10 restaurant chains with the best buzz. Guess who came in at No. 1 in the casual dining category??

[KamaAina]

That's right...

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/20/10-restaurant-chains-with-the-best-buzz.html?slide=6

1. Olive Garden

Well known for its unlimited salad and breadsticks, Olive Garden can stake another claim: first place in casual dining brand perception.

The Italian restaurant was able to hold on to the top spot while rivals Chili's and Red Robin got booted from the top five.

[OriginalGeek]

1. I really don't understand why everyone loves their bread.

It's by far the worst bread of all the places I go to that have bread.

But I'm stuck going there on occasion as my wife and daughter like it. and it's always open when we need it. The little mom and pop shop that I have loved for 35+ years (my grandparents always took me there when I'd come visit them on summer vacations and my wife and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner there 29 years ago) shut down because the owners got too old and tired and their kids didn't wanna continue it. Rotten children.

So anyway, I no longer have a counter-offer when they say "Olive Garden!"


except when my counter-offer is "Y'all go ahead without me - I think there's some Beef-A-Roni in the pantry."

If anything, Olive Garden should be well known for how salty and greasy and utterly crap their bread is.

Carrabba's. Macaroni Grill, Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn Steakhouse, even shitty Outhouse, I mean Outback, all have better bread than OG. Cracker-ass Cracker Barrel has better bread. If you count hush puppies (and who doesn't?) even Long John Silver's has better bread than Olive Garden. WTF is wrong with people?

But with all that ranted, Chili's does suck too. Not as much as Applebees but pretty damn close. And I'm no foodie in the sense that I scoff at anything but hipster, artisanal duck farts. I eat all kinds of crap. I'm just sick of most chain crap. Especially OG. I Wasn't impressed with Red Robin except the manager let me have one of their pint glasses. That was kind of cool.

[KamaAina]

2. "hipster, artisanal duck farts" FTW!

I'm going to San Francisco later in the week. I'll see if I can find any of those at the Ferry Building.

[Chan790]

3. The only one of those places that should legitimately be considered to be selling food...

is Panera.

I'm now scared for America that it thinks nice things about Red Lobster and Olive Garden because they're both utter crap.

[riderinthestorm]

4. The Olive Garden "thing" on DU never really revolved around the food

A DUer asked for restaurant recommendations for New York City. RadioLady - an older controversial DUer in her own right - suggested Olive Garden in Times Square. That set off a nuclear bomb in the lounge.

NYC, a world class city with world class food of every category, especially for independent restaurants instead of chains of which any of them would have been a better choice, and yet RadioLady suggested Olive Garden.

It wasn't a slam on Olive Garden per se but horror that anyone would recommend it as a "go to" restaurant in NYC.

Yes, it has now devolved into a slam on OG's food by DU food snobs (and there are some valid points).

You probably know this history KamaAina, I only repeat it for those lurkers who never heard the origins of the Olive Garden meme here.

I will admit that when I'm on the road and I'm faced with a road stop choice of fast food, Denny's, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, Outback Steakhouse ($$) or Olive Garden - it's going to be Olive Garden for me.

[Phentex]

5. Yep, you are right. Sometimes DU is like the telephone game...

where the story changes over time.

I'm feeling a little different about chain restaurants these days. We cook a lot and eat well so I am often disappointed by restaurant food. In Atlanta, there are many places to choose from so we don't "fall back" on a chain restaurant unless there's some reason for it (friends pick the place or family event nearby).

However, lately we've been traveling to places where we aren't familiar with the local restaurants. So I'll look for online reviews and try to find places that aren't chains but not too far out of our way. And they have all pretty much sucked. Not as in really bad food, but very bland or boring and too expensive for what it is. Meaning we could have had the same so-so food at a chain for less. I can see why many people just head to the chain instead.