re: Chain Lovers Alert, Red Lob, Olive Grdn Failing

I appreciate LL, Power, Tigertown, Afro, and others who supported me having my own opinion.

Maybe I just love Olive Garden too much, who knows.

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I'd like to buy you dinner at OG one evening

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Can't speak for every OG, but the one on Siegen is utter garbage. If they do indeed use fresh ingredients, then the fault lies with the cooks for not knowing how to properly season or cook food.

I guarantee I could use their same ingredients and make a flavorful meal. They for some reason cannot. OG sucks

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I think we should reserve a room and have a big F&D critics night out at the OG.

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No no no. Just no.

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No no no. Just no.

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Aw c'mon, it would be fun!

I could go for some all you can eat breadsticks.

Do they have happy hour? Think I'ma needa be drinkin for this one.

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Jeremy Mcknight, General Manager
When you're in the mood for great Italian food in Baton Rouge, join us at Baton Rouge Olive Garden. We focus on delighting each and every guest with an authentic Italian dining experience. Our menu features a variety of Italian specialties, and every entrée is served with our famous, freshly baked garlic breadsticks and your choice of homemade soup or garden-fresh salad. Come in today for lunch or dinner!

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I'm not seeing a happy hour, but it will be an authentic Italian dining experience. Yelp is only giving them 2.5 stars though. hmmmm. Snoody arse yelpers.

Hardlegging on the F&D board?

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Although it seems like I'm taking the "chain" side of things here, I really do agree with you guys that good local stuff is generally better than the chains. I think most of you have your hearts and principles in the right places.

However, with respect to Olive Garden it's rather interesting how things progressed. There are certainly Italian restaurants that I enjoy more than Olive Garden and I understand why you all do as well. The most interesting part though is that no one can really pinpoint WHY they think that X dish is better at their local place than it is at the OG.

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Put them side by side and I'll tell you. Hard to really explain one's self as far as how food tastes via the internet unless I'm live blogging with a plate of OG food in front of me.

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A lot of ignorant assumptions about Olive Garden and other restaurants were essentially defeated (even with the help of MDT who is certainly no fan of chains)

Let's recap:

"Olive Garden Sucks because they don't make their own sauce" - Wrong. They make their own sauce. Even if not completely from scratch.

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A lot of ignorant assumptions about Olive Garden and other restaurants were essentially defeated (even with the help of MDT who is certainly no fan of chains)

Let's recap:

"Olive Garden Sucks because they don't make their own sauce" - Wrong. They make their own sauce. Even if not completely from scratch.

"Well it's not like they're making pasta with flour and eggs" - True, but neither or most of your local favorites, including some really good places that we can all agree are great (and better than OG for that matter)

"Well they might make their own sauce but they use frozen pre-cut vegetables!" - Yep, that myth was crushed too as they don't use pre-cut frozen vegetables.

"Well they might make their own vegetables but it's not like they're actually making fresh stocks" - Right, but as MDT pointed out, very few local places do this as well because it just isn't practical for most people.

So there are a couple of claims of why Olive Garden sucks that involve complete misunderstandings of what they do and don't do and the other ones that were correct were a wash with what the local guys do anyway.

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I respond to all this thusly:

OG is not the worst transgressor out of the big chains. That would probably go to Applebee's. And I understand that local restaurants take the same shortcuts .. often times even more so .. than OG; hell I've seen Restaurant Impossible. It's clear that a lot of local business owners have absolutely no clue about how to prepare fresh food. Also, another thing I would imagine OG does better than local joints is the kitchen is probably cleaner .. large companies are more cognizant of the consequences of not meeting health board regulations, plus they send down from corporate guidelines and a streamlined plan that every location can go by.

Now, all that being said .. and I speak solely for myself here .. I don't eat at Olive Garden because my personal preference is to do one of two things when it comes to food (besides sandwiches and basic lunch plates while I'm working) .... I either 1) cook at home, or 2) go to a nicer restaurant where I know exactly what I'm getting; meaning - where the food is sourced and how it is prepared. I rarely eat at places that are trying to emulate fine dining while not charging those prices or not being as transparent as most upscale restaurants are.

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So in summary, I agree with all of you that there are much better Italian places than Olive Garden in metro areas where good food can be found. Curiously though, no one has actually come up with a legit reason as to why they think that X dish at Olive Garden isn't as good as X dish at some other place..

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Not sure how exactly we're supposed to "prove" this to you via a message board.

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People know they like one over the other but they don't know why.

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Not sure whom exactly we're talking about here. But you sit down a pasta dish from Olive Garden in front of me then bring me one from A Mano and I'll tell you exactly why I like one better than the other.

Maybe you're just referring to some people who jump on the chain-hating train because it's the new cool thing to do.

#foodiebandwagon

Nola