Olive Garden is great for what it is. I still dream about the great meal I had last year in Rome. Not even close!

Olive Garden definitely isn't close to the meals I enjoyed in Italy. :D

I guess I’m spoiled by New York.

The "Breadsticks" comprise my major objection to OG, no more than tubes of "store-bought light bread" dough, a threat to both palate and health. I'm particular when it comes to Italian food. 56 years ago, during my lat year in college, I lived and worked within a couple of blocks of a small Italian restaurant, operated by a former POW from Apulia. I was taking Italian, and spent extra time there, real food and real practice time. Then it was off to the Navy, and a chunk of the Winter of '62-'63, my ship in the old Brooklyn Navy Yard. Believe me, back then, between Brooklyn & Manhattan there were more & better Italian restaurants than in Rome. Then I spent 3 deployments to the 6th Fleet, much of the time in Italian Liberty Ports , from Genoa South to Sicily. My palate and pocketbook became well-educated when it came to modestly priced Italian food and wine, especially local seafood (although I still tremble at the amount of mussels I consumed in Taranto, where they were farmed adjacent to the outlet from the local "Cloaca Maxima"

Actually, given that it's giant chain, its locations designed to feed hundreds, and no one speaks or understands Italian, some of the offerings are better than expected. the wine are of modest quality, but modestly priced. I'll qualify that claim by admitting that on my Navy visits to Italy, I often drank "house" wines (often from barrels) which were priced around 640 lira (then $1) for a liter. We return often. I buy better wine in recent years, but continue to avoid the ostentation with which many modest varietals and names have been laden.

Some of the olive garden creations look rather tasty, but they bear no resemblance to Italian food (as in, any food that one can get in Italy).

I lead tour groups in Italy and the first day of each trip, I do a brief presentation I jokingly call Italy 101: Instructions For Use. I basically describe some of the cultural differences between Italy and the US and when the subject of food comes up, I tell them that despite what The Olive Garden says, unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks is not authentically Italian.

I don't want to compare their food to what may be called "authentic Italian food. What's the point ?

I've been to Italy, and was not impressed by what was on offer.

If you like their food, and I as well as thousands obviously do, eat there. If you don't, there are choices.

LOL!

I think, kind of like Tex-Mex, places like Olive Garden should have their own category of food. It's not really Italian, but I could call it Italian-American food. We've Americanized both Mexican and Italian food here in the US, which isn't unlike any other country in the world. Try getting a hamburger in most other countries, especially in Asia. Or American style BBQ in Europe. For that matter, try getting Mexican food in Europe, and it's often much more American than it is authentic Mexican.

It doesn't have to be good or bad, just kind of silly to compare since it should really be a separate category.

No. I didn't think about it. I might consider it just for the soup and salad sometime, but ours can be obnoxiously busy, and I dislike crowds of people.

And I thought of it in terms of 8 weeks of pasta and what that would do to my weight. I might have considered it for soup and salad except ours is full of hyperactive kids and their clueless parents. Plus we have a couple better options for Italian is we're willing to drive another 10-20 minutes.

People in the area where we live tend to love "deals" so ours are usually packed during the special. I think people smuggle in take-out containers in order to maximize value.