I am a brit and see so much content about Olive Garden but I can never tell if it's sarcastic or legitimate. Is it a "posh" food chain or is it a faux-expensive place?
I have never once seen one on multiple trips to the US. It feels like a cultural myth
I think the idea is to pretend it's fine Italian dining.
Yes, yes… we are not peasants. We are American nobles that have priority access to such a prime italian masterpiece.
And unlimited breadsticks.
Those breadsticks suck ass and the only reason I go is cause my kid chooses it every time we go out. 20 years ago it was pretty good and I loved the menu. Now, it’s just cheese and canned veggies. I’m fine with getting the steak, though. All she wants is Alfredo noodles and grapes, which I can make at home way better, but it’s special to her to go out, so that makes it worth it.
I get the same Italian lady every time I go and I wonder what she thinks of us every time. I swear, Italian lady. I love your food. You just don’t serve it there. Don’t hate me.
Aww that’s cool you do that for your kid, though.
I hate it, but it makes her happy. I try to suggest other things and it never works. It’s fine. My dad took me there when I was a kid and he still does it when he visits me, even though his wife went to the culinary institute of America and is a bomb-ass chef. Sometimes shitty gut bombs is what a body needs I guess.
This is the best reason OG exists.
To make your kids feel special.
It's so sad, because 20+ years ago, they legitimately were good. I'd take my grandmother there and have good memories. But what I hear now, sounds like they're purely just coasting on their past quality and success.
Lol, my daughter always chooses Outback, which I like well enough, but there are certainly better steak places around. But when they get to pick, it's special for them.
Never forget the true authentic Italian breadstucks.
It’s fine Italian dining to my patients who live in squalor. They only go out for special occasions and Olive Garden or Red Lobster are the two main choices.
One of America's finest peasants here....
Can confirm that endless soup and salad is 🔥
How could you forget the breadsticks
The bread sticks are implied!
True. And the food is pre prepared and cooked to order. Not worth it.
It has the trappings of an upscale Italian place, the waitstaff wears white shirts and long aprons, cloth tablecloths and napkins, kitschy Italian decor, but frozen food quality American Italian food. I think your description faux expensive is spot on.
Don’t forget the wait staff’s salt and pepper grinders
I’d take a mountain of that grated cheese though
Tell me when
No. I will not tell you when
They wear all black at the one I go to in GA. It’s basically all just microwaved bullshit and watered down zuppa toscana. The wilted salad was once something to be excited for. I made my own recipe for the soup btw and it’s mind blowing. I did it cause I liked theirs, but it kept getting worse. I’ll eat mine for a week straight until it’s just fragments in broth, then I’ll add rice and it’s another meal.
My local grocery store sells their salad dressing and it's perfect for using in pasta salad. I'm sure lots of non-bougie chains in the US carry it.
I like their zuppa toscana. I like homemade better but it’s not bad for takeout
Idk what Olive Garden you go to but back when I worked there a couple years ago we wore all black dress shirts and slacks and none of the tables had tablecloths. Idk how it managed to cultivate a high end image because once I started working there I realized it was just like any other restaurant
I have never heard anybody speak of Olive Garden as if it were high end. It’s Italian Applebees.
It’s TV dinner Italian dressed up to seem high end. Almost any town has an authentic Italian restaurant with better food and likely lower prices.
Only if you're poor.
It was when I was a kid
Yeah, growing up Olive Garden or Red Lobster was very much “fancy”. We weren’t poor by any stretch, but it was definitely a special occasion kind of place!
Because eating out as a full family is crazy expensive. IDK how many siblings you have but taking the entire family out costs the same as fine dining.
Family of five, can confirm Red Lobster and Olive Garden were “fancy” dinning out events! 😂
Cake day twins!
Same 😂
I think it’s unfair to lump these together.
Olive Garden is medium nice with mediocre food.
Red Lobster is IHOP with fish.
McDonalds was also a treat meal my parents would get us for special occasions like being good at an event or something. Definitely not the struggle meal it has become synonymous with these days.
Same. We went to Olive Garden and Red Lobster for nice occasions.
Not posh at all but it was the first place I ate at that had cloth napkins. For my sister’s high school graduation dinner.
Also depends on how small of a town you grew up in. For some smaller towns it is the finest of dining options.
My hometown didn’t get an Olive Garden until a few years ago. People are still excited as hell. Lines during busy hours and old ladies in their second best dresses.
Not when their main pasta dishes are like $20-$30 sheeeeeee
It's definetly not posh but it's fine for a lunch
It's a very good place for larger groups.
Because when you’re here, you’re family.
We’ve been excluded, the new slogan is “We’re all family here”
That slogan didn't test well with groups 42-54, northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, so the new new slogan is "Family Here"
Dang, no one is included anymore!
Olive Garden is an Italian American CASUAL dining CHAIN restaurant. Not posh. Not fine dining. It’s a chain restaurant like Red Lobster, Outback, Applebees, etc.
Is Outback an American Australian FORMAL dining chain restaurant? 😋
American Australian FORMAL dining
So instead of black tie it's cut off shorts and flip flops?
Actually, that would be something more like Capital Grille
I've never heard of that chain before, the e at the end of the grill sounds extra fancy and sort of French lol
Anyhow, just playing on the global stereotypes of US and Australian formalities or lack thereof. Hope it was fun for someone to enjoy.
Seasons 52 is my fave "fancy" chain.
It’s a poor person’s idea of a posh place. Also older people love it.
Sizzler, bby. Sizzler.
Omg my dad loved Sizzler!
My grandfather loved Sizzler so we went there first family meals a few times. Only time I’ve ever been.
Man, Sizzler was SO fancy when I was a kid.. That salad bar Bro. I remember we went there as our last family outing before my dad had his quadruple bypass surgery. Good memories.
Based on the stuff I've seen and some of the comments I'm getting "High school first date" vibes from the place
And high school kids
And families on a budget who want to sit down to eat with an actual server and don’t want to spend a ton of money. Those endless breadsticks are fantastic if you have kids.
i see olive garden everyday at my job and old people sit outside in droves for like 15 minutes prior to opening so they can swarm inside like a hive of bees
I never understood the breadstick love. It wasn’t good bread.
Lots and lots of butter.. tons of it.. in everything
The attraction was unlimited soup or salad. Warm bread sticks were good too.
It is owned by the same company that owned Red Lobster. They own:
- Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Eddie V's and Bahama Breeze.
Ruth's Chris Steak House is the worst-named restaurant chain of all time.
You mean to tell me that Eddie V's isn't owned by Eddie Vedder!?
It has the vibe of a nicer restaurant but it’s an extremely consistent chain and not considered high brow or interesting. I’ve never had anything there I disliked, though.
This. This is the main merit of OG. Seems fancier than fast food and almost everyone can find something suitable on its menu, no matter how big your party is and no matter how many different ages and palates are represented.
I don't think I've ever ordered anything there except their unlimited soup, salad, and bread sticks. If I want real Italian food, OG ain't it.
Everyone likes buttered bread and soup.
It's a cultural myth here, too. A long time ago the Olive Garden was a decent restaurant and it drew people in with all you can eat breadsticks and salad that we both incredible. Over time, quality has dropped. Real bad. But it's still a fond memory esp for older people so it continues to be common place for the family to meet with grandma and grandpa.
Hey! I’m older people and I never liked this shit!
Olive Garden 1989 is still alive in my heart.
20 years ago it was a “nicer” chain restaurant (emphasis on chain restaurant). Places like Olive Garden and Red Lobster were the chains you went to for birthdays or celebrations. Would it break the bank? No. Was it better than Applebees? Probably.
Millennials and Gen Z (myself included) have basically killed chain restaurants in the US. So now the quality is way lower at these places and young people don’t really go anymore outside of rural areas. Now it’s basically a meme.
Don’t forget private equity firms are the final nail in the coffin for some chains and pretty much anything bought up by one these days.
This is really the best answer. A lot of millennials pretend that in the 90s and early, early 2000s this wasn't on the nicer end of chain restaurants. They've forgotten where they came from. For the record, I am an elder millennial and I remember when Red Lobster was a special occasion place. Before my dad passed, he used to ask to go there for his birthday and father's day. It's still very popular in the black community (see Beyonce's line in Formation, we all got it)
This is the correct answer. I am a very late genXer and Red Lobster amd Olive Garden were as posh as you could get - especially in a smaller town. You only went for special occasions. The fact that there was free salad and breadsticks made people almost giddy that there was actually a benefit for paying so much. They were eventually replaced by steak house chains like Outback.
I'm glad they are dying. Local is way better for the same price and your supporting normal people instead of a corporation.
Are you aware that pretty much everybody that works at your local Olive Garden lives in the local community? Other than franchise fees, the same amount of their revenue goes to the "normal people" that live in the local community. It's possible that the franchise owner lives in the local community as well (although this varies).
How have they killed chain restaurants?
By being better informed about dining options and realizing that chain restaurants are basically fast food quality.
I wish the UK would pick up on this cause outside of large cities its mostly chain after chain restaurants, they’re always the worst food and always the worst companies to work for. They bring nothing to the local area.
My guess is that chain restaurants’ predicted quality is no longer enough. Everyone has many choices of small good restaurants via Yelp and Google reviews.
By not having enough money to eat there, especially around 2008. And then by just choosing to eat at better places when they did have the money to spend.
(At least that’s the common wisdom/folklore)
For me it was working one and seeing the methods of preparation. Basically glorified microwave dinners (okay a lot of it is precooked and frozen then placed on a conveyor belt through an oven). Once I started eating at local renowned places that have rotating menus based on fresh local ingredients and expertly selected wine and craft cocktails to pair it’s hard to go back.
By being pretentious and not wanting to do what their parents did. Don't let them tell you any different. I'm a millennial and have witnessed it in real time. Many of the places my fellow generation goes to in lieu aren't much better. They seem better now because after 10-15 years of decline of chain restaurants has led to a decline in quality (duh) that millennials have used to say they were always bad. But at the outset it was nearly a one to one comparison with a lot of places. I won't say all, but a lot.
When I was a kid we were eating good if we were at an OG!
Same here, it was like a special occasion type of place
Oh dear God, no. It’s basically a “theme park” version of a proper Italian restaurant.
Most of the food is prepackaged and reheated at the restaurant.
Airplane Italian but on a big plate
My boyfriend found a piece of plastic in his chicken tortelloni Alfredo a few weeks ago. It was obviously from a corner cut from a plastic bag.
It’s decent enough food, but it’s not posh at all. They’re usually located on an interstate highway. If you didn’t travel by car to different areas you wouldn’t see one.
It's a step above Chili's and Applebee's, but definitely not "posh". I'm surprised you have never seen one in all your trips to the U.S. They seem to be everywhere.
I live in the US and have never been to one… 🤷♀️
No way chilis and Applebees have at least updated their interior in the past decade.
Applebees is horrible. Chili’s too if you’re getting anything that isn’t deep fried. Olive Garden is way better than either of those.
All I know is we have way shittier Italian restaurants in my area. Olive Garden isn’t great but it’s mid tier in my area.
Stopped going to Applebees a few years ago when they served my dinner with a bug crawling across the plate, the manager tried to say all their food is fresh so I asked him why my lime was brown and dried out. He walked away in embarrassment. The waiter was sent back out. I refused to accept anything else from the kitchen, I haven’t been back in 9 years and I tell this story every chance I get.
I’ve had decent experiences at chilis in the past two years. Just have to get over how the menu items look like bigger servings than they really are.
I’ve been for the $10.99 burger, fries, side salad, and drink and it was very good at a very good price. The appetizer sampler I saw someone else order looks good too, but it’s all fried. I tried one of the Tex mex style bowls a few years ago and the chicken texture was off—like store bought, pre-cooked frozen Tyson chicken. Got the feeling they microwave or boil in bag.
I’m learning now that people consider Olive Garden on a different tier of restaurant than Applebee’s and Chili’s
It’s microwave Italian in the same way Applebees is microwave American.
People like to say that, but according to the company, the only preprepared dishes are the desserts. Everything else is "made fresh daily", whatever that means to them. Certainly they don't make their own pasta. I can't imagine they make their own tomato sauce (though the claim "sauces" are made daily). But maybe they do, if they use canned tomatoes. OG employees could probably fill us in.
I worked at Chi Chi's 30 years ago (talk about not highbrow), and virtually everything was made not only fresh, but to order.
Was gonna say, as far as I'm aware from context applebees is a place people go to get a shit load of food and staggeringly drunk. That's all I know about it
“Shit load” might true be by non-American sizes, but not compared to other American restaurants.
Anyone getting staggeringly drunk are still just doing shot of liquor like they would at any other bar, because their cocktails barely have any alcohol in them and cost $12+ for most of them. But this stereotype does happen.
If you see someone staggeringly drunk from Applebees, they’re in a really rough place in life. Cuz why in the fuck else would anyone choose Applebees to get plastered at. It’s the kind of sad drinking that occurs when your wife fucks your brother and then runs off to reunite with her college fling.
Reddit Americans, we had a really funny opportunity at our feet here and we collectively blew it.
From now on, if a non-murican asks, Olive Garden is black tie fancy.
If you see someone in a Tux at a Red Lobster/Applebees come and say hi to me
Maybe not in tuxes, but on prom night, I'd bet there will be large groups of teenagers eating there in suits and fancy dresses. Not Applebees so much as Red Lobster and Olive Garden though.
It's not bad, but not posh.
It's as posh as Applebees
No
I’d never eaten at Olive Garden until recently. No, it’s not posh. Everything was very mediocre and way, way too salty.
So much salt and I love salt. I can barely eat there.
Bread and soup. Salty buttered bread sticks and soup.
If you want a chain Italian restaurant, try to find a Carrabbas Italian Grill
It's Italian McDonald's.
I find it's better to give the attributes of the restaurant, and let you decide, as everyone's opinion is different
If it’s someone’s birthday in the OG house, You can also witness all the waitstaff come out in a line and clap their hands and proceed to go the birthday table, where the waitstaff will sing a quick snappy “OG original” Happy Birthday- like song with a “HEY!” at the end,
All while the birthday guest gets embarrassed over the free slice of chocolate cake
It’s a casual restaurant with a few trappings of poshness. They’ll grate Parmesan or freshly grind pepper onto your dishes table-side. The servers wear nicer clothes, there’s usually white tablecloths. There’s a wine list. A lot of people in the US have never had these experiences because fine dining is usually found in larger cities and it’s expensive.
The food is consistent and people like that. They don’t change the menu much. Free salad and breadsticks refills make people think they are getting a good value. It strikes a balance of feeling nice at an affordable price. It’s popular to hate on The Olive Garden in the US as a social mark of having experienced “better” food.
I hear what you're saying, but I would imagine that most people who can afford to eat at Olive Garden with any frequency can/have also eaten at a nicer Italian place at least once.
Olive garden is 3-stars overall no matter your income level. That doesn't make it good or bad, just not really that great considering the presentation.
I mean, it all depends on who you are. It felt pretty posh to me growing up, but I'm white trash.
Most people don't think that though.
Fast casual sit down chain is how I would describe it. It's not bad. It's not great. It just is.
It’s not fast casual. Chipotle and Panera are fast casual. It’s just a chain restaurant.
when I was younger I thought Olive Garden was hella bougie... once I was like 10 and started going to actual expensive restaurants, I realized that it's just the architecture that gives it a posh facade for a lot of working class families.
Definitely faux-expensive. But it's meant to be a place where lower income customers can feel like they're eating at a fancy restaurant
Yeah for sure - post didn't mean to be snobby I realise anywhere can become posh dependent on circumstances
Far from it.
It's an ok meal at best.
It's a way to safely please a small group or go on a routine date if you had the misfortune of growing up in a car-dependent sprawling horrible suburb with neither the vibrancy and (food) diversity of a city nor the peaceful simplicity of a rural area.
Dude! You nailed it. It is the restaurant equivalent of (and mostly found in) a suburb.
I see a lot of hate for Olive Garden, it's a medium priced Italian restaurant. I don't think it's supposed to be "posh" even though Every prom and homecoming season we see people going there.
If you want to pay 50.00 for pasta and sauce, go find a "posh" restaurant. Make sure you post your selfie of how awesome you are above all the poor.
It's hard to find good Italian food. Italians cook good Italian food at home. So when you ask. Italian hey where is good Italian food they generally do not have a answer for you other than Nonnas house.
OG is fine. But it's not Italian food. It's fun, the same kind of way Jack Astors or AppleBees is fun. Crushing a cutlet and side of Alfredo for lunch than walking back out into the Arizona heat is what America is all about.
Yes if you’re poor, not if you’re not.
It’s a casual chain that makes Americanized Italian dishes. The food quality is fine, and you can go to any of them and get the same thing, prepared in the same manner. The food is good, but it’s like the McDonald’s of Italian. Similar to other chain restaurants across the US. It’s fine to go eat at, but if you want authentic, a lot of cities will have a small mom-n-pop place that serves authentic Italian.
I have never once seen one on multiple trips to the US.
Although Olive Garden has locations throughout the US, it certainly is not ubiquitous like McDonald's or Starbucks. And they're generally not in the middle of major touristy areas. Instead, they're often located near suburbs.
The most touristy Olive Garden I'm aware of is the one is Times Square.
Makes sense - I have mainly come over for work last 5 years typically to bigger cities on the east coast/Chicago, guess if it's more suburban it'd make sense I hadn't seen them
It's like if Tesco had an "Italian Restaurant" attached to the side of it. So, no.
😂 I do love a meal deal to be fair...
Olive Garden is the Wetherspoons of Italian food, with more standardized decor, and a slightly shorter walk to the toilets.
No sherpa guide needed to nip for a wee? Outrageous
The trade-off is that you can go into an Olive Garden anywhere in the country and order the same meal and know that it’s going to taste exactly the same, whether you’re in Alabama, Alaska, Paducah or Poughkeepsie.
Sometimes I want to go to the OG but then I remember I can make most things I might get there and it doesn’t seem as enticing.
It’s Italian fast food, basically. And I use Italian ironically.
Hah, no. It's a chain that serves microwaved food of mediocre quality. It is not posh. It's on par with a chain pub in the UK. Predictable menu, nothing special. Acceptable beverages. But designed to look better than a McDonalds.
Trashy chain with a chandelier; see also cheesecake factory, Applebee's, or tgi Fridays.
No but the unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks lunch is 🔥
nah but the breadsticks are good AF
Not posh but sometimes it hits the spot lol the unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks for lunch is always a fave of mine.
It’s just a chain restaurant like Applebee’s or Chilis, it’s not fancy at all.
No it's not fancy, but it's still good
It probably depends on the region. I couldn't imagine going to an Olive Garden while living in the northeast, but in the midwest?
Its not a posh chain nor a faux-expensive place. It’s literally Italian food for red necks. But they give away unlimited salad and breadsticks and the pasta snacks. The lunch special in this economy is $11.98. Probably one of the most underrated chains out there.
It’s middle class fancy however with price hikes their target demographic is priced out so no clue who it’s for now, especially since quality has tanked so new quality isn’t even good enough for poor people much less their previous demographic
If you ask about it on /r/raleigh you’ll find it is our best culinary offering
I used to think that as a kid. But no lol.
It’s not good food. It’s cheap Italian based food made by a chain restaurant but honestly you can do better buying premade stuff at Costco and eating at home.
It's not posh. It's a casual, family type place.
lol no. It’s a “nice” place for a lower middle class family dinner or for a date for high schoolers/college kids.
Where can I jerk off with other people on Staten island 10301
To lower income people/families Olive Garden can be a nice treat, and one of the fancier but affordable options. Similar to Outback Steakhouse, it isn’t the fanciest but is more affordable while maintaining a nice atmosphere.
100% sarcastic
It’s still kinda good though. But you gotta be in the mood for it.
When I was a child, I used to think that Olive Garden was a fancy restaurant but to be fair, I usually thought all sit down restaurants were fancy.
It's not but to me it seemed like it. I grew up in poverty and the first time I stepped foot in an Olive Garden, I felt extremely out of place. From my perspective people who drove a newer car that wasn't rusted out and falling apart were "rich". People who drank actual wine out of a wine glass were "rich" to me.
It's not posh, it's quite casual. It's consistent good food with unlimited salad and breadsticks and that's what makes it so popular.
It's posher than most places middle-class Americans eat on a regular basis. Tablecloths! Cloth napkins! Ceramic plates! Waitstaff wear uniforms!
But no it really isn't. I haven't been there since I figured out Stouffer's frozen lasagna tastes just as good, lol.
TLDR: It used to be... somewhat. But is not any more.
This is a tricky question to answer. If you grew up poor or working class in the 80s or 90s, it was a somewhat upscale casual dining restaurant with delicious Italian inspired food with clothe napkins and smartly dressed staff. Like many other chain restaurants, it was eventually purchased by increasingly larger corporate restaurant conglomerates. As that happened, the need for shareholder profit forced the streamlining of the supply chain. Now, they look the same as they always did, but the food quality has declined to the point that you can clearly tell that nearly every menu item was produced in a factory and shipped frozen to be reheated on site.
Not even close. It’s a slight step up from fast-food.
I'm a Brit too, but no Olive Garden isn't posh. I would say it's equivalent to a Bella Italia, but the food is actually decent. The bread is delicious.
It is not posh. It is one step above counter-service (where you order your food at the counter, wait for it, and go sit down). It is entry-level table-service, and pretty corporate and uninteresting. The food there is designed to be as palatable as possible using the cheapest ingredients possible. It is probably extruded by some high-tech machine at a corporate headquarters somewhere, shipped frozen to the restaurant, and microwaved before being served.
No it's pretty long rung dining.
It’s not posh; but there are far worse restaurant chains to eat at.
Yes... In 1985
Oh, no it’s just average. If you want good Italian food in the US you need to find a family run Italian American restaurant.
It used to be. Now, shorts, sweats, t-shirts, and tank tops are common.
I just visualized that scene towards the end of "Casino."
Lmao not even a little bit. Also they’re all over the place
Its like a normal chain restaurant, it's not that expensive. But it's too much if you're actually poor. Idk what kind of chain restaurants you guys have there but it's like the Italian restaurant version Applebee's or any other sit down chain place. Entrees cost around $20.
It's not posh but it's perfectly nice. They are everywhere and there isn't anything special about them. But the food is fine and it's a notch above the takeaway experience.
no. the best food comes from the hole in the wall places trust me. basically it's like l'osteria ...
Its like a weird setup of the lowest possible "nice" place to eat, and a very high form of simple casual accessible dining
The Taste of Italy is the finest dining there is. It’s like being back in old Napoli
Posh? No.
Solid middle class, "fancy ish" dining. On a scale of like, McDonalds to Ruth Chris, 1-10, I'd say it's like a 6.5 or 7 tops.
You might put on a nice shirt for it.
It’s a common family Italian themed restaurant that dresses itself up to be posh. In my opinion it’s great!
Italian McDonalds.
The McDonald's of Italian food.
It’s themed like a fine Italian restaurant, but it’s mid-tier chain dining. The food isn’t amazing, but it’s really not all that bad. Unlimited breadsticks is the vibe. It’s priced for us commoners and peasants, delivering a very average food quality. You won’t be amazed. You won’t be disgusted.
It’s not a super fancy restaurant but it is a nice place to go to.
NO!
Think of an italian restaurant, but its been franchised or turned into a chain. Imagine how certain aspects are then centrally or regionally managed, efficiencies are made.
I don't understand how you're getting so much content about Olive Garden lmao. I'm American and I almost never see Olive Garden. To answer your question though, no it is not at all.
define 'posh'
Generally, any restaurant you see advertised on TV is not "posh." And some businesses blow out the advertising budget so they're always talked about. Like I went over a decade hearing the "save big money at Menards" jingle without ever laying eyes on an actual Menards.
Pretty good rule of thumb to be fair
Olive Garden is an italian themed Denny's.
No. It’s fast casual.
Is it fine dining? If your truck is worth more than your house then yes. The fact of the matter is over 20 years ago it wasn't a bad place to take a date. With Americans always wanting bigger, better, more sophisticated and more expensive (maybe the quality of the food went down, too) it's now a place people go to without putting much thought into it. On the $, $$, $$$, $$$$ scale it's $$. Not a place to take a materialistic woman on a first date. A a sensible woman would be fine with it on a first date.
No, not posh. It is very inauthentic Italian food.
Lol its not a luxury place. Its a place where your best peasants can dine.