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| - Stopped in at Olive Garden because we happened to be in the neighbourhood and were hungry (the Mexican restaurant across the street wasn't open yet, or we would have gone there). So we settled for something that was open and easy. Horrible mistake! I honestly would have been more satisfied with McDonalds (yuck!).
First of all the server had no idea about the wine...fine, it's a chain restaurant, nothing fancy...but still, a basic knowledge about beverages should be a training requirement. Plus when you try a wine to see if you like and then decide to order it upon tasting, in most places they provide you with a new wine glass. Not come back and then fill your testing glass. Picky? Maybe...but I'm pretty sure that's standard service etiquette.
Onto the salad...the Caesar salad included had to be the most embarrassing plate of food I've ever had in front of me. Both of our bowls had the whole large stem of a lettuce head in the bowl and 3/4 contained rotting leaves. And I mean rotten! Not being picky, like there were a few brown leaves, but black and practically compost! The croutons were stale and the whole salad was swimming in dressing. Completely inedible. I wouldn't have fed it to a farm animal.
My partner had some pork entree, not memorable, but as he was starving he didn't really complain. I had an angel hair pasta with a garlic tomato sauce, which was more like diced tomatoes with garlic and parsley. I'm pretty sure they tossed together the bruschetta with some severely overcooked pasta. The noodles were a quarter size of what angel pasta should be when served (because they were overcooked, tossed and basically fell apart). I tried a few bites and couldn't do it. It was like eating broke college food...the kind of meal you throw together with the remainders of your fridge and cupboard.
We ended up complaining to the waiter, who was dumbfounded - so we ended up asking for the manager - and got our meals fully comped and a free dessert. All we ended up paying for were the drinks, so that was kind of nice. The manager seemed kind of used to complaints, or had one look at my meal and had no problems agreeing.
I'm no food snob, and I'm not picky either and I knew going to a chain restaurant (which I usually shy from, but again it was there and I was hungry) was a bad idea...but this was epically disgusting!
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