Olive Garden

[Megan Blocker]

Hey!  I have a solution!  Maybe Daniel could go to OG with one of phaelon56's ex-girlfriends!

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Everyone wins!

[M.X.Hassett]

Folks I dont want to delete any posts but we are starting to get way off topic here. Lets try to keep focused on the Olive Garden. Thanks folks

[phaelon56]

I can't comment specifically on the foodo in the Manhattan Olive Garden but having eaten in OG in both Charlotte NC and Syracuse NY on repeat occasions I have had consistently good experiences with the service. With only one exception it was always at or above average and on a few occasison was exceptional.

I would guess that the server training program and subsequent supervision by management is very thorough in a place like OG. But I'll be curious, if Daniel goes to the NYC branch, to learn whether his experience bears this out there as well. Starbucks, a chain known for a strong service focus, has in my experience been very lackluster in this department in many of its Manhattan locations.

[Bill Miller]

But now I'm curious... what in the hell are you guys eating that is always so incredibly superior to Olive Garden?  You must live fabulous lives!

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I dont think you are understanding what we are saying here.. I apologize if you think its a snob thing, its a food thing.. We here arent living fabulous lives, but we are trying to eat fabulous food. OG is a chain restaurant, that supposedly serves processed gross food..

In New York, this is a New York Forum, there are endless Italian Choices.. The Italian food has heart and history here.. I can make a dinner at home for half the cost of eating at Olive Garden.. And I know what goes into it.. My pasta has flour and eggs.. My sauce has fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion, and whatever else I want..

Please dont look at it like a personal assault, we are just lucky to have great Italian options.. You have us beat on BBQ.. If you do like BBQ it would be like someone from KC going to a Friday's for there ribs.. Or someone from Maine going to Red Lobster, or someone from earth going to Papa Johns, certain things dont make sense...

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Why would you eat at Olive Garden in Times Square when Becco's and Ameroni's are within walking distance???

[Terrasanct]

If I lived in New York, I never would have gone to Olive Garden, either. But I live in Montana. I've been to OG a few times when I had kids at home. I didn't go there expecting it to be wonderful, I took it for what it was. I've never been to another location, so I can't judge the others--but the salad here was made with Romaine, the dressing was good, and the garlic shrimp was also really good. I don't get why people like the breadsticks, since they're just boring white bread. I've never tried the wine there. The soups seemed very salty. It's not someplace I ever think about eating again.

But I don't get the "class" thing because that's just stupid. Okay, I'm not a New Yorker. I'd probably be one of those people who walks too slowly and wonders why people aren't nicer. I'm from Seattle; what do I know? But I think you should eat where and what you like--who cares what other people think?

Edited March 29, 2006 by Terrasanct (log)

[Della]

Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo have to be the absolute bottom end of the food chain, so to speak.  FG is right about the overly sweetened sauces.  There was a Buca di Beppo in the bottom of the complex where I parked my car at my old job.  Every single day I had to stomach the smell of what I imagined to be enormous bubbling cauldrons of horrendous sugary tomato sauce cooking away and wafting all over the street.  Blech!  It still makes me gag every time I'm in that neighborhood. :shudder:

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I ate at an Olive Garden last December and it was horrible. I didn't expect it not to be but I was in a small town and the person I was meeting wanted to go there so we did. I can't think of anything that would make me go back again. Salad bland, bread sticks hard, pasta limp and wet and the sauce just boring. And my friend ordered the "fresh fish" and let me say it was not fresh! And speaking of Buca di Beppo - there is one here in Seattle and while I have not eaten there I know some folks that did and some people that have worked there and the verdict is "not delicious". But there is a line outside that place every damm weekend. I don't get it. If I am going to eat cheap italian food - give me the Old Spaghettti Factory everytime. (I grew up near one and it was the "special" place to go for dinner at one point in my life).

[tsquare]

I've never eaten at one, but one of my favorite travel stories is from the plane returning from Italy - via Milan. A young woman kept complaining the whole way home. Hated Italy, wanted to be home. Her backpack bore the Olive Garden logo. I wondered if she had attended their culinary institute?

[HungryChris]

My feelings about OG are as follows:

The salad you get in the average restaurant in the US is nothing more than a check in the box, 'Yeah, we have that.' I happen to like a salad that was not put together days ago and served in spite of a few brown leaves or wilted gooey members. (When I make a salad at home I wash it carefully inspecting the rinse water each time. I like to eat it without wearing my glasses, secure in the knowledge that all surprises have been removed.)

I look at the OG as a place to get reliable salad and soup, nothing more and I will turn to it in a strange town knowing that I can depend on that part of the operation. In past years I have had angel hair pasta dishes delivered with the tips of the pasta dried out by the heat lamps and just stopped looking to the place for anything more than soup and salad. As far as going to the OG in Manhattan, I can't EVER see that happening! We try to get to Manhattan once a month, but always have a special place or two in mind and half the fun is doing the research days in advance. OG has it's place, but we are not family!

Cheers,

HC

[raji]

I'd be willing to go with you Daniel! Maybe I'm a masochist. I also happen to be a lifelong Mets fan, knowing that you must suffer the lowest of the lows to enjoy the highest of the highs.

Sometimes it good to remind yourself that New York is very much not like the rest of America, New York, or most other cities. For some reason, in the rest of America, restaurants like OG, Red Lobster, Chiles, Fridays, you name it, thrive, mass-produced frozen salad and frozen jalapeno poppers and all. It also help rationalize the pollution I breathe, the sky-high cost of living, an often smelly city and broken-down subway system, among other gripes...

Guess what I'm saying is as a culinary city, we really take NYC for granted.

Edited March 29, 2006 by raji (log)

[CherieV]

I have a friend that worked in an OG. It was her first job in a restaurant. Anyway, she said that all the sauces etc come from a food preveyor premade in vaco-sealed bags. Nothing is homemade there or even really made. The whole culinary school in Tuscany is very curious. I wonder if it is a complete lie?

[Fat Guy]

Raji, the chains thrive in New York City as well. McDonald's, Olive Garden, Outback, Domino's . . . lots of them are here and doing very well.

[TrishCT]

I've been dragged to OG numerous times. For some people it is a "Let's go celebrate so and so's birthday" kind of place. And I go. With a smile. Inside I cringe. Agree with the breadsticks and salad comment. Both are quite edible. But the red sauce..oh my gosh...so bad....so next time I try the chicken marsala...oh my gosh...deplorable... So the next time I get the salad and bruschetta...okay I can deal with that.

My in-laws, whom I love, are your typical OG customers. They were so happy when the one in Times Square opened up because that gave them somewhere to eat when they went to NYC to see a show. One time, I went with them to the theater and told them I made reservations at a little italian restaurant nearby. I could tell by their shifting eyes they were uneasy, but they humored me much as I humored their OG outings of yore.

My choice was Trattoria Trecolori. Once pop-in-law dug into his black linguine with clams and mussels, and mom-in-law sampled the tiramisu they were hooked! At a comparable price to the OG, no more OG for them when they come to New York !!!

I like to think I did my part for humanity.

[tommy]

I have a friend that worked in an OG.  It was her first job in a restaurant.  Anyway, she said that all the sauces etc come from a food preveyor premade in vaco-sealed bags.  Nothing is homemade there or even really made.  The whole culinary school in Tuscany is very curious.  I wonder if it is a complete lie?

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i don't think it's a lie. first of all, it would be a pretty big lie.

just because a school is located in tuscany doesn't mean that it's very good. and it certainly doesn't mean that the students are applying whatever they do happen to learn at an enormous chain like OG. however, it sounds fancy, and people do loves their fancy.

on a trip to Rome, i bumped into a group of americans who were there for a few weeks for the culinary school of Macaroni Grill. or maybe it was OG. no difference. at any rate, they were all happily sucking back american beer at the Hard Rock Cafe and acting like they were at any bar in the US. i'm not sure they really took much away from their experience in Rome. then again it doesn't say much about me if i was actually in the Hard Rock in Rome to see them in the first place, but that's beside the point.

nice group of guys, actually. we had a good time.

[Lyle]

I have a friend that worked in an OG.  It was her first job in a restaurant.  Anyway, she said that all the sauces etc come from a food preveyor premade in vaco-sealed bags.  Nothing is homemade there or even really made.  The whole culinary school in Tuscany is very curious.  I wonder if it is a complete lie?

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That is the only way for a restaurant like this to come anywhere close to delivering the same product from restaurant to restaurant. OG is far from the only restaurant that does this.

[raji]

Raji, the chains thrive in New York City as well. McDonald's, Olive Garden, Outback, Domino's . . . lots of them are here and doing very well.

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Yeah but they're here for the tourists. I don't know any proper NYer who patronizes any of them.

[Sneakeater]

I think Olive Garden is different from Domino's and maybe Outback in that regard. I'm sure Olive Garden in Times Square gets very few local customers. I doubt that tourists are ordering in from Domino's, though. As for Outback, I'd guess its location on 23rd St. argues against a predominantly tourist customer base.

[juuceman]

I think Olive Garden is different from Domino's and maybe Outback in that regard.  I'm sure Olive Garden in Times Square gets very few local customers.  I doubt that tourists are ordering in from Domino's, though.  As for Outback, I'd guess its location on 23rd St. argues against a predominantly tourist customer base.

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I live up the block from the 23rd street Olive Garden and regularly see people waiting in excess of 45 minutes to get in on Sunday afternoons. Suffice to say that they're not for the most part neighborhood folks. Some of them go to school in the area, many more were/are planning on shoppingin Best Buy, etc., but for a lot of people it's a destination spot.

[Sneakeater]

There's an Olive Garden on 23rd St.? Go know.

OK, so I take it back about Outback.

[Luckylies]

This is gonna sound snobby, but I don't mean it that way.  And maybe we're existing in different worlds (I'm a nearly 50-year-old lawyer).  But how do you come to meet people who are enthused about OG?  I just never run into people like that.  (After some expensive dates, I almost wish I would meet someone who'd be satisfied with OG.)  (Then I wake up.)

(See note in prior post about this doesn't mean the people I know all have good taste or anything.)

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you hang out with people ouside of your socioeconomic circle (it usually involves effort, but can be rewarding...cheap dates!)

But I've eaten at both Carraba's and Macaroni Grill and had decent enoughh meals at both.

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Without a car, however, I'm more lost than Daniel. I know there are tons of Italian restaurants with okay food and okay prices and plenty with good food and prices that scare me very much. I wouldn't for a second know what to recommend.

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I just want to clarify, I am not going because I dont know any good Italian places, I would be going just to see what its all about for myself.. After begging my friends and offering to pay + drinks, I have not found one who will go. And these are not foodies mind you.. These are college friends who I have witnessed eat a stick of butter, a ball of wasabi, warm shots of vodka mixed with tunafish and tabasco, and living off of other people's room service carts in Vegas.. This is really telling me something.. I need new friends

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dude, really, count me in. I know we dont go back to college days or anything but...pleaseeeee. I've wanted to do a whole chain run for a while ( I chose 23rd st for my "zone") but my friends couldn't be persuaded.. f'ing friends...

[Sneakeater]

dude, really, count me in. I know we dont go back to college days or anything but...pleaseeeee. I've wanted to do a whole chain run for a while ( I chose 23rd st for my "zone") but my friends couldn't be persuaded.. f'ing friends...

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you hang out with people ouside of your socioeconomic circle (it usually involves effort, but can be rewarding...people who'll go to Olive Garden with you!)

[Fat Guy]

Raji, the chains thrive in New York City as well. McDonald's, Olive Garden, Outback, Domino's . . . lots of them are here and doing very well.

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Yeah but they're here for the tourists. I don't know any proper NYer who patronizes any of them.

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As a "proper New Yorker" -- my mother was born at Mount Sinai hospital, I was born at Mount Sinai hospital, my son was born at Mount Sinai hospital -- I can say with the voice of authority and experience that there are millions of "proper New Yorkers" who have no taste or discernment whatsoever when it comes to food. While New York is home to a large portion of the cream of the crop of the gourmet community, the population as a whole is nearly as food-ignorant as the population anywhere else. Not all New Yorkers are foodies. Not even a small percentage are. That's why we have so many bad restaurants -- not just chains, either: there are bad restaurants of all kinds here.

Marian Burros wrote about the chains in the New York Times in June 2003 in an article "Chains Bring Strip Mall Flavor, Or Lack of It, To Manhattan." The article, well researched, does not support the theory that only tourists dine at the chains. A particularly telling expert quote:

Clark Wolf, the restaurant consultant, is not surprised that locals are going to casual chain restaurants. ''New Yorkers as a group are not at the cutting edge and that's the dirty secret,'' he said. ''As brutal as it sounds, these chains reflect the expectations of the community.''

[cakewalk]

Marian Burros wrote about the chains in the New York Times in June 2003 in an article "Chains Bring Strip Mall Flavor, Or Lack of It, To Manhattan." The article, well researched, does not support the theory that only tourists dine at the chains. A particularly telling expert quote:

Clark Wolf, the restaurant consultant, is not surprised that locals are going to casual chain restaurants. ''New Yorkers as a group are not at the cutting edge and that's the dirty secret,'' he said. ''As brutal as it sounds, these chains reflect the expectations of the community.''

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My only question here is whether these chains "reflect" the expectations of the community or "create" them by making a certain standard so overwhelmingly available.

As TrishCT showed, if people are introduced to other options, equivalent in price but superior in taste, they notice the difference. But many people (even locals) aren't aware of the alternatives. Before the chain-restaurant boom, I think many people just didn't eat out. The prevalence of that seems to me to be fairly recent, although I may be wrong in that assumption. And I think it was the chain restaurants with cheap, not so good food that created that pasttime.

[Megan Blocker]

Raji, the chains thrive in New York City as well. McDonald's, Olive Garden, Outback, Domino's . . . lots of them are here and doing very well.

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Yeah but they're here for the tourists. I don't know any proper NYer who patronizes any of them.

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Yeah, there are plenty of New Yorkers who patronize them...you may not define them as New Yorkers, but they do live here.

That said, the only one of the above I've patronized in the last year is McDonald's. Sometimes a girl needs her Mickey D's fries.

Edited March 29, 2006 by Megan Blocker (log)

[whitetrufflechick]

Back in the days when my ex (who traveled worldwide 80% of the time) wasn't my ex, I would ask him over and over again why, when traveling, he would always seek out the Olive Garden, Outback, PF Changs, Domino's, etc. instead of enjoying the local flavor of whatever area he happened to be traveling to. His response every time? Because its exactly the same no matter where I go. I know what to expect on the menu.

Now, to me, that's an unacceptable answer and could be one of the factors that contributed to our ultimate demise. I don't want "the same" and most times, other than expecting quality and good service, I would rather be caught off guard by a menu item or a special that pushes the envelope.

I think the popularity of these places goes back to his idea that for the most part, the decor, food, service, etc. is formulaic and without surprise.

[Terrasanct]

I'm an adventurous eater, as I'm sure most people here are. It's hard to love food and not love all its variety. But I know people who want their food, like their travel, to be safe. They want to know just what to expect, they want things to be like "home." I had an uncle who traveled all over the country with his wife and only wanted to eat at McDonalds everywhere they went because he knew exactly what to expect. Drove my aunt crazy.

My husband is a McDonald's eater. Fortunately, he's open to other ideas, too.

But that's the appeal of Olive Garden and other chains. Some people are afraid of food--maybe they've had an experience with food poisoning or slow service or dirty bathrooms that left them less than open to new culinary ideas. Who knows? Lots of people travel not for adventure but because they have to.