i puke in the olive garden in lexington ky once about 12 years ago. they will not let me return. well maybe

I think that's what they're passing off as their new scampi dish.

ArcadianRefugee Any more we need explained?

Lily Connor
Fb+
MayoBoy

haplo53: my point is that I'd rather tourists patronize New York establishments than some soulless chain whose headquarters are in Orlando, Florida.

I'm not gonna drag them anywhere else or be pretentious about it, and I'm certainly not going to change my opinion either -- because that's all it is, an opinion.

Haplo

The reason NYCers think they know is because we have EVERYTHING here! We DO have the opportunity to know, and NYCers are NYCers because we take advantage of all of it. There must be over 1,000 Italian restaurants in NYC, and god knows I have been to many of them. No doubt, the worst one is Olive Garden. If you are from the Midwest and all you have is OG, then can understand that maybe you'd like it, but isn't the point of traveling to experience new things? It's like going to France and only eating McDonalds!

Ant- It isn't about a high horse (ill admit I haven't read John Frink's post) its about FOOD!

Hate OG but love me a TGIF :-)

EdudBor

I live in NYC. We have places to eat here that don't cost a fortune that are wonderful. ZaZa is one of the few Italian restaurants in the city that tastes like the way they do things in Italy. If you want to spend a fortune, Felidia is the best Italian restaurant hands down. For pizza, you can go to Mario Battali's place Otto (which, despite the name, is not expensive), or you can go to Grimaldi's under the Brooklyn Bridge, or you can go Lombardi's (First Pizzeria in America, but it's a bit dirty). There are other good places, but the vast majority of Italian resturants is stuff that you can make at home for better and cheaper.

If you don't live near good Italian places, you can watch Mario Battali, Felidia Bastianich, Emeril Lagasse and many others on the Food Network and make a wonderful meal yourself. The best food has the freshest ingredients. I guess it's ironic that most Americans live in the agrarian regions of the country and don't have the access to ingredients that we in NYC do.

The masses don't have different tastes; they have unimaginative tastes. The masses are the average person. Think of the average person. Now remember, half the people are dumber than they are. I pity people who can't appreciate the difference fresh ground black pepper, fresh garlic, fresh chopped onion, fresh basil, fresh oregano, sea salt and really good extra virgin olive oil make in a simple, nothing fancy marinara sauce. Not appreciating good, fresh food is just sad and pathetic. Come on America, elevate yourselves above the same damn food you have been eating since the advent of canned food.

Ant

Maybe true, but not always. You can get some authentic food all over NYC, and I am sure in other parts of the USA too.

Ant

Yeah, everyone should get an Italian grandma.

It is weird, I have yet to meet an Italian who's grandmother was not the greatest cook. And I have had other Italian grandmas' foods. And they are wonderful (of course nothing is like my own grandma's)

Mangia!

wok22

The only Chinese food we eat is when we are out with my Chinese friend and we go to some hole in the wall with an all Chinese menu let him order for us. Many places in Flushing in NYC and there is one place right in the middle of hell near China block in DC.

Go to Il Latini in Florence, Italy and you will redefine what an eating experience should be.

From Frommers:
Uncle Narcisso Latini opened this cheap locals' eatin' joint in 1950, though it now gets as many tourists as Florentines. Arrive at 7:30pm to get in the crowd massed at the door, for even with a reservation you'll have to wait as they skillfully fit parties together at the communal tables. In fact, getting thrown together with strangers and sharing a common meal is part of the fun here. Under hundreds of hanging prosciutto ham hocks, the waiters try their hardest to keep a menu away from you and serve instead a filling, traditional set meal with bottomless wine. This usually kicks off with ribollita and pappa al pomodoro or penne strascicate (in a rag mixed with cream). If everyone agrees on the arrosto misto, you can get a table-filling platter heaped high with assorted roast meats. Finish off with a round of cantucci con vin santo for everyone.

"Olive Garden is okay, but if you're in NYC you HAVE to go to Carmine's. And don't go alone!"

I'll have to admit, Carmine's is damn good & fun. Especially the one in the UWS, with the bar in it.

haplo53

Did and liked it. Sorry to hear about the Il Latini experience. We had to look a bit harder in Florence for really good food. Il Latini was an experience and we loved the food, but we had better food in a nice place near the train station run by a Canadian dude and his Italian wife. We had gelato at a Frommer's recommended place that was so bad, Good Humor would have been better and we threw it out. The city has become overtouristed.

Next time we go, we will be speaking Italian and THAT is the key. We went to a pizza place on the other bank of the Arno that a cabbie recommended. No one spoke English and you had to order by the gram. It was, without a doubt, THE best pizza ever, and we had pizza often, so we know. Patata was the best. Yum!

REO-Speedwagon: the food at Cracker Barrel is deee-lish, but in VA they discriminate against homosexuals (they won't hire them and will fire them if they find out), so I stopped going there about 15 years ago.