Raleigh and the Triangle - A Visitor's and Local's Guide

[Boom Boom Apathy]

That surprises me. I'd generally put Carrabba's above Olive Garden. My ranking of chain Italian places (that have locations in the Triangle, sorry Buca di Beppo) would be:

1. Maggiano's
2. Carrabba's
3. Macaroni Grill
4. Olive Garden
5. Dying a slow excruciating death of hunger
6. Carino's

That's kind of my ranking as well, albeit with limited sample size. Over the past 11 years, I've tried Maggiano's 3 times, Carrabba's 2 times, Macaroni Grill 1 time, Olive Garden 1 time, Dying a slow excruciating death of hunger 0 times, and Carino's 0 times.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

That's kind of my ranking as well, albeit with limited sample size. Over the past 11 years, I've tried Maggiano's 3 times, Carrabba's 2 times, Macaroni Grill 1 time, Olive Garden 1 time, Dying a slow excruciating death of hunger 0 times, and Carino's 0 times.

The alternate name for Carino's is "Dying a fast excruciating death of food poisoning." Seriously, read their inspection score sometimes. It sounds like something you'd see on Kitchen Nightmares.

 

[gocanes88]

Maggiano's and Olive Garden are tops for me... tried the other three and they all suck.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

Olive Garden is decent. Not great tho.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Olive Garden is decent. Not great tho.

All Of Garden.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

#breadsticks

 

[tarheelhockey]

I tried the Buca Di Beppo in Pineville once. It was pretty good, somewhat of a departure from the usual chain Italian experience.

If you want an authentically awful Southern hole-in-the-wall Italian disaster, try Open Kitchen sometime. It was the first restaurant in Charlotte that served pizza. You can still smell the faint odor of cigarette smoke in there, and the food is seriously not good at all. But somehow it stays alive, like a cockroach.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

I tried the Buca Di Beppo in Pineville once. It was pretty good, somewhat of a departure from the usual chain Italian experience.

If you want an authentically awful Southern hole-in-the-wall Italian disaster, try Open Kitchen sometime. It was the first restaurant in Charlotte that served pizza. You can still smell the faint odor of cigarette smoke in there, and the food is seriously not good at all. But somehow it stays alive, like a cockroach.

Sometimes dives like that can be amazing. I ate a bbq place in Athens once that I'm pretty sure at one point or another was actually a shed. It was gross, had no ventilation and the hygiene standards were ominously suspect. But hot damn if it wasn't amazing cue.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

I tried the Buca Di Beppo in Pineville once. It was pretty good, somewhat of a departure from the usual chain Italian experience.

If you want an authentically awful Southern hole-in-the-wall Italian disaster, try Open Kitchen sometime. It was the first restaurant in Charlotte that served pizza. You can still smell the faint odor of cigarette smoke in there, and the food is seriously not good at all. But somehow it stays alive, like a cockroach.

Not gonna lie, I loved their braciole, so I went there several times for that. But I tried something else one time and was not impressed, so I stuck with the braciole after that. Then one time I saw their sanitation grade was a 90, which didn't surprise me at all, and never went back.

I actually liked the ambiance in there, just because it's so different from your typical chain. All the random historical stuff on the walls was pretty cool. But it's always mostly empty, which does make me wonder how they stay open. Maybe it's a front for the mafia.

Edit: I just read the reviews on Yelp and forgot that their idea of bread is Lance crackers, complete with the wrappers. I had forgotten about that; that's just bad form with anything except soup.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

I tried the Buca Di Beppo in Pineville once. It was pretty good, somewhat of a departure from the usual chain Italian experience.

If you want an authentically awful Southern hole-in-the-wall Italian disaster, try Open Kitchen sometime. It was the first restaurant in Charlotte that served pizza. You can still smell the faint odor of cigarette smoke in there, and the food is seriously not good at all. But somehow it stays alive, like a cockroach.

That sounds about like Casa Carbone. I'm not kidding when I say I've seen funeral parlors with more lively decor. The food was also well below par.

 

[DaveG]

Yeah Buca's pretty solid for a chain place, wish we had one here. I'd take Macaroni Grill over OG, and probably Carrabba's over either, can't remember Maggiano's enough to make a dent on my memory one way or the other which means that's probably over OG as well for me.

But yeah I'd take Buca over all of them.

 

[nobuddy]

what people like olive garden?

it's horrendous

basically the mcdonald's of italian food

 

[DaveG]

Breadsticks are literally the only thing I like about that place, and the bread at Macaronni Grill is better anyway.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

So just to recap - we have franchise snobs, advanced stat snobs, beer snobs, and now we have food snobs.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

what people like olive garden?

it's horrendous

basically the mcdonald's of italian food

I don't think there are any around here but the McDonald's of Italian food is easily

They even have a drive-through window!

 

[DaveG]

So just to recap - we have franchise snobs, advanced stat snobs, beer snobs, and now we have food snobs.

You'll find snobs in every walk of life. I readily admit to being one, though I try to use my powers for good instead of evil.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

basically the mcdonald's of italian food

You say that like it's a bad thing?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I used to be red wine snob, until my wallet forced some sense into me.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

You'll find snobs in every walk of life. I readily admit to being one, though I try to use my powers for good instead of evil.

As long as you keep it to yourself and don't tell someone they're an idiot for liking X, that's fine.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

As long as you keep it to yourself and don't tell someone they're an idiot for liking X, that's fine.

"Don't yuck my yum" is a thing I heard lately.

I try to remember that now.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

"Don't yuck my yum" is a thing I heard lately.

I try to remember that now.

That's a good one, actually.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

I met the "Cinema Snob" at an event once.

As long as you keep it to yourself and don't tell someone they're an idiot for liking X, that's fine.

This. I am proud to like pbr. Dave and Garnett can go shoo. Though to be fair, Dave being a snob at least makes sense, what with him being from an Ivy League State. Garnett on the other hand is from a State, famous for stalled tractors and tipped cows

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

breaking!!!

 

[Sens1Canes2]

Oh movie snob can F right off. They're the absolute worst.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

Oh movie snob can F right off. They're the absolute worst.

I don't know if you've ever seen his weekly internet show but he's pretty ********** funny