olive garden is a travesty to italian food

[Ikonomi]

I think their salad and breadsticks are really delicious. Other than that, meh. YACR. Yet Another Chain Restaurant.

 

[mitchafi]

I love the OG. It may be overpriced, but with the amount of salad/bread I eat, I walk out feeling I've got my moneys worth. I pretty much always get the chicken parm. As far as I'm concerned Macaroni Grill doesn't even compare to OG. Don't think I've ever had a meal there I enjoyed. There's this new place by me called Maggiano's that is owned by chili's that isnt' half bad. Their stuffed mushrooms rock.

 

[johnjbruin]

Maggiano's unlimited dinners for 4 > *

 

[anno]

Originally posted by: faenix
I like Olive Garden..

Hrm to each his own I guess

I like olive garden too. I've eaten in italy. 🙂 I don't expect to find the same food on a busy shopping strip in south carolina.. so.. olive garden doesn't disappoint me. I don't much like their salad and the bread is really pretty awful but I really like this chicken castellina.. and I don't want to make it myself because then I can't pretend it won't kill me. 😛

anno

 

[anno]

Originally posted by: remagavon
Anyone have any good italian recipies then? I like olive garden 😱

hehe.. use theirs then. olive garden recipes

anno (being redundant)

 

[Descartes]

I wonder how many of you bitching about OG have actually tasted real Italian food? I've had Italian food all over Europe, including Italy, and I still like OG. Also, if you think OG is "upscale restaurant price", then I question what "upscale restaurant" you've been patronizing.

Judge the food for what it is: A reasonably good chain restaurant. Trying to compare it to "real" Italian food is moronic.

 

[CptObvious]

I eat at OG occasionally. Like most chain restaurants they salt the sh!t out of their food so I'm feeling dehydrated when I leave the restaurant.

 

[kranky]

The OG near our house is just fine. Never had a bad meal. We have plenty of "authentic" Italian restaurants in town and I've tried a bunch of them. Some were good, some so-so, some were good one time and lousy the next.

When they are offering the Never-ending pasta bowl, I go to OG.

 

[faZZter]

Hmmm, it isn't as good as some local italian resturants for sure, but it isn't too bad here either. I like the one we have.

 

[Peetoeng]

Originally posted by: Descartes
I wonder how many of you bitching about OG have actually tasted real Italian food? I've had Italian food all over Europe, including Italy, and I still like OG.

And John Doe has had chinese food in every region of China, but still prefer the americanized chop sui or sesame chicken.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Descartes
I wonder how many of you bitching about OG have actually tasted real Italian food? I've had Italian food all over Europe, including Italy, and I still like OG. Also, if you think OG is "upscale restaurant price", then I question what "upscale restaurant" you've been patronizing.

Judge the food for what it is: A reasonably good chain restaurant. Trying to compare it to "real" Italian food is moronic.

i agree, some of this "authentic" stuff is somewhat annoying.

so, let's take it a step farther than, Marco Polo brought Pasta from China to Italy, so really all Pasta dishes are Chinese cuisine.

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech

Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Anybody who says Olive Garden is real Italian food needs a swift kick in the nuts.

Olive Garden is real Italian food. Can I have my kick in the nuts now? 😛 😛

Seriously, if anyone has ever been to Little Italy in Baltimore or similar sections in other cities would clearly realize that the food served at Olive Garden isn't fit to be fed to your animals. 🙂

any corner pizza shop in NJ is real italian food. what else would you call it?

if the shop is owned and run by italians and italians do all the cooking, wouldn't it be italian?

I've found that chinese do the best italian cooking

Not a joke.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech

Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Anybody who says Olive Garden is real Italian food needs a swift kick in the nuts.

Olive Garden is real Italian food. Can I have my kick in the nuts now? 😛 😛

Seriously, if anyone has ever been to Little Italy in Baltimore or similar sections in other cities would clearly realize that the food served at Olive Garden isn't fit to be fed to your animals. 🙂

any corner pizza shop in NJ is real italian food. what else would you call it?

if the shop is owned and run by italians and italians do all the cooking, wouldn't it be italian?

I've found that chinese do the best italian cooking

Not a joke.

read my post right above yours. 🙂

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech

Originally posted by: NetWareHead
Anybody who says Olive Garden is real Italian food needs a swift kick in the nuts.

Olive Garden is real Italian food. Can I have my kick in the nuts now? 😛 😛

Seriously, if anyone has ever been to Little Italy in Baltimore or similar sections in other cities would clearly realize that the food served at Olive Garden isn't fit to be fed to your animals. 🙂

any corner pizza shop in NJ is real italian food. what else would you call it?

if the shop is owned and run by italians and italians do all the cooking, wouldn't it be italian?

I've found that chinese do the best italian cooking

Not a joke.

Chinese also cook some kickass Mexican food. the latest craze in my area is Chinese Mexican restaurants.

 

[MrCodeDude]

I like madTV.

"We always take my Uncle out for authentic Italian. But when I have a coupon, we go to the Olive Garden!"

 

[Farvacola]

Originally posted by: Descartes
I wonder how many of you bitching about OG have actually tasted real Italian food? I've had Italian food all over Europe, including Italy, and I still like OG. Also, if you think OG is "upscale restaurant price", then I question what "upscale restaurant" you've been patronizing.

Judge the food for what it is: A reasonably good chain restaurant. Trying to compare it to "real" Italian food is moronic.

I couldnt agree more. If you think that spending 15 dollars on a main dish is upscale pricing, then you havent really been to an upscale resteraunt.

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: Farvacola

Originally posted by: Descartes
I wonder how many of you bitching about OG have actually tasted real Italian food? I've had Italian food all over Europe, including Italy, and I still like OG. Also, if you think OG is "upscale restaurant price", then I question what "upscale restaurant" you've been patronizing.

Judge the food for what it is: A reasonably good chain restaurant. Trying to compare it to "real" Italian food is moronic.

I couldnt agree more. If you think that spending 15 dollars on a main dish is upscale pricing, then you havent really been to an upscale resteraunt.

what I mean is I can spend the same amount and get a much better tasting food!

 

[lobadobadingdong]

two words

Johnny Corino's

 

[imported_yovonbishop]

I don't care if it's "real Italian" or not, I like Olive Garden probably as much or more than I like Mama Giuseppi's (a local Italian restaurant) and I love their salad and breadsticks.

edited for stupid typo

 

[Bumrush99]

Olive Garden is disgusting. The only good thing is the soup/salad combo, and that is if you get lucky and the veggies are fresh.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: polm
They have the best commercials !

"My Uncle Vinnie was in town from Sicily. He wanted the taste of home, so we took him straight to the Olive Garden"

LOL

Ever see that SNL commercial about that? They were showing things like "Hamburger patty w/ marinara sauce" and so forth. It was really pretty funny, but strangely true. Your local italian places are probably a lot more authentic.

 

[rh71]

there will always be people who say "I can do it better" or "my local _____" is better. Olive Garden's food is not overrated... I've never heard anyone say it's the best Italian they've had. This is just another case of people disliking the big chains and making a big deal out of it.

To that, I say so what... eat where you want - there's always going to be better.

 

[richardycc]

olive garden = microwave foods, I thought everyone knew that? anyway, next time you goto one, pay attention to how all the servers will tell you the plate is really hot, be careful, why? because it thraight from the microwave oven.

 

[bleeb]

Originally posted by: aves2k
It's definitely overrated.

 

[JDub02]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: loki8481
I agree on the pizza thing. I grew up on NJ/NY pizza.

my freshman year of college in PA, all of my college friends were raving about this place called Papa John's... the first time I had PJ pizza, I spit it back out. that stuff is wretched. same for Pizza Hut and Domino's, though Pizza Hut gets a pass (#1 because they have good breadsticks, and #2 because of Pizza the Hutt from Spaceballs 😛).

PA has just about as many good Pizza places as NJ does.

in the philly area anyway.

this was central PA -- out in the mountains with the Amish 😛

I've found that most liberal major cities have good pizza, though. Coincidence? 😉

Where'd you go to school? I was also stuck out in central PA with the amish. I almost plowed one of their buggies one evening as the sun was going down.