I ate at Olive Garden in Hayward, CA one week ago. I ordered the
"Lasagne Classico", my Auntie and Uncle ordered Fettucini Alfredo and
Eggplant Parmigiana. When my food arrived I never felt so embarrased in
my life. The size of my Lasagna square was approximately 4" wide X 4.5"
deep X 3" high. Considering Olive Garden priced this little dish at
around $12 I really felt cheated. Had they only charged me $4 or $5 it
would have been more reasonable. The reason we were eating here on this
night was to celebrate my graduation from Chabot College which is
literally right down the street. My aunties and uncle immediately
offered their pasta to me as they knew darn well that the small morsel
in front of me would hardly placate my appetite.

When we left the restaurant, I did manage to leave without hunger
mostly in thanks to the appetizers we ate before the main course and
the help of auntie and uncle's additional helpings of pasta on my
plate. The portions of Alfredo and Parmigiana ordered by my auntie and
uncle, which priced somewhere in the range of $12, were not impressive.

Yesterday, my parents got back from a trip back east and *they* wanted
to celebrate my graduation. Therefore, we decided to go to Lucetti's
which is a small Italian restaurant in San Mateo. I did some research
on the internet and found that their specialty is veal. I decided to
order the Veal Parmigiana. My dad ordered the Halibut special, my
sister ordered Fettucini Alfredo, my brother ordered another veal dish,
and I can't remember what my mom or grandmother ordered. My dish was
priced at $20+ as was my brother's. My sister's dish I think was priced
somewhere around $15. When I received my food, I saw in front of me a
nice pile of green beans which looked fresh, dark and green. On top of
the green beans were about a half dozen carrots, thinly sliced. There
was a small potato which had been sliced into about 8 pieces, and in
the center, a meat pattie (the veal). The veal was a pretty good size
(approximately 5" wide by 5.5" long) very thin, and tasted like a pork
chop. I did not think anything special of it at all.

I looked at my brother's plate, my father's plate, my mother,
grandmother, etc. Considering each of our plates were approximately
$15-$20+ each, I thought the portions were small. If I had not eaten a
slice of pizza before our meal, and my sister's fettucini leftovers
afterwards I would have left hungry.

Both Olive Garden and Lucetti's in San Mateo are two Italian
restaurants with fairly solid reputations. Can someone explain to me
why italian restaurants charge so much money and offer so little in
return? It's not like pasta is super hard to prepare (potatoes are even
easier to prepare). The freshest pasta only takes minutes to prepare in
boiled water, and the sauce was not anything special. Vegetables can't
possibly that expensive. Perhaps the meat was exquisite?

I think I'm going to open a chain of Italian restaurants and charge
$20/head for a plate of greens, a small potato, and a meat pattie. I
will make a lot of money.

I know there do in fact, exist Italian restaurants in the United States
that offer value. There is one restaurant my brother ate at in
Manhattan (New York) between 1st and 2nd Steets that offered a dinner
plate for $17. The serving portion was so large my brother was eating
pasta for the next 3 days. Now that's what I'm talking about!

> wrote:

>I know there do in fact, exist Italian restaurants in the United States
>that offer value. There is one restaurant my brother ate at in
>Manhattan (New York) between 1st and 2nd Steets that offered a dinner
>plate for $17. The serving portion was so large my brother was eating
>pasta for the next 3 days. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Restaurants in NYC (with the exception of high end restaurants)
offer much Much much larger portions than the corresponding
restaurants in California. Why? My theory is in New York
the last thing you want to have happen is get accused of
shortchanging on the portions. Also, many (most?) New Yorkers rarely
cook food at home and so they want some leftovers for their
next meal or two -- and/or they only sit down to eat once or so per
day so it better be huge.

Perhaps the only Italian place left around here that'll serve huge
portions is Bertola's, in Martinez. (Although I haven't been
to Little Joe's recently -- they used to be pretty good on
this account.)

Steve

On 29 May 2005 20:44:14 -0700, wrote:

>Both Olive Garden and Lucetti's in San Mateo are two Italian
>restaurants with fairly solid reputations. Can someone explain to me
>why italian restaurants charge so much money and offer so little in
>return?

The size of a entree serving for a average adult should be about the
size of a deck of playing cards. Sounds like you got more than your
share.

If you want to know why restaurants charge their prices...you need to
get in the restaurant business....then you can enforce all YOUR rules.

Olive Garden is GROSSLY overrated. Though portions ARE small-ish, my
complaint is the quality of the food. We quit going after two recent visits
in which our entrees were barely warm, and had virtually NO flavor.

Stay away from the chains, & try the smaller, less-frilly family style
Italian restaurants. You should have much better luck.

Though a bit curt, the previous writer does have a valid point. Restaurants
are not the most profitable ventures in which to invest. An old saying is,
"End up with a million dollars in the restaurant business after only a
year.... start out with TWO mission." Smaller, more regulated portions are a
way to help offset the horrendous overhead these folks have to deal with.

Anyhow,,, most of us REALLY don't need huge portions anyhow.

I've eaten at Little Joe's in San Francisco near North Beach. We ate
the sandwiches which were ok. I can't say about the pasta but from what
I recall, I wasn't that enthralled with the sandwiches I ate there
either. Perhaps I'll try Bertola's. The best value on sandwiches used
to be a place on San Mateo Ave near Artichoke Joe's. The deli used to
charge $2.90 about 3 years ago for a large 6 inch sandwich. By far, the
best meal value I ever seen. Since then they have changed owners and
now they charge $4.99 but still offer many options others don't.

sounds like you're GROSSLY overweight if you must eat supersized
everything. try eating smaller portions and fewer calories like the
French do. it's healthier.


and yes, Olive Garden does suck.

Just came back form 10 days in Paris. Portions were always smaller than
here, but absolutely fine.

Guess what?!?!? You virtually NEVER see huge, obese people there as you do
in the U.S. Whenever we saw such large people, it ALWAYS turned out that
they were American, or occasionally Spanish.

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 08:36:52 -0700, "Jimmy G" >
wrote:

>Guess what?!?!? You virtually NEVER see huge, obese people there as you do
>in the U.S

Which begs the question...."Why don't you ever see really fat slobs in
American TV commercials?"

We just get to see bimbo Paris Hilton trying to wrap her lips around a
five pound burger...and she can't do that very well. Her talents
lie with wrapping her lips around a five pound Keilbasa.

We Will Drink NO Wine
before It's Time.

................it's time.

I have to draw the line at complaining SOMEWHERE. I have absolutely NO
complaints about watching Paris Hilton. Hell, pleasure is pleasure.
However I DO agree that the media is grossly imbalanced in it's depiction of
REAL Americans.

Hey Papageno, did you even bother to read the original post?

I guess from your name your Italian. Why do you feel you have to attack
me and call me grossly overweight (which I am not)?

Why don't you address the real issue here which is the question: Why
can't italian restaurants serve portions of food commensurate with the
prices they are charging?

If you can get over your bias then come back and join the discussion.
If not, your trolling will go ignored.

On 29 May 2005 20:44:14 -0700, wrote:

>I ate at Olive Garden in Hayward, CA one week ago. I ordered the
>"Lasagne Classico", my Auntie and Uncle ordered Fettucini Alfredo and
>Eggplant Parmigiana. When my food arrived I never felt so embarrased in
>my life. The size of my Lasagna square was approximately 4" wide X 4.5"
>deep X 3" high. Considering Olive Garden priced this little dish at
>around $12 I really felt cheated. Had they only charged me $4 or $5 it
>would have been more reasonable. The reason we were eating here on this
>night was to celebrate my graduation from Chabot College which is
>literally right down the street. My aunties and uncle immediately
>offered their pasta to me as they knew darn well that the small morsel
>in front of me would hardly placate my appetite.


Well... Olive Garden can be everything but absolutely NOT an Italian Restaurant,
for my experience in USA some years ago...

Anyway, the dimension of your Lasagna seems to be the usual italian dimension...
for a portion, about 10/12 cm. wide and 7/8 cm. high.

What i think has to be really changed is the price, but eating and dining out in
USA was (and i think still is) much more expencive than in Italy (now with the
Euro we got a lot of "price problems" too).

I don't agree with the idea that restaurants are a bad investment, they are a
wonderful opportunity if you are able and you know what are you doing.

For direct experience, cooking in a couple of italian restaurants in USA, it's
really difficult to find a place in wich you really eat "italian way and italian
food"... they have to agree the American taste... that means, make of an italian
recipe an enjoyable American-Italian dish = destroy the original...

Fettuccine Alfredo... You'll never find in Italy, with the only exception of "Da
Alfredo - The king of fettuccine" in Rome, someone serving this dish in his
restaurant. And... like italian... i'll never pass the entry door of a place
called "Da Alfredo - The king..." (in english).

Regards.

Ciao.
Davide (Verona - Italia)
www.alquadrifoglio.it
http://davide1864.supereva.it

wrote:

>Why don't you address the real issue here which is the question: Why
>can't italian restaurants serve portions of food commensurate with the
>prices they are charging?

Prices should, in general, be commensurate with quality, not size.



--
Jack Hamilton
California
--
<> Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.
<> François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld

olive garden? hayward? get into the city and go to "little italy"

go to this place for the 7 course dinner.

http://www.themenupage.com/caesars.html

Caesar's Italian Restaurant -
2299 Powell St, San Francisco, 94133 - (415) 989-6000

Tips on Finding: Just two blocks east of the Mason Street Cable Car
turnaround

http://dinesite.com/info/rstrnt-238318/??&t=0


> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I ate at Olive Garden in Hayward, CA one week ago. I ordered the
> "Lasagne Classico", my Auntie and Uncle ordered Fettucini Alfredo and
> Eggplant Parmigiana. When my food arrived I never felt so embarrased in
> my life. The size of my Lasagna square was approximately 4" wide X 4.5"
> deep X 3" high. Considering Olive Garden priced this little dish at
> around $12 I really felt cheated. Had they only charged me $4 or $5 it
> would have been more reasonable. The reason we were eating here on this
> night was to celebrate my graduation from Chabot College which is
> literally right down the street. My aunties and uncle immediately
> offered their pasta to me as they knew darn well that the small morsel
> in front of me would hardly placate my appetite.
>
> When we left the restaurant, I did manage to leave without hunger
> mostly in thanks to the appetizers we ate before the main course and
> the help of auntie and uncle's additional helpings of pasta on my
> plate. The portions of Alfredo and Parmigiana ordered by my auntie and
> uncle, which priced somewhere in the range of $12, were not impressive.
>
> Yesterday, my parents got back from a trip back east and *they* wanted
> to celebrate my graduation. Therefore, we decided to go to Lucetti's
> which is a small Italian restaurant in San Mateo. I did some research
> on the internet and found that their specialty is veal. I decided to
> order the Veal Parmigiana. My dad ordered the Halibut special, my
> sister ordered Fettucini Alfredo, my brother ordered another veal dish,
> and I can't remember what my mom or grandmother ordered. My dish was
> priced at $20+ as was my brother's. My sister's dish I think was priced
> somewhere around $15. When I received my food, I saw in front of me a
> nice pile of green beans which looked fresh, dark and green. On top of
> the green beans were about a half dozen carrots, thinly sliced. There
> was a small potato which had been sliced into about 8 pieces, and in
> the center, a meat pattie (the veal). The veal was a pretty good size
> (approximately 5" wide by 5.5" long) very thin, and tasted like a pork
> chop. I did not think anything special of it at all.
>
> I looked at my brother's plate, my father's plate, my mother,
> grandmother, etc. Considering each of our plates were approximately
> $15-$20+ each, I thought the portions were small. If I had not eaten a
> slice of pizza before our meal, and my sister's fettucini leftovers
> afterwards I would have left hungry.
>
> Both Olive Garden and Lucetti's in San Mateo are two Italian
> restaurants with fairly solid reputations. Can someone explain to me
> why italian restaurants charge so much money and offer so little in
> return? It's not like pasta is super hard to prepare (potatoes are even
> easier to prepare). The freshest pasta only takes minutes to prepare in
> boiled water, and the sauce was not anything special. Vegetables can't
> possibly that expensive. Perhaps the meat was exquisite?
>
> I think I'm going to open a chain of Italian restaurants and charge
> $20/head for a plate of greens, a small potato, and a meat pattie. I
> will make a lot of money.
>
> I know there do in fact, exist Italian restaurants in the United States
> that offer value. There is one restaurant my brother ate at in
> Manhattan (New York) between 1st and 2nd Steets that offered a dinner
> plate for $17. The serving portion was so large my brother was eating
> pasta for the next 3 days. Now that's what I'm talking about!
>