I’ll just note that authenticity and quality are different axes. An authentic rendering of a cuisine isn’t necessarily good; a good meal isn’t necessarily authentic.
I certainly agree that pasta can be screwed up by overcooking.
As for Olive Garden in particular… the last time I was there, I was unhappy with the service (had trouble getting waitress’ attention, did not get my wine until far too late, etc.) and was particularly disappointed with a fonduta that arrived at the table barely warm, and thus largely inedible. I give some credit to the manager who noticed my party’s discontent as we were leaving, apologized and gave us a gift card as recompense. I haven’t used the card.
Authentic? Is any Italian-American food authentic? And doesn’t Italy have different regions? Houston lacks the deep tradition of Italian cooking that you’ll find in the Northeast, but some of our nicer restaurants are Italian style. Including Carrabba’s–the original, not the chain.
Houston food writer Robb Walsh took Chef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro Restaurant out to eat:
The only time I went to the Olive Garden, the sauce tasted of garlic powder. I can do better. Even in Houston.
The nearest Olive Garden is an hour away. Within a few minutes drive, there are any number of family-owned Italian places. Some of the family-owned joints are excellent, most are meh, and a few are really, really bad. The thing is, the only way to know what you’ll think is by trying them. They all stay in business so they all have people who like them. Olive Garden offers a degree of consistency like all chains. When I’m on the road, I know that I can stop there and get a meal that’ll be okay. Stopping at a family joint is a crapshoot.
As was said, quite rightly, above, authenticity and quality are two different things. Never been to Italy, but I daresay Italy has its share of crummy restaurants too. In such a place you could get a bad meal that would be indisputably authentically Italian.
I used to date someone I nicknamed “the Goat”. There was nothing this man wouldn’t eat and I’m sure if I left a tin can next to his gate long enough, it’d be gone. We went to the OG for lunch and I found whatever chicken dish I ordered to be really dry and unappetizing. I offered it to him and he pushed his half-eaten food away and looked disgusted.
I tried OG one more time, years later, and found it to be better than the first experience but still quite low quality. The salad was alright and the breadsticks were sweet and starchy, but other than that, I was glad I hadn’t been back since.
From what I understand, Buca di Beppo is the most authentically Italian of the big American chains - a variety of dishes made with fresh ingredients served family style (of course they also cost almost twice as much as Olive Garden). Maybe someone who is more of an expert on Italian cuisine can weigh in on this.
Meh. IMO the best place to get a steak dinner for under $25 is Texas Roadhouse. And you get free peanuts too.
Just wanted to say I’ve only seen commercials for OG, not having eaten there, but it strikes me as rather bizarre, some of the combinations of ingredients they come up with. Maybe I’m a peon, but I live in a lower-class, red- sauce town and the Italian restaurants around here serve the usual suspects. Spaghets, lasagna, meatballs, Italian bread. Shrimp swimming in cheese sauce over ravioli? I’ve seen the ravioli! But the stuff they dream up to put on pasta!
I’ve eaten at plenty of places that claim to be authentic Italian restaurants and the food is sometimes good, sometimes awful. That includes place in Italy (big cities) as well. If I planned to take my family to a restaurant and the choice was OG or an “authentic” Italian place where I had never been, I would choose OG with no qualms.
Real Italian requires fresh ingredients, in general, and it’s absurd to compare what is available in a small coastal town on the mediterranean with a chain that feeds thousands everywhere, any time of the year. So, I guess I’m saying that Olive Garden should stop claiming their food is “authentic.”
I’m not a food critic, but I find the Olive Garden merely acceptable, not much more. I like *Buca di Beppo * much better, plus the name is more fun to say than Olive Garden. I judge every Italian restaurant by the quality of the Lasagna so I’m not the best source for a review.
My extremely picky grandmother who is renowned for her amazing cooking (people would BEG her to cook Italian food when we all had get togethers) loved Buca di Beppo. Take that for what you will.
Raw egg yolk carbonara = WINNING. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING at OG can compare to this.
Honestly, I think OG is slammed a bit unfairly and I’m just as guilty of doing so as most. If you want a salad and a filling pasta entree, it is not a bad choice. What it is not is a quality Italian restaurant. To compare the two as the OP does as state they find no difference tells me the OP has really never eaten at a quality Italian restaurant.
One thing I recall from my trip to Italy (recent - 12/7 - 12/24/2010) is that although pizza and pasta were pretty much ubiquitous in Rome, Florence and Milan, the execution is quite different than what you get at OG or at most places in the US.
Pasta’s not necessarily some variant of marinara or alfredo sauce- my favorite was “alla amatriciana”, which was fresh tomato sauce along with rendered pancetta and maybe some garlic. Much simpler than what you get here, and just divine. Pizzas are thin-crust, usually a little crispy, light on sauce, generous with the cheese, and with toppings that are unusual here- artichokes, prosciutto, gorgonzola cheese, tuna and onions, etc… (I’d cheerfully maim a person for another tuna and onion pizza like I had in Rome, but I digress…)
Olive Garden’s like Chinese food here- it’s not really authentic, but it’s more “in the style of”, which means adapted for local ingredients and palates. I mean, I’ve had “Chinese” food in 3 countries and 4 states, and it’s always pretty similar, but never quite the same.
But the (lack of) quality of the sauce is what I feel differentiates Olive Garden from good “Italian” restaurants. They’re salad and bread are fine, but the sauce is not even as good as the cheapest jar sauces you can buy in a supermarket. Of course, this is just my taste, so if the OP likes the taste of OG, then I will not try to “correct” the OP. I don’t believe in any of the snobberies about “real” restaurants (whether they be Italian, steakhouses, etc.) vs. chain type restaurants. I actually really enjoy the food at Outback, Chili’s and Bonefish, but I find Olive Garden to be pretty bad.
Meh, I like OG, but I also like authentic Italian. I don’t think you have to pick one over the other. I like finding the little hole-in-the-wall places, mostly.
Hell, my cousin likes it, and my uncle is from Italy. As in moved to the U.S. when he was six. And her grandmother was one HELL of a cook. (So are her aunts)
And the best steak I ever had? At an event called "Last Dinner on the Titanic. “Filet Mignon Lili.” Oh, that was fantastic! (My dad can grill a good steak too)
That’s my favorite sauce. It’s usually guanciale (which is similar to pancetta, except cured from the hog jowl instead of the belly), tomato, often onions or sometimes garlic (in much of classic Italian cooking, it’s either garlic or onion, not both–this dish usually calls for onion, not garlic), olive oil, and pecorino romano (not parmesan.) Served on bucatini (or spaghetti), it is, indeed, divine.
The New Jersey reference is a direct quote from the book Blue Highways. I thought of substituting “some plant in LA” (which probably would’ve conveyed my intent more effectively) but I didn’t want to change the quote.