Olive Garden is Nickelback for pasta restaurants.

Never Again

I'm actually mildly terrified at how many sympathetic comments there are in this thread. I guess that's why there's still so many stores open smfh

Thats complete bullshit.

I never put salt in my pasta, and all my pasta comes out al dente. It has to do with the boil time more than it has with the salt contents.

Only restaurant my family had a borderline hostile reaction from the staff. Seated other families before us, stating "we forgot you," and ignoring a meal order from a member stating, "you didn't order anything."

I kind of feel bad for you. I’ve never been to a “bad” Olive Garden. Sure it’s not fresh home cooked but it’s still good imo. That said I only eat the carbonara or the eggplant parm with gnocchi soup. Don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything else there.

Hey now dont insult Taco Bell they are entirely doing their own thing and gave up on pretending to be Mexican food awhile back. Also Baja Blast and Nacho fries slap.

Growing up in the south, I had countless times where the old hicks called Dominos that "Italian restaurant".

Oh it's not the worst by far. And for a college student 7 dollar all you can eat soup, salad, breadsticks, and wifi made it better than the local coffee place.

It's not great food, but it's far from the worst. I've had some truly awful food from restaurants that made me wonder hownthey existed. Olive garden is consistently meh. It's not some place I would ever go willingly. But I know enough people are fine with meh. For some it is better than they get at home. And that's why it's still around.

Never been to Golden Corral? Lucky.

You tellin' me they don't eat pasta and meat sauce in Italia?

Don't let none of these chuckleheads tell you the OG isn't Italian. It's as Italian as apple pie.

Next they'll say Fazolis isn't even a real word, and you shouldn't cook pasta like french fries.

Yes, quite a lot actually!

I know this is hard to believe for people who only hear stereotypes about our state, but New Jersey has a lot of natural beauty. Northwest NJ and the Delaware Water Gap area have a lot of beautiful forested areas, and the Delaware River is so crisp and clear up there. Great for kayaking and tubing! All along the Delaware in Central NJ there are cute river towns like Frenchtown, Stockton, Lambertville, and Washington's Crossing. These are really cute little downtowns with bars & restaurants, shops, and live entertainment. Plus with Lambertville there's New Hope right across the bridge. We have farmstands with fresh Jersey corn, tomatoes, and peaches all over the place (remember, we're the Garden State!), plus loads of local wineries. The Pine Barrens are beautiful for hiking and biking. Then we've got the shore. I will grant that NJ beaches don't hold a candle to some other places further south along the eastern seaboard (though I will say that the beaches with tags are a pretty good experience), but you don't really go down the shore just for the beaches. You go for the boardwalks, plus the casinos in Atlantic City. We also have Great Adventure, which I think every Jersey kid grows up going to.

And we have pork roll, the best breakfast meat ever.

So yeah, come check us out. You might be surprised!

I'm from South Jersey, not sure who is keeping the Olive Gardens open but it's not me. I don't know what you're looking for, but it's a nice state for the most part, but I'll admit I'm biased. I think most of the shit is because New York and Philadelphia have us sandwiched in between them and they're very vocal cities with a lot of pride in themselves so we're the easy punching bag. Just don't force us to pump our own gas and there won't be any problems!