The Olive Garden, a review
Jan. 8th, 2006 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, Lis and Dad and I got there and put our names in to wait. About a half-hour wait for a table for three. You ever notice that, the more mediocre the food, the longer the wait? I mean, BAD food, you can get seated right away. GOOD food, you've either made reservations, or the line moves pretty fast. Okay, fine, during a summer weekend, you can spend fifteen minutes in line at Kelly's Roast Beef, so it's not ALWAYS true. But still, I only ever see the big areas where you wait for half an hour for your number to be called at mediocre places. I doubt it's a direct cause-effect relationship, but I wonder if they're not both effects of some third cause.
So we sat down to wait, and handed Dad a copy of The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish, by Neil Gaiman and Dave MccKean, because Lis had gotten it out of the library knowing that Dad would enjoy it. Which he did. Instead of simply reading it to himself, though, he read it out loud to us, and showed us the pictures. Which meant that ALL of us enjoyed it. That was fun.
After he finished, we talked for several more minutes, and then a table opened up in the bar area, so we sat there. We looked at the menu, and I mentioned how happy I was that Dad now kept kosher, because of the time when I was about fourteen or so, and he totally traumatized me by ordering the calamari at an Italian restaurant. He took the little squids and lined them up and did a Rockettes' kick line with the tentacles.
In the end, for drinks, Dad got an iced tea, which was fine, Lis got an Italian caramel cream soda, which was really good, if slightly artificial tasting in the caramel aftertaste, and I ordered Dr. Pepper which they were out of so I got a lemonade, and to eat, Dad got the portabello mushroom ravioli and garden salad, Lis got spaghetti with meat sauce, but had them do penne instead of spaghetti (Lis doesn't like spaghetti because it's harder to put the leftovers in a nuke-safe container, take it to work the next day, and nuke it and eat it) with a Caesar's salad, and I got the lasagna and pasta e fagioli soup.
So, the soup and salads arrived. I took a spoonful of my soup, and said, "This is pretty good, and it's nice to know that Chef Boyardee is still working." It's actually not all that easy to replicate the taste of Spaghetti-O's -- I know, I've tried, and I've even succeeded once, and I do like Spaghetti-O's; it's not what I was expecting from pasta e fagioli, but once I readjusted my expectations, I quite liked it.
Lis's Caesar salad looked wonderful -- big crispy leaves of lettuce that had a visual similarity to Romaine, a creamy dressing clinging properly to each leaf the way it's SUPPOSED to -- dressing is supposed to be tossed with the salad before it's served, not glopped on top, or served on the side -- large flakes of cheese generously sprinkled on top. She said, "Ian! You've got to try this cheese!"
I took a bite.
"See?" she said, "It looks just like Parmesan, but it doesn't taste like anything!"
Lis pointed out that it really DID have a vague, faint Parmesan kind of aftertaste, though.
I had a bite of the lettuce and dressing, too, which,
The breadsticks were good, too, in a kind of salty, buttery Wonderbread way. They were really good dipped in the soup.
I finished my soup, including mopping up any last bits with the breadsticks, Dad had enough of his salad to feel virtuous, which, let's face it, is the point of garden salads in any season other than summer, Lis made a respectable dent in her Caesar's considering the absence of flavor.
The main course arrived about forty-five seconds after we all decided that we were just about done with the first course and ready for the main course, which is REALLY good timing.
Dad took a bite of his mushroom ravioli, and asked if I wanted a bite. I turned him down, because I don't like mushrooms. I briefly reconsidered when he commented, "I don't know. . . in a portobello mushroom ravioli, I kind of expect to have some sort of . . . portobello mushroom taste. . . " but I didn't end up having a bite. He did polish the plate off, though.
I took one bite of the and said, "The Chateau in Waltham." Because it tasted exactly like the lasagna at The Chateau. Which for many years was the place that my grandparents would take us for cheap food. I asked if The Chateau was still doing as well as it always had been, and Dad said, "Oh, there's no way that place is EVER going out of business -- they put out 1200 meals an hour at peak, in four dining rooms." I said that I thought that they would have had some sort of dropoff in business because of the vast number of other good restaurants in Waltham, but Dad said that he didn't think that anyone else is going for the exactly the same sort of family-friendly cheap Italian food. I looked around the bar area, saw all the families with small children, and said, "The Olive Garden, arguably," and he conceded the possibility, although I don't think he was totally convinced.
As I ate more of the lasagna, I did notice a few differences -- first, the Olive Garden version was so salty that I couldn't finish it. Now, you've got to understand how remarkable this is -- I LOVE salt. For this, I blame![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rebmommy. She raised me HEALTHY. What was she thinking? She used to make wholesome, low-sodium, low-fat meals out of fresh ingredients, organically and locally grown as often as we could afford it, carefully prepared with fresh flavors, top-quality ingredients, and interesting spices. She'd bake fresh baked goods out of delicious mixtures of whole-grain flour; she even made her own yogurt when you couldn't get decent quality yogurt commercially.
Lis: "That's not how you usually talk about your food growing up!"
Me: "Yeah, but Mom's probably going to read this. . . "
Okay, seriously, Mom couldn't cook meat. She's been learning in recent years as she's started to need a lot more protein. But she did, and does, really well with vegetarian stuff.
This is, of course, why I cook with lumps of butter the size of my elbow, and buy salt and sugar at Costco.
Even with the fact that, left to my own devices, I'll make a tuna casserole that nobody else considers edible, and I'll STILL add salt to my portion, THIS lasagna defeated even me.
So, that was the first difference between the Olive Garden and Chateau lasagnas. The second difference was about three bucks. Chateau is cheaper.
Lis's penne bologianse was fine. I mean, it wasn't anywhere near as good as Polcari's (which, oddly, I can't find on their online menu -- but I strongly suspect that, if I walked in there and ordered a plate of Spaghetti Bologniase, they'd give it to me, at least, I hope so), but it was perfectly fine, and she's taking it to work tomorrow.
For dessert, Dad got the Berry Crostada, which he quite enjoyed, and Lis and I split the Chocolate Lasagna, which is a chocolate cake and buttercream affair. I also got a cup of espresso. It was all good, although I surprised myself by not even eating my half of the cake. I blame wisdom tooth surgery for that, mainly.
The total came to about eight dollars more than the gift certificate Dad had, which was just about what he was aiming for. So he basically just had to pay for eight bucks plus eleven bucks tip.
Was the meal worth nineteen bucks for the three of us? Oh, yes, very much so. Was it worth sixty-nine bucks? Well, there it's a bit more of a judgment call.
There is nothing wrong with the Olive Garden. Place was clean, efficient, food was reasonably tasty and served hot and promptly.
But, see, there's no REASON to go to the Olive Garden, when you can get better food cheaper, basically, EVERYWHERE in Boston. I mean, I think of the Chateau as "cheap food that you go to with little kids until you train 'em well enough to go somewhere GOOD." But the food is better than Olive Garden. That's not to say that Olive Garden is bad -- it's not. It's just to say that the REST of Boston bottoms out slightly higher than where Olive Garden peaks.
So we sat down to wait, and handed Dad a copy of The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish, by Neil Gaiman and Dave MccKean, because Lis had gotten it out of the library knowing that Dad would enjoy it. Which he did. Instead of simply reading it to himself, though, he read it out loud to us, and showed us the pictures. Which meant that ALL of us enjoyed it. That was fun.
After he finished, we talked for several more minutes, and then a table opened up in the bar area, so we sat there. We looked at the menu, and I mentioned how happy I was that Dad now kept kosher, because of the time when I was about fourteen or so, and he totally traumatized me by ordering the calamari at an Italian restaurant. He took the little squids and lined them up and did a Rockettes' kick line with the tentacles.
In the end, for drinks, Dad got an iced tea, which was fine, Lis got an Italian caramel cream soda, which was really good, if slightly artificial tasting in the caramel aftertaste, and I ordered Dr. Pepper which they were out of so I got a lemonade, and to eat, Dad got the portabello mushroom ravioli and garden salad, Lis got spaghetti with meat sauce, but had them do penne instead of spaghetti (Lis doesn't like spaghetti because it's harder to put the leftovers in a nuke-safe container, take it to work the next day, and nuke it and eat it) with a Caesar's salad, and I got the lasagna and pasta e fagioli soup.
So, the soup and salads arrived. I took a spoonful of my soup, and said, "This is pretty good, and it's nice to know that Chef Boyardee is still working." It's actually not all that easy to replicate the taste of Spaghetti-O's -- I know, I've tried, and I've even succeeded once, and I do like Spaghetti-O's; it's not what I was expecting from pasta e fagioli, but once I readjusted my expectations, I quite liked it.
Lis's Caesar salad looked wonderful -- big crispy leaves of lettuce that had a visual similarity to Romaine, a creamy dressing clinging properly to each leaf the way it's SUPPOSED to -- dressing is supposed to be tossed with the salad before it's served, not glopped on top, or served on the side -- large flakes of cheese generously sprinkled on top. She said, "Ian! You've got to try this cheese!"
I took a bite.
"See?" she said, "It looks just like Parmesan, but it doesn't taste like anything!"
Lis pointed out that it really DID have a vague, faint Parmesan kind of aftertaste, though.
I had a bite of the lettuce and dressing, too, which,
this lettuce and dressing:Romaine lettuce and Caesar dressing::the cheese on top::Parmesan cheese
The breadsticks were good, too, in a kind of salty, buttery Wonderbread way. They were really good dipped in the soup.
I finished my soup, including mopping up any last bits with the breadsticks, Dad had enough of his salad to feel virtuous, which, let's face it, is the point of garden salads in any season other than summer, Lis made a respectable dent in her Caesar's considering the absence of flavor.
The main course arrived about forty-five seconds after we all decided that we were just about done with the first course and ready for the main course, which is REALLY good timing.
Dad took a bite of his mushroom ravioli, and asked if I wanted a bite. I turned him down, because I don't like mushrooms. I briefly reconsidered when he commented, "I don't know. . . in a portobello mushroom ravioli, I kind of expect to have some sort of . . . portobello mushroom taste. . . " but I didn't end up having a bite. He did polish the plate off, though.
I took one bite of the and said, "The Chateau in Waltham." Because it tasted exactly like the lasagna at The Chateau. Which for many years was the place that my grandparents would take us for cheap food. I asked if The Chateau was still doing as well as it always had been, and Dad said, "Oh, there's no way that place is EVER going out of business -- they put out 1200 meals an hour at peak, in four dining rooms." I said that I thought that they would have had some sort of dropoff in business because of the vast number of other good restaurants in Waltham, but Dad said that he didn't think that anyone else is going for the exactly the same sort of family-friendly cheap Italian food. I looked around the bar area, saw all the families with small children, and said, "The Olive Garden, arguably," and he conceded the possibility, although I don't think he was totally convinced.
As I ate more of the lasagna, I did notice a few differences -- first, the Olive Garden version was so salty that I couldn't finish it. Now, you've got to understand how remarkable this is -- I LOVE salt. For this, I blame
rebmommy. She raised me HEALTHY. What was she thinking? She used to make wholesome, low-sodium, low-fat meals out of fresh ingredients, organically and locally grown as often as we could afford it, carefully prepared with fresh flavors, top-quality ingredients, and interesting spices. She'd bake fresh baked goods out of delicious mixtures of whole-grain flour; she even made her own yogurt when you couldn't get decent quality yogurt commercially. Lis: "That's not how you usually talk about your food growing up!"
Me: "Yeah, but Mom's probably going to read this. . . "
Okay, seriously, Mom couldn't cook meat. She's been learning in recent years as she's started to need a lot more protein. But she did, and does, really well with vegetarian stuff.
This is, of course, why I cook with lumps of butter the size of my elbow, and buy salt and sugar at Costco.
Even with the fact that, left to my own devices, I'll make a tuna casserole that nobody else considers edible, and I'll STILL add salt to my portion, THIS lasagna defeated even me.
So, that was the first difference between the Olive Garden and Chateau lasagnas. The second difference was about three bucks. Chateau is cheaper.
Lis's penne bologianse was fine. I mean, it wasn't anywhere near as good as Polcari's (which, oddly, I can't find on their online menu -- but I strongly suspect that, if I walked in there and ordered a plate of Spaghetti Bologniase, they'd give it to me, at least, I hope so), but it was perfectly fine, and she's taking it to work tomorrow.
For dessert, Dad got the Berry Crostada, which he quite enjoyed, and Lis and I split the Chocolate Lasagna, which is a chocolate cake and buttercream affair. I also got a cup of espresso. It was all good, although I surprised myself by not even eating my half of the cake. I blame wisdom tooth surgery for that, mainly.
The total came to about eight dollars more than the gift certificate Dad had, which was just about what he was aiming for. So he basically just had to pay for eight bucks plus eleven bucks tip.
Was the meal worth nineteen bucks for the three of us? Oh, yes, very much so. Was it worth sixty-nine bucks? Well, there it's a bit more of a judgment call.
There is nothing wrong with the Olive Garden. Place was clean, efficient, food was reasonably tasty and served hot and promptly.
But, see, there's no REASON to go to the Olive Garden, when you can get better food cheaper, basically, EVERYWHERE in Boston. I mean, I think of the Chateau as "cheap food that you go to with little kids until you train 'em well enough to go somewhere GOOD." But the food is better than Olive Garden. That's not to say that Olive Garden is bad -- it's not. It's just to say that the REST of Boston bottoms out slightly higher than where Olive Garden peaks.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-09 02:38 pm (UTC)But, yeah. The Chateau would be a better choice, for this sort of food. When I worked at Bentley College, we often got catered-in lunches from them at various meetings. They are doing great; they recently opened a huge restaurant along Rt. 93 in Andover.
Part of the problem is that people in the 'burbs tend to be pretty non-adventurous about food. A trip into Boston for *real* Italian food requires a lot of logistical planning (just think about trying to park in the North End!) And people who move here from other places will tend to pick chain restaurants, because those are the "safest" bets.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-09 03:26 pm (UTC)So: non-Bostonian folks and people new to the Boston area: if you're in Boston, and have a car, and are in the mood for something Olive-Garden-Like, but not anything SPECIFICALLY on the OG menu, I'd suggest Polcari's or the Chateau as better bets.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-10 03:17 am (UTC)When I want good, cheap, old-fashioned Italian American, I go to Kittys on Rte 28 @ Rte 62 in North Reading. The sausages are awesome, the portions huge, the prices reasonable, the waitstaff just what you'd expect, and the pizza isn't why you're there. I often get a fettucini alfredo appetizer, and it's a meal.