Sorry you had a substandard meal, barnmom! I had that same experience last night with the butternut squash soup I made. :( I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't. Like you, the bread was my favorite part of the meal. It's hard to decide which is worse, something you invest the time in making or something you spend your hard earned money on. Better luck next time?! :)

I had the same reaction at a recent pizzaria in my home town. The food was plain and I could have cooked a much better meal for my self at home. The worst thing is if you complain they may just give you a gift certifcate for crapy food:(

Stacie

I have been having the same experiences from some favorite restaurants to new trys. I was beginning to think it was aging taste buds.

We went to an Italian restaurant that friends raved about. The food was poor--tomato sauce out of a jar, gooey cheese, overcooked pasta, well, you get the idea. I guess some people hate to cook so much that they will eat almost anything "out".
Our dining choices here are very limited, so it is doubly disappointing to think a restaurant is going to be good and find it is mediocre at best.

What a bummer Eileen. We eat out so rarely that if I get a mediocre meal I am seriously bummed out....paying for it really hurts.

Paying for it was the painful part! I signed the credit card receipt thinking how many groceries that could have purchased. The place was packed on a Tuesday night so there are people that think it's great. It wasn't BAD food, nothing one could complain about, just not wonderful. The other night Alice and I ate out and I was served a hockey puck in place of the medium rare steak I'd ordered. That I complained about. They replaced it.

I should have known I was in trouble when I heard the cheesy Italian music - Dean Martin singing "That's Amore!" We are all spoiled by better quality food, at home and dining out. Daniel (who lives with ex) has never had my chicken piccata so I'll have to make it so he knows what it is supposed to taste like!

An Italian restaurant has to be pretty darn good to get my business. Most of the things I would order there, I make better in my own kitchen than 8 out of 10 restaurants I try.

We have 6 pizza places in town (our town is loaded with pizza and taquerias, a couple of decent Chinese places-and a couple of bad ones-and not much else) and you can't buy a decent pizza here. Honestly, I'd just as soon make my own. My husband likes the Papa Murphy's "take and bake", but I don't care for their crust...and what's a pizza without a good crust?

Italian food out always disappoints with me. Part of the reason is I am rather frugal with my dine-out money. I eat out maybe 3-4 times a year and when I do I want something GOOD! I don't mind paying 20.00 for a nice steak, but I hate to spend $13.95 for spaghetti with bland sauce. I'm always thinking the same thing as barnmom, how much pasta could I have at home (and much better too!) for that money, with drink tip etc.

Pizza is another topic. We had a wonderful family pizza restaurant 1/4 mile from my house. The best! It's been here for as long as we have lived here (11 years) and just recently it went out of business. Seriously, I almost cried. With Dominos, Little Caesars, Pizza Hut, Papa Murphy, Papa John, Hungry Howies, Jets, Benito's, etc. etc. the competition was too much for them. But most of these 'chain's' stink!

Duane

It seems that Italian cuisine is the one of the most bastardized of all cuisines when it comes to being marketed to Americans. Gloppy, cheesy overly garlicky sauces over overcooked pasta. (Well, I'm overlooking Taco Bell and its extremely loose connection to Mexican food.)

I don't know how such places can stay in business except that there must be a huge population of people who have never had good Italian food.

An aside: I've often found that Greek restaurants make excellent pizza, often less gloppy than their Italian competitors.

For grins, read the article at the link. It's the Wall Street Journal's take on the Olive Garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Olive Garden

I hate when that happens. Nothing worse than going out for a nice dinner and being really disappointed.

Ann

I cook Italian at home since it is one thing I can do well. Sorry you had a bad meal. That is one reason we don't eat out much. I just can't see spending that kind of money nowadays on substandard food. We go to a couple of favorites but even lately they seem to have gone downhill. One Chinese restaurant we have been going to for 20 years has sized their portions much smaller with less expensive ingredients like shrimp in the dishes, maybe get 3 for a whole entree. And it is much more greasy. Must have changed management and cooks. Just don't enjoy eating out like I use to. I guess that is a sign I am getting old and set in my ways.
Clare

We've given up on going out to eat. A while back, we went to a very expensive, highly recommended restaurant for our anniversary. Total dud, the food was way too salty and mediocre at best, and the tab was outrageous.

For another occasion, we went to a Mexican restaurant several people we know raved about, the food was ridiculously bad. The rice appeared to be minute rice with orange food coloring, the chicken enchiladas were greasy, tasteless and contained bone fragments, the beans were a microwaved mess, and to add insult to injury, they charged $.10 per breath mint at the checkout.

Finally, we went to a highly recommended German restaurant. Food was much too salty, too greasy and not authentic. After that, we decided to give up on going out for dinner. It's too bad, but restaurants with good food seem to be impossible to find around here. And because I use lots of spices and not much salt when I cook, I guess our salty food tolerance has decreased to where most restaurant meals are inedible. If you add cleanliness concerns (e coli outbreaks, disgusting stories about what goes on in restaurant kitchens, etc), I'd rather save the money and cook a super meal at home.

I usually only eat out things I don't cook, usually things that are too much trouble to cook, especially now that there are only two of us. I think the reason the quality is so mediocre in most restaurants is twofold. First, so many people don't cook anymore, so they don't have a sense of how much better homemade food can be. Second, the chains are so ubiquitous that they've put many of the mom & pop places out of business.

Chains, by their very nature, almost have to be mediocre. They have to come up with recipes that can be made by dozens, no - hundreds, of cooks across the country, with very close to identical results. This pretty much precludes any creativity or sense of accomplishment on the cook's part. They just follow what must be relatively simple instructions, and I'm guessing that a lot of what they're cooking is premade and shipped frozen to the restaurants.

I almost never eat at national chains anymore (there are a few local chains that are good) unless I'm in a situation where it can't be avoided (eating out with the in-laws, for example). We tend to eat at the same places over and over again when we do go out, simply because we know they'll be good.

Our favorite Italian place is in a suburb of Houston, about a 25 minute drive from our house. Well worth the drive for great food and great service. And by the way, owned & run by a Greek guy.

Funny article about Olive Garden! That's one of those places we do go to about once a year, with the in-laws, they love those chains! I always get salad & breadsticks which are actually good - it's pretty much the only thing I like there.

eileen, I'm sorry that meal was disappointing. I've found that it usually is when I eat out anymore.

I've always disliked the Olive Garden, I think it's overpriced and the food isn't that great. To add insult to injury, I don't like their salad dressing either, the stuff they pour all over the whole bowl of lettuce.

elery likes to go out to eat, sometimes, but I have him pretty much convinced that we could do better at home and we usually can. There's a small local bar with great food, Schuberg's, I've never gotten a bad meal there, a great Italian place in Grand Rapids called Pietro's, and I always go to Scalawag's for fish when I'm in Petosky, which is about once every two years, LOL.

Notice the complete absence of applebee's/chili's/Ruby Tuesday's/etc. I owned a bar and grille for years and these places all serve the same food service meals that have been available for decades. The food changes but the quality doesn't, it's all mass market stuff. It's been that way for as long as I remember, my girls used to turn down the fod court at the mall and wait to eat at home because even they recognized that my food was better.

Nope, I'd rather eat at home, it's healthier, it's cheaper, it's better. I'm already scheming about how I can cook in the kitchenette when we go to South Padre Island in February, I'll bet I can get some great local seafood and produce!

Annie

This place is a small single location, not a chain.

I think many restaurants, even really small local ones, try to cut out the need for a chef and recipes by using Sysco type suppliers for lots of things. Maybe that is the case here. People who aren't real foodies may not notice the difference.

I get better tasting, more authentic food at the small Thai, Greek, Vietnamese, Indian places here. I think because Sysco hasn't replicated the cuisine. I am looking forward to trying a Palestinian place that I just heard about.

DH and I had the same experience at a usually awesome and very authentic Italian restaurant too.

Total bummer, but we ordered the "night's special" and I had just finished reading Anthony Bourdaine's "Kitchen Confidential". Bourdaine says in his book to never order the "special" at a restaurant because it is usually stuff that's expired and they want to get rid of. Never order fish on Mondays.

I must be one of the luckiest people around. We have a small local resturant that has a great chef, that did some of his work with some of the big guys on the food channel. I seldom cook anymore with there being just 2 of us and this guy will fix what ever we want if he has the supplies to make it. Why cook when I have that available.

DH often has to travel for work. Consequently, he eats out often and looks forward to home cooking. Like many of you, I have been disappointed in many of the restaurant meals I've had in the recent past - lots of showy, trendy garnishes, fillers and canned sauces. Few of them are memorable, healthy, or ones I crave having again.

Some of my friends who dine out every weekend think I'm a martyr for choosing to stay home and cook. DH and I prefer kicking back in our home - sometimes inviting a couple of friends over - sharing a meal that's been lovingly prepared. We don't feel rushed, and don't have to deal with traffic or parking. It takes a lot to get me out to a restaurant these days..

We tend to eat lunch out once or twice a week, not dinner. I enjoy cooking, but there are things I don't cook at home and my DH has been experiencing problems with gout and so is staying away from shellfish. So it's a treat for me to have fish and chips since I don't deep fry at home, or clam chowder or mussels marinara and he can order something different so we don't have to eat the same meal like we do at home. But we live on Cape Cod and have many good local restaurants that serve local fish and shellfish.

What we don't have are many chain restaurants in the area. I usually only go to chains when we're visitng family and it is astonishing how mediocre/bad the food can be. Sadly, no one else is interested in the family run Vietnamese restaurant only a mile from the Olive Garden/Outback/Chili's array in Virginia near my SIL's house. I dream of Pho when I'm eating ho hum.

seagrass

We are all spoiled by better quality food, at home and dining out.

So true, as we know how to cook! We have spoiled ourselves and set oursevles up for disappointment.

There are many downsides to living in the San Francisco Bay Area, but eating out is definitely one of the upsides. I love to cook, my whole family does; but going out is like a mini-vacation for me. We go out every Friday night, and usually two or three times more during the week. Sometimes it's just for breakfast or lunch, sometimes it's because I just don't feel like cooking. Also, I love the portion control - no overeating, no leftovers.

There's been a tremendous upsurge in new restaurants in our area - we're across the Bay Bridge from SF - so we've been trying a bunch of new places. Some are okay, some are duds, some have become regular favorites.

Going out is great because my MIL lives with us and her tastes are very unsophisticated, and different than ours. We like it spicy; she doesn't. She's a carb freak; I'm allergic to wheat and rice so can't eat a lot of it.

In the last three weeks we've had Mediterranean (fabulous), Peruvian (just okay but the beef heart kebabs were incredible with a spicy sauce that packed a wallop), Spanish (very good), Japanese (one of our standards), and tonight will be trying a new French place for the first time. I've been thinking of going back to our favorite Italian bistro, with all this talk of Italian (BTW, LOVED that WSJ link to Olive Garden, which of course my MIL adores) - it's a long-time place that makes wonderful homemade gnocchi in a killer Gorgonzola cream sauce....I think I'm off to make a reservation for next week, LOL.

Sorry about your bad experience. We were in Vegas, trapped in our hotel, so we went to the Prime Rib Restaurant there. We were at South Point Hotel. I do NOT recommend that restaurant! My split pea soup had zero flavor. Usually it is seasoned with ham or bacon and salt and pepper. This had none of that!! My chicken and dumplings (my favorite homemade) had the same problem. There was no seasoning at all!! Blah! DH said the lettuce on his salad was wilty and oldish. His prime rib was good, but still, no seasoning! We got a free desert. Wheeeeeeee! We ordered cheesecake. It tasted sweet. Not one bit of a cheesecake flavor. The texture was nice, but it was NOT cheesecake!! Even the wine was ok but not the greatest!

If you go to Vegas and stay at South Point, don't try that Prime Rib Restaurant. You will be disappointed.

DD, you have to wonder how one can siphon all the flavor out of food.

desertdance mentioned "wilty and oldish" lettuce in a salad. I don't know if that is worse than the artificially springy and chemical-tasting lettuces I've had in some restaurant salads lately. I wonder if it's preservatives or something added to water they wash it in, but it almost tastes more like cologne than greens.

Is it just me?!

Like amck's DH mine travels often and even when home is often out for business dinners so he is not keen on dining out. He says it's not so much the price, although it can be pretty darn pricey, he just likes being home and says my food is better anyway. He's not being totally honest...I know the price of the food makes him nuts! LOL

When we do we tend to do local, private, cheap (but good) , pub type meals or small Italian restaurants, something fun.

amck, it's not just you. That's one of the reasons I hate Subway, I can taste the preservatives on the vegetables, it's an odd metallic kind of flavor.

My old doc says some of us are "supertasters" and are more sensitive to the flavors of such things. I always figured it was because I grow my own lettuce in the summer and so I know how it's "supposed" to taste, LOL.

Annie

Barnmom, sorry about your bad experience with the new restaurant. I've had many of the same type of experiences.

I wish I had never become a foodie. I almost never like anything I get out anymore and I used to think it was really good, just like most people still do.

As for Italian, I am neither Italian American, not do I personally know any Italians, but I can cook far better Italian than Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill either one. And what is so hard to believe is how diners are lined up outside the door of the Olive Garden every day, both lunch and dinner time.

We do have one authentic Italian restaurant in town however they drown everything in olive oil and it makes it so rich I can't eat but a few bites. DH said their meatballs are tasteless, but what I've had has been very good, just too rich.

We have many Mexican restaurants. They claim to be authentic and most of them have food just alike, such as a dry rolled up tortilla with some dry cut up chicken inside and nothing else in or over it, refried beans so runny we have to use a spoon to eat them and on and on more of the same.

We have an "authentic" Thai restaurant who doesn't even keep limes.

We have an upscale Korean restaurant and DH and I had not one thing we could eat there.

I'm almost afraid to try the newest Vietnamese restaurant.

Oh golly!

I just realized that I posted a comment in this thread under my husband's name. Derick was NOT referring to HIS husband, that was me referring to him!

My computer is on the fritz at the moment, and I have been using his, and hadn't thought to sign him out and sign me in!

:D

I thought we had a new forum member, Rachel! There isn't even good Mexican food in your little burg? I don't care for most Chinese food. You have something good there? I'd love to hear about it. My kids love Panda Express, just the thought gives me heart burn. I wish I could recommend pizza to you but I'm not a big fan.

I have to say I have never eaten at Olive Garden. I've tried but have given up waiting for a table when the wait is an hour on weekends. I'll make a pb&J at home!