No More Olive Garden

I ate at the OG last night and it was certainly less than stellar. It was fine but really nothing great, everything tasted very plain. In general, I don’t expect to get a great meal from a chain restaurant.

Really love the Olive Garden? Does “really love” and “Olive Garden” without the word “don’t” ever pass someone’s lips? I don’t hate the Olive Garden, but that’s cuz I’ve never had to wait for one second for a table there. I guess if I had to wait for mostly shitty food it would suck, but if you don’t wiat, at least it tastes ok and is cheap — and most of all it’s so bland that it can’t possibly offend anyone. Except, of course, you… though.

I’ve never enjoyed Olive Garden, which makes me wonder why people might love it so. It’s mediocre, at best. I haven’t figured out why some people rave about the OG…then I realize it’s the same sort of people that rave about going to Bennigan’s or TGIFridays. Only, you get better fare at those two than OG. There’s a reason food critics don’t rave about any of these restaurants: they’re just not that good.

I love The Olive Garden. First of all realizing this whole thing
is advertising let me give you my opinion. First of all the jerk
who knew he would have to wait 2 hours should have gone
somewhere else. Second of all I have never had to wait more
than 45 minutes. The food is always good and not matter how
busy they are the Glens Falls New York Olive Garden has the
best wait staff. Once we sat on the grass with our little
vibrator to let us know our table was ready. That is quite an
invention. Another time we said hold the vibrator we’ll wait in
the bar. I couldn’t combine beer and a vibrator. I am heading
for Keene New Hampshire Saturday the 28th and will go to
The Olive Garden they opened last fall. I will report in next
week and let you know how great it is. Have an O.G. DAY!!!

Add Mary to the list of reasons why I hate the Olive Garden. I think she is extraordinarily representative of their typical patron.

Went to a Olive Garden just tonighte had guests from over seas and tought the Olive Garden is the perfect place to be .
We were not desapointed .the wait was resonablie 10-15 minutes a little slow on the service part but the food was delicios and the oversised portions made up for the waitting.
Will be back .
Emil & Izabel Rus

I find the OG mildly annoying. I know it’s going to be a cheap mass-produced take-off on Italian food, but on the other hand, it’s not terrible. And I never wait there for longer than 20 minutes or so, mostly because I leave to go somewhere else if I have to wait that long for mediocre food.

To me, the OG is still head and shoulders above Appleby’s and TGI Friday’s. All of these places are best left to frat boys, middle-aged guys trying to recapture their youth by flirting with cute waitresses, and others you might expect to say, “How cool is that?”

The best thing about the OG is that it’s predictable. You know what you will be getting. And usually it is close to other peersonality-deprived chains that might have shorter lines.

The OG really sucks out loud !!!!!! My teenage daughter was really looking forward to eating at the stoughton masslocation. We tried getting in there several times after the opening in december 05. always aone to two hour wait. Well we finally got in last night after an hour wait, big mistake .A real
inept waitress,slow service adisgusting chicken parm dinner. The chicken wasas tough as shoe leatherThe salad had ahalf of tomatoe and all lettuce,top that off with acouple of stale breadsticks.I think the people raving about this money making farce eat at mickey d’s a lot.I guess it’s a step up for them???

I have been there once, I have to drive 30 damn miles to get there cause I have this $50 dollar gift certificate. Exciting, but I wish my relative would’ve just given me the $50 dollars in cash, would have been much easier to spend…..and I wouldnt have had to pay extra for gas……

Thank YOU!!!

Just got back from a retirement lunch at the OG. I was there an hour
and a half before I got my soup! I told the waitress to cancel my entree
because I had to go back to work. They charged me $8.00 for a cup
of soup and a glass of iced tea! EIGHT BUCKS for mediocre soup! Then
she had the GALL to say “Your food was ready”! I am so pissed off. I join
the anti Olive Garden club!

Liz Leaman, York, Pa.

I work at the OG. I have owned my own business several times over. Things got tight, I took a job as a waiter. My roommate was a waiter at the OG for two years, and he sugested I try it.

It’s a good restraunt, and all of your complaints are not based on the restraunt as a whole. The food is prepaird fresh, and with a lot of effort to keep it both safe and good.

Pasta, don’t eat the pasta, don’t eat the soup. Those are retarded items ment to passive the cheapo’s and those who refuse to try the real food. there are many really great dishes. that no one ever tries.

The lines get bad on Friday and Saturday night. That happens anywhere worth eating, and The never ending pasta bowl only comes around once a year for six weeks and we hate it worse then you do. The bastards who are drawn in by this and by our soup, don’t tip and they stay forever preventing us from making money.

Ok, just my opinion, but it seems like a waist of time to really get upset at a restraunt, more so basing your anger off of one restraunt or one night or one waiter.

Agreed. The last straw for me was getting a table, then having the male waiter rudely hit on my husband right in front of me.

I have gone to the OG many times over the years. The food is fresh and mediocre. Often the waitstaff brings out the next course before you have time to finish one. About three months ago this happened and I did not tip the waitress and told the hostess when I left what happened.
My friend and I were in the area of Lawreceville N.J. last night 3/7/06 where we always go. We go there in a pinch, when not fine dining!!!
We decided to go there again, but we prefaced our decision that we would tell the server what happened the last time and not to rush our three courses! She seemed to agree that it was ridiculous how we were served, and that she was caple of our request! We recieved our drinks and shortly our salad came out. We were not half way finished with the salad that our appetizers came out, we both looked at each other and let it slide. We were not half way through and yup!!! here was our server with our entrees.
“To soon she said,”itold her to take them back and I went to the hostess and asked to see a manager. I told him what happened and that We specifically explained uor previous experience to the server. The manager said they wiill make us new entrees but we dclined and asked for our check. He brought bac the check and said that he had to charge us for our drinks by state law. The server came back with our entrees at this time and once again I sais we do not want them. The server asked if it was her fault, my guest said absolutely! So now we will never return to the O.G.
IF I WANTED FAST FOOD I WOULD HAVE GONE TO MCDONALD’S OR BURGER KING YUCK!!!!

then dont fucking eat there–i’m sure the staff would appreciate it greatly.

Good I hate the OG too. crap food oh yeah it’s real authentic italian NOT!!!!!!!11

Great comeback Amanda. You DO get the point

I don’t know why Amanda has to be so nasty and what the great comeback is according to Liz. They must be staff members at the OG.
The point is that the customer is always right! It is the customers’ tips that are your breadsticks and butter. DO YOU GET THE POINT!!! If you are staff members pass it on, it may help the service. Wow making a point without using profanity.

I was being sarcastic, Tim…sorry about the mis-Q

What is wrong with you people? Is this a joke? It seem’s so sad that you need to go on and on about a wait you act as if they told you 15min and it was 2hours. Get over it.

I love your site.

go to http://www.ripoffreport.com and see the latest on the stoughton olive garden, this is mostly for ann. do a search and it will be the latest post.

I also work at the OG. Someone said not to eat the pasta, that there were other really good dishes to try. Like what? The frozen T bone steak? The frozen pork loin that’s so thick most of the cooks microwave it to get it to temp? Or maybe you mean the frozen raviolis with the canned sauce?
The OG is certainly NOT authentic italian food. I know because my uncle is from a little town outside of Rome and he wouldn’t eat a breadstick at the olive garden. Not even the SALAD is made fresh in house, much less the “wonderful” salad dressing.
When we run out of cooked lasagna, we microwave it from frozen. When we run out of that, we substitute manicotti with meat sauce and the patrons who “love the authenticity” of the OG never know the difference! Ha! What a joke.
And don’t even get me started on the “homemade sauce”. I AM A CULINARY TEAM MEMBER. I serve this food every single day, so believe me when I tell you I know what I’m talking about.

Having worked at an Olive Garden I will say two things. The first is that I will NEVER work for one again. The second is that I still eat there. However, this is mostly becasue I like a lot of the people that I worked with, and I go to see them.

Really, all the complaints people here have written are things you’re going to run into at any resturant that isn’t five stars, but is still popular. Oh, but the stories I could tell you about working there.

Tim- It probably was the servers fault the second time. Server’s at OG are taught to bring food out as soon as it is ready. The P.A.C.E. (no, you don’t want to know what that stands for) of the meal is supposed to run about what you described, so really the first time it happened is to be expected.

Also, if you show up right when they open during the middle of the week in february, I can almost guarantee that there will be no wait at all.

I like the O.G. I live in Dallas texas and all the O.G.s here are amazing. great wine selection, excelent staff, great food. i have no complaints at all.

Just a little note about the Olive Garden in South Attleboro Mass. The mangagement crue treats their employees like shit, you give as much as you can to the company, and all they do is take, take, take, until they suck the living life out of you! Want proof, go and apply at the olive garden, any olive garden will do, and you will see, just what I am talking about, loyalty to your company is supposed to be a good thing, but when you give everything to a company that disrespects you contsantlyand gives you nothing in return, there is a problem.We have a manager there ( her real name I won’t say , but lets say her name is Julie)usually when you say good morning to someone, or just say hello, you expect a response, nope not even a smile, the face turns sour, and she sticks her nose up at you(manager of the year my ass how the hell did she get that) unreal, she is a manipulative , greedy, self centered piece of crap and she should be taken outside, and be beaten to a pulp with a piece of garden hose,always talking down to people and making them feel low as hell, I could go on and on, but the point is treat people as you would want them to treat yourselves, “when your here your family??” yeah what a crock of shit!!!!!!!! I have noticed several other team (ha team now theres a good one)members using this forum to complain, I hear you brothers , and sisters lets let corporate know how much they suck, and after I find a better job, I am going to call the board of health , and the Labor Board, just to report the activity that is going on in that building, because Olive Garden workers know the truth about what goes on, just like in every other restaurant in the business, the workers get shit on , and the managers do nothing at all !!!!!!Fuck you olive garden, fuck you Julie, and Fuck you Darden inc. thank you!!!!!!

I am going there tomorrow with a friend. I agree though about not wanting to wait for mediocre food. I’ve never actually really been keen about the Olive Garden, but will go if friends/family want to. I just hate waiting for more then 30 minutes and their pasta isnt even that great

I work at the O.G. in Ohio and I LOVE it! In fact, our O.G. is the busiest one around our area because people hear through word of mouth that is better then the ones closer to them! Yes, we do get waits and hour to an hour and fifteen minutes but usually that’s because of the damned never ending pasta bowl. And srsly, TRY OTHER DISHES. Don’t be lame and get spaghetti and meatballs. I love the staff, I love the food and we can’t get compliments like craZy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well after managing to avoid this “restauraunt” for many years I was compelled to stop in for the new cheese filled rigatoni and sausage dish. I was in the mood for stuffed rigatone & sausage.

My wife has been bugging me to go here for quite some time, not really bugging me..just the occasional “how about OG” comment when we are trying to dicide where to go out & eat.

I could not agree more with the author. I just cant bring myself to order a pasta dish while out for dinner unless a top notch affair.

Cut to the chase here Mike…

Out of the rigatoni & sausage dish (prepackaged meal btw as per the waitress)food sucked service ok. Salad was good. Never again.

And can someone tell me why on earth I cant seem to get a HOT cheese Burger at the many burger joints here in th USA.

I work at an Olive Garden in the Grand Rapids Michigan area for about four years while going to college. It is true that the wait for a table is just stupid long. Even on the nicest or worst weather of a day the wait will be up to 1 ½ to 2 hours. To sum up my experience with Olive Garden is simple: a fast food chain pretending to be a fancy Italian restaurant.
I have to acknowledge that the Olive Garden were I work had strict codes about cleanliness and it would be one of the few restaurants that I would eat at based only on the bases of cleanliness. A lot of the pasta and sauce is fresh and made that day or the night before and the vegetables are delivered there daily.
I hate working at the Olive Garden, but I would hate working at another chain more. This place was clean and the food is not even processed.
.

Working at the OG is worse than any time you could have eating there. Guaranteed. It may just be the restaraunt business in general, of course; it just brings out the worst in people.

I work at the olive garden in vestal NY. I think that it is a great place to work and a awesome place to eat. Trust me the never ending soup,salad and breadsticks get on the waiters nerves more than they get on yours can you imagine going to a table and taking them a bowl of soup just to have someone else at the same table ask for more soup its never ending running back and forth. As a hostess I deal with difficult customers all the time its not like we can tell other customers to get up and leave so there for people are put on a waiting list. I dont see you complaining about the Red Lobster and their both owned by the same company. In fact the Red Lobster usually has a longer waiting list than we do. I guess you dont complain about Red Lobster b/c none of you have the money to eat there so why dont you stop going to all the mediocre restaurants and start coming to where your treated like family. Ya know we could say a lot of rude things about you as guests too but we dont b/c we have more class than that. I say to Hell with the ANTI-OLIVE GARDEN CLUB and some advice for you is “GROW UP”

Yes, Tammy, since Red Lobster is the standard by which good restaurants are judged. I give you leeway based on the fact that a night out to Red Lobster on an OG employee’s salary is about as classy as it gets. Olive Garden’s food is perpetually bland, their wine selection on par with a 7/11. Certainly some guests are assholes, but you’re being paid to deal with assholes. If “growing up” means eating at Red Lobster and not being able to criticize the products we as consumers pay for, then I shout a resilient “NO.” Get a real job, Tammy.

No more Olive Garden for me, either. When one opened in Utah, we ate there – had to wait an hour, but the food was great.
Today, we ate at the one in Albuquerque.

It was CRAP.
We ordered the exact same dishes, but in Utah the pasta actually tasted fresh. In ABQ? It was mushy in the middle. Rubbery on the edges. So was the chicken. It screamed, “DAY-OLD-MICROWAVED” like nothing had before. And it was $12?!?!
I couldn’t even finish it. And the breadsticks? At the UT Olive Garden they were flavorful, but the ABQ breadsticks tasted like leftovers from Fazolis.
Gross.

Also, on what planet is it “cheap” to pay $12 for something that I could get out of a Chef Boyardee can for $.59?

Tim…you sound like an unbelievable jerk. The second time it happened, yeah, I can understand being upset…But the first? Besides, what do you want her to do, ask the busy linecooks to hold off on your order so it stays warm? By the way you sound, you’d probably then complain it didn’t arrive quick enough after you’re done sucking down bread sticks and salad.

Olive Garden may not have the greatest food, but you’re the idiots going to a chain restaraunt and expecting a unique experience. Yeah, we do have good dishes that don’t include pasta…and the quality isn’t universal for every Olive Garden. Obviously some places have better line cooks, waitstaff, etc. than others.

And to Cam: Tammy’s probably working her way through college; that’s what I’m doing, and I know most of the younger staff of the OG I work at are doing the same. She’s right, you do need to grow up if you’re going to be such a judgemental arse. Care to tell us all how much YOU make? Judging by the fact that you’ve gone to the OG enough to hate it, I’d say not much.

So, sure…Go somewhere else. Like another said, the waitstaff will appreciate it. The customer isn’t always right…If you’re being an insufferable ass then you deserve to wallow in your OG-induced misery. In my experience, you usually get the experience you ask for…Try being nice to your server. Oh, and remember: They usually make less than 3 bucks an hour and depend on tips. When you don’t tip, you’re screwing them over. Though I suppose that’s how some of you ‘high class’ people get your jollies, hm?

Seriously. Go somewhere else if OG is so beneath you.

based on each and every person’s comment, I can tell who has and has not been a server.

there should be a law that requires all restaurant customers to have been a server at some point in their lives.

I like the mints.

God – where do I start? I agree with the wait issues; most times I’ve endured going to this place because someone I knew “had” to go, I waited on average 25 minutes. Olive Garden is NOT worth this wait. It’s sad that many local, independent Italian restaurants struggle while there are lines out the door at the Olive Garden. It’s really about marketing. This idea that their chefs train in Italy? Hogwash. Your local Olive Garden does not employ chefs, only cooks. And these cooks have not been to Italy. Italian families “enjoying” the Olive Garden? My family is Italian and we mock this place endlessly because it is so bad. Ever try to order something without a particular ingredient? You can’t. Once upon a time when they had pasta primavera we asked to delete a vegetable and they couldn’t because the “vegetable packets” were all frozen. The breadsticks have some nasty margarine concotion dripping off of them and the soups are always way too salty. And for some reason, the bill there always seems as expensive as your typical Italian restaurant (expensive soft drinks I think…). Why not pay the same amount of money for a LOT better food without the wait? Makes sense to me.

I think Pangiote said it best:

“a fast food chain pretending to be a fancy Italian restaurant.”

If something goes right in the way of customer service (this goes for any service based industry), that customer might tell one person. If something goes wrong, they’ll tell 10.

I work and go to school at Le Cordon Bleu and have eaten at a plethora of restaurants in the Atlanta area and I must say I still eat at the Olive Garden once in a blue moon. Ive never had anything that tasted like crap. Granted the wine isnt superb, but the salad and breadsticks, to me, are outstanding. They remind me of my childhood (frequently ate there)

If you dont like, dont go there. Quit whining like a little infant.

Ok so I just got a job at Olive Garden and I was curious to see what people thought about the place…You GROWN ASS people are amazing. I mean if the wait (which many of you complain about) is not enough to proof that the place rocks…then look at how long the place has been in business. Or the chain atleast. Is there a line out the door at Sonny’s?? Most of you losers ate at the OG recently, probably last night and was simply bombed over the fact that you spent money. Hard bread will happen and yes some times your not the only person wanting to eat at Olive Garden. Here is suggestion to you Olive Garden Haters..If you don’t like the OG go to Red Lobster and sleep on the fact Olive Garden may not be your problem. Outlook on life?

Ive been to Olive Garden a million times and ive drivin out of town to go because i dont have one where i live. I always have a great experience there and the food is always good. even if it wasnt good, i wouldnt complain because other people are making it for me and i get to be lazy. It can only be a bad experience if you make it bad. Its up to you. I just got an Olive Garden in my town and i applied there and im really excited. Im going to do my best to satisfy everyone of my customers even if they are gonna be rude asses. I dont mind waiting in line at all because i chose to go there. Ive witnissed plenty of rude people at resteraunts and it makes me want to laugh at how ignorant they are. and TIM the customer is NOT always right. You just have to humor their dumb asses so you wont get in trouble.

No, Olive Garden is not that great, and the only reason it’s so popular is because of the FAT nasty people that love the endless salad and breadsticks and huge portions. and somebody said that the restaurant business brings out the worst in people who work there, and that’s true because of people like Tim who aren’t happy unless they’re’ complaining. I work there and I don’t mind waiting on nice people, but so many people are SO unexcusably rude. I generally dread waiting on old people, fat people, and anyone wearing camo. A 15% tip is usually a stretch.

While driving past it, just seeing the Olive Garden sign gave me indigestion.

I hate the OG as well. but Ryan is in love with it. All ryan ever talks about is olive garden. He was born at an Olive Garden on a dark and stormy night. Brook has fleas, and he also loves the Olive Garden.

I believe it is a fact that only 1 dish on the menu takes more than 5 minutes to make. They actually time out and wait to put your order in after you get a second reload of breadsticks to create the illusion that they are taking careful time to prepare your authentic Italiano food. Is hospitaliono a real word? I think not. It’s not english, it’s not italian. You can’t just add the suffix iliono to any english word and create an italian one. Let’s try…. indubidiliono, mercediono, candlitiono……… case closed.

Hooray for you. I gave up on that place a long time ago…

1) Everything is basically frozen and then reheated.

2) There are no “chefs” in the restaurants, as the commercials imply – only cooks. Chefs create the recipes, but they certainly don’t work in the restaurants.

3) Just like you, I am annoyed by THE LINES. My God, THE LINES. When I ask people why they wait in line, sometimes for hours, for the Olive Garden when a decent, independent Italian restaurant around the corner is wait-free, they reply “what Italian restaurant?” Most of these independent restaurants are not in free-standing buildings with gigantic signs, so people are oblivious to them. But let me tell you, almost always they are superior to the Olive Garden.

I work at an OG in Cleveland. It’s true, they don’t hire chefs, just young ghetto hoodlums that call off at the drop of a hat. The managers suck! If an employee has a concern or complaint, it falls on deaf ears. The most these “revovling door” managers will do is throw a bunch of numbers at you and make it look like you’re costing them money because you’re working there. Teamwork? BULLSHIT!!! The prep cooks are little more than paid slaves. I got a lousy 30-cent raise over one year. This is the thanks I get for coming in on my days off when those inner-city pieces of crap call off, working beyond my scheduled time, doing double shifts (12 to 16 hours in one day with no breaks), driving my own vehicle to pick up supplies at other OG’s since the inept managers can’t even order enough to last one week. The only reason I’m staying there is because I need medical benefits.

Believe me, most of us with cooking experience hate working there. We know we work for Italian Denny’s. The soups and sauces are made from scratch while the salad is straight out of a bag. The Dressing ? Marzetti.

I work at an OG and I love it. Just thankful I get paid 20 to 30 an hour serving pasta! Thanks to all those who LOVE the OG!!! You MORE than pay my bills every month!!!

I work for olive garden. I cant say I love it, but it is a job. If you dont like it, go somewhere else. Dont wait for an hour and take, and it out on your server. You are lucky to get soup or salad with your dinner. Olive garden is one of the only chains that offers that. So what if your meal came too fast. Go somewhere else. You probably got that server in trouble when you complained. Do you care? I love how people come in and complain to get free stuff. Get a life. People that are happy in their life don act like that. I almost got fired, because a table wrote a letter of lies to corprate. I have children. I need my shitty job.

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of working at the Olive Garden for the past two years now while in college. I say unfortunate not because of the job itself, rather because of the people that I’ve had to wait on in that time period. People that go to the Olive Garden (they say because a “friend” wanted to go when really they just wanted the most food they could get for their money) are given a quote time (wait time) of 45 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, wait that period of time, eat their food in a foul mood, treat the server like it’s his or her fault that
they had to wait, then go home and blog about that wait! Are you kidding me!? There are other restaurants you know? But oh, wait, those restaurants don’t offer unlimited soup or salad and those gotta have breadsticks with every meal! Side note: Personally, I love when people come in order a DIET coke, then proceed to eat 3-4 bowls of soup or salad plus a meal (it’s even worse during unlimited pasta bowl time)! HA, that’s laughable. Then there’s the people that have all these special requests for their meals, while the OG does a good job at catering to these requests, we are not Burgerking, you can’t always have it your way. Do you realize the volume of people that eat there everyday!? It is simply not possible to make every meal from scratch as it is ordered. Prep cooks are there some days at 4 am portioning out the veggies for that shrimp primavera someone above complained about, because doing this as the orders come in is just not feasible for such a high volume restaurant. Of course you wouldn’t know this because
you’ve probably never worked at a restaurant, nor taken the time to think about what goes into serving you in a timely fashion on a busy Friday night (look around, this may come as a shock, but you are not the only person eating in the restaurant). And to those of you who act like you are so much better than you server, in the restaurant and on here, GET OVER YOURSELVES! So many of the people in the restaurant business are far more educated that you, or on their way to becoming so. I can’t stand when people treat servers like they are of some lower class or like just because they are servers they must be idiots. Ummm hello? We are not the ones waiting 2 hours for a $12 plate of spaghetti.

I worked at the Olive Garden for three years as a server while I was working my way through school. And much like you, my dismay over the OG slowly crept up on me, slowly chipping away my soul.

I often times wondered who’d wait over an hour for a bowl of Fettucine Alfredo, and after waiting on those people, realized why they’re waiting for so long. The people I waited on were so reprehensible, either complete white trash (I once waited on a guy who wore a clip-on tie) or fabulously ghetto (I was once asked if we accepted food stamps). Of course, there were plenty of middle class people there as well, thinking that their night out at the OG exposed them to another culture.

I try to avoid the OG for the long lines, the slow service, and the mediocre food, but every once in a while a friend or my girlfriend feels the urge to be tortured for two hours, and I reluctantly oblige. Then cry myself to sleep when I get home. After going to the bathroom for a half an hour, that is.

You would have to beat me untill I no longer had a mind to make me eat that CRAP, Much less actually wait for it. Were you nuts?

Plus, the Olive Garden is a Holocaust denier…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO_gwiMaRxY

The Pasta Fagiole at Olive Garden tastes like Spaghetti O’s, but is it a wonder? NEWS FLASH: They are both owned by General Mills!

I am amazed by the ignorance on here. Opinions are opinions, and everybody is entitled to one. However, facts are facts, and there are so many facts misrepresented on here it is not even funny. Even statements from Olive Garden employees are inaccurate. Here is a rundown:

-Olive Garden makes all of its sauces in house. Yes… ALL of its sauces. There are some components to these recipes that are not 100% “from scratch.” This is what every restaurant with even 10% of the locations that Olive Garden has does. This is to increase consistency and decrease cost.
-Someone said something about the cheese stuffed Mezzaluna being “pre-packaged?” Well, if by pre-packaged, you mean “Not made in house” you would be corrected. Olive Garden used to make their pastas fresh in house but they stopped. Fresh pasta isn’t better than dried pasta. That’s why they stopped.
-Someone mocked Olive Garden’s frozen steaks. Yes, the steaks are frozen. It’s not a steak house. Any single chain restaurant that is not a Steak House uses frozen steaks. Even some steak houses use frozen steaks.
-Someone said something about the lasagna being frozen. The lasagna is made in house. Not sure where they got their information
-Crappy table wine? Olive Garden has an award-winning wine list. If you’re drinking “crappy table wine” it is because you ordered the cheapest wine on the list.
-Salad pre-packaged? Yes, the salad is pre-packaged. So what? Is salad better if it was cut by someone in the restaurant as opposed to somebody at the distributor.
-Salad dressing not made from scratch… Yes, the salad dressing comes in pre-made. If you had 800 restaurants, and you could save a ton of money by having a company make your salad dressing without losing any quality… you’d be STUPID not to. People love the dressing. Complaining about the fact that it is not made in-house is absurd.

As I stated earlier, everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I just wanted to get some of the actual facts on the table.

Another fact I’d like to state is that no, Olive Garden is not owned by General Mills.. It is owned by a company called Darden Restaurants (they also own Red Lobster, Long horn, Bahama Breeze, and Seasons 52)

It’s almost everything is made (nearly) from scratch in house every morning, the only thing that is not is the deserts, salad dressing, and the breadsticks (which come pre-made but raw and we do bake them in house)

That being said, I completely agree with everyone saying how absurd it is to wait 1 or 2 hours in a crowded lobby for a bowl of pasta.. Speaking of which, if you have ever ordered a second bowl during the pasta bowl special, you may proudly consider yourself guilty gluttony, nobody needs to eat that much food unless you plan on being stranded on a desert island for a while with nothing to eat, in which case you should probably consider eating something a little more nutritious.

Also please do remember when you come into the olive garden (or any restaurant for that matter) and there is a wait time, remember it is not your server’s fault, not the host’s fault, not the busser’s, cooks, or even the managers… That is what happens when you go to a popular restaurant at a busy time of day, don’t come in and take it out on the staff, we are busy, hard working people and are more than happy to serve you but we don’t have time to put up with those of you who will complain at every whim, or over exaggerate a problem (i.e. “I have been sitting at this table waiting for service for 20 minutes now!!!!” when in reality it has been closer to 2 or 3 minutes.)

Actually, as a current OG employee, almost everything is frozen and prepackaged. You can buy a frozen dinner and get something that tastes better. Even the managers refer to it as “fast food quality.” Most meals have around 1000 calories, and sorry, but it isn’t good food. Chain restauraunts in general are like this. If you want good food, support your local businesses.

Oh, as for the breadsticks, they aren’t “raw.” This would mean they are still dough. They’re just not toasted. They’re thrown in the oven for approximately two minutes, then brushed with butter and sprinkled with garlic salt.

My wife and I love Olive Garden. We have been eating at them ever since they opened. The food is consistent at all the locations. The staff has always been great. I treat the servers like they were my son or daughter. The have made a ton of money by providing great food and service. ( That is why they have long lines) If you want to eat fast and cheap go to fazoli’s.

Olive garden just needs a drive thru and you could call it McGarden- its fast food in a shiney package. Wine selling is the servers main job- they are trained to say the stupidest opening act at the table, all centered around selling wine. Management works like dogs all day correcting the multitude of problems that occure every single day. I dont get the facination.

try working at one…unless you are willing to become a brainless zombie that lives and breaths Darden, they will, slowly eliminate you one way or the other. I watched three fel,low servers get hacked by some sort of ‘compatability’ issue that management cooked up.
You have been warned. voice not your opinions or be it certain unemployment.

Let’s just be honest, it’s not real Italian food. The sauces are made there the risotto may be made there, but it tastes nothing like authentic Italian food. And pasta made by hand is always better than the pre-bought stuff. Local italian restaurant owned by an italian is always better.

Let’s get something straight. Olive Garden is NOT HOMEMADE. I knew an assistant manager of Arby’s who got the Olive Garden shipment by mistake, and it was a bunch of jars and cans….not quality, true “homemade” food. I go to a local Italian place owned by a man from Milan, and his pizza and pasta is made totally different, and the taste is out of this world.

Went to Olive Garden last night with fiance because we were leaving the gym and it was nearby. We split mushroom ravioli and a salad along with a couple breadsticks. According to the nutrition facts it was still about 900 calories for each of us. About half our daily intakes. We were stuffed. I can’t believe that people will split an 800 calorie appetizer, get a salad and eat an entire 1440 calorie entree (chicken alfredo) only to finish it off with a 900 calorie slice of cheesecake. I noticed the parking spaces are double lined to give people more room to exit larger cars and all the seats are enormous and wheeled. They certainly cater to people of certain dimensions. It’s a fine place to eat once in a while if you know how to eat right. For everyone else, olive garden is just a predatory enabler for the obese.

Had the unfortunate experience of working there for two miserable years during college. I would like to correct a few things.
No sauces are made in house they come in small bags and then the prep cooks add oil to them
Everything sits in a freezer and can be held for up to three days.
The lasagna is not made in house it is delivered frozen in the pan. the cooks then cut it and pour meat sauce on it.
I’ve never tasted a crappier table wine than the Principato wines(OG’s house wines)
The salad is kept in plastic bins that sit on the floor in the back they are not even refrigerated

Honestly…who cares?? Everyone has different tastes. I peronally like some of the food at Olive Garden, some of it I don’t. Not everyone lives in a place where they can get “real” italian food, so it’s close enough. And the wait time depends on where you are, because we only have to wait maybe 15-20 minutes. The food tastes the way that it tastes, if you dont like it dont eat there!
I’m sure that everyone knows that any kind of food that is slathered in cheese is going to be fattening. It isn’t only Olive Garden that has fattening food, everyone does, and the food that you buy in the store is extremely unhealthy also, so why does it matter? If you have any kind of self control you can keep from eating the dessert, only have one bowl of soup, and save half your dinner for tomorrow!!
Also, as far as it being comparable to fast food…yeah right!! This is gourmet compared to the roadkill that’s prepared at McDonalds. Olive Garden has great food, and any BK or Taco Bell doesn’t even begin to compare. And does it really matter that some of their stuff might be prepackaged? Everything at Subway is prepackaged with a few exceptions, so how come no one’s complaining that they’re not really “eating fresh”. Come on!
Everyone does have their own opinions, I have mine, you have yours. The thing that people need to realize is that you can’t force someone else to believe what you believe.

ive worked at the olive garden for unfortunately for the last 2 years and i can say that it has been the worst experience of my life!!! i hate that place!!!!!!

My town is set to get a combo Olive Garden and Red Lobster. I’ve eaten at Red Lobster once because I received a gift card. I hadn’t eaten at an Olive Garden in over 10 years.

The town is abuzz over bread sticks and salad. Really? Really. Nine out of ten people say that’s what they love. They don’t say they love an entree.

Even though my grandmother is from Italy, and all of my great grandparents are, I’m open-minded when it comes to food. I don’t care what you call it. If it’s good, it’s good. I don’t care if it’s “authentic” or not.

I recently had a catered lunch from Olive Garden. They had spaghetti, bread sticks, and salad. The salad was iceberg lettuce with red onions. Iceberg lettuce? Not even Romaine? The dressing tasted like anything you can buy in the store. The bread sticks weren’t anything to write home about. Give me a loaf of Italian bread, olive oil, and seasonings like Carrabba’s. And the spaghetti was overcooked and not tasty at all.

Bottom line?
If you like olive garden you’re a retard.

JUST GO FUCK YOURSELVES

It looks like it’s time to shut down th loser companys is our beloved country.
Step up boomers, x-gens, fuck everyone ~!

I HATE OLIVE GARDEN TOO!!!! I had food poisoning for a friggin week thanks to those buttholes who work there, and so did my family!

The Olive Garden is everything that is wrong with America. It homogenizes a cuisine, culture and people, turning it into pap that can be consumed by the lowest common denominator. At least restaurants like McDonalds or Burger King don’t project the delusions of grandeur Olive Garden does.

Why not go to a real Italian restaurant, with real Italian recipes and, possibly, real Italian staff? If there’s not one where you live, learn how to make Italian food or at least eat a different style of cuisine locally. Don’t support a national company that makes their money peddling bland, pacified mush to people.

This is the same company that runs Red Lobster, which has multiple locations in KANSAS. SEAFOOD IN KANSAS? Are you freaking kidding me? And we’re not talking fish here, we’re talking shellfish, crustaceans, saltwater creatures that have no business being frozen, thawed and eaten 500 miles inland.

What is the appeal of such a god-forsaken place? The free breadsticks and soup? You can make that at home folks. The tacky, pseudo-Italian decor? The chance to pretend to experience a different culture when it’s really just more processed, food-service pablum?

Does anyone care about authenticity anymore? Quality? Nutrition?

I guess not. Go shovel your fat faces full of \Italian\ food, America. Maintain a business plan where most of the employees barely make enough to live on and the food is product, not a meal. You’ve earned it.

@Young Carl

Here here!

I wouldn`t even give OG food to my dog! I love him too much. Ay relation between the OG and Italian food is purely coicidental. And yes, I`m an American of Italian ancestry.

I work at Olive Garden and you need to ask yourself .. how many people die each year at Olive Garden from the Endless Pasta Bowl special …you’ll be surprised

If i pay for a meal, it should be exactly how i want it! What’s the point in paying for a meal that’s not to your liking. If Olive Garden or any restaurant does not care to cater to their customer’s culinary requests, that’s not good at all. Good way to lose customers, & after losing so many, YOU will be out of your job! 

do you guys drug test in california

I know 2 other people in Keene NH who got food poisoning there!

I can tell you that allegedly the statement by Naomi is not accurate, and furthermore, I also will never again eat at one of these business, not because they are staffed with allegedly ignorant politically correct donkeys, but because They allegedly hate the American flag, no more people, in fact, no one in my family will eat there again, No one in my church will eat there again and no one in my community will eat there again, see how you like that, politically correctness.

Having operated a restaurant business as an owner and a manager, your statement is literally a lie, what a shame you people seem to not understand that in the service business it is about service.

You cannot be successful until you realize that, sadly you are the kind of people that give the service industry a bad name, service does not have to be bad, and yes if you get bad service at any restaurant the manager and the owners are at fault.

NA I think your moniker, is so accurate, you are NA

Since you realize that you can’t force someone to believe what you believe, why did you waste your time and effort to type the four paragraph diatribe about the non-freshness and fat content of everyone elses food?  Two wrongs do not make a right and you are clueless!

Blechhh…I just went to the Olive Garden yesterday with my family, and was reminded of why I haven’t been there in so long.  Horrible.  And for those of you who seem to confuse the two, hating a restaurant and it’s food is not the same as looking down on its employees.  I have no issue with the servers, they are doing their jobs, and I would never leave less than a 20% tip, more if they’re good.

We started with the spinach and artichoke dip with “Tuscan bread”.  If that’s Tuscan bread, I would avoid eating in Tuscany.  It was white Wonder Bread with a crust; it offered no resistance when you bit into it, just collapsed on impact.  Come on,  both Carrabba’s and Macaroni Grill are chain restaurants, and yet they manage to make a bread that is crusty and chewy that is served with olive oil, so why can’t the Olive Garden?  If that’s all they can do in the bread department, then they should serve it with chips and not bread, for God’s sake.  Pretty much every restaurant I’ve ever gone to has spinach/artichoke dip, and it is always pretty much identical.  Not here.  It had the consistency of, well, poop, unfortunately.  It was strangely aerated and fluffy, no melted cheese that I could find.  I have no Godly idea of what was in it.  It scared me.  

As far as their famous breadsticks, I do not know why anyone would be enticed by “all you can eat”.  Maybe if I was a deer in the forest in the dead of winter…they certainly do resemble a salt lick.  They consist of the same Wonderbread-like texture, liberally basted with margarine and garlic salt.  Yes, all the great Italian chefs use a cup and a half of garlic salt on their breads – don’t they?  Even freakin’ Little Cesears puts parmesean-ish cheese on their breadsticks, for crying out loud!  I couldn’t stuff down more than one before succumbing to dehydration.

Knowing by the bread that I would likely be traumatized by attempting an Italian entree, I went for the mixed grill, steak and chicken & vegetables on a skewer, and (again) Tuscan potatoes.  I figured, you can’t go wrong with a grilled protein, right?  WRONG. To begin with, and as you might have assumed, it was cold.  I accepted this.  I would have been stunned, had it been above room temperature, anyway.  I forged on. There were 3 large hunks of “steak” and 3 of “chicken”…I put them in quotations, because the texture bore no resemblance to any steak or chicken I have previously eaten.  I ordered the steak “medium”, but when I cut into it, it appeared to be well done.  Until I tried to chew it.  The texture and visual appearance of the texture was like raw, squishy meat, but the color was brown.  I poked the other two pieces before abandoning the steak in favor of the chicken.  I cut a piece off of the edge…it was flavor-free, but seemed safe.  The second piece I cut…uh oh.  Again, no pink inside, but a weird, mushy texture that felt raw.  I don’t know how they did it.  I don’t know why they did it.  But I gave up, lest I die from some strange mysteriously formulated “meat” product.

The meat seemed to be sitting in a sauce of some sort, but when I tried to dip my vegetable into it to get some flavor, it moved.  Not like a liquid.  All in one piece.  It was like sauce colored jello, just sitting in a fruit roll up-like solid puddle.  Also, it didn’t have any dicernable flavor.  I ate the potatoes.  They were good, anyway.  Or at least, comparitively.  They were at least cooked on the inside, and brown on the outside.  So, basically, I paid $16.95 for a half a cup of fried potatoes.  Had I known this, I would have ordered only potatoes, maybe 4 orders of potatoes and a Diet Coke (by the way, to the person below who enjoys laughing at customers who order high calorie food and diet drinks:  many people prefer diet soda to regular, regardless of calorie count.  It tastes better to me.  Yes, I am not thin.  Yes, I ordered a meal in a restaurant that likely has a billion calories.  Why is this any of your business?  And even if someone orders Diet Coke to save calories, they are fully aware that their meal was not a diet one…perhaps they didn’t want to add another 450 calories to an already unhealthy meal.   Did they say, “Now that I have ordered my 1,500 calorie fettuccini alfredo, I will lose weight with this Diet Coke”?  Probably not.  Mind your own business and stop judging strangers.)  Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

Well, in conclusion, I wanted to order dessert, seeing that it was likely not made by Olive Garden, and would probably have been edible. (Especially the Italian Cream Cake, which I happen to know is the exact same one sold at Sam’s Club.  Pretty good, too.)  But I couldn’t bear to give them any more of my hard earned money.  So I paid and got the hell out of there.  Next time my family wants to meet up for dinner, I will recommend Taco Bell or Pizza Hut.  Sadly, the food is better, and one third the price.  In the end, I did not get food poisoning.  And that, unfortunately, is the best thing I can say about the Olive Garden.

 really?? i worked at the olive garden for two years and made nowhere that much.you are very limited there and the management and the work you have to do is terrible. Olive garden sucks. Go to a real italian resturant cause thats not it.