Rickf178 said:This same meal less than a year ago was $4.99 and now a whopping $8.99 I can not afford it like I use to eat 2 or 3 times a week, No More.

Last year it was 7.95, we were a little happy to see the price go up a buck. I think it should be 10.99 but a buck is better then nothing.

do they have unlimited meatballs and so on this time too?

Is this your family?

AceNJ said:I went to my local OG with my entire family of 17 and we all feasted on this deal. It was about an hour before OG closes when after the 7th round or so, OG said they ran out of pasta. WTF!?!?! I complained and told them I won't pay the bill for false advertising. So we all got out without paying a cent. Now that's a fat deal!

Moral of the story? Bring as many people as possible and try to make them run out of pasta near closing time!! hahaha

I left the server a tip of $20. I think that was nice of me. More than $1 per person.

Last year I went with my old coworkers and it was great. We'll be having another 'reunion' there tomorrow night as well. I'm looking forward to it! Not looking forward to feeling like barfing after eating 4 bowls of pasta though

tzilla said:just a thought..

i have not been at OG in few months..and noticed they have increased prices for all within less than a year.. also they have reduced the protions.. also if you buy kids meals dessert was part of the meal now it's not..

OMG, did they also do away with the BOG4 offer.

Awesome - I love their vegetarian vegetable soup. Will smuggle in my own cheap chianti.

Thanks Opie! I love pasta
Now...after the meal, where can I find a Never Ending Pepto-Bismol deal?

FYI...It is a "larry" chair, and kid's meals never included dessert in the time I worked there.

When I go out to eat
Is it too much for me to
EXPECT
to be served and not pay extra for it.

pdiggity said:watjac92 said:yesidonoitall said:Any servers here?

Why do you have the attitude you are deserving of a big tip.
Convince me I even owe you one.
Do you give no service to a known non tipper or the known $1.00 tipper.

Yeah its kind of weird but we serve to make money, not too be nice or for charity. They pay us 3.09 per hour as it is expected that we'll be tipped, and most people do tip us at least 15%, we aren't even allowed to claim, for tax purposes, less than 10% of our sales at the end of the day. So you saying you are barely going to tip is just plain pathetic. I never said I was deserving of a big tip but 10-20% isn't a big tip. Its normal and average. This pasta bowl and the soup and salad brings out all the cheapskates who either can't afford to tip(so they shouldn't be coming out as tipping is part of our culture) or are too cheap to tip.

Exactly, my point proven. You expect the pasta bowl customers to be cheapskates, thus you treat them as such -- yet at the same time you have this elitist mentality that you somehow deserve 15% tips as standard policy. If you had 4 tables per hour of just pasta bowl customers, $20 a couple -- that's $15 an hour wage. Folks digging ditches might make $10 an hour, and it's harder work. For the most part, servers are overpaid for what they do IMHO - I worked in the tip earning realm years ago, and all I heard is people bitching about crappy customers, crappy tips, etc.. it reflected in their work, and in turn was reflected in their earnings -- I never complained, treated everyone the same, and never expected anything - guess what, I always did quite well.

Give me a break, of course people are going to be more motivated when they feel like they're going to be compensated for extra work. Olive Garden is getting a decent deal on this and the servers don't, so there's no reason to get huffy when someone says they're not crazy about having to work through the promo. Olive Garden is serving on average a little more of a high-margin food to gain volume, but the servers are being asked to on average double or triple the amount of work at a table (based on the average 1-2 refilles) for a little over half the average bill.

Is it their job? Yes! But taken into context that the complaints about working this deal spikes after a person bragged about bringing 17 people out for 7 plates for food (17 x 7 = 119 plates served not counting breadsticks and salad), got it comped, and still only tipped what would have been 13% ($20 / (17 x $9) = 13.07%. That server probably did enough work to earn a little more than slightly below customary tipping- if I were a server I'd probably be miffed too.