Worst experience you have ever had with a restaurant and its staff?

[kkt]

I don't exactly like Olive Garden and haven't been there in years.  However, there have been times when it was the best of a bad set of options.

[kphoger]

A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden.  Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there.  I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.

I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.

Before reading this thread, I had never heard someone say they didn't like Olive Garden.  My family and I sure do.

[oscar]

I'm OK with Olive Garden as a "safe" Italian food option. But I would never go there in a place with abundant non-chain Italian food options, except to accommodate someone who isn't into Italian as much as I am.

[J N Winkler]

I have eaten at Olive Garden and have no real complaints about the food, though it is quite salty.  I have never known it not to be mobbed on Friday and Saturday nights, and suspect it is favored by value-conscious families because of the all-you-can-eat salad.  For that matter, I have also eaten at Applebee's without complaint.  This said, for me a few sit-down chains have failed to impress:  On the Border, TGI Friday's, and Granite City Brewery.

[Rothman]

A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden.  Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there.  I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.

I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.

Before reading this thread, I had never heard someone say they didn't like Olive Garden.  My family and I sure do.

I find that the case for people who haven't had real Italian food.  My SIL, who grew up in the food desert of Utah, loves the place.

If you have never had what's good, McDonald's might as well be the Four Seasons. 

[briantroutman]

I think the hatred of Olive Garden has relatively little to do with the food or service–and much more to do with the chain being a symbol of Middle America.

[kphoger]

I have never known it not to be mobbed on Friday and Saturday nights

My favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom.  Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.

A friend of a friend worked at Olive Garden.  Most of their meals were frozen and essentially warmed up there.  I have no idea why people are enamored with the place.

I have never heard someone say that they like olive garden.

Before reading this thread, I had never heard someone say they didn't like Olive Garden.  My family and I sure do.

I find that the case for people who haven't had real Italian food.  My SIL, who grew up in the food desert of Utah, loves the place.

If you have never had what's good, McDonald's might as well be the Four Seasons. 

I've been to Italy, although it was only for part of a day, as a side-trip to Venice from Austria.  It's not a matter of not having had authentic Italian food or not knowing what's good.  Some of Olive Garden's items are more authentic than others, and I honestly like their food.

Kind of like how I've spent a lot of time in Mexico and am very familiar with authentic Mexican food, but I still enjoy getting a chalupa from Taco Bell.

[jeffandnicole]

I always figured you could take a dish from a chain restaurant, put it next to a dish from a local restaurant, and most people wouldn't tell the difference.

Where's that story of a local store that was serving fried chicken, and everyone was fond of it.  Until, one day, someone happened to see an employee walk into the back of the store with containers of Popeye's Fried Chicken, and realized he were being served reheated chain-restaurant chicken.

[kphoger]

I just remembered...

Back in March 2010, my wife and son and I were leading a short-term mission trip to southern Coahuila, and we stopped to eat at Subway just past the checkpoint south of Nuevo Laredo.  (Google Maps says it's permanently closed now, so here is a link to the Church's Chicken in the same building.)  After we all decided what we wanted to order, the staff informed us they were out of bread for the day.  Out of bread.  At 11:15 AM.  At Subway.  Uhhhh....  Why even stay open?  We ordered from Church's Chicken instead.

[spooky]

I've never been to Olive Garden.

If I'm going to eat out, it will be one of two types of places 1] fast food 2] local joint or chain with "proper" food.

I think fast casual places (Applebee's, Denny's, Chili's, etc.) are overrated and overpriced. The two that are worth it in my experience are Friendly's and Chipotle. Both high-priced, but actually good food and fast(ish) service.

This is the first time I have ever heard someone refer to Friendly's as fast(ish) service. I've always found them to be painfully slow.

[bandit957]

I was told there was a restaurant in Chicago where the selling point was that the servers would make fun of customers' physical features right to their face.

When I went to Chicago in 1997, we stopped by a restaurant to use the restroom, and the waitress kept making a big issue about how "it's where you pee!" But I don't think this was the same restaurant that made fun of people.

I was also told there was a restaurant in Tampa where the servers would smash pies in customers' faces at random.

Around here, back around 1984, there used to be a restaurant called the Ground Round that would switch the signs on the men's and women's restrooms as a joke.

[kphoger]

I was told there was a restaurant in Chicago where the selling point was that the servers would make fun of customers' physical features right to their face.

Sounds like Ed Debevic's, probably.

[GaryV]

I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's. All of those places seem severely overpriced for what you get. If I had to pick a favorite fast-casual place, it would probably be Chili's, because I like their chicken strips (the dinner comes with fries and corn on the cob).

Maybe not any more.  From the "Chili's is back, baby" radio commercials, "We focus on one thing - ribs, burgers and fajitas."

Um, isn't that 3 things?

[bandit957]

I have a really hard time with places that include a big plate of fries along with your burger or sandwich. I don't like food getting wasted, but things like fries are hard on my gallbladder and heartburn. I had a major gallbladder infection 6 years ago.

[J N Winkler]

My favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom.  Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.

Is this the east-side Olive Garden?  (Stylized observation:  east Wichita = Urras; west Wichita = Anarres.)

[Roadgeekteen]

I'm OK with Olive Garden as a "safe" Italian food option. But I would never go there in a place with abundant non-chain Italian food options, except to accommodate someone who isn't into Italian as much as I am.

My safe Italian food restaurant is bertuccis. 10 year old brother's favorite restaurant. I like my food simple.

[Jardine]

Nearly 20 years ago I contracted the 'bad' E coli from an undercooked hamburger at a since closed restaurant in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area.

I was quite ill, and didn't realize just how severe it was till it was nearly over.  I peed and pooped wrong/unusual colors and even had trouble walking for a couple days.

[Scott5114]

My favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom.  Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.

Is this the east-side Olive Garden?  (Stylized observation:  east Wichita = Urras; west Wichita = Anarres.)

That the parenthetical could practically be in a foreign language to me underscores the fact that I know embarrassingly little about the next large city to the north of me.

[J N Winkler]

I wish I had more detailed knowledge of Oklahoma City myself.

The Anarres/Urras reference pertains to twin planets in Ursula LeGuin's The Dispossessed.  To oversimplify greatly, Anarres is a socialist paradise where private property is frowned on and individuals are expected to seek satisfaction working for the greater good, while Urras embraces the private-property concept and has immense income inequality, to the extent that the rich walk around nearly naked with jewelry embedded in their skin while great masses of people have nothing.

As applied to Wichita, likening the east part of town to Urras is a way of pointing out that it is the side of town traditionally favored by millionaires but also has great poverty, including the bulk of the city's Section 8 housing.  However, an open secret is that Wichita also has a north-south divide, with both the southwest and southeast having lots of people with roots in the upland South whose families originally arrived in the 1940's and 1950's to work in the aircraft plants at a time when the city was experiencing its fastest population growth in the twentieth century.

[Jardine]

As for restaurants that deliberately inflict a bad experience as part of their shtick, Dirty Helens in Milwaukee was probably the standard by which all others are measured.

Only got there a couple of times, but it was great fun, even if I was called a CHEAP FUCKER on my way out for failing to leave a 50-100% tip.

[hbelkins]

I'm not a huge fan of Applebee's. All of those places seem severely overpriced for what you get. If I had to pick a favorite fast-casual place, it would probably be Chili's, because I like their chicken strips (the dinner comes with fries and corn on the cob).

Maybe not any more.  From the "Chili's is back, baby" radio commercials, "We focus on one thing - ribs, burgers and fajitas."

Um, isn't that 3 things?

Last time I had Chili's was a little more than a year ago. And I had to search for the chicken strips meal, and finally found it on the last page of the menu. So they may have dropped it.

[kphoger]

Nearly 20 years ago I contracted the 'bad' E coli from an undercooked hamburger at a since closed restaurant in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area.

I was quite ill, and didn't realize just how severe it was till it was nearly over.  I peed and pooped wrong/unusual colors and even had trouble walking for a couple days.

As an aside, E coli is a common culprit of traveler's diarrhea.  So I'm pretty confident I've had E coli once or twice, myself, but it sounds better when you call it "Montezuma's revenge".

My favorite people-watching is at the Olive Garden waiting area during prom.  Big poofy dresses, and guys who've never worn a suit before.

Is this the east-side Olive Garden?  (Stylized observation:  east Wichita = Urras; west Wichita = Anarres.)

Yes, Central and Rock.  Right next to what we call "The Gucci Dillon's" (which, incidentally, is one of our usual grocery stores, even thought there's another one closer to us).

[jeffandnicole]

I always figured you could take a dish from a chain restaurant, put it next to a dish from a local restaurant, and most people wouldn't tell the difference.

Where's that story of a local store that was serving fried chicken, and everyone was fond of it.  Until, one day, someone happened to see an employee walk into the back of the store with containers of Popeye's Fried Chicken, and realized he were being served reheated chain-restaurant chicken.

Disagree big time on this one. That may be the case in Jersey, but here in Upstate NY (as well as rural areas across the country), our local joints have proper food (think Guida's Pizzeria, Empire Hots, Dinosaur BBQ, Ridge Donut Cafe). You can guarantee a way higher quality than anything you would ever get at a chain, and it will have taste, too.

Why did you think it was Jersey?

Actually...here's the story, and it's in California: http://fortune.com/2017/10/19/popeyes-fried-chicken/

And I will love to taste what passes for proper pizza in upstate NY.

[formulanone]

Actually...here's the story, and it's in California: http://fortune.com/2017/10/19/popeyes-fried-chicken/

I thought we were having steamed clams.

[Takumi]

Actually...here's the story, and it's in California: http://fortune.com/2017/10/19/popeyes-fried-chicken/

I thought we were having steamed clams.

https://youtu.be/Rj0Tj8dnrYw