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Olive Garden is not the only restaurant that "pre-blanches" pasta that way. I was a chef for at least 20 years, and I've cooked in allot of kitchens. All but a few of them did it the same way. It really is the most efficient way to do it when you're feeding the masses. Even the higher-end restaurants I worked did it this way. As long as the kitchen is practicing proper rotation procedures there is no problem doing it that way. Now the no salt thing I don't agree with, however cooking it ahead of time and finishing it off later is totally acceptable. If proper procedures are followed.
Last time I went to OG I ordered eggplant parmigiana. It came out a reheated hockey puck with a spoonful of sauce and a round of partially melted mozzarella on top.
Olive garden employee here. Like 2 or 3 sauces are microwaved, and that's just because they're prepared earlier for when you order them later. I was surprised to find only 1 microwave when I started working there. The meat, the veggies, the seafood, all made to order and made fresh.
I worked for them when they were new. Some of the food was fresh. But all sauces came frozen and pre made in bags. We made the pasta daily fresh. Sounds like they got cheaper down the line. Too bad. One thing I have to point out though...it's the cleanest most health conscience Restaurant I've ever worked at in my entire life!! I am a retired Chef now.
Yea OG sauces are never frozen. Not even the ones they donate after a few days. Also, the shear amount of pasta going through Olive Garden every day. Saving 8-10 minutes every dish is a very big difference
As a olive garden cook maybe 80% of this true. Pasta is dropped in boiling water (it's precooked) . Most microwaved things are kids meals like macaroni and sides of broccoli. Never heard of the 1st one tho about to Tuscany lol. Bread stick thing isn't true either at least at mine. Soup is always super hot because the soup bowls are stored in a heater. You can maybe hold the bowl for 4 seconds before burning your hand .
Yeah low key… I work there now and this video was hard/annoying to listen to 😂 cause a lot of this isn’t true and I feel like the tone of the video is trying to be like “dramaaaaa” when there’s like no need for it 😆
Really? What kind brand is the macaroni? Don't say kraft because I can tell you it wasn't that 10 years ago. It was a very good mac and cheese from the kids menu
Coming from a employee myself this video contradicts itself in many ways. Olive garden is a great restaurant and clean appetizing place to work. I would feed my kids and my family anything pre-made or made fresh from Olive garden. Sauces soups pasta is made daily you never have a bowl of spaghetti with noodles that were made the day before everything it's always made fresh daily. After working 10 hours making pasta since 9 am I'm offended 🤣🤣
I’ve worked at the OG as a part time job for almost 13 years and I can tell you that most of this video is spot on, the lady at 3:34 is a real cook whose been there since the 90s and takes real pride in her work, the microwaving part was highly exaggerated, most things do not get microwaved, but the quality of our product has absolutely decreased, it’s never been authentic, but now we’re bordering on fast food.
It’s funny to me because Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, Red Lobster are legit “fancy” restaurants in my area. We live in a small county where poverty is high. So these restaurants do well and most families go there to celebrate special occasions.
@GG BG that’s what I was saying. We go to OG all the time. My bridal shower was there, my graduation dinner was there. I was just pointing out that for some people this is their special occasion place to go. I don’t think I’ve ever gone anywhere “high class” OG is high class to us. 😊
All restaurants are different. The one we went to in Waldorf MD gave us plenty of bread sticks, l even took a few home. I love the chicken Alfredo and pasta dishes but I make sure it's beef and always ask about that because I don't eat pork. I have no complaints and look forward to the next visit.
This list is PRETTY accurate. One big thing is there are no chefs. There are cooks and a culinary manager. And only managers go on the trip to Tuscany. The sauces aren't microwaved, they're heated up in bags in a tilt braiser.
Pasta is made indeed in large batches, however it's put on white plastic trays for the walk-in then plastic wrapped followed by a date and use by date. On the line it's kept stocked as needed and kept cold. Depending on the pasta various portion sizes are taken out and put into a small cylinder shaped basket. Then put into boiling water for 3 seconds for angel hair, 10 seconds for spaghetti etc.
In my OG serving experience NOBODY pays attention to the breadsticks rule & you are SO busy running out unlimited soups, & salads & drinks, that honestly you’re gonna wanna fill them up on bread so that A) you won’t have to make more when you’re slammed & B) the more breadsticks they have the less of everything else they will have :)
My grandmother was 100% Italian … we took her to Olive Garden one year and she wanted to know what this dog food was… she did like the salad and bread sticks… but the rest is not Italian food at all… also my grandmother in her younger days ran a restaurant in New York…my grandfather cooked and she ran front of house….I never got to meet my grandfather.. he died before I was born…but my grandmother cooked very good Italian food…I miss her… Edit.. yes your past should be cooked in salty water.. ( should be salty like the ocean ) words from my grandmother…But a secret most people don’t know is.. once the water is boiling just a little olive oil in your water before you put your pasta in… ( just a little maybe a teaspoon) it will help with sticking and will also give a little flavor…my grandmother taught me that and I do it to this day..
I stopped eating Olive Garden years ago. I have found a lot of family owned Italian restaurants in Denver that are tasty who also serves homemade bread rolls. It's my way to support local owned restaurants.
You people should get a part-time job working in a restaurant so you could actually get an idea of what goes on in the kitchen and the cost and prep that goes on before service starts.
Olive Garden is not an authentic Italian Experience - but For those of us who travel - especially in the south and west - it is safe food that is similar from place to place - much more so than Red Lobster ever was (Many Red Lobsters suffer from very over cooked shrimp and lobster). I know the salad will be fresh - and the prices are reasonable. WHen home - in the east - I have dozens of better Italian places to do to at almost every level - but when traveling - especially in the south - when I do not want to take a chance - I will have a Chicken parm dinner at Olive Garden or similar. I have learned that getting recommendations from people there are generally hit and miss = since so many people do not really know what real Italian food tastes like.
In spite of all of your facts, people still enjoy the food, service and atmosphere. Food is plentiful and tasty, servers are polite and attentive and pricing is moderate. Tipping is handled the same way in everywhere that I have eaten because all servers work and share the same so that typically, service is better. If you want "genuine" Italian food, be prepared to pay at least twice/three times the price. Looks like this youtube was put together by a competitor. By the way, I am just a patron not a company man.
I still love olive garden. I have worked for a restaurant and they closed it and they were the best cleanest one I knew of. I worked for another one that was just about what you are saying about olive garden. So most are the same. If you knew what you are eating in all these places you would stay home and cook like me. 😥
I was a line cook at Olive Garden I personally never used a microwave on my dinner plates I prepared all the food was made fresh and kept in a steam table for me to put together when I got the order and we also used a grill for steaks. And fresh chicken that went on each order ..
It used to be the destination restaurant for us. Then the food changed and we weren't happy going there anymore. Yeah that fettuccine alfredo was my last dish to have and not because I wanted it. When everybody were getting their plates...the waitress told me that they were out of the dish I wanted and gave me the menu. I felt like I had like 2 seconds to choose another dish since everybody started eating their foods. I guess I now know why it came so fast. I didn't care for the dish. Good thing we have better places closer.
08:30 It's common practice that restaurants pay less than minimum wage and assume the tips make up for it. Also, most restaurants require or encourage wait staff to share part of their tips with bus-staff, prep-cooks, chefs, etc. Wait staff who share tips get their tables cleaned more quickly (which means more turnover and more money), and get their food more quickly (which means more tips).
I read somewhere that businesses can pay less than minimum wage if the worker makes tips. Like, us tipping them is why they make so little. Any truth to that one?
I lived in Italy growing up & still like Olive Garden occasionally. Its definitely not authentic Italian food but some of the entrees are good. (The tortellini especially.)
Noone thinks that Olive Garden is authentic Italian cuisine. From what I've heard from people who work in the restaurant industry, this kind of stuff happens all over. From the chain restaurants, down to the Mom and Pop places.
I worked at the Santa Fe Olive Garden for just a few weeks. It was awful! I was in my 40s with over 20 years of restaurant experience but they would only allow servers to have 3 tables-regardless of experience. Also, in my training, I was taught that the Chicken Fettuccine dish was around 4,000 calories. 4,000! 3,000 calories makes one pound so….
The video was showing the Amalfi Coast line in the southern part of Italy, Tuscany is more central and not on the ocean. Both are beautiful in their own way.
I worked at one for almost a day when I was in college. Halfway through my shift (the busy lunch rush) the manager told me to take all the kitchen trash out to the dumpster. As I was dragging trashcan number two of five to the back ally I saw my car. I got in it, drove home & never went back. The restaurant business wasn’t me. I ended up finishing school working as a baggage handler at the airport. It was far less stressful.
Most of these are accurate EXCEPT for the dipping sauce and microwave accusations. My first job in the kitchen was literally making soups and sauces from scratch. The kitchen gets there 3 hours before the store opens to prep food fresh for the day. As for the microwave, it’s more like a high powered electric oven than a conventional microwave. The only things that got “microwaved” were when they used it to melt cheese on top of something. As far as the desserts, they use it to thaw some items but only one or two. The comments about secrecy and “doggy bags” are totally baseless.
I was so sad when they discontinued the Ravioli Di Portobello. That was the only dish I would get there. It was so delicious!! I wish they would bring it back!!!
My father was Sicilian and Olive Garden is not Italian food as far as I’m concerned. My grandmother made everything from scratch, including sauce, meatballs, pasta, bread, and desserts. I make all of this myself and have yet to find an Italian restaurant that can compare.
I worked at OG for 4 years and The shared tips caused me to leave. I went from making $12 as a bartender who was tipped by coworkers to $4.50 and having tips automatically come out of the servers pocket which was SO MUCH LESS. Such a shitty thing for a company to do and I’m glad you covered it
As an Olive Garden Employee, always double check your bread before eating. AND, If you want to skip the wait, get a little upset and say that the wait is not okay. Fling your arms a little too for some razzle dazzle, they’ll most likely sit you right away. Thank me later.❤️
If we need to inspect our food i don't see having a tizee will help. Besides I am a firm believer if you don't want your food messed with do not give the staff a hard time. With all the video's and stories about what happens to people's food that gets sent back to the kitchen I'd rather not take chances. I think it is discusting kitchen staff are able to get away with tampering with people's food but what can we do? Just shut up and eat it and hope your next visit will be better?
As a hostess at OG, this does nothing but make things more difficult for both of us- some sections of the restaurant will be closed off (due to servers clicking out) or you will have to wait until a busser cleans up a table for you to be seated. It will be easier if you are not picky about having a table or a booth, be patient, and be willing to sit anywhere. 😃🤌🏾
I'm not really concerned that the pasta is pre-cooked or that microwaves are used. And authenticity is of no importance to me either. The food is good and the workers are very friendly and it's very clean. Olive Garden is one of my favorite restaurants. Always has been and probably always will be. 😘🙂
I work as a host at an Olive Garden in Missouri. Here's my take and experiences, though take things with a grain of salt. My knowledge and experiences relating to the back of house isn't complete or all knowing. But I'm often given random roles around the restaurant, including BoH stuff, so I know a good bit. TL;DR: this video hits some points well, but overall isn't a great representation. It either intentionally misleads some facts or paints them in a bad light, or is flat out wrong (at least for my location). Other points are either outdated or just not relevant. I'm a bit biased to defend my work, but I quite well know the parts I hate and this video addressed none of them I've never heard of a cooking school touted, but if that is a big deal then it wouldn't surprise me to learn it was all a big lie. Darden (the company owning the OG brand) is your run of the mill chain company. It has some shady practices that even I notice from time to time. The thing about breadsticks is that we go through a LOT of them. We don't bring out only a few sticks because we're trying to be stingy, it's because if we gave them out super generously we would never be able to have enough on hand. Often we don't already. As for the specific rules for giving breadsticks out, I've never heard of that rule, though I'm not a server. Still, with my many, many hours talking and joking with servers about breadsticks as well as getting tables' their breadsticks, I'm yet to be told or even hear wind of any rules. That being said, I can only speak for my restaurant. We don't even have a microwave at our restaurant... pasta is made fresh in giant batches then used until it gets low, where another batch will be made while the previous is used up. For the rebranding, I joined after it so can't say much here except that 5% in one day, while definitely worth a wince, still isn't bad at all for a total rebrand. It's likely to rebound back up the next day or week. Obviously it hasn't hurt the chain drastically. I wasn't old enough to work in 2012 lol, I therefore know nothing about the scandal. I do know management has changed around a lot since then. The CEO of Darden, for example, recently resigned. Bartenders getting a small tip share and bussers getting a decent one is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT an amazing choice. I wish there were more options for servers relating to it (like having a choice to tipshare hosts lol) though. Some servers complain ofc, as a little less money to them, but for the most part it motivates most of our bussers a bit and encourages them to stay. As for bartenders, they have to manage the bar top, take tables in the bar section, and then also make any alcoholic drink for regular servers. They bloody well deserve that tip share. The website crashing isn't a huge issue. Will make a minor fuss but nothing too bad. 500k is unexpected traffic, even for that promotion. They def couldve prepared better but again, 500k people all within a short time frame... RIP webservers Our alfredo is trash, though I dislike most of our pasta. I homecook pasta a lot and grew up eating it frequently so I'm used to higher quality dishes. However, our fish dishes (like the salmon) are really, really good and easily are what I think are our best entrees. The other meat dishes are pretty good as well. This video doesn't at all describe how we make our alfredo though... Considering how bloody massive the pots (more like barrels lol) we cook pasta in and how frequently each is used, using salt consistently ofc would lead to very expensive wear and tear. While it's not somrthing anyone would want to do, continouing to salt those pots and replace them frequently is not a financial choice anyone running a chain would want. Overall, this video did hit some stuff correctly, but a lot of it was either outdated, irrelevant, or misconstrued. All that in a YT video?! Wow, who could've thought?! There wasn't a ton of stuff that was plain wrong, just delivered poorly and likely intentionally so. If they wanted to make a video on issues with Olive Garden, they should've found staff to talk to or have done better research. There are better examples to give. This is a top10 channel though. High quality isn't their goal, and it's respectable in a way. They've gotten a full view (with me backtracking in the vid a bit too) and a long comment out of me so gg.
@@tiffprendergast Yes, there is frozen food...? Outside of high class and expensive restaurants and your small family owned spots, I don't think there are many that don't use frozen food.
Thank you much for your extended comment. I have not eaten at og in years. Because, I became dissatisfied with the fettuccine Alfredo. And I found better dishes elsewhere in my area. Of course, who doesn’t like the breadsticks. But I didn’t really feel like going just for that. In fact, there used to be a great Italian place at Mall of America, and they closed a few years ago due to high rates out there. And I was totally disgusted and saddened because, they were one of the best Italian places I’ve ever eaten at. Sauces fresh every day some of the servers actually knew me by name you get the idea. Amazing place.
OG employee of 5 years, there are microwaves but only 3 things use it? They steam the broccoli, kids mac and cheese, and stuffed shells in them. Maybe they think the melter above the window is a microwave. The bread stick rule is one per person plus an extra. We dont have big pots cooking the pasta. There is one big vat that cooks all the sauces, and then the precooked pasta is put into fryer-like vats of boiling water with handle strainers.
Just went here for my friend's birthday. I was sad that I couldn't get a few of Italian deserts. Cannoli and jelato.... I hope that I spelled those correctly. The soup was great, a creamy chicken, veggie, pasta ...yummy
Olive Garden is not a "fancy" Italian restaurant and I don't think they try to be. The food taste pretty good, the unlimited soup & salad option is great. It is a good place to go with the family and prices don't break the bank.
Fact #11- some of the desserts are made by Cheesecake Factory. The Cheesecake Factory, however, does not sell the same desserts. Those are made in a separate facility using higher end ingredients. Also sauces are prepped in restaurants so that they can be made quickly.
I am not a heavy eater, I only go to Olive Garden for the soups and salads. I've visited Italy, their foods are the true Italian made delights. They don't serve you heavy over sauced pastas and they definitely don't serve you monstrous messy portions of foods that will end up half eaten, then lay wasted on your plate.
You spoke the truth. Have you seen "Vincenzo's Plate" ? Right here on you tube. He's the real deal and shows you how to make real Italian foods the right way. At Olive Garden you eat overcooked pasta with some kind of creamy sauce; it ends up being mush .
@@axiomist4488 no I've not heard of him but I will check out his videos. Thank you for kindly telling me about his channel. Have a good rest of your day!
It’s the American way, don’t ya know?! Most restaurants serve copious amounts of food on PLATTERS, not plates! The one serving you’re given could feed 3 people comfortably. That’s why there is an obesity issue here in the States. And we try to eat everything on our platters because that was ingrained in us from a very early age. I truly hope & pray 🙏 this changes! ❤️
Most of this is on point as someone who worked there for a couple years. However the dipping sauces are hot and not microwaved and the Alfredo costs what it does because cream isnt cheap. Anything with that much dairy needs to be factored in. How fast someone cooks something is only one factor of the price.
I worked at a brand new Olive Garden, back when they still made fresh pasta. Even then, I was sick to learn what the “food” is made of: the Alfredo sauce is from a powder mix; the dressing everyone loves is literally Wishbone Italian, with additional dried basil, parsley, and low-grade, grated Parmesan-like the stuff in the green can! I only eat the minestrone, and dry breadsticks.
For Goodness Sake ! I come from England a few times a year and I love your Franchise Eateries. Not only owns the Joint , but Who Is The Old Lady ( Who doesn't speak English) is running the kitchen, Monday it is Sophia , Michelin 5 Star. WOW WOW WOW ! Tuesday , Her Grandson Mustapha UGH !!
It makes me bloody angry when I read or hear about companies that don't give enough hours in order to deny employees health insurance. It's bad enough that there's no universal healthcare in this country and knowing many people cannot afford treatment. And paying employees a pittance so customers have to tip them is just corporate greed!
You should see how they treat their employees, ant the hostility they allow on site.* Real "progressive". When you're here, you're dysfunctional! *May not apply to all OGs
None of what I heard surprised me, but one thing that has me a lil pissed when I go is when ordering Alfredo they seem to put little bit of sauce on the pasta. I like it with more sauce. Anyone else notice this issue? 🤔👍
@@crystalfrederick9281 you can just ask for a little cup of it and just ask for another one if it’s not enough. As long as the sauce you’re asking for is on your table we won’t charge extra. Like if you didn’t have Alfredo on the table and asked for it then you’d have to buy the boat and the boat is charged per oz so you are getting 4-5oz but the ramicans are 1.5-2oz
here is a thought and a way to save money while eating at the olive garden. order to go and order kids Alfredo meal that comes with one side ad grilled chicken to it and it only cost $7.98 and you get bread sticks with it. buy your olive garden dressing at dollar general for $3.00 or walmart for a little more than 3 dollars a bottle and you have plenty to eat for way less cost. most of the kids meals you get almost as much food as an adult meal if its a pasta meal and with the bread sticks they give you with it and the salad you eat at home your full. most people dont finish their meal at the restaurant so why pay more for food you wont eat any way and eating at home is more relaxed environment and you can do what you want at home while eating. i order to go kids meal at almost every restaurant i go to. i take it home and eat it because you get alot of food for less cost. if you eat in the restaurant you cant order kids meals for any one but a kid but to go orders they dont know who is eating it.
I had to deliver a bunch of pizza to the local Olive Garden on Black Friday. I had to wade through a pile of garbage bags with 1o pizzas in my hands. I unloaded the pizzas on the tables they asked and then guy went to relay the credit card slip. During the 15 minutes I waited saw that all their sauces and bread stick came premade and they just reheat the food by the bag full. They also leave food sitting out everywhere including open bags on the floor. Just so many health code violations. After waiting for 15 minutes they gave me a CC slip with a zero in the tip line and 20 OG Bucks. $20 worth of olive garden gift certificates. After walking back through the garbage I left and I've never been back.
Sick, but I don't doubt it...the sheer volume of trash they leave at the back door before carting it out is staggering! We had a night where there was a slip and fall, had to "quickly" assemble a couple of guys to remove trash mountain during a rush while the paramedics were coming.
All these 'box store' type restaurants. Like Olive Garden, Panda (Chinese fast food), Friday's, Chipotle, and so forth, have a too strong corporate mindset. The best restaurants are family owned and operated. No CEO, shareholders or other nonsense!
Every Italian restaurant that serves pasta precooks it. It would take too long during service to do from straight raw pasta. It’s just the fastest way to get it done, just need to make sure you don’t overcook it
Every restaurant I've worked in they've always par cooked the pasta and finished it off to order. I think its pretty standard when not using fresh pasta
That is true. Always par cook a lot different foods to cut the cooking time down at order. Especially if you want appetizers to go out first in that 15 minute window.
@@RabbitsInBlack I hear ya there. Cooking is something I've done for most of my working life. You for sure need to do what you can to cut cooking time just as long as it doesn't kill the integrity of a dish. Even the fine dining restaurants I've worked in have done that. I couldn't imagine having to cook dry pasta to order lol that would be brutal! However, I feel the olive garden should use fresh pasta, but thats just my feel. Either way though..... I'd still go there 😁
In a time where many people like the over priced "Mexican pizza" crap at a far from authentic Mexican food place as you can get, Olive Garden is delicious!!!
Still loved the 90s when Taco Bell came out with "real grilled carne asada steak"! Basically they were saying "real grilled grilled steak steak", but people ate it up! 😏🤷 OG isn't authentic, but it's alright, can't hate them for running with a popular sales pitch.
Never seen actual bugs in the (Greensboro NC) kitchen, but yes to black mold, stagnant water, and whatever remains on the floor after a sub-par cleaning effort! Restaurants get dirty; it happens...but most of the "stringent and consistent" policies and standards are really nothing more than upsell BS. Not the most horrid kitchen I've worked in, but clearly the health department gets a nice little kicback.
The microwave we use to heat up food not cook, cooking the pasta freezing it and re cooking to serve is false it’s uncooked and frozen we then pull it thaw it and cook to serve and all of our soups and dipping sauces are made from scratch every morning
You know what?? Even though I'm really not an Olive Garden fan, I thought that same thing!! Lol It did seem pretty mean spirited. There wasn't anything nice to be said like at all!!
You can see which comments the channel is liking to see they meant it to be mean spirited. I'm not sure how I got here, other than my son and I had olive garden last night and it's the big brother algorithm having fun with me. I'm going to go see if all their videos are just hate rants on businesses they don't like.
No, they're prepackaged in generic plastic bags...laid on a tray, buttered, seasoned, reheated, then put in a warming bin. Shelf life is supposed to be 15 minutes. Guess that's management's conception of "made fresh from scratch", since that's what they advertise to new hires.
In all fairness, OG isn't real italian food-its corporate restaurant's interpretation of Italian. For the record, their chicken parm is sometimes pretty good. And there are plenty of bad family-run Italian places. One of them is "Georgios" (Brockton MA)-worst pasta I ever tasted..and we tried it twice.
Right. The food is good. Just check the same points with other restaurants. Dining at home is also a great idea when you take the time to shop prepare and clean up afterwards! Would like this video to be more realistic and not so negative
You need to eat at some real restaurants.....only restaurants to "check the same points" with are other no chef,food service 1980s garbage like red lobster, Applebee's etc
There sure isn't much consistency in the company's "stringent policies", so I can only speak for the OG in Greensboro...two microwaves on the line. Part of the hiring manager's "upsell" was to claim all their food (with the exception of the desserts) were made from scratch. Guess I make my raviolis from scratch when I open a can of Chef Boyardee and heat it up...seeing as how the breadsticks are prepackaged; put on a pan, buttered, seasoned, then heated in the oven for a bit then put in a warming tray.
I still like the Olive Garden lunch special. Great prices for thrifty people like myself. Olive Garden, BJs, etc.....they are just low end medium grade restaurants and have decent food for the price. I'm good with that. I can't afford to eat at high end Ruth Chris type of restaurants every day.
Most, if not all, of the things you accuse them of doing are standard practice in most restaurants. For instance, the use of microwaves is a regular occurrence elsewhere.
Went to OG once ,the never ending salad was out, when they did get more didn't inform the table, had to ask then wanted taramisu for desert and they didn't have any
The local Olive Garden had a complete facelift a while back. The end result is a sterile-looking place, devoid of any warmth or style. It's like going to eat in an airport boarding area. The breadsticks are much smaller, and the staff doles them out sparingly. The menu has been pared down too. We aren't going back.....................
I refuse to pay $20 for a plate of pasta that cost them about 20 cents. The only thing that's good is the salad dressing and since you can purchase it, I can make my pasta and salad at home.
I always made it a point to eat at Olive Garden about once a month. After watching this, I’m pulling the plug on Olive Garden. Our town is full of other restaurants. Plenty of other places to eat.
Nope. The lasagna is heated in an oven as needed and then kept up to temp in a Cres Cor or in a heat well on line. The only things we use the microwave for is broccoli or margarita sauce. (or to occasionally thaw a desert).
Okay this explains why making the dishes at home always tastes better than at the restaurant. If you're willing to pay the cost of the ingredients themselves these days.
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Olive Garden is not the only restaurant that "pre-blanches" pasta that way. I was a chef for at least 20 years, and I've cooked in allot of kitchens. All but a few of them did it the same way. It really is the most efficient way to do it when you're feeding the masses. Even the higher-end restaurants I worked did it this way. As long as the kitchen is practicing proper rotation procedures there is no problem doing it that way. Now the no salt thing I don't agree with, however cooking it ahead of time and finishing it off later is totally acceptable. If proper procedures are followed.
I’m a chef and the only time I don’t pre blanch pasta is if I make the pasta from scratch, and weigh it out to order
I'm also trained in Italian cooking... even the fanciest restaurants "parboil" their pasta. Thats the industry term for it.
Going to Olive Garden for authentic Italian food is like going to Taco Bell for authentic Mexican food!!
Good one 😐
Last time I went to OG I ordered eggplant parmigiana. It came out a reheated hockey puck with a spoonful of sauce and a round of partially melted mozzarella on top.
Or Panda Express for authentic Chinese 🤣
@@judydoyle1124 LOL! Gross!
😏😁
I'm half Italian and Olive Garden is a guilty pleasure for me. It's definitely not authentic but it sure as hell is delicious and comforting.
Olive garden employee here. Like 2 or 3 sauces are microwaved, and that's just because they're prepared earlier for when you order them later. I was surprised to find only 1 microwave when I started working there. The meat, the veggies, the seafood, all made to order and made fresh.
I worked for them when they were new. Some of the food was fresh. But all sauces came frozen and pre made in bags. We made the pasta daily fresh. Sounds like they got cheaper down the line. Too bad. One thing I have to point out though...it's the cleanest most health conscience Restaurant I've ever worked at in my entire life!! I am a retired Chef now.
All big restaurants I know precook their pasta and sauces are really packed in bags and kept in the freezer until needed😉
Our sauces aren’t frozen we make them everyday and rapid chill them and hold them for at most three days before donated
Yea OG sauces are never frozen. Not even the ones they donate after a few days. Also, the shear amount of pasta going through Olive Garden every day. Saving 8-10 minutes every dish is a very big difference
Not true. I worked at OG too. The sauces aren't frozen. The kitchen IS clean though, you got that right. They have very high standards in the kitchen.
As a olive garden cook maybe 80% of this true. Pasta is dropped in boiling water (it's precooked) . Most microwaved things are kids meals like macaroni and sides of broccoli. Never heard of the 1st one tho about to Tuscany lol. Bread stick thing isn't true either at least at mine. Soup is always super hot because the soup bowls are stored in a heater. You can maybe hold the bowl for 4 seconds before burning your hand .
Yup
The olive garden school is an old advertisement. I forgot about it hahahaha till now
Yeah low key… I work there now and this video was hard/annoying to listen to 😂 cause a lot of this isn’t true and I feel like the tone of the video is trying to be like “dramaaaaa” when there’s like no need for it 😆
Really? What kind brand is the macaroni? Don't say kraft because I can tell you it wasn't that 10 years ago. It was a very good mac and cheese from the kids menu
Hmm and $4 for microwaved kraft man n cheese when you can but a box for $1.00
Coming from a employee myself this video contradicts itself in many ways. Olive garden is a great restaurant and clean appetizing place to work. I would feed my kids and my family anything pre-made or made fresh from Olive garden. Sauces soups pasta is made daily you never have a bowl of spaghetti with noodles that were made the day before everything it's always made fresh daily. After working 10 hours making pasta since 9 am I'm offended 🤣🤣
Maybe it depends on the location region? hmmm
I’ve worked at the OG as a part time job for almost 13 years and I can tell you that most of this video is spot on, the lady at 3:34 is a real cook whose been there since the 90s and takes real pride in her work, the microwaving part was highly exaggerated, most things do not get microwaved, but the quality of our product has absolutely decreased, it’s never been authentic, but now we’re bordering on fast food.
It’s funny to me because Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, Red Lobster are legit “fancy” restaurants in my area. We live in a small county where poverty is high. So these restaurants do well and most families go there to celebrate special occasions.
I got your point @KT, and I respect that 👌Good vibes 😉
My aunt and i usually go to red lobster on our bdays lmao
The only place where the food is authentic is in the commercials!
Besides Olive Garden, I like Red Lobster and Red Robin.
@GG BG that’s what I was saying. We go to OG all the time. My bridal shower was there, my graduation dinner was there. I was just pointing out that for some people this is their special occasion place to go. I don’t think I’ve ever gone anywhere “high class” OG is high class to us. 😊
We just ate there and when we asked for more breadsticks, they never arrived before we finished. I thought it was odd but now I know!
You just had a bad server. I've never had issue getting more bread sticks. And full baskets unlike they claim in the video.
All restaurants are different. The one we went to in Waldorf MD gave us plenty of bread sticks, l even took a few home. I love the chicken Alfredo and pasta dishes but I make sure it's beef and always ask about that because I don't eat pork. I have no complaints and look forward to the next visit.
This list is PRETTY accurate. One big thing is there are no chefs. There are cooks and a culinary manager. And only managers go on the trip to Tuscany. The sauces aren't microwaved, they're heated up in bags in a tilt braiser.
Yeah, thank you @Mike Housley I hope you enjoy watching more of our vids keep safe 😊😉
They’re heated… but they’re also made there in the store.
as an olive garden waitress i can promise you if you say “we’re going to make it easy for you” and order unlimited soup and salad we want to die
DEADASS
Omg and then they order water too.
Pasta is made indeed in large batches, however it's put on white plastic trays for the walk-in then plastic wrapped followed by a date and use by date. On the line it's kept stocked as needed and kept cold. Depending on the pasta various portion sizes are taken out and put into a small cylinder shaped basket. Then put into boiling water for 3 seconds for angel hair, 10 seconds for spaghetti etc.
In my OG serving experience NOBODY pays attention to the breadsticks rule & you are SO busy running out unlimited soups, & salads & drinks, that honestly you’re gonna wanna fill them up on bread so that A) you won’t have to make more when you’re slammed & B) the more breadsticks they have the less of everything else they will have :)
Exactly @Staphanie Lusko, other times, they serve the unlimited drinks first lol😜
You must not have been a successful server thinking it's a good thing to fill up on bread and lose out on appetizer and/or dessert sales
My grandmother was 100% Italian … we took her to Olive Garden one year and she wanted to know what this dog food was… she did like the salad and bread sticks… but the rest is not Italian food at all… also my grandmother in her younger days ran a restaurant in New York…my grandfather cooked and she ran front of house….I never got to meet my grandfather.. he died before I was born…but my grandmother cooked very good Italian food…I miss her…
Edit.. yes your past should be cooked in salty water.. ( should be salty like the ocean ) words from my grandmother…But a secret most people don’t know is.. once the water is boiling just a little olive oil in your water before you put your pasta in… ( just a little maybe a teaspoon) it will help with sticking and will also give a little flavor…my grandmother taught me that and I do it to this day..
I stopped eating Olive Garden years ago. I have found a lot of family owned Italian restaurants in Denver that are tasty who also serves homemade bread rolls. It's my way to support local owned restaurants.
That sounds good.🤗😋@Anna Roberts
Grammys is great, here in Denver!
@Rose_budd Thanks. I will check them out. Food on their website looks yummy.
@@marie2274 everything I've gotten from there, has been really good
You people should get a part-time job working in a restaurant so you could actually get an idea of what goes on in the kitchen and the cost and prep that goes on before service starts.
I went there once, back in the eighties, I haven't been back there since. You have made me glad of my decision.
Olive Garden is not an authentic Italian Experience - but For those of us who travel - especially in the south and west - it is safe food that is similar from place to place - much more so than Red Lobster ever was (Many Red Lobsters suffer from very over cooked shrimp and lobster). I know the salad will be fresh - and the prices are reasonable. WHen home - in the east - I have dozens of better Italian places to do to at almost every level - but when traveling - especially in the south - when I do not want to take a chance - I will have a Chicken parm dinner at Olive Garden or similar. I have learned that getting recommendations from people there are generally hit and miss = since so many people do not really know what real Italian food tastes like.
I've never eaten there. Glad to know I'm not missing anything!
In spite of all of your facts, people still enjoy the food, service and atmosphere. Food is plentiful and tasty, servers are polite and attentive and pricing is moderate. Tipping is handled the same way in everywhere that I have eaten because all servers work and share the same so that typically, service is better. If you want "genuine" Italian food, be prepared to pay at least twice/three times the price. Looks like this youtube was put together by a competitor. By the way, I am just a patron not a company man.
I still love olive garden. I have worked for a restaurant and they closed it and they were the best cleanest one I knew of. I worked for another one that was just about what you are saying about olive garden. So most are the same. If you knew what you are eating in all these places you would stay home and cook like me. 😥
I was a line cook at Olive Garden I personally never used a microwave on my dinner plates I prepared all the food was made fresh and kept in a steam table for me to put together when I got the order and we also used a grill for steaks. And fresh chicken that went on each order ..
Marsala cups and Margherita cups are the only sauces that are microwaved. Well and we let Chef Mike steam the broccoli for us.
Now, I’m craving Olive Garden lol
It used to be the destination restaurant for us. Then the food changed and we weren't happy going there anymore. Yeah that fettuccine alfredo was my last dish to have and not because I wanted it. When everybody were getting their plates...the waitress told me that they were out of the dish I wanted and gave me the menu. I felt like I had like 2 seconds to choose another dish since everybody started eating their foods. I guess I now know why it came so fast. I didn't care for the dish. Good thing we have better places closer.
It may not be "authentic Italian" but it's pretty damn good. And I grew up with an I talian mother
08:30 It's common practice that restaurants pay less than minimum wage and assume the tips make up for it. Also, most restaurants require or encourage wait staff to share part of their tips with bus-staff, prep-cooks, chefs, etc. Wait staff who share tips get their tables cleaned more quickly (which means more turnover and more money), and get their food more quickly (which means more tips).
I read somewhere that businesses can pay less than minimum wage if the worker makes tips. Like, us tipping them is why they make so little. Any truth to that one?
I lived in Italy growing up & still like Olive Garden occasionally. Its definitely not authentic Italian food but some of the entrees are good. (The tortellini especially.)
That makes me hungry.🤤😋@LaShayna Thomas
Its too good. Eating now
Loveeee this channel
Noone thinks that Olive Garden is authentic Italian cuisine. From what I've heard from people who work in the restaurant industry, this kind of stuff happens all over. From the chain restaurants, down to the Mom and Pop places.
I worked at the Santa Fe Olive Garden for just a few weeks. It was awful! I was in my 40s with over 20 years of restaurant experience but they would only allow servers to have 3 tables-regardless of experience. Also, in my training, I was taught that the Chicken Fettuccine dish was around 4,000 calories. 4,000! 3,000 calories makes one pound so….
The video was showing the Amalfi Coast line in the southern part of Italy, Tuscany is more central and not on the ocean. Both are beautiful in their own way.
I worked at one for almost a day when I was in college.
Halfway through my shift
(the busy lunch rush) the manager told me to take all the kitchen trash out to the dumpster. As I was dragging trashcan number two of five to the back ally I saw my car.
I got in it, drove home & never went back.
The restaurant business wasn’t me.
I ended up finishing school working as a baggage handler at the airport. It was far less stressful.
Most of these are accurate EXCEPT for the dipping sauce and microwave accusations. My first job in the kitchen was literally making soups and sauces from scratch. The kitchen gets there 3 hours before the store opens to prep food fresh for the day. As for the microwave, it’s more like a high powered electric oven than a conventional microwave. The only things that got “microwaved” were when they used it to melt cheese on top of something. As far as the desserts, they use it to thaw some items but only one or two. The comments about secrecy and “doggy bags” are totally baseless.
I never thought Olive Garden wasn’t very good. I’ve gone twice years ago, and thought it was overly priced for mediocre food.
Different locations different experience 😉When was the last time you visited?@Paul Redinger?
hello hope everyone is having a good day ❤️❤️
I was so sad when they discontinued the Ravioli Di Portobello. That was the only dish I would get there. It was so delicious!! I wish they would bring it back!!!
My father was Sicilian and Olive Garden is not Italian food as far as I’m concerned. My grandmother made everything from scratch, including sauce, meatballs, pasta, bread, and desserts. I make all of this myself and have yet to find an Italian restaurant that can compare.
I worked at OG for 4 years and The shared tips caused me to leave. I went from making $12 as a bartender who was tipped by coworkers to $4.50 and having tips automatically come out of the servers pocket which was SO MUCH LESS. Such a shitty thing for a company to do and I’m glad you covered it
As an Olive Garden Employee, always double check your bread before eating. AND, If you want to skip the wait, get a little upset and say that the wait is not okay. Fling your arms a little too for some razzle dazzle, they’ll most likely sit you right away. Thank me later.❤️
If we need to inspect our food i don't see having a tizee will help. Besides I am a firm believer if you don't want your food messed with do not give the staff a hard time. With all the video's and stories about what happens to people's food that gets sent back to the kitchen I'd rather not take chances.
I think it is discusting kitchen staff are able to get away with tampering with people's food but what can we do? Just shut up and eat it and hope your next visit will be better?
As a hostess at OG, this does nothing but make things more difficult for both of us- some sections of the restaurant will be closed off (due to servers clicking out) or you will have to wait until a busser cleans up a table for you to be seated. It will be easier if you are not picky about having a table or a booth, be patient, and be willing to sit anywhere. 😃🤌🏾
In spite of this truth, I still like their food. Thank you for posting anyway.
Great video!! The shout out to Martha at the end was awesome
Thank you keep watching more of our vids @Clint Countryman 😊🤗
Good news they sell underbaked breadsticks you can take home and finish in your own oven. Very yummy!
I'm not really concerned that the pasta is pre-cooked or that microwaves are used. And authenticity is of no importance to me either. The food is good and the workers are very friendly and it's very clean. Olive Garden is one of my favorite restaurants. Always has been and probably always will be. 😘🙂
I don't care whether or not the chefs were born in Italy, the food is great and that's all that matters to me.
@@michaelcesco2970 haha
It's like Italian McDonald's 😉
If I could I would eat the salad all day. The dressing is simple but so addicting. Oh man, now I want some!
What is your favorite salad dressing?
@@BabbleTop Caesar
@@bonniebloom4953 Bleu cheese 🧀
🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Great list
Olive Garden is the McDonalds of Italian Restaurants.
I work as a host at an Olive Garden in Missouri. Here's my take and experiences, though take things with a grain of salt. My knowledge and experiences relating to the back of house isn't complete or all knowing. But I'm often given random roles around the restaurant, including BoH stuff, so I know a good bit.
TL;DR: this video hits some points well, but overall isn't a great representation. It either intentionally misleads some facts or paints them in a bad light, or is flat out wrong (at least for my location). Other points are either outdated or just not relevant. I'm a bit biased to defend my work, but I quite well know the parts I hate and this video addressed none of them
I've never heard of a cooking school touted, but if that is a big deal then it wouldn't surprise me to learn it was all a big lie. Darden (the company owning the OG brand) is your run of the mill chain company. It has some shady practices that even I notice from time to time.
The thing about breadsticks is that we go through a LOT of them. We don't bring out only a few sticks because we're trying to be stingy, it's because if we gave them out super generously we would never be able to have enough on hand. Often we don't already. As for the specific rules for giving breadsticks out, I've never heard of that rule, though I'm not a server.
Still, with my many, many hours talking and joking with servers about breadsticks as well as getting tables' their breadsticks, I'm yet to be told or even hear wind of any rules. That being said, I can only speak for my restaurant.
We don't even have a microwave at our restaurant... pasta is made fresh in giant batches then used until it gets low, where another batch will be made while the previous is used up.
For the rebranding, I joined after it so can't say much here except that 5% in one day, while definitely worth a wince, still isn't bad at all for a total rebrand. It's likely to rebound back up the next day or week. Obviously it hasn't hurt the chain drastically.
I wasn't old enough to work in 2012 lol, I therefore know nothing about the scandal. I do know management has changed around a lot since then. The CEO of Darden, for example, recently resigned.
Bartenders getting a small tip share and bussers getting a decent one is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT an amazing choice. I wish there were more options for servers relating to it (like having a choice to tipshare hosts lol) though. Some servers complain ofc, as a little less money to them, but for the most part it motivates most of our bussers a bit and encourages them to stay. As for bartenders, they have to manage the bar top, take tables in the bar section, and then also make any alcoholic drink for regular servers. They bloody well deserve that tip share.
The website crashing isn't a huge issue. Will make a minor fuss but nothing too bad. 500k is unexpected traffic, even for that promotion. They def couldve prepared better but again, 500k people all within a short time frame... RIP webservers
Our alfredo is trash, though I dislike most of our pasta. I homecook pasta a lot and grew up eating it frequently so I'm used to higher quality dishes. However, our fish dishes (like the salmon) are really, really good and easily are what I think are our best entrees. The other meat dishes are pretty good as well. This video doesn't at all describe how we make our alfredo though...
Considering how bloody massive the pots (more like barrels lol) we cook pasta in and how frequently each is used, using salt consistently ofc would lead to very expensive wear and tear. While it's not somrthing anyone would want to do, continouing to salt those pots and replace them frequently is not a financial choice anyone running a chain would want.
Overall, this video did hit some stuff correctly, but a lot of it was either outdated, irrelevant, or misconstrued. All that in a YT video?! Wow, who could've thought?! There wasn't a ton of stuff that was plain wrong, just delivered poorly and likely intentionally so. If they wanted to make a video on issues with Olive Garden, they should've found staff to talk to or have done better research. There are better examples to give. This is a top10 channel though. High quality isn't their goal, and it's respectable in a way. They've gotten a full view (with me backtracking in the vid a bit too) and a long comment out of me so gg.
As a cook at an olive garden i agree 100%
Frozen food
@@tiffprendergast Yes, there is frozen food...? Outside of high class and expensive restaurants and your small family owned spots, I don't think there are many that don't use frozen food.
Thank you much for your extended comment. I have not eaten at og in years. Because, I became dissatisfied with the fettuccine Alfredo. And I found better dishes elsewhere in my area. Of course, who doesn’t like the breadsticks. But I didn’t really feel like going just for that.
In fact, there used to be a great Italian place at Mall of America, and they closed a few years ago due to high rates out there. And I was totally disgusted and saddened because, they were one of the best Italian places I’ve ever eaten at. Sauces fresh every day some of the servers actually knew me by name you get the idea. Amazing place.
OG employee of 5 years, there are microwaves but only 3 things use it? They steam the broccoli, kids mac and cheese, and stuffed shells in them. Maybe they think the melter above the window is a microwave. The bread stick rule is one per person plus an extra. We dont have big pots cooking the pasta. There is one big vat that cooks all the sauces, and then the precooked pasta is put into fryer-like vats of boiling water with handle strainers.
Just went here for my friend's birthday. I was sad that I couldn't get a few of Italian deserts. Cannoli and jelato.... I hope that I spelled those correctly. The soup was great, a creamy chicken, veggie, pasta ...yummy
*gelato 👍
You nailed cannoli, though...gelato is a tricky one anyway. 👍
Olive Garden is not a "fancy" Italian restaurant and I don't think they try to be. The food taste pretty good, the unlimited soup & salad option is great. It is a good place to go with the family and prices don't break the bank.
We're all familiar with Chef Mic. Legendary
Facts. Chef Mic is undefeated
I'm sorry -- but this woman's voice is absolutely GRATING
What you mean Grating Lol @ Hero Breaker 😊
@@BabbleTop like parmesan cheese
Yup
Well, I still like Olive 🫒 garden!
Fact #11- some of the desserts are made by Cheesecake Factory. The Cheesecake Factory, however, does not sell the same desserts. Those are made in a separate facility using higher end ingredients.
Also sauces are prepped in restaurants so that they can be made quickly.
I am not a heavy eater, I only go to Olive Garden for the soups and salads. I've visited Italy, their foods are the true Italian made delights. They don't serve you heavy over sauced pastas and they definitely don't serve you monstrous messy portions of foods that will end up half eaten, then lay wasted on your plate.
You spoke the truth. Have you seen "Vincenzo's Plate" ? Right here on you tube. He's the real deal and shows you how to make real Italian foods the right way. At Olive Garden you eat overcooked pasta with some kind of creamy sauce; it ends up being mush .
@@axiomist4488 no I've not heard of him but I will check out his videos. Thank you for kindly telling me about his channel. Have a good rest of your day!
It’s the American way, don’t ya know?! Most restaurants serve copious amounts of food on PLATTERS, not plates! The one serving you’re given could feed 3 people comfortably. That’s why there is an obesity issue here in the States. And we try to eat everything on our platters because that was ingrained in us from a very early age. I truly hope & pray 🙏 this changes! ❤️
Honestly I want to see a family tree of chef Mike😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
😅
Most of this is on point as someone who worked there for a couple years. However the dipping sauces are hot and not microwaved and the Alfredo costs what it does because cream isnt cheap. Anything with that much dairy needs to be factored in. How fast someone cooks something is only one factor of the price.
I worked at a brand new Olive Garden, back when they still made fresh pasta. Even then, I was sick to learn what the “food” is made of: the Alfredo sauce is from a powder mix; the dressing everyone loves is literally Wishbone Italian, with additional dried basil, parsley, and low-grade, grated Parmesan-like the stuff in the green can!
I only eat the minestrone, and dry breadsticks.
Lol you are completely wrong. Lol that is comical
I find OG to be very good at cleaning out the system with the fettuccini alfredo. It's a borderline total colonic cleansing.
🤣
Oh I'm excited about this one. Because I knew it lol
fantastic
This video makes me want olive garden and I was definitely getting Juicy crab
their food tasted really good.🤤😋@you tried it
For Goodness Sake ! I come from England a few times a year and I love your Franchise Eateries. Not only owns the Joint , but Who Is The Old Lady ( Who doesn't speak English) is running the kitchen, Monday it is Sophia , Michelin 5 Star. WOW WOW WOW ! Tuesday , Her Grandson Mustapha UGH !!
It makes me bloody angry when I read or hear about companies that don't give enough hours in order to deny employees health insurance. It's bad enough that there's no universal healthcare in this country and knowing many people cannot afford treatment. And paying employees a pittance so customers have to tip them is just corporate greed!
You should see how they treat their employees, ant the hostility they allow on site.* Real "progressive". When you're here, you're dysfunctional!
*May not apply to all OGs
If you ever looked in their walk in coolers you'd never eat there again. How the inspectors pass them is unbelievable.
tell us more!!
None of what I heard surprised me, but one thing that has me a lil pissed when I go is when ordering Alfredo they seem to put little bit of sauce on the pasta. I like it with more sauce. Anyone else notice this issue? 🤔👍
I noticed the same thing, but I always ask for extra sauce
@@richardsmith4187 Yes. A lot of times I'll bight the bullet & order an extra dipping boat of Alfredo on the side so I'll have enough. 👍🤣
Yes
@@crystalfrederick9281 you can just ask for a little cup of it and just ask for another one if it’s not enough. As long as the sauce you’re asking for is on your table we won’t charge extra. Like if you didn’t have Alfredo on the table and asked for it then you’d have to buy the boat and the boat is charged per oz so you are getting 4-5oz but the ramicans are 1.5-2oz
@@isabellaschaefer2121 Thanks. I usually order an extra boat just so I have enough. 👍
here is a thought and a way to save money while eating at the olive garden. order to go and order kids Alfredo meal that comes with one side ad grilled chicken to it and it only cost $7.98 and you get bread sticks with it. buy your olive garden dressing at dollar general for $3.00 or walmart for a little more than 3 dollars a bottle and you have plenty to eat for way less cost. most of the kids meals you get almost as much food as an adult meal if its a pasta meal and with the bread sticks they give you with it and the salad you eat at home your full. most people dont finish their meal at the restaurant so why pay more for food you wont eat any way and eating at home is more relaxed environment and you can do what you want at home while eating. i order to go kids meal at almost every restaurant i go to. i take it home and eat it because you get alot of food for less cost. if you eat in the restaurant you cant order kids meals for any one but a kid but to go orders they dont know who is eating it.
I had to deliver a bunch of pizza to the local Olive Garden on Black Friday. I had to wade through a pile of garbage bags with 1o pizzas in my hands. I unloaded the pizzas on the tables they asked and then guy went to relay the credit card slip. During the 15 minutes I waited saw that all their sauces and bread stick came premade and they just reheat the food by the bag full. They also leave food sitting out everywhere including open bags on the floor. Just so many health code violations. After waiting for 15 minutes they gave me a CC slip with a zero in the tip line and 20 OG Bucks. $20 worth of olive garden gift certificates. After walking back through the garbage I left and I've never been back.
Sick, but I don't doubt it...the sheer volume of trash they leave at the back door before carting it out is staggering! We had a night where there was a slip and fall, had to "quickly" assemble a couple of guys to remove trash mountain during a rush while the paramedics were coming.
All these 'box store' type restaurants.
Like Olive Garden, Panda (Chinese fast food), Friday's,
Chipotle, and so forth, have a too strong corporate mindset.
The best restaurants are family owned and operated. No CEO,
shareholders or other nonsense!
Every Italian restaurant that serves pasta precooks it. It would take too long during service to do from straight raw pasta. It’s just the fastest way to get it done, just need to make sure you don’t overcook it
Every restaurant I've worked in they've always par cooked the pasta and finished it off to order. I think its pretty standard when not using fresh pasta
That is true. Always par cook a lot different foods to cut the cooking time down at order. Especially if you want appetizers to go out first in that 15 minute window.
@@RabbitsInBlack I hear ya there. Cooking is something I've done for most of my working life. You for sure need to do what you can to cut cooking time just as long as it doesn't kill the integrity of a dish. Even the fine dining restaurants I've worked in have done that. I couldn't imagine having to cook dry pasta to order lol that would be brutal! However, I feel the olive garden should use fresh pasta, but thats just my feel. Either way though..... I'd still go there 😁
My family still loves Olive Garden!!!
I totally do understand,😊some of my friends love it too.😋🥰@born2win
I’m Italian, and you would NEVER 👎🏻 catch us at Olive Garden. We really love to cook our family dinners anyway
While not on par with homemade Italian food, Olive Garden is not that bad. Their eggplant parm is very good.
Not that bad? It is an insult to our culinary culture.
I bet eggplant parm is your favorite @Jeepluver 😜
@@BabbleTop the only "parmigiana" is with eggplant. 😉🤣
@@BabbleTop Yes. Like chicken parmigiana too. I won’t eat veal.
@@jeepluver3195 yup
That movie Waiting is top tier comedy.
Those cheese sticks are soo good here
In a time where many people like the over priced "Mexican pizza" crap at a far from authentic Mexican food place as you can get, Olive Garden is delicious!!!
Still loved the 90s when Taco Bell came out with "real grilled carne asada steak"! Basically they were saying "real grilled grilled steak steak", but people ate it up! 😏🤷
OG isn't authentic, but it's alright, can't hate them for running with a popular sales pitch.
The cleanliness of the kitchen should also be mentioned. ROACHES everywhere.
Never seen actual bugs in the (Greensboro NC) kitchen, but yes to black mold, stagnant water, and whatever remains on the floor after a sub-par cleaning effort! Restaurants get dirty; it happens...but most of the "stringent and consistent" policies and standards are really nothing more than upsell BS. Not the most horrid kitchen I've worked in, but clearly the health department gets a nice little kicback.
I currently work at Olive Garden and quite a few of these are actually far from the truth
which?
The microwave we use to heat up food not cook, cooking the pasta freezing it and re cooking to serve is false it’s uncooked and frozen we then pull it thaw it and cook to serve and all of our soups and dipping sauces are made from scratch every morning
I thought this video was a little mean spirited. Someone at Olive Garden made someone mad!!
You know what?? Even though I'm really not an Olive Garden fan, I thought that same thing!! Lol It did seem pretty mean spirited. There wasn't anything nice to be said like at all!!
You can see which comments the channel is liking to see they meant it to be mean spirited.
I'm not sure how I got here, other than my son and I had olive garden last night and it's the big brother algorithm having fun with me. I'm going to go see if all their videos are just hate rants on businesses they don't like.
I love Olive Garden ❣️
The bread sticks are made from an inferior grade of flour and are more like Wonder bread.
Ohhh baloney.
No, they're prepackaged in generic plastic bags...laid on a tray, buttered, seasoned, reheated, then put in a warming bin. Shelf life is supposed to be 15 minutes.
Guess that's management's conception of "made fresh from scratch", since that's what they advertise to new hires.
Babble Top Is In 🏠❤️😉
In all fairness, OG isn't real italian food-its corporate restaurant's interpretation of Italian. For the record, their chicken parm is sometimes pretty good. And there are plenty of bad family-run Italian places. One of them is "Georgios" (Brockton MA)-worst pasta I ever tasted..and we tried it twice.
I work at OG and I can say as a cook majority of our items isn’t microwave only like legit 2-3
Right. The food is good. Just check the same points with other restaurants. Dining at home is also a great idea when you take the time to shop prepare and clean up afterwards! Would like this video to be more realistic and not so negative
You need to eat at some real restaurants.....only restaurants to "check the same points" with are other no chef,food service 1980s garbage like red lobster, Applebee's etc
Truth hurts don't it...
BTW, I used to work at the Olive Garden in Durham, NC. Most of this is simply not true, especially about the microwave.
There sure isn't much consistency in the company's "stringent policies", so I can only speak for the OG in Greensboro...two microwaves on the line.
Part of the hiring manager's "upsell" was to claim all their food (with the exception of the desserts) were made from scratch. Guess I make my raviolis from scratch when I open a can of Chef Boyardee and heat it up...seeing as how the breadsticks are prepackaged; put on a pan, buttered, seasoned, then heated in the oven for a bit then put in a warming tray.
Microwaves are rarely used! Sauces are fresh from scratch but the bread sticks are not... Just heated, brushed with butter, and sprinkled with garlic
Truth.
I still like the Olive Garden lunch special. Great prices for thrifty people like myself. Olive Garden, BJs, etc.....they are just low end medium grade restaurants and have decent food for the price. I'm good with that. I can't afford to eat at high end Ruth Chris type of restaurants every day.
Olive Garden and a BJ? Now that's what I call a lunch break!
Olive Garden to Italian food is the same as Mcdonald's to a Hamburger.
I cook mine in water and olive oil I think it tastes awesome.
Most, if not all, of the things you accuse them of doing are standard practice in most restaurants. For instance, the use of microwaves is a regular occurrence elsewhere.
Went to OG once ,the never ending salad was out, when they did get more didn't inform the table, had to ask then wanted taramisu for desert and they didn't have any
@Yourfather1372 cry me a river my wife died not that much longer after that meal
It would be very interesting to see how than have changed because of the labor shortage currently!
The local Olive Garden had a complete facelift a while back. The end result is a sterile-looking place, devoid of any warmth or style. It's like going to eat in an airport boarding area. The breadsticks are much smaller, and the staff doles them out sparingly. The menu has been pared down too. We aren't going back.....................
I refuse to pay $20 for a plate of pasta that cost them about 20 cents. The only thing that's good is the salad dressing and since you can purchase it, I can make my pasta and salad at home.
I always made it a point to eat at Olive Garden about once a month. After watching this, I’m pulling the plug on Olive Garden. Our town is full of other restaurants. Plenty of other places to eat.
I never ask for extra bread sticks, will next time
Now you know @Yadi Navarro, ask them at least every time you go there lol😉
Olive Garden is a great place to take the side chick when you want her to feel special 😂
It’s a great place to take a chick before you dump her
perpetuate dishonesty and promote disloyalty to your own family..
Sounds like you are a great catch
@@chelsealaine2550 that's why I'm sure you are single and you live with cats.
Chef Mic!!! I guarantee the lasagna is microwaved to temp then has hot sauce put on it 😂😂
Nope. The lasagna is heated in an oven as needed and then kept up to temp in a Cres Cor or in a heat well on line. The only things we use the microwave for is broccoli or margarita sauce. (or to occasionally thaw a desert).
Okay this explains why making the dishes at home always tastes better than at the restaurant. If you're willing to pay the cost of the ingredients themselves these days.