Olive Garden

Gluten free pasta, salad sans croutons and a lot of chianti!

I think the only time I've ever been to one was about 25 years ago in Memphis when I was going to the infamous Platinum Plus. I had some dish of Italian sausage and peppers. I didn't like it and haven't been back since but one of my favorite dancers loves the place.

I once was at the Olive Garden with a stripper, but she worked for me. I believe I got the tour of Italy.

I'm going Texas Roadhouse. There's a big stigma about going to Olive Garden around me. Guineas getting caught going to Olive Garden is the equivalent to Nuns getting caught working the pole.

Carrabba’s has better food

“There's a big stigma about going to Olive Garden around me.”

In several parts of America (especially middle America) to some people the OG is like going to a Michelin rated restaurant.

If I’m planning any sort of sexual activity afterwards, I’m only eating one small bowl of their salad. The shit weigh’s ya down like a ton.

Well pasta and cheese are the worst things to eat before fucking. In this case I probably would go with chicken or steak

Classy date at Olive Garden is an oxymoron.

Many of us are New Jersey, and there’s about eleventy seven local Italian restaurants that are usually very good. How Carabbas and Olive Garden stay in business around here is beyond me.

On "open table" Olive Garden in Salt Lake City is described as an "elegant Italian restaurant". Absolutely hysterically true. It is like no other Olive Garden I have seen. The first one I had ever been to, so I assumed they were all like it. Ah, no. Olive Garden is like McDonalds. You go to Olive Garden, not out for Italian food.

^^uniquename^^ Another puzzler is how Red Lobsters exist anywhere near any coastal area or any large urban area where fresh seafood is reliably shipped in. A Red Lobster in Cedar Rapids is a different story.
My favorite dining out place with a young, hot companion is a high-end sushi place. You can sample a variety of things without getting loaded down too much, you don't end up having pasta or sauce drip down on your face or on your clothes and slurping down piquant bits of raw fish is,,,evocative

I end up in a lot of bumfuck small towns in the middle of nowhere and the fine dining options are: Olive Garden, Applebees and a Chilis. Pick your poison, but I gotta admit I love the Pasta Fagioli soup at OG. You’d think since I love that soup so much I’d go more than once every two years but sometimes things are good in small doses!

damn i feel real left out. i've never been to a olive garden or a carrabas. is olive garden the taco bell of italian food? i'm guessing that one trip to any olive garden will make me realize that i should appreciate the italian eateries in nyc a bit more than i do.

Olive garden is fine dining where I live in nw arizona.

I was born in the Northeast close to the ocean and I can’t deal with Red Lobster because of it. I know the truth from eating the seafood there. Olive Garden when they do there pasta deal is fine with me.

I have literally only eaten at Olive Garden twice in my life. The last time was 10 years ago, and only because that was the birthday boy's favorite restaurant. Carabba's is not much better.

I avoid chains as a whole. Look at the calories and fat content in their menus. Unhealthy. Overpriced. Shitty service. Especially after COVID and the great resignation when all the decent waitstaff moved. When I dine out, the lowest I'll go for chain restaurant is Coopers Hawk or Connor's.

I would agree that probably all Italian restaurants are overpriced. Looking at their menu on line - spaghetti with marinara sauce (no meat) is the cheapest thing on the menu at $13. Not counting the salad and bread stix, you literally have about $1.25 in ingredients if you made it at home. And not as good

I think the soup/salad is the best thing for when it’s just eating something and getting it reasonably quickly and conveniently. (Depending on the location)

As far as entree items, cue the hurhurhur 🍆🍆…but I’ll go ahead and vote for eggplant parmigiana out of all the options.

Also, does Fazoli’s get included in all of this?

I used to enjoy OG’s soup salad option years ago, until I found the passion to fix them at home and it changed me. Restaurants in general don’t compare to proper home cooking, so reserving those times to get out to eat is specifically chosen for places that come highly recommended by locals. Anyone been to Bootlegger Italian Bistro, south of the strip, in Vegas? OMG!! And at such a decent price…..

I'm diabetic so I can't eat the breadsticks anymore. Therefore, I'm out on Olive Garden.

“ Also, does Fazoli’s get included in all of this?”

Maybe, all the ones I knew of went out of business long before COVID. They did what I never understood nobody else has done (by the way their food sucked) but you could get a couple of slices of pizza there. How come no other fast food place has done this and been successful?


“ Bootlegger Italian Bistro, south of the strip, in Vegas?”

Yes! Several times I went there after seeing Anthony Bourdain go there.

thanks for the recommendation you guys!

If I must go to OG to be sociable, I’d go with minestrone soup and salad. Skip the breadsticks and go with a better dressing than their signature concoction of soybean oil and sugar.

It’s not my favorite place to go but I have relatives that think it’s great. So I make due with the soup and salad.