Originally Posted by
KoKoBuddy
Interesting.
My theory about Olive Garden, Chilis, Outback etc is that it's like wine for the vast majority of people. Just like most people can't tell the $15 bottle of wine from the $50 bottle, most people won't tell the difference between a $12 Olive Garden entree vs an entree from the 'local' Italian restaurant that goes for $25.
But in today's society Olive Garden is an uncool place where on the rubes eat, so we have to make excuses as to why we don't like it For some it's too much salt. For others it's not enough salt.
For all the crap it takes online, IME Olive Garden, though by no means a gourmet experience, tends to be a whole lot better than the "local Italian restaurant" I get directed to in Podunk, Your State. The Italian I've had in Iowa has been about a step below Chef Boy-ar-Dee out of a can; I would've killed for an Olive Garden when I was last in Cedar Falls.
Honestly, the Italian meal I was served in supposedly the finest Italian restaurant in northern New Jersey was inferior to Olive Garden, and by a pretty substantial margin. I've had great Italian food in Italy (natch), Pittsburgh, Ohio, Chicago, and California, but New Jersey? So far as I can tell it's a bunch of joints serving mobsters with no taste whatsoever.