slo’s FRIDAY 8/5 poll - Olive Garden

[E&Cmom]

I somewhat like it. We don’t go often but when we do I enjoy the meal. There is only one I believe in the whole province And it 20 minutes away from me. I am in that town often as I work there and shop there but there are so many other restaurants around I rather go to. There are always long waits as well.

 

[tvguy]

My wife banned us from eating at Olive Garden about 20 years ago. She ordered her usual and it was too spicy for her to eat. She wrote Olive Garden to complain and they sent her the recipe and said "our food is not spicy". Well, I tried a bite of hers and it WAS way to spicy to eat.
You don't mess with redheads, because if you do, you get banned for life.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I like it. I used to like it a lot more. I felt the meal was just ok on our last visit.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Olive Garden fits in my "love it but only eat there every year or two" group along with KFC. If I ate there regularly my opinion would probably drop.

 

[Jml813]

Fine for a quick lunch. Love their soup/salad/bread sticks and belini iced tea. However, everything else on the menu is mediocre at best and we have so many great local Italian restaurants that I'd rather eat there.

 

[Sinder]

It isn’t my first choice of places to eat but I do like their salad and breadsticks.

 

[disney4us2002]

The closest Olive Garden is about 45 miles away. If I'm going to drive that far for dinner, there's Macaroni Grill which is a better Italian chain or even The Cheesecake Factory so OG just never gets my vote.

 

[slo]

I’m very surprised by the answers - I was waiting for everyone to think I was crazy for not thinking that Olive Garden is the greatest place ever.

The inspiration for today’s poll is me making DD18’s favorite meal…..


It’s made with Olive Garden salad dressing.
I’m making all her favorites before she leaves for college and this is one of her top 5 favorites

 

[pookybean]

We have an Olive Garden right up the street, and had never been... until a couple of weeks ago. My daughters friend had a bday dinner there so we went. And... it wasnt bad! I was surprised. We prefer Maggianos, but if we wanted Italian I would go again.

We have lots of independent Italian places around, but my kids are often don't want to try new places (which is crazy because how bad could spaghetti really be?!?!)

 

[1GoldenSun]

I'm in the minestrone, salad, and breadsticks camp. Good for a girls' lunch out and everyone is happy.

The Italian dishes are just ok and not worth a long wait for a table, but if I do go at dinner I get the salmon and broccoli. They actually do a pretty good broiled salmon, but if I want true Italian food there are much better choices, even in Tampa, haha. I can only dream of NY/NJ Italian.

 

[CynBeth]

I have family members with food allergies and we tried it but they were not really able to accommodate so we have not been since. They can only eat at a handful of places in our area. One great thing about Disney is they are so great when it comes to this.

 

[goofyernmost]

I do love the salad and the breadsticks. I think some lighter menu items would be better. When you look at the calorie counts for most of their entrees it is scary.

Concern for calories and any restaurant are not compatible. If you eat every meal there, that is one thing , if it is only occasionally, it will do no one any harm. It boils down to the question.... Which of your lives are you planning to enjoy. People, and I am talking about people that are OK, weight wise, will deprive themselves of everything to keep that body fat free and damn if they don't die anyway. They do, however, leave a great looking body behind.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I like it well enough. Not counting pizza places, I live in a bit of an Italian food desert. We have many Asian restaurants, but hardly anything else so Olive Garden is really the only place to go. We don't go much, though.

 

[CdnCarrie]

It’s okay. We go to it maybe once every 3-4 years. Since we don’t eat out a ton I like to try new places when we do go out.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

A few people mentioned the Olive Garden Minestrone soup, no one mentioned the Pasta Fagiole soup (which is the same as Minestrone but has hamburger), and one person mentioned the “potato soup”.

I think what the latter meant was the Zuppa Toscana soup. That’s our favorite! And apparently their most popular. It’s so good: “Spicy Italian sausage, fresh kale, bacon and russet potatoes in a creamy broth”. And it’s a good deal, too: Endless soup, salad and breadsticks for $8.99. (I thought it was $9.99 but the website said $8.99 - maybe that’s lunch?) At any rate, still a good deal.

You can also, as someone else mentioned, get a big container of it To Go (? a gallon or half gallon, I forget now, but we’ve gotten it many times) and it comes with breadsticks and you can get salad, too, if you want (you don’t have to). It comes in a nice container inside a sturdy box and they give you a plastic soup ladle as well.

I might just have to get some this weekend now!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The other thing I was thinking was that their Gift Cards are everywhere for purchase - maybe this accounts for so many going when the food is just mediocre? I forgot about it till this thread but I’ve been carrying one around in my wallet that someone gave us, as well, lol. Maybe I’ll use it for the soup!

 

[Dan Murphy]

The other thing I was thinking was that their Gift Cards are everywhere for purchase - maybe this accounts for so many going when the food is just mediocre? I forgot about it till this thread but I’ve been carrying one around in my wallet that someone gave us, as well, lol. Maybe I’ll use it for the soup!

I think I have seen the OG GC's at Costco, discounted 20%, $100 for $80.

 

[tasha99]

It's just okay to me--not terrible and I wouldn't complain if someone chose it for our destination, but I make better Italian food at home for cheaper.

 

[ronandannette]

I think they do that so you THINK they are great. Because why would anyone wait otherwise.

I think they do it because Red Lobster (located just across the parking lot here at our location) gives them a kickback. Is the wait too long over at Olive Garden? Forget it, let's just go to Red Lobster .

 

[tvguy]

We have an Olive Garden right up the street, and had never been... until a couple of weeks ago. My daughters friend had a bday dinner there so we went. And... it wasnt bad! I was surprised. We prefer Maggianos, but if we wanted Italian I would go again.

We have lots of independent Italian places around, but my kids are often don't want to try new places (which is crazy because how bad could spaghetti really be?!?!)

We enjoyed Maggianos too. It was right across the street from Olive Garden actually. They went belly up about 7 years ago, allegedly because they couldn't compete with Olive Garden!
But I agree about mom and pop restaurants. Olive Garden is 8 miles from my house, I have 3 very good family owned Italian Restaurants within 2 miles of our house, so they are our go to places.