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"It wasn't that the meal was horrible. It was just horribly mediocre." that sums up all chains to me. at least the waiter was hunky.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 1 |
06/01/08 @19:09 |
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Isn't there's an episode of classic Star Trek titled "The Squire of Gothos" where trelane, a super powerful alien serves a feast to the crew of the Enterprise? But none of the food has any flavor. Because Trelane has only "observed" Earth food. He's never "experienced" Earth food. Anyway... Olive Garden is sort of like that.
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by:
(sigh) I gotta get out more!
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reply 2 |
06/01/08 @19:14 |
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Thanks OP! Most reviews of the Olive Garden are raves, so I'm glad you chimed in with your piece!
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 3 |
06/01/08 @19:15 |
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No mention of the breadsticks, OP?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 4 |
06/01/08 @19:15 |
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I didn't eat any, R4. I was too full from the "Tuscan bread" slices that came with the insufferably bland smoked mozzarella/ romano/ peccarino baked cheese mixture. I kept trying it to see if my taste buds had died or something, thinking it HAD to have some flavor somewhere, but... nope.
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by:
OP
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reply 5 |
06/01/08 @19:25 |
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Is your brother really a lump or Lumpy like the kid on "Leave it to Beaver"?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 6 |
06/01/08 @19:26 |
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Yes - and they're soup, salad and breadsticks lunch is like eating water. People who rave about the Olive Garden can not be trusted with anything.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 7 |
06/01/08 @19:27 |
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OP, where do you live? South Dakota? Who goes to Olive Garden and expects a an amazing meal? Please go away!
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 8 |
06/01/08 @19:27 |
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Weren't you okay with the salad dressing, OP? I could make do with a basket of their breadsticks and some of the dressing to dunk them in.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 9 |
06/01/08 @19:29 |
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A link the OP will love. I keep waiting for the garden defenders to show up...maybe there is no more defense for that crap.
see link
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 10 |
06/01/08 @19:33 |
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Interestingly there isn't a single Olive Garden in a 10 mile radius of me. Maybe it's because I live in the section of the state that's most heavily Italian and the restaurants are authentic Italian not the faux shit at Olive Garden.
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by:
DoctorYes (authenticated)
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reply 11 |
06/01/08 @19:36 |
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If you dont like Olive Garden you are either lying like hell or too ingornat to help. You queens are just too high and mighty to admit someone has created an easy way for real people to eat food just as good as your pretentious restaurants on a budget. Case closeed.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 12 |
06/01/08 @19:52 |
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PS Then, there is the whole Red Lobster phenomenon. Dont get me started on that.
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by:
R12
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reply 13 |
06/01/08 @19:53 |
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r12 - great comparison, you know, Walmart is also just an affordable Nieman Marcus. You need your tastebuds checked.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 14 |
06/01/08 @19:55 |
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R14= fat 60something living in Oak Lawn, Texas. pssst... girl... Neimans was OVAH in 1980.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 15 |
06/01/08 @20:02 |
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I got snookered into attending a retirement lunch at O.G. - was of course prepared for the worst and was not surprised. The Italian Cream Cake, however, was actually delicious. Our server was laughably awful. She was ruthless about clearing plates before we'd even stopped eating what was ON them, and actually said: "Are you going to finish that, or can I take it now?" Well, "when you're here, you're family" is certainly true! She sounded just like my cranky gramma.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 16 |
06/01/08 @20:30 |
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R12 Here is a dollar...go buy a taste bud.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 17 |
06/02/08 @08:46 |
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DoctorYes, I just remembered that you live in or near Providence RI. Absolutely, they have awesome Italian restaurants and bakeries there.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 18 |
06/02/08 @08:52 |
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You ate dessert? LARD ASS!
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 19 |
06/02/08 @08:53 |
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We went there this weekend (in Lexington) at the suggestion of my visiting brother and his wife--it wasn't bad, but when my partner asked our server if there were any dishes that had a Bolognese-type sauce, the server said, "Bolognese? Never heard of it."
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 20 |
06/02/08 @09:23 |
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Yes - and they're soup, salad and breadsticks lunch is like eating water. Your right, r7. On one or two occasions they are soup can be okay but mostly they are soup is like water. You're observation was correct.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 21 |
06/02/08 @09:32 |
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Big success usually means aiming for the middles. Widest appeal and all that. The food isn't bad and occasionally they can surprise you.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 22 |
06/02/08 @09:37 |
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OP's middle is going to be the widest if he keeps eating calorie-dense desserts at vile chain restaurants. Then the hunky waiter will just think he's another pig looking for a chubby chaser.
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by:
R19
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reply 23 |
06/02/08 @09:40 |
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DoctorYes is just being snooty. There's an Olive Garden near him (in Warwick, on Rt 2 near the car dealers, next to Tweeter and the Sams Club) and there is usually a huge wait to get a table. I prefer the Macaroni Grill down the road.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 24 |
06/02/08 @11:09 |
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I think it's funny that OP wrote out this long critique of Olive Garden . Seriously OP, did you expect it to be any different?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 25 |
06/02/08 @11:43 |
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Is R12 for real?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 26 |
06/02/08 @12:27 |
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I eat feces and vomit for dessert that's how I stay slim.
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by:
r19
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reply 27 |
06/02/08 @12:46 |
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mediocre food, I'd just as soon stay at home and cook.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 28 |
06/02/08 @12:50 |
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On one occasion recently I took a cousin and my aunt to an Olive Garden due to a timing conflict. Actually, I was surprised when my aunt (a champion soup) found both the minestrone soup and the Cesar salad to have been very good. Actually they were both better than the same dishes were in some fussy Italian restaurants I've been to. Yeah, I'll go again.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 29 |
06/02/08 @12:53 |
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"Then, there is the whole Red Lobster phenomenon. Dont get me started on that." I've had occasion to go to RL for dinner over the years. I have told all my relatives who make me go, that the last time I went is the last time. They barely serve lobster anymore and 2 people's dinners with one drink each plus tax and tip can top $100. To eat AT RED LOBSTER!?!?! Nope. I refuse to do it anymore.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 30 |
06/02/08 @13:01 |
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Joe's Crab Shack blows Red Lobster out of the water.
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by:
fly-over cubefrau
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reply 31 |
06/02/08 @13:05 |
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Wait--I want to hear more about the absurdly hunky waiter.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 32 |
06/02/08 @13:10 |
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Please tell me that R12 is a troll and that no one is truly that pathetic.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 33 |
06/02/08 @16:07 |
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"I asked for a small dish of crushed garlic " OP's a lesbian, right?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 34 |
06/02/08 @16:24 |
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both the minestrone soup and the Cesar salad to have been very good. Actually they were both better than the same dishes were in some fussy Italian restaurants I've been to. =============== r29, Minestrone is a homestyle grandmother homestyle soup seen in Eye-tal-yun restaurants. Caesar salad is American. It wouldn't be on an authentic Italian restaurant menu. Give me a clue; these fussy restaurants let you pick your meat (chicken, veal) and then let you pick your style (francese, picatta, parmagiana,) or your pasta and sauce. Klassy.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 35 |
06/02/08 @16:40 |
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OP is a pretentious food snob. So what's the big deal with chain restaurant food? Most of them get the exact same ingredients from the exact same companies that provide food service to top restaurants. Hell you probably buy canned and processed foods at your local chain supermarket anyway, so what's the difference? Listen, I live in South Philly and I love the abundance of fantastic mom & pop Italian restaurants, but I'm not so big a food snob that I'll turn down a night of sinful indulgence at Olive Garden or Maggianos. I'm not a fatty either. I just like food and know when there's a time for good food and when there's a time for cheap chain food.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 36 |
06/02/08 @16:47 |
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Please, go to a real restaurant with real food made from fresh ingredients. No big deal - not necessarily expensive. OG and RL are food-service pre-prepared corporate-run food business. The food - or at least part of each dish - is made in advance, frozen and trucked to your local "restaurant." I live in the Boston area. The difference between Red Lobster - will NEVER go there again - and, oh, Legal Seafood, is enormous. Not snobbery, just enjoying real fresh food well prepared.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 37 |
06/02/08 @18:23 |
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R 37 here - and yes, there was a really handsome young waiter at the Red Lobster in Nashua, NH the last (and final) time I ate there. He was a pleasure to behold, but the seafood was obviously frozen, over cooked and tasteless. I couldn't eat the waiter - so why shell out the bucks for the endless shrimp that all tasted like cardboard?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 38 |
06/02/08 @18:33 |
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this thread is useless without pictures.
see link
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 39 |
06/02/08 @19:45 |
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"So what's the big deal with chain restaurant food? " no he isn't, he just happens to appreciate home cooking from a good kitchen more than you. let me guess, you're form the Mid-West. right? eating at chains does no one any good. it only serves a corporate boss, it is never any better than mediocre quality and ingredients are never local or fresh. I'd sooner never go out than eat at this industrial warehouses.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 40 |
06/02/08 @22:13 |
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I'm Italian. I cook Italian food all the time. I live in a place full of expensive Italian restaurants, and I like the Olive Garden. And on the weekends there is always a long wait. The soup in no way tastes like water. Maybe it depends on the location and manager.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 41 |
06/02/08 @23:32 |
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why would you ever go though, why?
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 42 |
06/02/08 @23:41 |
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If my asshole could cook it would taste like The Olive Garden.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 43 |
06/03/08 @01:13 |
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I'm feeling pot-roast-ish.
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by:
Frank Barone
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reply 44 |
06/03/08 @01:26 |
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I was also curious about the Olive Garden so a friend and I went a few months ago. The whole experience was ridiculous. We waited for 1 hour, when we finally got beeped we had to wait in another area for 20 more minutes. When we finally sat down they brought out the light pink wine for sampling, the salad and I think breadsticks. The dressing was incredible, but the salad itself was a joke. Like OP said, it was all lettuce and 2 small slices of tomatoes. The food took another hour and when it arrived we were stuffed from eating 2 bowls of salad (second bowl has same 2 slices of tomatoes). The food was really bland, not good at all. We couldn't believe people would wait on a daily basis for that, in NY no less. I will stick to my real Italian restaurants.
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 45 |
06/03/08 @01:35 |
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The Cheesecake Factory is the same way. Everything tastes like everything else, and nothing tastes lika anything at all. And there is soooooooooo much of it that I am compeled to take it home to have yet ANOTHER taste-free meal. No matter what I try to use to spice it up a little, it's like a black hole of flavor. The cheesecake is divine though...
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by:
Anonymous
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reply 46 |
06/03/08 @01:57 |
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