The best Italian restaurant

submitted by trident765 from self.nonmorons

The best Italian restaurant is Olive Garden. I've dined at many fancy, expensive, authentic, famous Italian restaurants, and none of them come close to Olive Garden. What I find strange is that somehow "Olive Garden" has become a synonym for bad/cheap Italian food, when in reality it is one of the only good Italian restaurants in existence (along with a few other corporate Italian restaurants such as Carrabba's). I hate that it is true, but American corporate Italian food is far superior to authentic Italian food, which tastes not much different from canned Italian food you might buy in a grocery store such as chef boyardee. People who say otherwise are snobs who lack the objectiveness to recognize the truth about Italian food. Corporate Italian restaurants understand how to blend the flavors of garlic, butter, lemon, and cheese to create a tasty and interesting dish, but at authentic Italian restaurants the flavor of tomato tends to overpower some dishes, and flour overpowers others.

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[–]jet199 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I think the issue is that with Italian food the ritual and environment are often more important than the food, which is usually pretty simple.

The espresso culture is an obvious example. The espresso bars buy the cheapest, nastiest coffee to keep prices low and make the most profit. But the customers don't care, they like the ritual of having a quick coffee standing at the bar. The taste doesn't have to be great. Starbucks sent a team over there because American snobs kept telling them their espresso is shit compared to the stuff they've had in Italy. They bring it back and do blind taste tests with it and the Starbucks coffee wins every time. But they keep getting the same complaints because their coffee doesn't come with the context of a romantic Italian holiday.

[–]Jackalope 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I'm with you that Olive Garden is not as bad as its often portrayed, and expensive authentic Italian food is often overrated, but its not my favorite.

I think Romano's is fairly decent for corporate Italian, and tend to prefer it to Olive Garden.

[–]jet199 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

In Italy they say "the more you pay the worse you eat".

That's definitely my experience of eating in the country.