/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18406542
Olive Garden is shit
unfortunately my pops loves the place. I don't know why but when we go here I have to suffer from his lack of taste

>>18406550

I could have made everything we ate tonight better for $25, but the extra $50 to sit around the general public in a fake Tuscan must be done because it's just not that same.

>>18406542
Yeah, I don't get the hate. There's better local Italian places, but Olive Garden isn't what I'd call horrible.

>>18406542
>Going to OG and not just getting endless soup, salad, and breadsticks
I hereby knight OP, Sir Faggot, Sucker of 10,000 Cocks

Olive Garden is fine. It's just Americanized "Italian" food. If you go there expecting actual Italian cuisine you will obviously be disappointed. It's like going to McDonald's and complaining it's not a real burger joint. No shit. It's focus tested mass-produced slop that they make for cheap and sell for a profit. That's not to say it's inedible because it's decent, sometimes even good. A common misconception about Italian food is that it's all big grand dishes with garlic and a dozen ingredients when in reality most of it is extremely simple with few ingredients.

who in their right mind goes to Olive Garden?

>>18407246
my parents did

>>18407242
lol no, it's shit
>>18407249
your parents aren't well

>>18407254
>your parents aren't well
well, no. they're dead.

>>18407258
>zombie boomers eat at olive garden
cool punk album title desu

White people (especially girls) love OG

>>18406542
God, what shithole do you live in where this is the best Italian? Why can't flyovers at least pick good small towns to live in? Why is it always just shittier/smaller versions of suburbia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_deVmVF9hKs

>Live in STL region
>Family comes into town to visit me
>Ask them what they want for dinner
>"IMOS!"
>"Chinese!"
>Every fucking time
For fuck's sake, you're only here for two days. Can *please* at least pick something where we can sit down? I want to get out of my house, too, you know.

I always remembered olive garden being pretty solid, and figured most people who claim to hate it were middle class people trying to feel superior to lower class people.

But I went recently and it was a huge disappointment. The menu-computers somehow make the cheap experience feel even cheaper. Breadsticks are slow. The food feels very sysco.

At least the zuppa toscana is still great.

The only reason I go out to get American-Italian is to get food that I easily can't cook for myself at home.
Namely, this means stuffed pastas. I've tried making them in the past, but I'm not good at it.

Olive Garden was worth going to for their seafood ravioli. Genuinely loved that stuff. After they got rid of anything other than "cheese stuffed", I lost all motive to go there. It's been about 6 years since I've last been.

Last time I went was right before all the corona shit kicked off. I've never had a more sterile experience at a restaurant. You order off a tablet at the table and pay your bill the same way. My wife and I were the only customers in the place. It was surreal, like a ghost restaurant. The only other person I saw inside was the waitress who brought the food and refilled the drinks. Very strange indeed.

>>18407466
Fellow STLAnon, take them somewhere with St. Louis style pizza that isn't Imos. There's tons of them.

>>18407466
>>18407522
Is St. Louis style the one that has Provel on it? I've wanted to try that cheese for a while but never can find it here in Ohio. What's it taste like? I love high quality American cheese like Cooper sharp white.

>>18407522
Don't you guys do toasted ravioli down there?

>>18407537
>>18407535
Slightly sharp and with cracker crust I guess. Imo's is shit. Any place that serves St. Louis style that isn't them does it better. And yeah, toasted ravioli is great. Gittos on the Hill is the best, because they invented it.

>>18407522
You don't understand.
They're originally FROM St. Louis.
They already know what options there are, and they still pick fucking IMOS every time

>>18407535
>What's it taste like?
Very soft, rather sharp. Goes nice on salad.

>>18407246
I did, but ONLY because I worked there..
AMA.

>live on west coast my whole life
>move to detroit
>quality of restaurants drops immensely, anything non-chain is somehow worse than the chains and the chains are worse here than they were back west
>keep seeing coney island joints, figure its just glorified hot dogs and bullshit food
>drunk and bored one night go into one
>started out with a couple of coney dogs and they were cheap as shit and fucking delicious
>just start ordering a bunch of random shit
>greek food
>weird burritos
>it's all top tier and everything costs like $5-7
>realize these places actually fill the void in my heart left by the cheap roadside mexican food in my homeland
>i start to appreciate my new home more
>thanks coney island

>>18407440
>server shoots the zyliss cheese grater all over the table
>no side plates for breadsticks
I see they've got the typical shitty servers of maybe short-staffed dishtank.

>>18407246
It’s good
>breadsticks
>big salad
>soups
>fettuccine Alfredo add some shrimp
>five cheese angels hair

What’s the problem?

>>18406542
>improves your normie Italian experience

>>18406542
sit down chains are only ever viable with deals. like you're a fucking retarded dunce if you go to applebee's when its not half priced apps or happy hour

>>18407211

>Imagine being such a poorfag to only eat salad and bread

>>18407246
A. Boomers
B. Women
C. People who have to deal with A & B

>>18407563
I used to live outside of Detroit, I miss coney islands like you wouldn't believe; regular chili dogs taste like absolute shit to me by comparison

>>18407274
Mid-Atlantic but southern enough where Italians & Jew delis basically only exist in cities.

>The good Italian joint
>I get Veal in Marsala
>Veal is cut like the cheap Chinese takeout beef and marsala is barely salted
>wife gets roasted salmon with chinni' alfredo
>caesar salads were store mix
>obviously previously frozen and fishy smell
>alfredo was from a store
>hostess had personality of a dead moth
>waitress didn't check in and only 30% capacity
>kid's pizza was okay, but its just pepperoni pizza
>out of tiramisu

I mean OG at least consistently okay and they do have good FoHfags in general.

>>18407557
most degenerate things?

>worst night?
>best night?

>>18406542
If you want to go to a true Italian restaurant, go to Carrabba's.

>>18408366
>>18410071
How's the crab carbonara at carrabarra's?
It would be quite a tongue twister if carrabarra operated in Canberra.

>>18408130
Everything is bland tasting and most of their shit is microwaved in a package.

>>18409323

ngl it took me a while to warm up to the place but i find the western suburbs cozy af now.

i don't know if it's a remnant of when the meat-packing industry was huge here but getting gigantic cuts of quality beef and pork is very easy and very cheap. i half-bought half-built an offset smoker in my backyard (i can afford a yard here wtf) and make barbecue and smoked sandwich meats every weekend when the weather is decent. helped me get to know my neighbors and make friends. met some more greeks and got introduced to their whole community, they're hilarious.

>>18410680
>met some more greeks and got introduced to their whole community, they're hilarious.
just don't work for one in a Greek restaurant
they're psychotic

I went to olive garden like a few months ago and got horrible service. I get better service at coney island. It's because I had a waiter instead of a waitress which already sucks because men are either hyperattentive fags or lazy fucks. Of course he was a lazy one, should've known since he was a zoomer. Took ages bringing anything and when I tried to use my gift card he acted weird about it. I left him a very small tip. I shouldn't be sitting with just ice cubes for more than five minutes. He'd just disappear for like 10 minutes at a time. Probably vaping in the back. God I hate zoomers so fucking much

>>18410691

haha working for a greek restaurant owner was unironically my first job when i was 17 and living in california. lasted a year and never worked in another restaurant and am in my mid 30s now. fucking traumatizing. i cook for the sake of eating good food and share it with friends.

>>18410704
Interesting. That Greek restaurant was the last one I ever worked for too.

>>18407466
I'm not sure if they are still any good but try Viviano's.

>>18407271
i know one who doesn't