coffee and an occasional apple pie), but the same principle applies. Pizza Hut and Dominoes I can't explain

Its cheap, and people like the theme they have.

If the food wasn't cheap, people would not spend their money at Olive Garden. That is their main selling point. Also they build Olive Gardens in places that don't have many options for pasta dishes.

What I don't understand is how an Olive Garden survives in downtown New York. I just looked at their locations and they have multiple locations in the New York city area.

You got to be kidding me?

Can you explain that?

There's actually a big one in Times Square, but that's a tourist spot area. So it's to be expected. There's also a busy one on Sixth Avenue that I can't really explain.

How do you feel about Maggiano's, I,m not sure wheather or not they have them in New York but there kinda like Olive Garden they just seems a a bit smaller.

Maggianos is very good for being a chain Italian restaurant. Way better than olive garden

The only Italian chain restaurant I ever tried was Macaroni Grill. They're big in Florida and there's one close by to us in Boca. It wasn't too bad. They do this honor system thing with their house wine. It's well intended, even if the food ain't that great.

^^^an honor system with house wine...come again?

Went over my head too, and I'm an alcoholic I should know?

I should have explained .

They put jugs of house wine, both red and white, on every table. When you're ready for your check, you're supposed to tell your server how many glasses you drank and they take you at your word. That's how the one in Boca works, anyway.

I mean, I'd never try to get over on a glass of wine like that, but there are some shady folks here (cough, cough, EHI ) who might.

Makes sense haha

I like Olive Garden, and I say that fully aware that there are much better Italian restaurants that serve real Italian food.

The same thing goes with a lot of the places I go to eat. For instance, IN-N-OUT has the best burger I've ever had from a fast food restaurant, but I still occasionally go to the McDonald's right across the street from it. I also eat PIZZA HUT and LITTLE CAESAR'S on occasion, even though I've had MUCH better pizza. Sometimes you just get one of those cravings. There's nothing wrong with it, in my most humble of opinions.

OG = NG

Although, I have gone to a Carraba's, its not real but when out of state down south for whatever reason ( golf trip, in laws , business) - deep in the sticks, its really the only decent option for going out. Its a sister company to Outback.

DP

To use an Italian word, toeachhiszone. Let's not be food snobs. Olive Garden, as it has been pointed out, is successful. Italian food in America has been mutated, convoluted, distorted and slaughtered, but hey, some people like it. Now bragging about going to Olive Garden? Probably that braggart, brags about everything. Good Italian food can be expensive. So maybe for Mr. Braggart Olive Garden is at the max for his wallet. So, Snickers, take the poor lad to good a Italian restaurant and enlighten his taste buds.

look, olive garden isn't too bad for what it is. anybody trying to compare it with real homemade italian food is being silly for even trying to equate the 2. its reasonably priced, and unless you're trying to be some bigtime food critic, the food isn't bad at all. one piece of advice though: when ordering, try the chicken, pork or steak options, as they are at least prepared fresh as opposed to some of the more processed items like the many ravioli/pasta variations.

How the fuck can anyone go to Olive Garden if they have had real Italian food prepared by real Italians at a real Italian restaurant? How could you even go through with spending your money? The only logical thing I can think of is if you live somewhere where there are no Italian Restaurants. But even then, you would be much better cooking at home. I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put together an excellent pasta dish.

I don't understand the ignorance of the general public when it comes to cooking. I really don't. I find that its unexcusable.

mexicans generally cook the best italian food!

Yes at restaurants that have an Italian owner who teaches them what ingredients to use and how to prepare the dish the right way. Also those restaurants have a head guy who is usually of mexican heritage who can talk to his kitchen help in spanish and who has gone to culinary school himself to understand Italian cooking.

I think Italians are better than Mexicans at cooking Italian food. Just as Mexicans are better than Italians at making Mexican food.

its a bit of a restaurant joke, but there is some truth to it.

Hey PB east would of wine spilled all down the front of his shirt...(Table for 1 please)

You need to relax, bro! People like what they like. Don't be such a snob.

Yo bigdog where you dining tonight at the Whitehouse?

Probably Rao's.

The chorus of the song Beans Taste Fine by Shel Silverstein:

After you've been having steak for a long time,
Beans, beans taste fine.
And after you've been drinking all that Chivas Regal,
You're gonna settle for a quart of cheap wine.
Well, the world is funny, and people are strange;
Man is a creature of constant change.
I said, after you've been having steak for a long time,
Beans... dirty ol' beans taste fine!

Sorta sums it all up nicely, I think!


Signor V.

Very Cool.

Let's see....the next time I am in Times Square should I go to Tony's DiNapoli or Olive Garden ?

I'm sooo confused!

I occasionally go to OG but never order pasta there- Usually just soup and salad. My Sicilian wife is a great cook but we are older now and she can't cook so much anymore. I know what GOOD Italian food tastes like. In NY you can get good stuff all over, but here in Dixie you can't. All of our 3-4 Italian restaurants are owned by Greeks. I hate Pizza Hut and never go there. but as Pizzaboy said above, they are very successful businesses. The best pizza I had here was the time my buddy fed expressed 2 pizzas and a bucket of wings from LaNova in Buffalo NY, an alleged mob operation. We can't even get good Italian bread or a lot of the cheeses and meats that we love. I've been spoiled

Never been to OG, and hope to never go.

I got sick once from eating at OG. I just went there Saturday night with 2 girls from HS.

ha ha ha....what a funny thread.

I used to live in NY, so I've been spoiled. After that, I lived in a town with a very small Italian population. I had a lot of friends there that loved Olive Garden, so I decided to try it. After finally getting in on my 4th try (the line was out the door the first three times), I found the food better compared to many of the other local Italian places and cleaner, too. It couldn't compare to good Italian food from NY, but I was thousands of miles away, so that wasn't an option.

Remember the final scene from Goodfellas, where Henry talked about ordering spaghetti and receiving noodles mixed with ketchup? I've been to places like that and OG blows them away. And check out television shows, Kitchen Nightmares (Gordon Ramsay) and Restaurant Impossible (Robert Irvine). They rescue restaurants, and a decent chunk of them are Italian.

Check out this Italian restaurant in Pennsylvania. Jump to 10:30, where Gordon Ramsay tastes the food. Then jump to 23:30, where Chef Ramsay is so disgusted, he closes the restaurant down for health reasons. Tell me an Olive Garden wouldn't be an improvement!

Point taken, especially with the crap you see on Restaurant Impossible before Irvine changes the menu.

I've never gone to Olive Garden. A month ago my sister and I went to Carino's. Not terrible, but sooooo much cheese and sugar in the sauce.

There is a place down here is Lafayette, LA, called Mike Aleisi's AKA Aliesi's Pizza. The guy moved here from Sicily some 30-40 years ago and opened up a restaurant. Needless to say 30 years later there is an Olive Garden, Carrabas, Johnny Carrinos, and other generic Italian places and this little business is STILL the most packed place and hands down best. Even in Louisiana if you have an authentic Italian that can cook, they will take it to the big chain restaurants every time.

I hate Olive garden some of the crappiest italian food I have ever eaten. I had a friend who went to NYC for about two weeks and during those two weeks he ate Olive garden every single day because " to worried and scared to try anything else". If I went to NYC I guarantee you that I will not be eating Olive garden.

A Mama Mia

Being from San Francisco I'm spoiled when it comes to Italian restaurants. There are plenty of great ones. I'll always remember my first visit to an Olive Garden. I was in Richmond VA on business and our hosts were taking us out for an "Italian" dinner. After a week of hotel and cafeteria food (this was my first encounter with fried baloney sandwiches too) I was looking forward to a great meal. Visions of antipasto and linguine vongole danced in my head. As we drove up to the mall I was looking for the restaurant when my hosts declared "we're here" as we parked outside Olive Garden. I was disappointed but realized that this was probably what passed for Italian in Richmond VA. I knew that closer to and in DC there were some great Italian places especially in Alexandria. I really don't remember what I had but I do remember that we had a GREAT time. Good drinks, good conversation with people who would become good friends and isn't that what it's all about?