Olive Garden beats forecasts (Atlanta: home, moving, activities)

[Mutiny77]

If I want chain Italian, I do Carrabba's. Olive Garden is just....meh.

I thought this was funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVyhE3-_lCM

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

I thought this was funny:

That's great, Mutiny!

As usual with restaurant reviews, some loved it, some hated it.

[JoeTarheel]

I would bet that half the people that call Olive Garden disgusting have never actually been there. I hadn't until recently, and I have to admit that it wasn't half bad. The salads are very good and the food, while definitely Americanized Italian, is tasty and not at all gross. I'm not sure where that BS is coming from - it's obviously a chain and not a 5-star restaurant but there is no need to peer down your noses at it. There is much, much worse food out there for sale.

I'm not trying to defend Olive Garden but it's certainly not the devil incarnate. There is an awful lot of condescension and food snobbery going on in this thread that I find much more distasteful than the food at the OG. Come on people...and the popularity of the place just doesn't lie. I've been there twice now and the place has been packed to the gills both times. It's really okay food and I would go there again...and it's not quite as cheap as I thought it would be from all of the belly-aching going on about it online.

[JoeTarheel]

Originally Posted by arjay57

It's my understanding the Olive Garden does well all over the country, including New Jersey.

You're exactly right...people don't like to admit that this is a popular restaurant - even in places with healthy Italian populations. It just doesn't sit well with some folks and I'm calling BS...had to come out of the closet as a non-hater of the Olive Garden

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

You're exactly right...people don't like to admit that this is a popular restaurant - even in places with healthy Italian populations. It just doesn't sit well with some folks and I'm calling BS...had to come out of the closet as a non-hater of the Olive Garden

Lancaster has a busy Olive Garden even with the absurd amounts of local italian/pizza places (most do both).

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

I would bet that half the people that call Olive Garden disgusting have never actually been there. I hadn't until recently, and I have to admit that it wasn't half bad. The salads are very good and the food, while definitely Americanized Italian, is tasty and not at all gross. I'm not sure where that BS is coming from - it's obviously a chain and not a 5-star restaurant but there is no need to peer down your noses at it. There is much, much worse food out there for sale.

I'm not trying to defend Olive Garden but it's certainly not the devil incarnate. There is an awful lot of condescension and food snobbery going on in this thread that I find much more distasteful than the food at the OG. Come on people...and the popularity of the place just doesn't lie. I've been there twice now and the place has been packed to the gills both times. It's really okay food and I would go there again...and it's not quite as cheap as I thought it would be from all of the belly-aching going on about it online.

Dude...there are people who would rather exsanguinate themselves than eat at a chain restaurant. In their minds, eating at a chain restaurant is equivalent to eating raw sewage. Obviously, the food is really not that bad. But, as you said...it's food snobbery.

At work, all of our meals are catered. I've worked with guys who complain about literally every single meal, no matter what it is. No matter how simple or complex, no matter what genre of food, it's literally the worst thing they've ever eaten. They complain about the salad bar. They complain about the desserts. In all honesty, I think it's an attention grab.

[snj90]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

You're exactly right...people don't like to admit that this is a popular restaurant - even in places with healthy Italian populations. It just doesn't sit well with some folks and I'm calling BS...had to come out of the closet as a non-hater of the Olive Garden

LOL. Seems so. I mean, I don't particularly care. I was just making an observation. I'm sure the NJ locations do well enough, at least to remain in business. It's reasonable to assume that the locations that they do have sufficiently serve their business purposes. There are enough non-haters, as you say. It's not like everyone in NJ is Italian. I'm not (well, a minority of my ancestry is Italian, but I don't ethnically identify with it). I wouldn't complain about eating at Olive Garden. But I would be more interested in the smaller places, and so would a lot of people (but not all), hence my comment. If Olive Garden opened up a location in my immediate area, I don't imagine they'd do very well at all because of the abundance of Italian restaurants, so people have other choices. So I'm sure they won't seek to open one here, whereas another large restaurant chain may (and there's space to do so).

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

I would bet that half the people that call Olive Garden disgusting have never actually been there. I hadn't until recently, and I have to admit that it wasn't half bad. The salads are very good and the food, while definitely Americanized Italian, is tasty and not at all gross. I'm not sure where that BS is coming from - it's obviously a chain and not a 5-star restaurant but there is no need to peer down your noses at it. There is much, much worse food out there for sale.

I'm not trying to defend Olive Garden but it's certainly not the devil incarnate. There is an awful lot of condescension and food snobbery going on in this thread that I find much more distasteful than the food at the OG. Come on people...and the popularity of the place just doesn't lie. I've been there twice now and the place has been packed to the gills both times. It's really okay food and I would go there again...and it's not quite as cheap as I thought it would be from all of the belly-aching going on about it online.

^^^^^^

This. Good post.


I was beginning to think we were in the Twilight Zone or something.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

You're exactly right...people don't like to admit that this is a popular restaurant - even in places with healthy Italian populations. It just doesn't sit well with some folks and I'm calling BS...had to come out of the closet as a non-hater of the Olive Garden

Love it!

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Dude...there are people who would rather exsanguinate themselves than eat at a chain restaurant. In their minds, eating at a chain restaurant is equivalent to eating raw sewage. Obviously, the food is really not that bad. But, as you said...it's food snobbery.

At work, all of our meals are catered. I've worked with guys who complain about literally every single meal, no matter what it is. No matter how simple or complex, no matter what genre of food, it's literally the worst thing they've ever eaten. They complain about the salad bar. They complain about the desserts. In all honesty, I think it's an attention grab.

Another good post. And spot on about attention-grabbing food snobbery.