I wrote to Olive Garden!

[monkeyandbunny]

They wrote me back and here's the letter!


Thank you for visiting olivegarden.com.

Please note that our Minestrone soup does not contain chicken broth.

If Guest Relations can be of further assistance, please write us again through
olivegarden.com (www.olivegarden.com/feedback.asp ) or call us at
1-800-331-2729. Our office hours are Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET.
In the meantime, we will look forward to a future opportunity to serve you in
our restaurants.

With Hospitaliano,

Nellie
Olive Garden Guest Relations

[1vegan]

What was the question ?

[ForestGlade34]

Can someone tell me what ET time is?

And yeah what was the question...(?)
-------------------------------------------
My question would be why bother eating at a meat serving restaurant???

http://olivegarden.com/homepagedefault.asp?busid=default www.olivegarden.com/ourmenus

[1vegan]

European Time ?

[ForestGlade34]

Oh yeah I was thinking of the extra terrestial, of course, silly me!

[smedley]

it is referencing the Eastern time zone--ET--eastern time

[ForestGlade34]

thanks Smedley.. (sorry for disrupting the thread M & B).

[monkeyandbunny]

Originally posted by VegAnaconda
Can someone tell me what ET time is?

And yeah what was the question...(?)
-------------------------------------------
My question would be why bother eating at a meat serving restaurant???

http://olivegarden.com/homepagedefault.asp?busid=default www.olivegarden.com/ourmenus


That would be Eastern Time. Not extra terristrial. :)

Because when you work in a small town with a bunch of small town folk sometimes ones choices are limited. I don't always have the luxury of an all vegetarian restaurant. Since it was the ONLY non salad vegetarian item on the menu, I ate it. A few weeks later I heard that Olive Garden's minestrone soup may contain chicken broth. Seeing that Olive Garden seems to be the favorite lunch time place for my co workers I wanted to check and make sure. I thought others in my situation would be of benefit.

[Fenguin]

Soup, salad, and breadsticks crew reprazent.

[alyssa]

eggplant parmigiana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mmmm.

[rainbowmoon]

VegAnaconda- I live in a small area where there is not one restaurant within 40 miles of me that doesn't serve meat. So if I want to go out with family and friends (and who doesn't!) then I have to eat an omni place.
lovenlight,
linz

[Ama]

Well how many restaurants are there, really, that don't serve ANY meat? I live near Northampton MA, one of the hippiest towns in the country, and there aren't any there. There are a few "vegetarian" restaurants that have more veg*n options than regular places, but I've yet to find one that was completely cruelty free.

[Thalia]

Even the "vegetarian" places I know of serve meat. Soul vegetarian is the only exception I know of.

But good to know about the minestrone. I will remember that.

[CharityAJO]

I think the point in eating at meat serving restuarants is so they see people *not* ordering the meat, and therefore include more meatless dishes on the menu.

[vegancherrypie]

Actually, there are a lot of non-meat serving restaurants (ie vegetarian restaurants) in this country. Lots. They just are usually all lumped into one area and the less vegetarian-friendly areas obviously don'thave any. Who'd want to open a restaurant that doesn't have any appeal to the people in that area? You'd run out of money long before the first year is up.

Cassie

[pickletatertot]

I'm another one who lives in the middle of nowhere. We are an hour from the nearest city of any size. I'd be hard pressed to find a selection of "non-meat serving" restaurants. We do have a small cafe that is owned by Seventh Day Adventist's.

Thanks for the info about Olive Garden!

[hopi100]

We've got a great vegetarian restaurant here in Tallahassee, Florida, with tons of vegan dishes, too -- it's called Higher Taste. It's wonderful. :)

[Feliner]

As another person who gets cornered into eating out with omni's when vegetarian fare isn't accepted or easily accessible, the Olive Garden always seemed like a "safe" place to find something veggie to eat. However, the staple in going there for me was the salad and bread sticks that you can order as a dish or that comes with any meal ordered. I found out the salad does NOT qualify as vegetarian, my best guess is anchovies or something like that, in the dressing? The FAQ on the OG website addresses these questions, vaguely.. here's what it says:
----------
Which menu selections are vegetarian?

A few of our menu items can be adjusted to accommodate a vegan or vegetarian diet, but none wholly meet the criteria. Depending on your personal philosophy, we can suggest the following items as meatless, but not necessarily vegetarian or vegan:

Minestrone soup (vegetable and mushroom base; no meat protein)
Garden Salad (without dressing)
Marinara Sauce (mushroom base; no meat protein)
Capellini Promodoro
Eggplant Parmigiana
Fettuccine Alfredo
---------

Notice the garden salad says "without dressing" and the breadsticks aren't mentioned. Groan. Basically nothing is vegan except perhaps salad without dressing (oh boy, take me there now!..lol).

I would agree supporting veg*n establishments is always best, but even in a big veg friendly city like Seattle.. the places are all in & around downtown, nothing is 24 hours a day and at times we just get sick of eating at one of a small handful of often pricey places, and it's never loads of fun dragging bitter relatives out to eat vegetarian, while they complain about having wasted their money and being unsatisfied. A lot of people are used to slapping down $5 for a full-meal-deal, sandwich, side & a drink. You'd be hard pressed to find a vegetarian place where $5 will even buy the sandwich part.. of course that's comparing fast food pricing to small business, it can't reasonably be done. Sigh.

[sushi8kat]

wait a second.. isn't olive garden's pasta not vegan because it contains eggs? or was this just about it being vegetarian?

[shatlav]

I posted about the soup not being vegetarian - which is what I was told by the waitress. I just called and asked out of curiousity - now I was told that it is completely vegetarian as well as the salad dressing. I even asked if there were eggs in the dressing (gross but most dressings have egg in them) and I was told that the dressing had no animal products including eggs. I guess the answer will be different depending on who you ask. I do feel better though.