Quote:
Originally Posted by JManc
Olive Garden exists solely because it offers free all-you-can eat somewhat palatable garlic sticks.
|
I've only eaten at Olive Garden a total of 3 times in my life, the last 2 times was because my ex-boss took me to lunch there, and this was over 5 years ago; there's one not far from my work. From where I live, though, the nearest Olive Garden is like 9 or 10 miles away---not worth the drive, when there are other Italian restaurants closer to where we live.
It's funny how people seem to like to bash Olive Garden and other chain restaurants---yet many of these same people go to Starbucks. OG's food isn't totally gross, but it's really not all that great; I find the food at a lot of big nationwide chains to be really salty. My guess is that their chefs are only allowed to cook things one way or to specific recipes/instructions? I don't know.
I used to think that maybe Olive Garden's appeal to some people are the prices, thinking it might be cheaper, but looking at their menu online, it's not really all that much cheaper than some of the independent or smaller chain Italian restaurants my partner and I go to. Looking at OG's menu now (Montebello, CA location, the one closest to work), the shrimp scampi is $20.49, which is about the same price, give or take a few bucks up or down, at other, better independent Italian restaurants in my area that have different offerings (even from each other), like traditional Italian cheesecake (vs. the kind that usually end up being NY-style), or friulano, or lambrusco, or squid-ink tagliolini.