My mom used to work at the Olive Garden in the late 1980s… I literally grew up eating Olive Garden almost every day with all the leftover breadsticks, spaghetti, etc. she would bring home every night at the end of her shift.
The food at Olive Garden isn't something that'll wow you, but no matter what Olive Garden I have traveled to, I meet really great people working there. They're either very helpful since I have trouble grasping glasses and silverware (stupid illness) or they'll make sure I don't have to travel far to get to things. Some even go ahead to make sure I can grab the bathroom door. This has been EVERY. Olive Garden. I don't ask for this. This just happens. I don't think this is in their training. It's always just wonderful people. It makes me comfortable eating at an Olive Garden because that means the food isn't going to make me sick and the staff isn't going to make me feel like I'm a freak in a wheelchair. It's one of my "safe zones" I can eat at. I don't have many of them. We can joke about the place all we want, but in the end... I am just really grateful it exists and continues to thrive.
You're not wrong, I've had the same experience. The staff are friendly, happy (outwardly, at least), and always go above and beyond, no matter what location I go to.
I served and bartended at an Olive Garden for almost 3 years. At one point I become a certified trainer, training the new servers as they were hired. It is no coincidence that Olive Garden has consistently friendly and helpful staff! The training process is very extensive. They actually do teach and encourage different ways to talk to people, and respond appropriately to guest concerns. Olive Garden employees will do just about damn near anything for you, because that’s what they’re trained to do!
As an employee there we do the one per person plus one to keep them from going stale and wasting them. If we bring out a ton they get hard and people ask for fresh ones. We’ve always had that ratio as long as I’ve worked there since 2015. It’s completely unlimited it’s just to make sure we’re not being wasteful
It may also have something to do with the outrage several years ago about uneaten breadsticks being sent back out to new tables. But many restaurants do that so they don't waste the bread.
I remember getting the all you can eat pasta at my local olive garden in high school. They wouldn't tell me what the record at that location was until I was done, so I kept pushing through. At 13 bowls, I was told I fell 1 bowl short of beating the record. If only I hadn't also eaten breadsticks I could have managed it darn it!
I have to give a shout out to the waitress at the Olive Garden in Athens, Georgia. I wish I remembered her name. I was going through a hard time, caring for my FIL who was dying of cancer. It was my one night off in seemingly forever. I guess I looked… well… bad. The waitress sat down across from me and asked if I was okay. I burst into tears. This super kind woman sat and talked to me between every stop at a table. She listened to me cry and talk about this person I loved who was dying. Her kindness was so appreciated, so unexpected. I’d say they really did make me feel like family, except that my own family was never so kind.
Love this, and can definitely relate to alot of your story. Lovely but also a bit sad that many times strangers are more kind, understanding, and caring than our own loved ones/family members.
@@jencrecelius3565 I should’ve been more clear. This was my father-in-law dying, and my (remaining 😢) in-laws and husband are wonderful. My sister-in-law cared for him for 1 1/2 years. I just moved in for the last few months. We hadn’t yet switched to hospice (he wasn’t ready to give up), but he needed someone there at all times. I couldn’t leave my SIL to do it after a long day at work (she’s a surgeon). So I only ran out on errands for things like prescriptions. Shes the one who insisted I just GO. When I said “my” family, I mean my parents/siblings. My poor husband got a completely raw deal when it came to in-laws. On the plus side, both my parents are dead, so we don’t even have to think about it and choose not to help. 😆
I just needed to tell you that the Never Ending pasta bowl began in 1995, not in 2012. I went to Olive Garden often with my aunt as a special treat during my childhood. I was positive it began prior to the new millennium, so I looked it up and it began in 95. It appears it went away for a few years in the early 2000s and then returned in 2012
I would really love it if you would do a rise and fall of ponderosa. My mom worked at one when I was a kid and I absolutely loved that place. It was great!!! Ponderosa steak house. One of the greats gone too soon
My family went there too. It was always delicious, especially their buns. We didn't have alot of money, so it was always special when my parents took us .
To me, OG has always been a place for good memories. Me and my daughter went throughout her whole life to get soup, salad and breadsticks w a side of Alfredo sauce to dip. To go w girlfriends to eat and catch up. Family dinners, etc. You don’t go for Michelin star quality, you go for a fun time w loved ones.
I was solely responsible for soup salad and breadsticks for 2-3 years at an OG and there were so many times where I was the only person in the restaurant making food as lunches frequently attracted hordes of value seekers.😂😂😂. I can't believe the amount of people I had to train that just couldn't comprehend how to make a salad to save their lives lol Handful of lettuce Sprinkle of onions 2 slices tomato 2 olives That's it! 😂😂 I saw someone cut themselves on a tomato slicer which still baffles me to this day how someone could pull that off
@@BELCAN57 As a line cook, though not at Olive Garden, I can verify that it wouldn't be a problem at all if it was sous vied. The issue at that point would be the quality of the product that was frozen in the first place.
As a New Zealander who’s never been to an olive garden this story was actually extremely interesting as you always heard about this place from RU-vidrs etc.
I went a few times to olive garden in a few different states. I really don't care for it. I'm used to eating real Italian foods. Growing up in nyc, there's a lot of real good mom and pop Italian places.
As a Millenial, the only reason I ate anywhere decently during college was the unlimited breadsticks. Go in, get the cheapest item on the menu, and just load up on bread. Was it healthy? No. Was it affordable during the worse economic time in America since the Great Depression? Yes.
As a broke college kid in the 2000s, Olive Garden was the one place you could take a significant other out to someplace semi-nice as a freshman or sophomore without having to hit the parents up for a loan after 😂
I love the Olive Garden! It's like eating in the kitchen of a delightful Italian stereotype! Can I just add that it's a tragedy that the combined restaurants folded? The thought of "Unlimited Soup, Salad, and Cheddar Bay Biscuits" got me feelin' a certain way.
True story. My best friend and i were hungry around lunch time, and spied the local olive garden. We decided we wanted moderately priced Italian food, and went in. We both ordered, and waited. First bowl of salad and basket of bread sticks arrived. We ate both. The waitress came back and asked us if we wanted more, and since our entrees had yet to show up, said "yes please." Ate the second bowl of salad and second basket of bread sticks. Waitress came back again, and asked us if we wanted more. We asked after our entrees, and were told "not sure, the kitchen is slow today." Asked for more salad and bread sticks. Ate both again. This time when the waitress came around, we just asked for more bread sticks. Our entrees eventually came, and we ate the bread sticks by dipping them into the marinara sauce. Ended up asking for doggy bags, as we filled up on free salad and bread sticks. That will teach them to be slow in the kitchen!
Rise and Fall of Dog n Suds. It was a drive UP place, way before there were drive thrus. They put a tray on your car window, the waitress brought your food to your tray. I loved it as a kid!!!
I worked for Olive Garden when I was 16 in the mid 80's. We had a professional saucier that would come in weekly to make all the sauces. All our pasta was made in house daily. I came into work after just less than a year to to see all our hand made stuff being thrown in the trash. And everything was boil in bag premade crap after that. I quit that day.
@@WoodenFilms You doubt that they worked at an Olive Garden? Olive Garden definitely changed their recipes as the company grew in size changing to prepackaged ingredients. I remember this happening to Pizza Hut. I used to love 90s Pizza Hut when they were an actual sit down restaurant with a salad bar. Pizza Hut's ingredients now also come prepackaged, as this keeps costs down but also lowers the quality of the food.
i worked at Olive Garden from 2010-2014. We had a morning prep cook that prepped all of the Soup and Sauces for the hot saute station. I believe they still do. But yes, they use the Barilla box pasta for their pasta dishes. There are no Chefs and no cooking experience is needed to work there.
On the show Will & Grace there is an episode called "I Never Promised You An Olive Garden." They would hang out with a couple that would go to Olive Garden and talk about how it was better every time. I have the same experience they do!
I worked as a server through college. I started out at Macaroni Grill and was the opera singer. Then I went to Carrabba's, always having a lower opinion of Olive Garden. Then I worked omy last server gig there and discovered that their servers did not have to do side work.... WTF, I wish I had been more open-minded.
I moved from Atlanta to Columbus, OH in Feb 2022. The first weekend I lived here, I knew no one and nothing about the area. I decided to go to an OG and eat my dinner at the bar. A few minutes later a couple sat down next to me, both people ordering the unlimited soup. One member of the couple proceeded to berate his spouse for an entire hour, while scarfing down bowl after bowl of zuppa toscana. The spouse never said a word, just gingerly sipping on spoonfuls of minestrone. It was the most bizarre thing ever.
Why would you watch them do that? I don't know but that seems kinda weird and a little sad. But hey, who am I to judge anyone else in a world where everyone around me is being a little judgemental, and I'm normally fine in the real world. 😮
Haven't been called Gen Y in a long time, feels good, thank you. Also I wanna give a shout out to Lee Roy Selmon's Steakhouse for having the best pre-dinner bread option in the form of their bbq-butter basted dinner rolls. One of the new times I tried to replicate something from a restaurant at home.
Olive Garden is quite consistent too. And they usually have great staff. When I was going away to college, my parents took me to Olive Garden before they left town. The waitress was so nice, and at the end of dinner she packed up my food, and sent me back to my dorm with extra soup, salad, and breadsticks so that I could "eat well in the dorms". What a gem.
I’m Italian-American, grew up in northern NJ, & dined regularly at mom & pop Italian restaurants, so I refused to go anywhere near an Olive Garden for most of my life. Since I caved a few years ago & started visiting the local OG, I have to admit their eggplant parm is one of the best I’ve ever tried. Also, I got a lot of takeout from OG during the pandemic, & think the breadsticks actually taste BETTER a few days later.
I absolutely love their fettuccine alfredo. The salad and bread sticks are also great but something about their fettuccine alfredo is different than most places. More flavorful
Olive garden is what i and probably many ppl call it "Fast Food Italian". If you like olive garden. Good on ya hope you keep enjoying it. But if i want good italian food ill have my nana make me some. Also love the narrators voice! 😁😎👍🏼
They lost me at 1 breadstick at a time' it may technically be unlimited still but it doesn't feel like it anymore' no one wants to shout to get a waiters attention just to get a single breadstick.
I went by myself with my toddler and brought out a basket of 6-7 breadsticks, we ate maybe 3? 1 at a time is dumb, but I kind of get it! It’s wasteful.
I love to go to Olive Garden with my son. In our family only he and I like it. I can and do make most of thier fare at home but sometimes it's nice to just go have someone else make it. I make a really good version of the Pasta Fugoli. I make spaghetti sauce from scratch as well it's amazing as pasta topping, lasagna filling and pizza sauce. Alfredo is very simple to make at home as well.
Post Malone always looks like the guy who passes out at a party and spends the rest of the night being written on like a living guest book. Personally I've never been one for The Olive Garden - wait times too long, too noisy inside and the food was just middle of the road. Far too many local mom & pop options in my area with much, much better food.
Hey, that was Katina DeJarnett at 7:50. Professional speed eater. StG, it feels like every week you guys either raid my library or my YT history. 🤣 Keep it up!
Yeah, I noticed that too, though I also haven't been for a few years. My guess is they intentionally added salt to make them less desirable in order to reduce the number of "unlimited" bread sticks they served...
The turnaround at those places is insane. I trained people on bread there and we had a lot of people walk off when it got too busy quite often. It seemed like every month I had to train a new bread person. The line cooks had a new guy just about every week too but you typically knew the first day if they were sticking around or not. Hell, most people walked out before the end of the dinner rush😂😂😂
Let's not forget there was also Romano's Macaroni Grill, which is another CLEARLY competing restaurant chain to this. Wasn't that owned by Chili's, I seem to remember? Then there's Carabba's, which I believe was owned by Outback. Seems there's lot of these kinds of chains of restaurants that are all based on the Olive Garden/Red Lobster idea.
Old breadmaker here. The fastest OG could pump out bread sticks is every 5 minutes due to the cooker timer. Not to mention delay in applying a dash of seasoning / transporting. If you're an expert and can manage 6 trays within that timeframe. You're looking at 96 bread sticks every 6 minutes or so. If you can somehow slam 16 bread sticks per minute. You'll out eat the entire restaurant
The Never Endng Pasta Bowl started in 1995 and you got a menu with a number of pasta types and sauces from which to choose, and then you could choose meat toppers (like chicken breast, meatballs, or sausage links) for an extra $$$. Unlimited salad AND breadsticks were the deal from Day 1. Further, in the beginning, the breadsticks were made fresh in the entryway in a booth to one side of the door. A "chef" would make the dough, roll out and cut the sticks, put them into a brick oven, and then dress them with the garlic butter. Wait staff would buzz in and out constantly to get refills while everyone waiting for a table would watch (and smell) the work, increasing sales through "appetite enhancement"…
Geriatric Millennial here. I grew up in an heavily Italian city and we never chose to go to Olive Garden over the better local places. It's fascinating to me that folks my age have some weird love of the place, but most haven't been spoiled by small local restaurants.
Darden knows what's up with the free bread at its restaurants. They all have a cult following - cheddar bay biscuits, OG breadsticks, Longhorn's honey wheat bread, and now Cheddar's honey butter croissants. Too bad they changed the recipe of the croissants, they're garbage now. But overall Darden has made a great success of using cheap bread as a brand identifier.
3:48 worked at an Olive Garden for a year back in 2021. I saw 2-3 weddings happen which is 2-3 more than I thought I would see. They will accommodate if you come in at the right time or ahead of time I do miss their breadsticks and working there sometimes
Hey still tastes fine. Like I’ve been to Italy and ate at a couple 5 star restaurants and it literally tasted just like Olive Garden so maybe it’s a shared technique lmfao
I rarely ever get Olive Garden because there are no Olive Gardens near where I live but I always enjoy eating there whenever I travel somewhere that does have one.
I've never been to an Olive Garden and am not sure I ever will go. There were none in the area I grew up. In university, there was a local Italian restaurant I went to instead. Now, I'm not going to restaurants at all for financial reasons. Once I get my finances back in line and can start going again, I won't go because there are a number of local Italian restaurants in my new city.
Our local Olive Garden is - Vestal NY. NEVER ever heard bread sticks were re-fallible just salad. But my main gripe is service last time there it was better! but, over the years wait time is sooooo long one time a birthday we had kids there the wait was almost (2 Hours) before the meals came...😪 food was good but kids were beyond out of control from sitting with nothing to do for so long. We were in Schenectady about 3 years ago and my in laws wanted to go to Olive garden and I thought Oh Boy! but the service was quick and the food was out in no time. The food in both places was good now its more pricey as is all over but portions seem smaller also. Glad most locations are as good as people rave about. Rarely go there any longer maybe should try it again...
I preferred Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes buffet for my endless salad and carb fix. Their caesar salad, asian chicken salad, and clam chowder were my go-tos as a kid. Only way I ever ate salad on purpose. One of the first places I took my fiance on a date. I'm still in denial they went out of business during the pandemic.
i used to work maintenance at knead dough baking company IE "turano" i highly suggest not eating the bread sticks. watching the packaging and production made me open my eyes to restaurant breads and all other business that have unlimited options. good luck all of you
In the early days, OG seemed pretty good. Then as time went by, it didn't feel so special, & I began to feel the food was only "ok" for a big price. Maybe I just got older & wiser. I eat at home a lot now. When I do eat out, I choose carefully.
I'm a Gen Z, and I still visit Olive Garden from time to time. Most of it is nostalgia, but the value of Olive Garden is actually pretty decent in this economy. $20-$25 for most entrees, with unlimited soup and breaksticks, big portions, is a deal. Not the best food, and I don't go in expecting an "authentic" italian experience, but it's a great change of pace. I usually have enough to bring leftovers back home. Nowadays I feel like I'm getting a terrible value at most restaurants and sometimes leave hungry, unless I spend a fortune.
I live just a few blocks away from the original location, it’s a Brazilian restaurant now. As a little kid I liked olive garden and I don’t really have any ill feelings towards the place even if it is a bit meh but I was surprised to learn it started in Orlando and that I live so close to ground zero.
Company standard has always been 1 per guest and one for the table on initial basket, one per guest on refills. Servers should ask if you want refills on everything that’s refillable. (Soup, salad, bread, dipping sauce, NA Beverages like coke)
I have to vote for Old Spaghetti Factory instead of Olive Garden, because I love ones endless loaves of warm bread and butter. Although they are both equally average and yet still good in a nostalgic way.
The last and final time I went to Olive Garden, the waiter told us that “the manager went to go get more breadsticks and should be back in two hours if you still want them.” He also brought me my drink at the end of the meal with my check.
My first job at 14 was at Olive Garden. I used to make the breadsticks. They were half baked and basically would just get reheated in an over then smothered with melted butter and a garlic salt mix. Anytime the servers needed the hotel pan of bread refilled they would yell into a mic “MAS PAN POR FAVOR!” 😂
Olive Garden is okay but I LOVED Buca De Pepo. There was one in Cincinnati, Ohio I frequented. Made a lot of new friends too. As Buca De Pepo. did a unique thing (that would never work today) Strangers were sat (if they agreed) with each other at gigantic tables. Everyone would order what they wanted but was served like you were all at mom's dinner table. Plates for everyone and huge pots of desired food. Which was encouraged to be shared amongst everyone. Shame that was not still available today.
Initially, when unlimited breadsticks premiered, they'd give you a good amount. Over the years, they started skimping on those things. They were all like, "stop eating so much bread; we have other people eating here." They never said that, but that was the vibe. I remember they would once bring out this big old basket of breadsticks, then that number shrank every time you visited until this one time they brought me like two pieces of bread wrapped in that little napkin. Also, that waiter would disappear after the second refill. You wouldn't hear from him ever again. Ha, ha. I started eating healthier and haven't eaten there in like ten years. It's funny to think about now.
