[touron]

[Backpacker Joe]

P-Bear, you're really stretching it this time.

[Chico]

Have not been there in a good while but I never let a breadstick go to waste. Nor the salad.

[NacMacFeegle]

I have never been to the olive garden, but I never object to free breadsticks !

[nuclear_eggset]

Back in the day, before I was gluten free, I loved those things. Soup, salad, and breadsticks was a regular dinner (as my dad often wanted to go out to eat rather than cook at home). You can imagine this didn't serve a relatively sedentary teenage girl's metabolism well. Having not eaten gluten in over 12 years now, I don't remember a whole lot about the taste, other than them having a great texture, and OOOO.... the salt! As for the article - I agree with the hedge fund. They have a good policy, they just have to make the workers stick to it. Not very different from a lot of companies, really.

[Randito]

My reading of the article left the impression that the recklessness with the breadsticks had more to do with poorer quality breadsticks, lessening the enjoyment of customers. OG big challenge is demographics, the next generation is choosing Chipotle et al rather than cut rate sit down restaurants.

[touron]

[touron]

In today's news

[cairn builder]

Reckless is eating at a place like olive garden.

[mbtigger]

[tigermn]

Used to eat at the Olive Garden somewhat frequently. Haven't actually in years. Food is OK but nothing special. We found other places to get equal or better, and better service/no waiting. Bread Sticks were kind of the highlight until I realized you can buy basically the same thing at Costco or elsewhere and coat with your own salty garlic butter. They must be doing something right (or at least were since I haven't been recently). There was always a wait if you went on a normal dinner time hour. One reason we quit going initially. Service seemed to be hit or miss as well and the environment is pretty noisy.

[Bedivere]

It's a big chain restaurant. It's not about the food... You want Italian food, just about any big city has multiple choices owned by individuals or families where you can get ten times better food, though perhaps it won't be as cheap. Chains/franchises are all about maximizing profit and minimizing cost, they're a business first and a restaurant second. Sure, any restaurant has to make money to stay in business, but individual and family-owned places are often owned by people who have a passion for what they're producing and figure the money will come if they make good stuff that people want. I would always seek out a small, authentic place before going to a chain restaurant if I had the choice, but then again, I don't crave conformity and the exact same thing everywhere I go...

[Malachai Constant]

I am prejudiced because my dad's family was Southern Italian and have had it all my life. Our food was peasant food which made the most out of a small amount of expensive ingredients such as fish or meat. It was low fat but high in carbs. OG seems to be saturated with cream and cheese which is unlike the food I am used to. It may be norther Italian but I never had anything like it anywhere in Italy. When Italians ro French people have rich dishes the portions are very small. At OG the plates are enormous and heaped. It might be good if you just climbed Denali or the PCT for 50 miles/day. Just not my cup of meat.

[Bedivere]