Olive Garden used to be the go-to chain for the middle class?

[JEDI]

Olive Garden fake "Italian" is on the menu. Your non-existent Tuscan Cooking school is nothing more than a PR stunt to fool the uneducated into thinking this place is the real deal. Atmosphere is boring and dull. Food is poorly prepared, slow to arrive, food was tasteless and greasy and not worth a quarter of the price for which it is sold for. Applebee’s serves better quality food.

:thumbsup:
appetizer and 2 entrees for $20

 

[rh71]

It's the Apple argument. It's popular and stores are always packed because it is a perfectly fine (good enough) product that haters love to put down since it allows them to sound like they are better than other people. BTW, Cheesecake Factory is the best chain food ever. Lines out the door on a weeknight.

And no, it is not microwaved entrees. You can google for former employees and they've stated as such - I've looked. Microwaves are used when customers claim things are not warm enough.

 

[Kaido]

I have heard that virtually all the food, pasta, fish, chicken, soups are ALL prepackaged and microwaved. That there is virtually no actual cooking going on, which accounts for the exact serving size and consistent taste from one Olive Garden to the next. Could this be?

I think most places are like this, outside of maybe small locally-owned restaurants and more expensive places where they actually cook your food in the kitchen. It keeps the taste & quality consistent because everything is made at the factory, then frozen & shipped out, and you get the same experience everywhere you go. That's why a McDonalds Big Mac tastes the same in Maine as it does in California. It helps makes ordering supplies easier too since everything is sealed in baggies and shipped in refrigerated trucks to the local stores, so all you have to do is forecast how much you need for the coming week.

I wish they'd sell the frozen stuff directly to us consumers so we wouldn't have to buy crappy TV dinners in the frozen section of the grocery store :awe:

 

[lxskllr]

I think most places are like this, outside of maybe small locally-owned restaurants and more expensive places where they actually cook your food in the kitchen.

Everything tastes like Sysco when you eat out. It's all the same crap on the plate, with different crap bolted to the wall. Not bad, but not especially good either, and it's boring.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I have heard that virtually all the food, pasta, fish, chicken, soups are ALL prepackaged and microwaved. That there is virtually no actual cooking going on, which accounts for the exact serving size and consistent taste from one Olive Garden to the next. Could this be?

I think this is happening at more than just Olive Garden. My last meal at a restaurant had a microwaved taste to it. And I'm a guy that basically lives on lean cuisine tv dinners because I'm always working so I know microwave taste. Anyways that was six months ago and haven't been back to a restaurant since. I'm a piss poor cook and my thrown together 20 minute quick recipes I find on the internet turn out better than most restaurants.

 

[JulesMaximus]

It's the Apple argument. It's popular and stores are always packed because it is a perfectly fine (good enough) product that people love to put down since it allows them to sound like they are better than other people. BTW, Cheesecake Factory is the best chain food ever.

I had one of the worst meals ever at Cheesecake Factory. It was so bad that I haven't eaten there since and that was probably before my son was born (he just turned 11).

I'm not putting Olive Garden down because I want to sound like I'm better than other people. I simply won't eat there because there are so many great restaurants that ARE so much better than it.

There are some chain restaurants I like, the Yardhouse is one of them. I also like PF Changs and Ruths Chris (those are more high end chains though). Olive Garden is okay, mediocre at best, but like I said, with so many great restaurants I see no compelling reason to ever eat there.

 

[Jadow]

not a huge fan, but for 6.99 the AYCE soup salad and sticks is a good lunch. They have a creamy chicken soup with lots of chicken chunks that is good to dip the sticks in.

 

[Mixolydian]

BTW, Cheesecake Factory is the best chain food ever.

Strongly agree.

 

[OverVolt]

Olive Garden fake "Italian" is on the menu. Your non-existent Tuscan Cooking school is nothing more than a PR stunt to fool the uneducated into thinking this place is the real deal. Atmosphere is boring and dull. Food is poorly prepared, slow to arrive, food was tasteless and greasy and not worth a quarter of the price for which it is sold for. Applebee’s serves better quality food.

Lol foodies.

Applebees is fine, IHOP is fine, Olive Garden is fine, Outback is fine etc. I really won't turn my nose up at food if it tastes good.

 

[OverVolt]

Everything tastes like Sysco when you eat out. It's all the same crap on the plate, with different crap bolted to the wall. Not bad, but not especially good either, and it's boring.

Lol I know what you mean "This place has okay food but ya know... it tastes like sysco food. I guess the stuff bolted on the walls is cool."

My dad used to own a sub shop. So I can always taste the sysco :awe:

 

[zerocool84]

I have heard that virtually all the food, pasta, fish, chicken, soups are ALL prepackaged and microwaved. That there is virtually no actual cooking going on, which accounts for the exact serving size and consistent taste from one Olive Garden to the next. Could this be?

Of course it's not microwaved. It's probably prepackaged but it's not hard to tell if something is microwaved or not.

 

[OverVolt]

Of course it's not microwaved. It's probably prepackaged but it's not hard to tell if something is microwaved or not.

Yea all the ovens in the kitchen are just for looks.

:\

 

[kranky]

The OG by us is always packed. In fact, the restaurant next to it had to put an employee out in the parking lot to keep OG customers from parking in the their lot because the OG lot is usually at capacity.

However, the under-30 crowd in our town won't go to chains so they can Yelp about the hole-in-the-wall places they find and claim to be amazing. But what I notice is that the independents seem to be very much hit or miss. One person loves it, the next one had a terrible experience. The thing the chains have going for them is a consistent experience. It won't blow your socks off, but it won't be a disaster.

 

[bolomite]

reminded me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKZS4Jn6gRM

 

[Anubis]

i blame it on people being pretty busy today and a restaurant that always seems to have a 45 min wait now had less people waiting in line

actually pretty funny, I not sure ive every been to a Red Lobster, and ive only been to Olive garden once and that was in that past few years when i was out of town for work

 

[MadScientist]

reminded me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKZS4Jn6gRM

Funny, and here's your latest OG coupon http://www.olivegarden.com/coupon_reward_promo/

 

[Fritzo]

I think this is happening at more than just Olive Garden. My last meal at a restaurant had a microwaved taste to it. And I'm a guy that basically lives on lean cuisine tv dinners because I'm always working so I know microwave taste. Anyways that was six months ago and haven't been back to a restaurant since. I'm a piss poor cook and my thrown together 20 minute quick recipes I find on the internet turn out better than most restaurants.

Definitely the same for the food at TGI Fridays and Applebees. A good portion of their menu is "thaw in boiling water and put on a plate".

 

[QueBert]

There are so many great non-chain restaurants around here, why on earth would I EVER go to Olive Garden or Red Lobster? 😕

3 words, Cheddar Bay Biscuits. I personally don't eat at Olive Garden, but it's not because I dislike it. It's because the one by me always has a 45 minute wait. It's pretty decent food, but it's not worth the wait.

 

[Wreckem]

3 words, Cheddar Bay Biscuits. I personally don't eat at Olive Garden, but it's not because I dislike it. It's because the one by me always has a 45 minute wait. It's pretty decent food, but it's not worth the wait.

Sam's has Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit mix.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Serves them right. The "recent" menu overhaul was about giving you less for your money, not more. Why would they redo their menu in order to make less money?? I eat at both those restaurants once a year. OG's peach moscato chicken is sehr gut.

Grilled chicken breasts with a moscato wine and peach glaze served with spinach, tomatoes and curly mafalda pasta in a creamy parmesan sauce with a touch of pancetta bacon.

 

[QueBert]

Sam's has Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit mix.

1. you have to pay for it
2. you have to make them yourself.

Going to Red Lobster and getting a free basket > making them yourself. Also when you finish said basket they bring your another - still free. Finish those too? Another basket magically appears, I ate 12 last time I was there.

Errr... that's 12 biscuits not baskets

 

[Via]

As far as the "microwaving" controversy goes:

I've read that they do microwave certain dishes, but that practice is fairly limited. More common is pre-cooking entrees at a "factory", sealing them in plastic, shipping them to individual restaurants, and throwing the pack in boiling water to heat it up. The number of complaints of food that is warm on the outside but ice cold in the center is quite high (it happened to me once before I knew about this).

I worked in a restaurant and there is no way that can happen if the food is properly cooked by a chef on site.

In regards to the online comments of OG and RL "employees" denying this - take them with a grain of salt. Darden's PR employees inundate those threads with posts. I remember reading an article about this very topic last year and the comment section was filled with posts claiming the practice doesn't occur.

Only one problem - the twenty or thirty pro-darden posts were written in only two styles, and the styles alternated from post to post. It was quite humorous.

 

[Gillbot]

endless soup and salad is pretty good

Went there today for endless pasta bowl. $13.99 for that? Seriously?

I used to like Olive Garden but the last several years quality has went down and prices have went up. That said, there is pretty much always a line to get in the one drive by.

see above, that's why they are sliding. People are realizing how overpriced it is. Even the "fast food italian" like Fazolis has a better taste and is a better value now.

 

[dud]

Also their pricing has climbed to a point to where it's just not worth going. Most are opting to cook at home and get a better meal than dish out $50+ for a tired menu.

You can get a better meal value while cooking at home ... but have you seen the price of groceries lately? The Gubment is trying to sell us on the "fact" that inflation is a relatively flat 2% (or so). You wouldn't think that if you've followed prices at the local grocery stores. Prices on certain staples (example: carrots) have gone batshit the last few years ... to the tune of 30-50%.

Also, I would hope that some of Darden's decline is because some of the mindless automatons actually read the menu AND the nutritional information on what they are filling their gut with. The fat and sodium levels in many of their dishes are extremely high. These people then wonder why they have heart disease or hypertension!

 

[Gillbot]

You can get a better meal value while cooking at home ... but have you seen the price of groceries lately? The Gubment is trying to sell us on the "fact" that inflation is a relatively flat 2% (or so). You wouldn't think that if you've followed prices at the local grocery stores. Prices on certain staples (example: carrots) have gone batshit the last few years ... to the tune of 30-50%.

Also, I would hope that some of Darden's decline is because some of the mindless automatons actually read the menu AND the nutritional information on what they are filling their gut with. The fat and sodium levels in many of their dishes are extremely high. These people then wonder why they have heart disease or hypertension!

I agree at home is typically the best value always, but sometimes not cleaning up and/or cooking is nice.

I just think of it this way: a box of pasta is $1 and a jar of sauce is $2. Toss in some sausage if you want for about $2 more.

Where is there $13.99? Sure wasn't the service.

Our waitress had a poor attitude and she shouldn't be a waitress honestly. We had to ask her for refills repeatedly, had to ask her to take empty dishes away repeatedly and she forgot our bread sticks multiple times.

Now let's mention the way they pack people in there. All of the tables were so closely packed that damn near everyone's chairs were touching back to back. They seem to like cramming 6 people at a 4 person table so there is little room to eat.

Overall, the "experience" has gone so far down hill then coupled with the pricing and menu, I think people are opting for eating at home more.