Talk:Olive Garden/Archive 1

Breadsticks
There should be more mention of the breadsticks concidering they are so famous.

Megamanfanx7 15:23, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Eh, read above ;). Jmlk  1  7  06:14, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

i really think it would be a good idea to mention the breadsticks, they are really good —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.237.104.67 (talk) 17:34, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Citation
Someone needs a citation about them being 1/3 of the Italian restaurants in America, because I find that fact VERY hard to believe.


 * I'm removing it. OG's web page currently says 556 restaurants in the US and Canada.  Citysearch finds 1,100 Italian restaurants in the New York City area alone.  It is not plausible that OG represents 1/3 of the nation's Italian restaurants.  -- Coneslayer 18:30, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Culinary Institute of Tuscany
Would someone like to research and begin writing about Olive Garden's supposed "Culinary Institute of Tuscany"? Sounds interesting. I'll begin work on it, but I have a tendency to never get around to my to-do list. cluth 08:21, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

I started a section on the Culinary Institute. Star 15:04, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

A history of the Culinary Institute of Tuscany (and Olive Garden's involvement) is available at the American Culinary Association. Jimbo 18:27, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Intro sentence...

 * Olive Garden is a popular American restaurant chain specializing in Italian food, most frequently in suburban strip malls.

The last part of that sentence seems (1) inappropriate for an intro paragraph, as it's a very unimportant characteristic of the restaurant and (2) not really true, or at least unverifiable. Any opinions? Dylan 13:31, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It might not be something a casual diner would often think about, but the business model of a commercial restaurant chain is I think pretty important. The thing on store locations is almost certainly accurate and quite verifiable if not quite verified (surely there's a comprehensive list on the company website).--Pharos 20:05, 6 February 2006 (UTC)


 * But is the characterization accurate? Of the Olive Gardens I go to more or less regularly, both at home and when traveling on business (because they're dependable and I'm a sucker for the Pasta Fagiole . . .), two are "outliers" of large indoor shopping mall complexes which have 5-8 restaurants on their perimeters, one shares a parking lot with a Super Target (or whatever the giant ones are called), and one is very close to a moderately upscale residential area and half a block from a Steak & Ale, with no other businesses being nearby. When you say "strip mall," I think Chili's, Appleby's, Logan's, and Fuddruckers -- not Olive Garden. --Michael K. Smith 22:55, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Competitors
Instead of having this in a branch (Olive Garden), how about having it in Darden Restaurants instead? Since it seems to me the competitors also compete against the other branches and not just Olive Garden.. --Samweber 01:01, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't think it's exactly standard to have a list of competitors in an article, anyway ... --Q Canuck 04:13, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

NPOV
This article reads like an advertisement. Andrewmudd 07:46, 11 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. The "Food" section in particular is just fluff - not encyclopedic and probably shouldn't be included in the article at all. (Never having heard of the restaurant chain before now, I'm not the person to reword or remove the section, but I tagged it for a rewrite.) --Bonadea 08:08, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

THE BREAD STICKS ARE ORGASMIC? This is just silly and needs to be removed. Also this part of the article is written in first person. Fanofdirtydancing April 17 2007

"ersatz" -- good word!
I just wanted to comment on the appropriateness of the word "ersatz" describing the decor of the restaurant. I think it is an accurate and succinct description - such a good word!

--aw it's been removed! I thought it was very appropriate too, tho i've never eaten there :) 193.130.19.189 (talk) 10:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

canadian olive garden
there are five or six locations in canada, and have been for many many years.

Fair use rationale for Image:OliveGardenLogo3.png
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BetacommandBot 01:56, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Tuscan Farmhouse
The page states that the farmhouse that the new styles of Olive Garden, known within the company as the "Tuscan Farmhouse style," of which there are at least two designs of the Tuscan Farmhouse stlye restaurant, is a fictional farmhouse. The farmhouse, however, does indeed exist in the Riserva in Tuscany. As a team member of the Olive Garden, this is (or is supposed to be) something taught at every training. On the menu, the symbol that located next to certain dishes from the Riserva is such: you see an olive tree in a stone doorway, and that olive tree is a centuries-old tree that stands in the Riserva itself. All the dishes that are marked by that symbol are true Tuscan-inspired dishes, meaning that they've started with Chef Neri in Tuscany, but have been modified in some way to appeal to the general public of the US.

Amanda Gauselman, Jacksonville NC 23:20, 22 March 2008

"Italian" food?
Instead of "[...an...] American restaurant chain specializing in Italian food", shouldn't the article say "specializing in Italian-style food" or, perhaps, "specializing in Italian-American food"? Something along these lines? I am Italian and I am certain that what they serve is by no means "Italian" food. 24.255.25.146 (talk) 08:47, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

PS: Or maybe "Italian-inspired", or "Italian-themed"? 24.255.25.146 (talk) 08:52, 14 May 2008 (UTC) AGREED!!! As an American of Italian decent, Olive Garden's food can hardly be considered Italian. Italian-themed or inspired would be best. Many items on their menu are simply random dishes given Italian names. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.247.3.230 (talk) 21:00, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Once Mary Ann Esposito wrote: " I think there is a lot of misinformation out there, especially from places like the Olive Garden" http://www.i-italy.org/bloggers/11713/ciao-italia-conversation-mary-ann-esposito --Karanko (talk) 20:09, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

veal
I am editing the sentence on the absence of veal from olive garden's menus to reflect the fact that olive garden once served veal parmigiana. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.10.229.128 (talk) 18:31, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Good God, could this article about a major American restaurant chain be any skimpier?
Look... I'm not an article writer. I simply don't have time to do the research to do it right, and my hat is off to all of you that do. Somehow, you manage to do serious research and, somehow, have, you know, jobs (at least, I presume you do). Sometimes I edit for obvious grammar or other simple errors, but mostly I browse... and learn and enjoy.

So if this seems overly critical, please excuse. I don't know, truly, what goes into writing a comprehensive, well-researched article.

At the same time, this article seems incredibly skimpy. Which I find amazing, as it is about a major restaurant chain (in the US).

I came here looking for facts to either offset or confirm the impression that Olive Garden's website leaves... which is that they serve truly "authentic" Italian cuisine. The topic came up at work today, with the vote about evenly divided between yea and nay... but NONE of the participants had actually been to Italy.

The people who believed the Olive Garden's web site hype tended to say that Olive Garden was "real Italian". I just came from their site, and even _I_ want to believe that, too... do they have good marketers (professional liars), or is it true? They have, apparently, partnered with an Italian company of some sort (or just hired some Italian folks to parade on their website and give themselves an image boost), and they say, anyway, that a lot of their ingredients are imported from Italy. Is any of that true, and, if so, to what extent?

Even more importantly, is their food even _close_ to the food you would receive in a true Italian restaurant, in Italy?

Why do I think -- and don't get me wrong, I really love to eat at Olive Garden, love their food -- that their food is just simply not "true Italian" food? They sure want to _convince_ all of us Americans of that. Is it true, or not?

I see one poster in the talk section says he is Italian, and that their food is not authentic... OK... doesn't that merit some kind of discussion, at least?

I am absolutely NOT anti-Olive Garden, good grief after the discussion this afternoon and looking at their website and now this page, I may very well have to pony up the $60 or so it takes to take my family out to dinner there tomorrow night :) But... I was _very_ disappointed in this article.

Thanks for listening.

72.161.50.54 (talk) 01:40, 11 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I think you are confusing Wikipedia with a restaurant review website. This is not the place to discuss the merits, Italian or otherwise, of the food served. However, if you can find an authoritative website that does it might be included as a cite.  -- Escape Orbit  (Talk) 13:31, 11 June 2010 (UTC)