Yes I'm serious!

>>8317980
>They have to be sheltering money in a tax haven, correct?

No, they just have an unusually low ingredient cost. Pasta is a the bulk of their business and it's terribly cheap.

>>8317980
Bread is cheap, salad is cheap, sauces are cheap... I doubt that $9.99 meal costs them more than like $1.50 to make.

economies of scale.

>>8317995
Iceberg lettuce is painfully expensive in Obama's America, Roma tomatoes too!

>>8317980
The boring /biz/ reason is that olive garden is owned under an umbrella corporation that owns 6 other restaurant chains. They can fall on their face quarter after quarter and still be buoyed by one of the other subsidiaries.

but you already knew that.

Olive Garden is a nice restaurant and I don't get why people shit on it.

Like, applebees, chinese and mexican food places can be so much worse, and you get a nice bowl of pasta for about 8 bucks. most locations are pretty comfy too

File: Screen Shot 2016-11-28 at 1.41.39 PM.png (369KB, 770x457px) Image search: [Google]

369KB, 770x457px

>not actually reading the menu

>>8318057
Applebees>Olive Garbage

>>8318031
What? I don't ever buy iceberg, but roma tomatoes are somewhat of a staple for me, and they're dirt cheap even retail, wholesale they've got to be almost free.

>>8318074

applebees is fucking garbage just like your opinion and probably face

>>8318057

>Nice bowl of pasta

If by "nice" you mean luke-warm and served with jarred sauce then yes, Olive Garden is a great place to go for some "nice" pasta. Literally the only restaurant I've ever eaten at where I wouldn't go back (I've eaten at 2 different olive gardens for the record).

>>8318736

how is that any different than a pf changs or a red robin

>>8318749

Never been to those, so I can't speak for them. The chinese food places I order from are pretty decent though and burgers from places like applebees and chiles are decent.

>>8318736
>only restautant where I wouldn't go back
>eaten at 2 different olive gardens

So you went back then

Olive Garden is a nice place to go if you're a piece of shit with nothing to do. I spent 2 hours ripping through mildly interesting never-ending pasta bowl combinations once and it was an alright way to spend an afternoon. I wouldn't go there for a nice meal, but if you're looking to eat a great quantity of pasta it's an option.

>>8320654
It's some where to take Grandma on her birthday when all she has is dentures and has 30% of her taste buds left. That being said, for the price and as much as you can get for even mediocre to okay edible pasta, it's not super bad. Not like Fazolis.

>>8317995
this although its probably more like 3-4 bucks to make

>>8320731
No chain is going to let it's food cost be 40%

Panera Bread operates at 26.5% food cost
>t. Former employee and manager-in-training

And it's only even that high because of deli meats and buying "healthy" alternative source foods. I'd say Olive Garden is squeezing like 20% food cost.

>>8318068
>freshly prepared

weasel words for reheating canned/frozen sauce

I seriously doubt they make their sauces from scratch. They aren't claiming they do

>>8320731
na, max 2.50. 4x is the standard markup for a restaurant