Didn't Olive Garden originally make fresh pasta?

[nuxvomica]

IIRC, when the local OG first opened, they made fresh pasta in a machine near the entrance to the store. My friend claims that they never did and I'm confusing it with another, locally-owned restaurant, which still makes fresh pasta in their front window. Anybody recall seeing fresh pasta being made in an Olive Garden?

[Major Nikon]

1. Yes

I used to buy semolina from my local store in the days before being able to find anything on the interwebs.

[In_The_Wind]

2. Yes

[nuxvomica]

3. Thanks for the replies

I hope my friend sees them.

[Rhiannon12866]

23. I remember going to the local Olive Garden when it first came in

But I don't remember any pasta being made fresh. At Wheatfields, yes, but not Olive Garden. I think we were disappointed, don't remember going there again any time soon after that.

[Grammy23]

4. I haven't thought about that in a while but perhaps you're right.

Seems like they did, a long time ago, have someone making the pasta where you could watch them making it ...especially if you had to wait for a table. But then I could be totally making that up. Not on purpose, mind you, just mis-remembering it?

The last time I ate at Olive Garden with some co-workers (before I retired) I vowed I would NEVER go back. The food tasted like it had been frozen and nuked back to near life. Very unappealing and unappetizing.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but the food at Olive Garden used to be rather tasty. My husband and I would go there for special occasions and always enjoyed their Italian Trio and a few of the other dishes they made. (This would have been in the mid 1980s.) Do they still offer some of those entrees that they were so famous for making? I know the salad and bread sticks still seem pretty much the same, but as for the rest of it, most of what I ate and my co-workers had that day in 2010 looked like it came from the local grocery frozen food department. Blech....I could do that MYSELF!

[MADem]

6. It is a great name for a ristorante...pity the food is so ghastly.

I've only been in one of those maybe four times in my life. Awful!

Tastes like canned sauce and frozen (overcooked) pasta and bagged, gassed salad and Poppin' Fresh breadsticks.

[olddots]

5. most of these mega chains start out good

Subway was okay and even Arby's then the greed patrol gets to work and they become bad jokes .

even bad food ain't bad .

[Tabasco_Dave]

12. I remember when Arby's used real meat

I'm pretty sure it was chuck but at least it wasn't that processed loaf they use now.

[hibbing]

16. Arby

Hi,
I remember that too, the stuff they use now is like the cheapest cheap crap I could get at the grocery store, think Buddig brand "meats". And yes, the stuff at Olive Garden tastes like frozen entrees that are nuked because they are frozen entrees that are nuked.

Peace

[datasuspect]

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[pinboy3niner]

7. I went pasta Olive Garden once

Kept right on goin' ...

[LeftofObama]

8. I think there's marinara you're telling us.

You probably elbowed your way pasta the line and linguinied at the bar.

[pinboy3niner]

9. A friend went to Olive Garden for pasta and he swore he'd never go back

When he came out his car was al dented.

[LeftofObama]

11. LOL!

[Aerows]

19. Did he take out his frustration

by getting sauced that night?

[MiddleFingerMom]

13. I went to Olive Garden about 8 years ago and had their grilled chicken Alfredo.

.
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Did I like it?
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I'm alfredso.
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.

[pinboy3niner]

14. That dish has its fans in the country and in the ziti

Orzo I've heard.

[Aerows]

18. This thread is quickly

unravioli-ing.

[kentauros]

28. A penne for your thoughts

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. it's all antipasta now

[Dash87]

15. Olive Garden is shit

- The one I went to had horrendous service.
- The bread sticks taste like they were precooked and unpackaged from Sam's Club or something. There was so much much salt on them that it was like falling with your mouth open at the beach
- Food, from what I remember, was very bad, and very typical of a soulless chain restaurant. There's an Italian restaurant every block here, and almost every single one is better (and most are even cheaper).

[LiberalEsto]

17. Yes, but it was made from cornflakes nt

[kentauros]

29. Cornflakes and breastmilk

[datasuspect]

20. Hello

This is Bruce Bhatnagar from Darden Restaurants.

We're very happy that you've chosen The Olive Garden for you family dinning experience.

The Olive Garden brand dates back to 1976 when Alistair Darden and his brother Duke we're enjoying a private screening of the Godfather. They wanted to find a way to bring true Italian family style dinning to Americans everywhere at the lowest cost possible using the best ingredients.

Thank you again for choosing The Olive Garden!

Bruce Bhatnagar
Operator 223498
IndoPak Customer Technologies pursuant to license agreement via Darden USA

[KamaAina]

22. Sure, but where else are you gonna get a decent Italian meal in Times Square?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. ...

You'd better hide!

[Locut0s]

24. Olive Garden never seems to have succeeded here in Canada...

According to Wiki they have closed many of their operations here. From what I hear of their food we aren't missing a lot

[pinboy3niner]

26. They'd probably be more popular...

...if it weren't for their policies on pit bulls, breast feeding, concealed carry, and corn flake-fried chicken. Oh, yeah...and their "food."

[RILib]

27. what, do they object to people exposing themselves in public?

[kentauros]

30. Canada's still able to import at least one chain here.

Sarpino's started there and it's one of the places I'll call for delivery. I don't know if Pizza Pizza ever moved any operations over here though... nine six seven, eleven eleven

[caraher]

31. I remember the machine from my first time there in the early '90s

Mainly I remember it because the guy whose idea it was to go there was drooling at the young woman handling the spaghetti noodles. He found it far too titillating for his hormone-addled brain to handle....

So yeah, they did make at least some, though I'm not sure whether all their pasta was made in-store or whether that was mainly for show.