All the soup is made in house, broccoli is blanched and then microwaved to order, Alfredo is made in house, red sauce has a base in a can but is finished in house, meat is cooked on a grill or sautéed. People are there chopping shit at like 7 or 8 AM.
Applebees and chili’s are probably better candidates.
-spent too much time working at OG
Pro tip: order a fried lasagna with a kids Mac and cheese on top
Used to work at chilli's. Was about the same. Stuff brought in warmed/cooked in house. Half way through my time there they changed some cook tops for those conveyer belt machines similar to the pizza ones. Mostly for seafood and other easy timed foods. Prep guys were also there at like 9 am. Chips were made in house. Most meat also cooked to order. Most sauced were brought in bags and just warmed. All veggies and the like were fresh daily.
I love watching Youtube videos of native Italians eating at Olive Garden. It's not just that they hate the food because of course they do, it's that they get so incredibly angry at the very concept of someone daring to call that food "Italian".
I used to love Olive Garden as a kid. In particular, I liked how the lasagna was light and fresh-tasting with a bright-red marinara sauce, cut in a square and served on a plate. It was a stark contrast to the typical kind found at other Italian-American restaurants, where it's heavy, drowned in a brick-colored sauce with long-cooked flavors, and served in an oval baking dish that's spent too much time under the broiler.
I went there a few days ago for the first time in decades, specifically to try that lasagna and figure out how to replicate it at home, but I was served something a lot closer to the typical lasagna instead of the one I remember. Is my memory faulty, or did they change the recipe at some point? And if they did change the recipe, do you remember the old one well enough to give me any tips about making it?
I didn’t cook so I can’t help with a recipe but I think they used to hit it with a fresh scoop of sauce before it went out. I can’t remember if it was a standard though.
Some scenarios that might get you a less than stellar lasagna:
Someone plates it early and it sits under the warmer while the order is being cooked.
Someone in your party eats salad really slow or orders more than average of salad or soup. Servers put a “hold” on food so the ticket floats until a predetermined time they select or until they manually push it. So if I expect your chicken to take 8 minutes and set a hold for 7 but get busy and a third salad bowl is ordered, my float might have expired while I was greeting another table. Now I have to either bring your food early and risk you feeling rushed or leave it under the warmer until you’re done with salad. It’s tricky!
Serving is hard y’all, the difference between 20% and no tip can happen in minutes, and it can totally not even be something you have control over. Time feels different when you’re sitting there waiting for me to finish my mandatory greeting talking points so you can ask for more bread. I’m glad I found my way out of doing it and I still get uncomfortable when I can see my server struggling anywhere I eat.
I always thought this too until I had the opportunity to go into an Olive Garden kitchen.
The chef back there was very, very proud of the work they put into the food there. Almost everything is hand made. It was really nice to see.
You mean he actually boiled the pasta and tossed the salad?
I'm exaggerating but when you think about the things that Olive Garden are known for (unlimited bread sticks, and their soup and salad deals), they're all essentially premade. I don't know many people who go there for the steak, for example.
I was not expecting this.
Olive garden is always a great experience for me. Never had the impression that the food was microwaved. Probably best not to pay a meme that much attention
Why do we need chain restaurants? Just replace them with Automats
I've always wondered why automats aren't really a thing.
There are even robotic pizza vending machines and stuff now.... We have the technology to do it.
That would still be a chain restaurants, just automatic with no humans. Well maybe "restaurant" could be a stretch but like you would get chains still, like McDonalds automats or whatever.
I would love a real automat!
I mean if they are going to serve food like this it might as well be via Automat
Chef Mike works super hard!
Chef Boyardeez arms tired from opening all those cans...
Fuck that is the funniest thing I've seen in a while. I'm going to steal this and use it on my wife.
Ok, just said this to my wife and she cracked up.
Chef Mike! Always coming in clutch for so many people 🥲
What a coincidence my in-home chef looks just like him! And get this: his name is also Mike!
From the Rowave family?
🤌🤌🤌
Signor Smeg
It’s the McDonalds of Italian cuisine
I usually like everything, but Olive Garden is the one restaurant I won't even go to if someone else is paying. Absolutely God awful what they do to pasta there.
That pasta deserved it!
- The Pasta Strangler
Genuinely concerned for people who like Olive Garden
I like olive garden... I only go like once every few years but I've never not enjoyed it.
It's actually as expensive as a fancy Italian place now. Might as well go to the good restaurant.
All I hear is "Stop liking what I don't like!!!"
Not really. Moreso an acknowledgement that there is a non-trivial group of people who (for whatever reason) have simply not tried more than the things in their own backyard. If you have explored everything life has to offer and you still like Olive Garden then good for you, this wasn't about that kind of person.
Between how many users shit on the food posted at Foodporn and give praise to garbage like Olive Garden I'm gonna stop listening to advice about food coming from this site.
