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| - Darden Restaurants has recently made a renewed effort to improve the offerings of their Italian inspired Olive Garden.
We were so impressed, we might be back soon. Really.
Given the likes of Macaroni Grill, Johnny Carino, Carrabba, Buca di Beppo, Spaghetti Factory (to some extent Margiano's), they have all been stealing market share away from Olive Garden, the so called king of Americanized Italian food.
Tired of being a late night comedy punching bag, Darden recently made a wholesale upgrades to their menu and I believe brought out their "A Game". http://investor.darden.com/m/#deepLink/%7B%22view%22%3A%22PressReleaseDetails%22%2C%22languageId%22%3A%221%22%2C%22itemId%22%3A%225f329c57-9e8f-469a-8482-758db3cc9d1f%22%2C%22year%22%3A%222014%22%7D.
If you have somehow missed the differentiation for some of these Italian themed concepts, both Carrabba's and Macaroni Grill aim for a higher demo group. And not a lot has changed over the last ten years since the Times wrote:
"Carrabba's Italian Grill and Romano's Macaroni Grill, are both far behind Olive Garden in the full-service Italian restaurants... Although both chains are significantly smaller and are outspent by Olive Garden, they aim at a somewhat different customer: one who is willing to spend a bit more on a meal. Reflecting that higher-end positioning, Carrabba's and Macaroni Grill both used chefs to promote their brand." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/business/media-business-advertising-spots-for-carrabba-s-macaroni-grill-try-pull-away.html
Clearly there's no shortage of opinions regarding which one of these concepts are your favorite. http://www.disboards.com/archive/index.php/t-2641561.html.
So with all this in mind, we decided to give this former Pillsbury concept another try.
We arrive on a Friday night around seven-fifteen. Most of the families with small kids were just finishing their entrees. This restaurant actually has a section in the back, cordoned off from the regular patrons for families. Nice.
We were seated pretty quickly. Our waitress Rebbecca greeted us, asked us about drinks and if we wanted water with our meal.
One of their menu items, is a choice of six or nine ounce carafes of their house wines. Rebbecca offered us a tasting from the bottle of Riesling she brought to our table. Clever marketing, very clever.
We decided to share a 9 oz carafe, skipping appetizers and starting with their famous never ending Salad Bowl (see photo). It's still including in the price of your dinner btw, or soup if you prefer.
My friend Marvin A wrote about Olive Garden as... "Their Dreck will not make you ill. It'll simply remind you ...... what BLAH Drive-In Dreck taste like. SpaghettiOs® would of been a welcomed sight, last night."
Prior to this evening's experience, we would have tended to agree.
But the Italian Trio (photo) and Grilled Chicken (photo) were tasty and just as good the next day when we reheated them. LOL
In many ways, Olive Garden is still just a safe, standby type of place. But as you might have noticed, this is a Four Star review. Clearly Darden wants to be taken seriously and this is their best effort to date.
So is Olive Garden better than Romano's Macaroni Grill, or Carrabba's? True-fully, I don't know. But we had a nice time and the food was good.
So Four Stars and expect to pay around $30.00 each
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