Olive Garden

The food is edible, and perhaps rates a 3. But as a restaurant, what Olive Garden has done to Italian food in the US ought to be criminal. One chain, singlehandedly, has distorted public perception of one of the world’s great cuisines in a way that has taken a century of mom-and-pop restaurants (armed heavily with MSG, starch, and brown sauce) to do to Chinese food in America.

I fear for our nation when people line up out the door for a megachain that sells what might as well be Hungry Man frozen entrees.

-dave

Save me. If you can’t find better italian anywhere around you, you’re not trying at all. They seem to have a remarkable wine selection, but who cares. You know how some restaurants take a meal that sounds utterly uninteresting on paper and make it really good? This is the opposite of that.

Some people say that even though the Olive Garden isn’t the greatest restaurant, that it isn’t that bad, and that an Olive Garden plan will save time because it’s nearby. Both are fallacies. It is that bad, and any time saved is more than negated by their consistently slothful service.

It’s large, it’s lazy, it’s food. Some people rave about it- this is useful because you then know how to treat any of their other restaurant recommendations. Huge servings- finishing is usually an impossibility.