Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
I'm with BT and Kayelle. Olive Garden is uniformly indistinctive to me. Generic Italian.
The review says, "The Olive Garden hits some kind of middlebrow sweet spot, where people really do like it...but it's also a goofy chain with overblown pretensions toward authenticity.”
I don't know about "middlebrow sweet spot" (I like to think I'm a bit more browed than that) but "pretentions towards authenticity" rings true to me.
Like BT I'd rather go to a local mom 'n pop Italian joint, a place where maybe they might cook it just like at home... Without pretentions... and without "vases and planters with permanent flower displays on the ledges."
The Olive Garden nearby my home in NW L.A. is bland and indistinctive, and expensive! If I want expensive I'd rather go to Romano's Macaroni Grill (another national chain). Maybe it's the same sort of place and maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Really I'd rather cook my own food than eat in an overpriced restaurant anyway.
The review says, "The Olive Garden hits some kind of middlebrow sweet spot, where people really do like it...but it's also a goofy chain with overblown pretensions toward authenticity.”
I don't know about "middlebrow sweet spot" (I like to think I'm a bit more browed than that) but "pretentions towards authenticity" rings true to me.
Like BT I'd rather go to a local mom 'n pop Italian joint, a place where maybe they might cook it just like at home... Without pretentions... and without "vases and planters with permanent flower displays on the ledges."
The Olive Garden nearby my home in NW L.A. is bland and indistinctive, and expensive! If I want expensive I'd rather go to Romano's Macaroni Grill (another national chain). Maybe it's the same sort of place and maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Really I'd rather cook my own food than eat in an overpriced restaurant anyway.
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