Question: Why is Olive Garden always busy

[Kirk Freeman]

Both Boston and Providence rock for Italian food.

Fenway, my friend, we told you not to go, but nnnooooo you went anywho.

 

[lrahm]

Both Boston and Providence rock for Italian food.

Fenway, my friend, we told you not to go, but nnnooooo you went anywho.

It was absolutely the best meal out I have ever had. The owner sat down with us and talked about all of the mosters that came into his place.

 

[danielocean03]

It was absolutely the best meal out I have ever had. The owner sat down with us and talked about all of the mosters that came into his place.

I'm assuming you either meant "mobsters" or "monsters", not exactly sure which...

 

[GunSlinger]

Thanks for your input!

Actually it's the cannabis seeds in the salad dressing...ya just can't resist the munchies after that.

I stay as far away from OG as possible. If I'm looking for a taste of Italy (outside of making it from scratch at home) I prefer Buca.

 

[lrahm]

I'm assuming you either meant "mobsters" or "monsters", not exactly sure which...

Typo, My mistake. I try to proof read as much as I can but was in a hurry tonight. Mobsters or monsters take your pick.

 

[Chefcook]

Olive Garden is nothing more than another corporate mass producer of processed frozen boil in the bag food. The American pallet is so bastardized from eating mass produced reformed, injected, over processed synthetic food that it doesn't know what to do with anything fresh or real. I call it the McDonaldization of society. I have actually written extensively about it. I am a classically trained old school chef, that makes everything from scratch. Veal stock, chicken stock, fish stock fresh pasta etc. If you need tomatoes to make tomato sauce you start out by steaming and milling fresh Roma tomatoes and picking basil from the herb garden. Food is not found in cans or conveniently flash frozen with tripolyphosphate and 10% water injected. Food comes from the earth, from seas and streams. It is found in the fields, woods and pastures. Watching the deterioration of the quality of restaurants over the last 20 years breaks my heart.

Here is an excerpt from a paper I wrote last year.

"The McDonaldization Of Society."

This writer sees the future of the restaurant industry as a whole to be uncertain. The future of the fast food industry however, is at least for any determinable future to be strong and profitable. The American palette has been so bastardized over the years that many people wouldn’t know how to react to food prepared fresh by a gourmet purist. The simple flavor of fresh has been lost in the chemical corporate kitchens palette of the future, where flavors are defined by a tincture or scientific rendition of a flavor where nature has no part left to play. The art of fine cooking is quickly becoming a relic lost to the past as many of the people whom would have traditionally learned these skills more and more rely on the fast food drive thru, Hamburger Helper, TV dinners or other boxed versions of prepackaged, precooked shelf stable boxed sustenance that requires no time, effort, skill or knowledge to prepare. Even professionals such as chefs more and more drift farther away from what is fresh and natural, as convenience, speed and bottom line profits loom as king.

As time moves forward, fast food restaurants continue to evolve. Always striving to be faster and more cost efficient. McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy’s have begun experimentation with offsite order takers manning the speaker at the drive thru. This is evident at new stores that have multiple drive through lanes. The order taker a customer speaks to, may be 1000’s of miles away sitting in a cubicle taking drive thru orders and relaying them to the fast food kitchen via internet. Digital photos are taken of each car entering the drive thru to keep orders from being confused. McDonald's also has automated soda fountains that are not only faster and more accurate but remove any chance of human contamination to the product. Offsite order taking and automation also serve to minimize theft of product, while making inventory and ordering of new product automatic with computers tracking every French fry. The McDonald's or Burger King of the future may be entirely automated, completely removing any human element outside of maintenance from the equation. In the future going out for fast food may be as simple as a trip to the ATM.

 

[Caleb]

I love the food!

 

[Hotdoger]

Maggianos for a date night with the wife.

Olive Garden is a no go.

 

[femurphy77]

Olive Garden is nothing more than another corporate mass producer of processed frozen boil in the bag food. The American pallet is so bastardized from eating mass produced reformed, injected, over processed synthetic food that it doesn't know what to do with anything fresh or real. I call it the McDonaldization of society. I have actually written extensively about it. I am a classically trained old school chef, that makes everything from scratch. Veal stock, chicken stock, fish stock fresh pasta etc. If you need tomatoes to make tomato sauce you start out by steaming and milling fresh Roma tomatoes and picking basil from the herb garden. Food is not found in cans or conveniently flash frozen with tripolyphosphate and 10% water injected. Food comes from the earth, from seas and streams. It is found in the fields, woods and pastures. Watching the deterioration of the quality of restaurants over the last 20 years breaks my heart.

Here is an excerpt from a paper I wrote last year.

"The McDonaldization Of Society."

This writer sees the future of the restaurant industry as a whole to be uncertain. The future of the fast food industry however, is at least for any determinable future to be strong and profitable. The American palette has been so bastardized over the years that many people wouldn’t know how to react to food prepared fresh by a gourmet purist. The simple flavor of fresh has been lost in the chemical corporate kitchens palette of the future, where flavors are defined by a tincture or scientific rendition of a flavor where nature has no part left to play. The art of fine cooking is quickly becoming a relic lost to the past as many of the people whom would have traditionally learned these skills more and more rely on the fast food drive thru, Hamburger Helper, TV dinners or other boxed versions of prepackaged, precooked shelf stable boxed sustenance that requires no time, effort, skill or knowledge to prepare. Even professionals such as chefs more and more drift farther away from what is fresh and natural, as convenience, speed and bottom line profits loom as king.

As time moves forward, fast food restaurants continue to evolve. Always striving to be faster and more cost efficient. McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy’s have begun experimentation with offsite order takers manning the speaker at the drive thru. This is evident at new stores that have multiple drive through lanes. The order taker a customer speaks to, may be 1000’s of miles away sitting in a cubicle taking drive thru orders and relaying them to the fast food kitchen via internet. Digital photos are taken of each car entering the drive thru to keep orders from being confused. McDonald's also has automated soda fountains that are not only faster and more accurate but remove any chance of human contamination to the product. Offsite order taking and automation also serve to minimize theft of product, while making inventory and ordering of new product automatic with computers tracking every French fry. The McDonald's or Burger King of the future may be entirely automated, completely removing any human element outside of maintenance from the equation. In the future going out for fast food may be as simple as a trip to the ATM.

I tried to rep ya for this but apparently you were my last rep victim!! My girlfriend LOVES to cook (as evidenced by the extra 20 pounds I've earned since meeting her). We'll go to a "restaurant", not a McSomething, and have a meal we really enjoy, then she starts surfing the net or checking one of her literally hundreds of cookbooks and then replicates the meal for us at home. Damn I love this girl!!! She finally found and successfully replicated Carabbas' Lentil soup recipe the other night, Yummy!!!!

 

[Fenway]

I'm not a food snob and I don't claim to have a sophisticated palate. But I have eaten at Fazollis and would much prefer to go there than what I ate last night.

Maybe Castleton was having an off night?

You must have a more sophisticated palate than the millions of Americans that love that place.

 

[Fenway]

I have eaten at Maggianos and enjoyed it.

Maggianos for a date night with the wife.

 

[Expat]

We absolutely loved Boston's Italian section. We got really lucky the last time we were there (there twice) and hit some Catholic street festival. It was a blast.

 

[buford t justice]

I go there because I love spaghetti,this may be blasphemous but I will take spaghetti over bacon,oh and I like their salad too.

On the Italian food not tasting like Italian food note,I read an article about taco bell opening 6 stores in mexico city a few years back and they all closed within a year,seams the Mexicans were expecting Mexican food

 

[Mad Macs]

I despise Olive Garden. The last time I was there the peppers I had in my sauce were so mushy I couldn't even eat them. Talk about disgusting.

I told my wife we aren't ever going there again or she could go with her friends. I will never set foot in one ever again.

 

[ATM]

...this may be blasphemous but I will take spaghetti over bacon...

Not at all. You can put the spaghetti on top of the bacon, under the bacon beside the bacon, etc.

 

[buford t justice]

Not at all. You can put the spaghetti on top of the bacon, under the bacon beside the bacon, etc.

I'm glad you brought that up sounds good,I'll take spaghetti any way I can get it.

 

[PistolBob]

I'm in the business and still scratch my head every time I drive by the one in G-wood.

The Greenwood OG has to be the filthiest restaurant in Johnson County. You want a good case of backdoor trots, then that's the place to eat.

No thanks.

 

[MrsXtremeVel]

I use to order the portobello mushroom ravioli with the tomato alfredo sauce. I don't know what happened, but the last time I got it, it looked like someone melted greasey cheese over it. It was nasty and I told them to take it back. I haven't been back since. Blah!

 

[CTC B4Z]

the real question here is.... How in the world are pricier restuarants, IE: Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Kelseys, Longhorn, still very busy??? Seems like everytime I want one of the above, they are always packed!

 

[IndyBeerman]

the real question here is.... How in the world are pricier restuarants, IE: Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Kelseys, Longhorn, still very busy??? Seems like everytime I want one of the above, they are always packed!

Well 3 of those restaurants mentioned above (Olive Garden, Red Lobster and Longhorn) are owned by Darden foods and have very deep pockets for tons of advertising and bulk purchasing for low food cost. Also the above would not be ranked as pricier, they are middle of the road on dining cost.

Personally I've eaten only at OG in Greenwood 3 times for a family members birthday and only had Spaghetti & Meatballs with the salad/bread sticks. So my food experience there is basic, but was not to bad.

Earlier in the thread someone mentioned that the Greenwood OG was the filthiest in Johnson County. While I have not delivered there in quite some time, I used to make keg deliveries there twice a week for 6 years and they ranked right up there on one of the cleaner kitchens I walked in.

Even if their cleaning standards have slipped some, I can guarantee you that there are kitchens in Johnson county that are so bad that eating out in a New York alley would be cleaner.

Just one of the pluses and minuses of seeing the back end of restaurants.