Don't Eat at the Olive Garden

[TheBirdMan]

Originally posted by SpencerH
I got a nasty food poisoning from a chain restaurants .......

Just used Spencers reply as the quote - could have been any of the others.

Why do you not make your own food? Fast-food only takes 45-60 minutes, good cooking takes a little longer (up to 2-2½ hours).

It takes a little time - you are not "working" all the time - you can talk (but don't use the phone if you are hooked on that bad habbit), you can listen to good music (I like old-pop), see a little TV (you have pleanty to do, so ignoring to boring stuff isn't too difficult), I take a turn or two of my CTP-PBEM games, might read a little while I am waiting for the next step...

And best of all - neither me nor my family gets sick just because of some junk-food.

[SpencerH]

In my case, its a cheaper way to introduce my children to dining out. I'd rather take them to small 'mom and pop' type ethnic restaurants but they dont exist here.

[Sten Sture]

You mean there aren't good small ethnic places in Mountain Brook??

[Jon Miller]

Re: Don't Eat at the Olive Garden

Originally posted by Ramo
I got a particularly nasty case of food poisoning over there a couple days ago. When I went to see a doctor about it, he said that he gets lots of cases of food poisoning from the Olive Garden.

I'm not sure if this is due to the lack of proper regulations across the entire chain or one(s?) in Austin in particular, but it probably isn't a great idea to go to that restaurant unless you have to.

every olive garden is different

some are the pits
others are decent (theone in Salem oregon is decent)

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
I got food poisoning from them too when I was young IIRC. Sbarro's is a good Italian food chain, but for good Italian food its usually best to eat at a standalone restaurant

Sbarro's is absolutely the worst italian food I have ever had

I will never eat there again

the oline garden in Salem is actually good (not great or awesome) (for italian places I have gone to, and I have been to a decent number of nonchains)

Jon Miller

[Jac de Molay]

There are far too many good mom-and-pop Italian restaurants for anyone to be eating at some crapshack like the olive garden. Same goes for any "ethnic" food. Franchise food sucks.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Sten Sture
You mean there aren't good small ethnic places in Mountain Brook??

There are some good restaurants here (that I go to with my wife) but the mom and pop variety tend to be rustic bar-b-que (and for some I do mean rustic, a la fried green tomatoes). Good eats, but not where you teach your children about restaurant dining. In a few years they'll be old enough to take to the good ones.

How do you know mountain brook? Theres a decent French restaurant there "Rue de Provence".

[MRT144]

i live in the bay area, i have plenty of indie restraunts to go to...

[Provost Harrison]

You're in America! Sue their arses off!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Are there any restaurants in America that aren't part of a chain of some sort?

Of course... but it'd be silly to talk about local restaurants with people that live 2000 miles away .

You're in America! Sue their arses off!

We you can, but you won't win. No real proof that the poisioning was caused by the Olive Garden.

[Cyclotron]

MRT144: Yeah, SF has some great places... I live in Marin, we have some great Thai and Indian food up here. There are certainly a lot of chain alternatives in the Bay Area (actually, I don't know about the east bay).

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by MRT144
i live in the bay area, i have plenty of indie restraunts to go to...

Ain't it great!


I work in Oakland, and it is a little more suburbia over here in the East Bay, but still pretty decent. I am afraid to go through the tunnel - I assume it is like LA over there.

[MRT144]

, its more like stockton...

i live down on the peninsula in foster city and theres a great little place right by my house, about 4 blocks that is very good. family owned and everything.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Are there any restaurants in America that aren't part of a chain of some sort?

I think that the stat was in 1980 60% of restaurants were independent, now it's 40%.

Though the quality of the chains has improved, it's still a shame that the chains are everywhere.

My favorite restaurants are all holes in the wall run by immigrants. They are the cheapest and offer the best food.

Adam Smith and GP

[Ramo]

No Italians are immigrating here, so I don't have too many options besides regional/national chains. I guess there are those ultra high class restaurants, but in my [limited] experience they're absurdly overpriced. The Macaroni Grill is good enough for me as far as Italian food goes.

'Course, we do have amazing Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and Iranian places (Austin has a booming tech economy and one of the largest universities in the world, after all) in addition to the obviously excellent Southern and Mexican places, so I'm not complaining.