Author Topic: Anyone know any pizzerias which are popular but serving bad pizza? (Read 5088 times)

PizzaVera · « **Reply #40 on:** April 09, 2012, 10:00:51 PM »

Quote from: parallei on April 09, 2012, 09:34:35 PM

Far be it from me to put words in Mr. Deas' mouth, but I think he means, and I agree, that all parts of the world have their own exceptional foods........

ohh right, yes makes sense.

AimlessRyan · « **Reply #41 on:** April 11, 2012, 07:34:32 PM »

Buca di Beppo. This is more about their entire menu than just their crappy pizza, I guess, but that place sucks. I don't know how they've managed to trick tons of people into thinking they're some kind of "authentic" Italian restaurant.

Don K · « **Reply #42 on:** April 11, 2012, 08:14:25 PM »

Quote from: AimlessRyan on April 11, 2012, 07:34:32 PM

Buca di Beppo. This is more about their entire menu than just their crappy pizza, I guess, but that place sucks. I don't know how they've managed to trick tons of people into thinking they're some kind of "authentic" Italian restaurant.

+1

DNA Dan · « **Reply #43 on:** April 12, 2012, 11:44:10 AM »

Quote from: Colonel_Klink on April 11, 2012, 08:14:25 PM

+1

+2

We went to a BDB in a predominantly hispanic town and I swear the tomato sauce tasted like a salsa. Hints of jalapeno, cayenne and an overpowering pepper flavor. Since when does authentic tomato sauce have heat to it? I think they've totally taken the "wholesome" and "simple" approach to italian cooking and bastardized it. Olive Garden is not too far behind. I would not have been surprised to see churros at the table instead of breadsticks.

Maggiano's Little Italy used to be good for Italian, but my last experience there was only so-so. The quality of the product has dropped significantly since they are trying to squeeze more margins out of diners having the family style menu.

Pizzamaster · « **Reply #44 on:** April 13, 2012, 04:15:17 AM »

Olive Garden is horrible. Carrabas is pretty awful too.

AimlessRyan · « **Reply #45 on:** April 13, 2012, 11:30:41 AM »

Believe me, Olive Garden was also very present in my mind when I mentioned Buca di Beppo. Olive Garden's level of ineptitude and suckitude truly blows my mind, but I didn't list it because I don't think they have pizza on their menu. Never been to Carrabas.

DNA Dan · « **Reply #46 on:** April 13, 2012, 11:40:57 AM »

I had a "white" pizza at olive garden before. ~~I'm pretty sure they still have it on the menu.~~ Yes they sell pizza. It was the "chicken alfredo". It was something like a California Pizza Kitchen/Pre-frozen reheated thing. I really hate the WFO ripoff style that comes soggy and undercooked.

Don K · « **Reply #47 on:** April 13, 2012, 12:59:40 PM »

-1 Olive Garden

I have to somewhat disagree about Olive Garden. While it is certainly not my favorite restaurant, I can't call it "horrible." As far as their pizza goes, OK it is horrible, but there are some things on the menu that I really like. The Ravioli di Portobello is very good. Is it really authentic Italian fare? Probably not, but if it tastes good, who cares? I get authentic Italian meals at home. My wife is Italian, and she learned how to cook from her grandmother who was an Italian immigrant. I don't expect to get authentic Italian food from a chain restaurant, but IMO Olive Garden does a much better job than Carrabbas or Bucca di Beppos.

As far as Bucca di Beppos goes, I think that it's a great concept but the problem is that the food stinks and the service is even worse.

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #48 on:** April 13, 2012, 04:17:18 PM »

It's a shame you guys didn't get to try Carrabbas back when there were just two of them here in Houston. They were actually pretty good restaurants. It's a shame what they have become. Even the original ones are pretty bad now.

Don K · « **Reply #49 on:** April 13, 2012, 04:42:27 PM »

Yeah, Carrabbas was good years ago when they first came to our area too. We used to go about once a month. But the last few times were not good at all. It seems that the only seasoning that they now use is salt. No garlic, oregano, basil, etc., that you expect in Italian food, just salt and lots of it.

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #50 on:** April 13, 2012, 04:43:33 PM »

Quote from: Colonel_Klink on April 13, 2012, 04:42:27 PM

Yeah, Carrabbas was good years ago when they first came to our area too. We used to go about once a month. But the last few times were not good at all. It seems that the only seasoning that they use is salt. No garlic, oregano, basil, etc., that you expect in Italian food, just salt and lots of it.

The chain stores were never like the original two - not even the same menu.

Pizzamaster · « **Reply #51 on:** April 20, 2012, 04:33:04 AM »

Oh yeah we have a Buca di Beppo near us. Talk about crap food. Gotta give Olive Garden props for one thing. They are masters of taking the same sauce, putting it on 25 different shapes of pasta and calling it something new. And Carrabas used to be pretty good. They had this chicken trio that was awesome.

AimlessRyan · « **Reply #52 on:** April 22, 2012, 02:23:47 PM »

Ever since I mentioned Buca di Beppo here, Buca di Beppo ads have been showing up on my Facebook page. Hmmm.

Can't believe this didn't occur to me earlier, but I'm gonna have to answer the question again. Question: Anyone know any pizzerias which are popular but serving bad pizza? Answer: Yes. Pretty much every large chain, or maybe even every chain with more than a few units. It's almost impossible to expand beyond one unit without sacrificing quality in a bunch of ways, and for a bunch of reasons.

Alan23 · « **Reply #53 on:** July 05, 2012, 07:53:03 PM »

It's probably fun to moan about the public taste once in a while, but as endeavors go, it's pretty hopeless.

I once saw a stat in some business text stating that product quality counts for about 14% of a product's success. I can't vouch for the number but I can vouch for its minority.

We all know that you can make a masterpiece or you can make money, but the likelihood of doing both is about the same as a lottery ticket's winning. The people who want to make money (we know who they are) set out with the goal of making money and you could give them any product and they'd do the same things and they'd make money.

Looking at the bright side, the people who would have never gone to Nino's or Bay and Goodman in 1975 are getting pulled into the pizza habit by the Dominos of the world, and who's to say that some of them mightn't get adventurous some day and try something that the initiates enjoy.

"A"

pizzaneer · « **Reply #54 on:** July 05, 2012, 09:56:58 PM »

Resurrecting the old rant thread!

I'm going to note that in word-of-mouth advertising ALL restaurants suffer when the original cook steps down and hands over the control to either a protege or a replacement. The real reason the place had any lasting popularity in the first place was the food.

Riding the hype wave has become a trademark of trendy food establishments that NEED to be seen as "young" and "cool" - if they lose that, they die, because their food just isn't worth paying outrageous prices for. Why do people listen to that hype crap? Because they have voluntarily replaced their own critical thinking with TV advertisements. If more people actually thought about what they were told, they would seek the truth... as Craig pointed out in his hilarious, absolutely stellar rewrite of A Few Good Men/Pizzaolos.

Don K · « **Reply #55 on:** July 06, 2012, 12:09:23 AM »

I almost forgot about Romeo's. I think that they are pretty much just an Ohio chain but they have quite a few locations. They are very popular in my area. I know people that rave about their pizza and say that they would never consider ordering from anywhere else. They have a very loyal and almost cult-like following.

To say that their sauce is sweet would be the understatement of the year. I'm surprised that their sauce doesn't harden like candy in the oven! I for one can't stand sweet sauce, but this stuff takes it to a whole new level.

If I were to make a list of pizza joints in my area, in order of how likely I would be to order from them, Romeo's would be dead last. There must be a market for pizza candy though because they seem to do fairly well. To each his own.

waltertore · « **Reply #56 on:** July 06, 2012, 08:15:47 PM »

every pie I have tried in Ohio is bad in comparision to what I raised on in the NYC area. I think it is all what you are use to. Walter

Don K · « **Reply #57 on:** July 06, 2012, 09:25:13 PM »

I don't know Walter, I have lived in Ohio all of my life and, with a few exceptions, every pie that I've tried in NYC was better than what I'm used to in Ohio.

waltertore · « **Reply #58 on:** July 06, 2012, 10:23:35 PM »

Quote from: Colonel_Klink on July 06, 2012, 09:25:13 PM

I don't know Walter, I have lived in Ohio all of my life and, with a few exceptions, every pie that I've tried in NYC was better than what I'm used to in Ohio.

Where do you live? I am in Granville. I teach at Newark High School and my program teaches special needs students life/vocational skills via a brand new commerical kitchen that includes 2 classic blodgett 1000 pizza ovens I scored. We sell home made dog biscuits, pizzas, breads, baked goods, to the staff and community. The ovens should be hooked up in a couple weeks. If you want to cook some real pizzas (real from my backround) come on out to my classroom this summer. I have to get the feel for these ovens and no better way to do so than make a bunch of pizzas and breads. Walter

here is a link to my new classroom before I had the blodgetts brought in.
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/waltertore/my%20new%20classroom/

here are a few pictures of the ovens, my students making pies, and a cheese pie made in our residential oven.

DNA Dan · « **Reply #59 on:** July 06, 2012, 11:43:46 PM »

There's pizza in Ohio