I am at Olive Garden for the first time

[Anonymous]

This all reminds me of the food critic from Grand Forks and Anthony Bourdain:

https://time.com/5306366/anthony-bourdain-marilyn-hagerty/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was excited to go to Olive Garden in college because I was raised a snob but I was underwhelmed. It didn’t deliver like Waffle House.

True but maybe not entirely fair. Nothing delivers like Waffle House. WH is always open -- and often stays open even during hurricanes.

[Anonymous]

Olive Garden today is a mere shadow of its original self. It was our fancy going out to eat place for important holidays and celebrations. Ah, small town life.

The silverware was once sturdy and the napkins were cloth. The soup salad and breadsticks was all we ever ordered, with water, because we were poor. I absolutely loved, and still love, the pasta fagioli and the salad. The breadsticks now are not good. But the whole experience is just a vibe I will never tire of.

Ande's mint at the end, you knew you were somewhere special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This all reminds me of the food critic from Grand Forks and Anthony Bourdain:

https://time.com/5306366/anthony-bourdain-marilyn-hagerty/

That's really quite lovely. He published a book of her Grand Forks reviews on his imprint, and he wrote a forward to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all reminds me of the food critic from Grand Forks and Anthony Bourdain:

https://time.com/5306366/anthony-bourdain-marilyn-hagerty/

That's really quite lovely. He published a book of her Grand Forks reviews on his imprint, and he wrote a forward to it.

Wow. Very cool

[Anonymous]

Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still dream about the zuppa toscana soup and I havent been there in 10+ years

That isn’t the flex you think it is

...why do you even think it's a flex at all? It wasn't meant to be.

[Anonymous]

It's just nostalgia, PP. Normal human stuff.

[Anonymous]

I made zuppa Toscana today after being inspired by this thread and it was a huge hit.

[Anonymous]

LOL. I've never been to an Olive Garden. No plans to ever bother dining there.

[Anonymous]

Mmm, soup, salad and breadsticks. Cannot ever remember eating the pasta there!

And the chairs used to have wheels, which as a kid, I considered the height of luxury.

[Anonymous]

The whole place smells bad. I've never been to one that doesn't have a rancid smell that makes me want to vomit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've lived in three European countries. I've eaten plenty of "real" Italian food, in Italy.

And you know what?

I really like Olive Garden. When I'm visiting family in the US, I always like to go there.

There is a bizarre kind of snobbery re: Olive Garden that I don't understand. Sure, it is fashionable to sneer at it, but...I think it's really good. I'm going to be in the US for two weeks over Christmas, and I plan to go there more than once, and I have no shame.

No, lol.

It's fine. The snobbery is extreme. But the food is definitely not "really good."

Yeah, I don't care. I think it's really good.

Do you not understand that other people like things you don't?



Like I said, whenever I go back to the US to visit family, I go there. I will take my sister and we will sit in Olive Garden, and it will be glorious.

You don’t have to care. Still not “really good.”

[Anonymous]

The last time I went to an Olive Garden, the food was so obviously microwaved that I never went back. That was in maybe 2006? It was disappointing - I had really good memories of it prior to that.

[Anonymous]

Best Italian food in US. And cute restaurants. I love OG.