• Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      Used to work at chilli’s. Was about the same. Stuff brought in warmed/cooked in house. Half way through my time there they changed some cook tops for those conveyer belt machines similar to the pizza ones. Mostly for seafood and other easy timed foods. Prep guys were also there at like 9 am. Chips were made in house. Most meat also cooked to order. Most sauced were brought in bags and just warmed. All veggies and the like were fresh daily.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I love watching Youtube videos of native Italians eating at Olive Garden. It’s not just that they hate the food because of course they do, it’s that they get so incredibly angry at the very concept of someone daring to call that food “Italian”.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I used to love Olive Garden as a kid. In particular, I liked how the lasagna was light and fresh-tasting with a bright-red marinara sauce, cut in a square and served on a plate. It was a stark contrast to the typical kind found at other Italian-American restaurants, where it’s heavy, drowned in a brick-colored sauce with long-cooked flavors, and served in an oval baking dish that’s spent too much time under the broiler.

      I went there a few days ago for the first time in decades, specifically to try that lasagna and figure out how to replicate it at home, but I was served something a lot closer to the typical lasagna instead of the one I remember. Is my memory faulty, or did they change the recipe at some point? And if they did change the recipe, do you remember the old one well enough to give me any tips about making it?

        • Klanky@sopuli.xyz
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          11 months ago

          I hate the weird power imbalance that tipping culture creates in American restaurants. I don’t go out to eat that often, but I always try to be super chill with the server and tip well. I can’t begin to imagine having to do that job.

          • Vent@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Life is easier if you just always tip 20% no matter what. I go to restaurants to eat. It’s not my job to judge the waiter, and who am I to judge someone I don’t know on a job I’ve never done?

            Tipping is stupid, yes, but that’s the culture and people need it to live. Only exception I make is if a restaurant has a required gratuity (usually 18%), I don’t tip any additional.

          • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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            11 months ago

            It is really bizarre. I worked at a wannabe-Chili’s restaurant in the Midwest for a while. The most unexpected thing I learned was that college-aged couples understood the struggle. Different people on different occasions, they’d be super easy-going, and they tipped me $20 on a bill of like $18.

            This made such a huge difference when I was making literally $2.13 an hour.

            Bigger families with kids or stuffy "business meeting " people usually ran you ragged and tipped like garbage, also while leaving the surrounding area absolutely demolished after camping around long after their meal.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          11 months ago

          the difference between 20% and no tip can happen in minutes, and it can totally not even be something you have control over

          Make sure to split your tips hard, kids. You cut them in well enough and you get the occasional heroic play to save your table.

          Hated waitering, but I loved the take-home, even in the '90s.