I broke down and went to Olive Garden with my mom today. I haven’t been there in over two years and I decided to get my old favorite, the Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli. Yum. Uh, yeah. At least that’s how I remembered it.
We get there and get to our table with no problem. The hostess leaves before we are seated, and I throw my coat over the back of the chair next to me (we’re at a table for four). I then reach down and grab the back of the seat to pull the chair out and it is soaking wet! So I look closer and the the entire chair is wet, seat and all….and the chair next to me. Yes, the one over which I just layed my back leather coat. I grab up my coat and make sure it is okay and then stand there and wait for our waiter to get there to replace my chair, only he takes forever to come to the table. I get tired of standing there with everyone in the restaurant watching me and wondering what the hell I’m up to, so I finally go to the closest empty table I can find and grab a chair, wheel it over, and then move the wet one back to the empty table. Remember, I still have an audience.
I think I’m okay at this point until I pick up my roll of napkin-wrapped silverware. Yes, the cloth is also completely soaked. When our waiter finally decides to make an appearance, I ask him for new silverware and he apologizes and explained that one of the busboys had spilled a glass when he was cleaning the table. The waiter said that he had offered to take care of it, but the busboy said he would do it. He brought me my silverware and I open it and it contains three forks. Which is great, except it’s supposed to have two forks and a knife. Then, I feel wetness on my arm. I look down and there are these brown wet spots all down the white sleeve of my shirt from the elbow to the wrist. Not only was this Coke that was spilled, but it also was all along the underside of the edge of the table, too. So now my sleeve and stomach are wet where I leaned against the table. I wipe them off and now I have wet napkin number two.
I finally get around to ordering my meal and it comes and it was not NEARLY as good as I remembered it being. The garlic sauce wasn’t as creamy as I remembered (and it tasted like they had forgotten the garlic), the pasta was undercooked and all stuck together, and the chicken was hideous. It was tremendously overcooked, kind of tough, and extremely fatty and greasy.
So, it goes without saying that I was extremely disappointed by my meal. I choose to believe that this was somehow punishment for giving in and going there in the first place. 
