Olive Garden

[Big Dick McGee]

Italian food? More like a close facsimile of Italian Food. I'm probably a bit of an Italian food snob, since the Philadelphia area, especially South Philly, is home to some of the best Italian restaurants outside of Rome. And LG will tell you, my sauce is THE BEST. But seriously , here's the description of the Seafood Portofino I ordered:

Seafood Portofino
Mussels, scallops, shrimp and mushrooms with linguine in a garlic-butter wine sauce.


Sounds pretty good, right? Well, there were half a dozen tiny mussels, maybe 8 teeny-tiny shrimp, and loads of yucky scallops (the cheapest, and one of the few seafoods I hate). The "garlic-butter wine sauce", which to me suggests something somewhat light, was in fact their alfredo sauce WITH WINE ADDED TO WATER IT DOWN. No shit, LG got Chicken Marsala and the sauce was exactly the same. Meh. I SOOOO wish we had smaller restaurants near us, instead of chains. From now on, we're not eating Italian food unless it's Maria's in Los Angeles, or Joe's in Riverside.

Am I expecting too much from Olive Garden? Maybe. But c'mon, you insult your customer when you expect them to NOT know the difference between Alfredo sauce and wine sauce.

 

[Aquehonga]

I don't know about OG's seafood thing you had but their Tour of Italy (Chicken Parm, Lasagner, Fettucine Alfredo combo) is AWESOME! As was the spaghetti with meat sauce on the Never Ending Pasta Bowl special.

I know all too well where your coming from regarding chain Italian &/or Pizza restaurants vs the Real Deal. Not literally where, but y'know what I mean.

Depends which Italian restaurant &/or pizzeria you go to too. Some mom'n'pop traditional Italian eateries suck dead bunnies through a broken & busted straw. The one "advantage" with Corporate Robot Italian eateries {Olive Garden, Pizza Hut, Romano's MG, Domino's, Carabba's entc ent al} is that you know what you're getting, or at least what to expect, walking into the joint.

 

[Dr Dave]

I've generally had good OG experiences. You might have just been there on a bad night or just at a not so good OG restaurant.

 

[FBI parte due]

Answer: um, yes.

 

[Cassie]

Olive Garden is the Red Lobster of Italian food. It's alright, and some of it is even pretty tasty, but don't expect some sweet Italian aunt to be in the kitchen spending hours over a pot of sauce.

 

[Tisiphone]

and I still have doubts about an Olive Garden cooking school.

 

[Big Dick McGee]

^^LOL that's my biggest beef, is that they claim that everyone goes to this esteemed cooking school, and then they make everything to appeal to the masses. Eh, it's a chain, I know I shouldn't expect more.

It's like the other day, neither of us felt like cooking for real, so we popped in a Stouffer's Lasagne. It was good, but the sauce was bland, and didn't have any real flavour. Again, it's to appeal to the widest possible range of palates, and it's good business.

I just think that when the restaurant makes mention of the fact that their chefs have trained in Italy, the food should be a bit more authentic. Maybe my gramma's sauce (which I now make), has spoilt me!

 

[Tisiphone]

I usually douse lasagna in ranch dressing.

 

[Big Dick McGee]

^^WF?? I feel bile rising in my throat...

 

[Tisiphone]

Yea! AND I PUT CHEETOS IN MY SANDWICHES AND FRITOS ON MY TUNA SO WHAT YOU GONNA DO ABOUT THAT HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH

 

[Big Dick McGee]

Well those are ok, since they add much-needed cruch and salt to a sandwich. But what is the purpose of RUINING PERFECTLY GOOD LASAGNE BY DROWNING IT IN THICK WHITE GOO?? Srsly, what did Lasagne ever do to you?

 

[Tisiphone]

It's the only way my mama could get me to eat it when I was younger. I'm picky about what I put in my mouth.

Foodwise, that is.

 

[Big Dick McGee]

You know, I also take issue with the Olive Garden's claim that, "When you're here, you're family", inasmuch as they balked when I tried to eat my dinner in front of their television, in my underwear.

 

[Tisiphone]

Or that any Italians actually eat there.