Typically, I won’t post any reviews from what Omar deems a “pedestrian” restaurant. Rarely do we ever frequent any “chain” type restaurants as Omar thinks (and I agree) that the food is just mediocre. The food is what it is really and I find if you get the right thing from each restaurant it is sometimes pretty good. Saturday night I went to Olive Garden with my Mom and sister, Beth. This is quite a step down as well from my sisters typical dining repertoire, however, we chose Olive Garden because she had a free $50 gift certificate, so we just couldn’t refuse.
I ordered a Peroni beer, as I was in an Italian Restaurant and felt I should order something Italian. I suppose as Peroni is a rather eclectic beer, it came ice cold, yet completely skunked. Anyone who has read my Facebook posts lately, the beer smelled just like my dogs head. I sent it back and ordered a Stella, which although did not come in a gold rimmed Stella glass, it wasn’t skunked so that was good.
The food was just meh. I got the tour of Italy, with Chicken Parmesan, spaghetti with meat sauce and a cheese tortellini. The chicken tasted like those frozen banquet patties we ate as a kid. Rather processed and definitely was not fresh chicken. The spaghetti was best of the three, and the tortellini was average, with an alfredo sauce and bacon bits. Really unexciting.
The breadsticks and salad are always good, although our salad was sorely missing dressing.
Frankly, the only reason I am posting is because of the new POS system they installed on all the tables. My excitement was soon squashed when I was told many restaurants are adopting this now. With the POS (like a small tablet) you can get drink refills, order food and drinks and even play trivia! My Mom, sister and I played a few games while sipping our cocktails. When your evening is over, you can cash out, run your credit card and even print a receipt. All from your table. Pretty cool. It makes me wonder if waitstaff are a thing of the future and restaurants will have more “runners” instead. I do think the more and more we see technology grow, the chances of jobs taken over by machine grows greatly. I see our school systems in the future taught in students own homes with a holographic teacher, similar to Obi Wan Kanobi in Star Wars. But I digress, I am getting a wee bit off topic.
Oliva Garden again, is what it is. Great place to take the kids, but for a romantic Italian dinner this is not the place. Will I go back? Of course. Just not with super high expectations. That way when a meal is really good, it is a really nice surprise.