A Detroit area customer discovered a little bonus protein in his soup:

https://wwmt.com/news/state/mi...oot-in-bowl-of-soup#

Just true rustic Italian food.

I'd say its more of a reason to avoid Detroit area restaurants.

Interesting tidbit from the end of the article.

"An inspection by the health department didn't happen until two days after Howie had found the rat's leg in his soup.

However, a company spokesperson for Olive Garden said a health inspection was done shortly after, and nothing was found to be in violation nor did the restaurant ever have issues with rats.

"We have no reason to believe there is any validity to this claim," said Rich Jeffers, a spokesperson for Olive Garden."

Did he order Ratatouille?

there is a Fed standard for the amount or percentage of critters allowed in food,

mouse/rat could have fell thru a machine at the processing plant (olive garden does little actual cooking in the restaurant , from what I have been told, )

or the customer could have done it,


we will never know

Due to my occupation I had the opportunity to a little field investigation on operations of a potential client. Long story short I was able to be in many restaurants. Olive Gardens shocked me the most.

There is absolutely NOTHING home made in Olive Garden. The few I was in really didn't even have a kitchen. All they had was big vats of hot water that they would hang the bags of various food products in to heat it up, and rows of microwaves.

That's right. They take the pasta, sauce, etc out of the appropriate bag, plate it, nuke it, serve it. Even the salads are made well in advance and stored in big coolers. All hot food items are prepared off site and shipped frozen or refrigerated to the restaurants.

quote:

Due to my occupation I had the opportunity to a little field investigation on operations of a potential client. Long story short I was able to be in many restaurants. Olive Gardens shocked me the most.

There is absolutely NOTHING home made in Olive Garden. The few I was in really didn't even have a kitchen. All they had was big vats of hot water that they would hang the bags of various food products in to heat it up, and rows of microwaves.

That's right. They take the pasta, sauce, etc out of the appropriate bag, plate it, nuke it, serve it. Even the salads are made well in advance and stored in big coolers. All hot food items are prepared off site and shipped frozen or refrigerated to the restaurants.

I seem to remember you discussing this before, if so that rat foot could have fallen in at a central facility, been missed and frozen, which means everyone that got soup from that batch had rat soup.. Ugggh....

Looking at it, the foot was clearly cooked in water for quite a while...

Man... that is just disgusting!! [insert puking emoji here]

I've heard Rightwire's story before from other sources. Olive Garden doesn't "cook"...they just reheat shit that's already prepared. And it is the most revolting excuse for Italian food on the planet. They should be ashamed of themselves and ANY self-respecting Italian would do better to stay home and crack a jar of Prego or Ragu.

Not sure about now, but my great nieces LOVED that place when they were little and wanted to go there for "special occasions". Hopefully they're over that, 'cuz next time they wanna go there it'll be a HARD PASS!!

HRK, you nailed it. Not only did every portion served out of that bag have a good dose of rat foot, but everything in the batch that got divided into the bags.

Who knows how many people, in how many restaurants ingested food that rat foot had floated in during prep.

Erj_Pilot - I see Olive Garden as being the Taco Bell (related to Mexican food) of Italian food. Very little if any connection other than name and theme.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
I see Olive Garden as being the Taco Bell (related to Mexican food) of Italian food.

PERFECT analogy!!!! [thumbs up!]

I guess some people think if you throw enough Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, and Sage in the pot and then top off your swill with Parmesan or Romano, you can call it "Italian". Not in my family's history!!!

quote:

Originally posted by HRK: …if so that rat foot could have fallen in at a central facility, been missed and frozen, which means everyone that got soup from that batch had rat soup.. Ugggh....

Another possibility is the patron brought the rat leg with him figuring he’d get a free meal, at the very least, and right up to the $25,000 he’s seeking in his lawsuit.

I think the last time my wife and I went to an Olive Garden had to be at least ten years ago--if not more.

OG used to be passable fare. No, not Real Italian™, but, passably good.

I guess maintaining even such a low bar was too much for OG, because, as of the last two times we'd visited it didn't even get over that bar.

Taco Bell's gone the same way. No, not Real Mexican or Tex-Mex, but, it was mostly passably good. Last time we went, after not having been to one in years, it sucked.

We haven't been back. We won't be back.

As if the terrible taste of the food isn't enough reason.

Olive Garden may not be the greatest food, but I have a hard time believing that.

Circa 2004 in Vegas, IIRC, somebody "found" a human thumb in Wendy's chili. It too was a scam. (I don't recall where the thumb came from, and am afraid to ask.)

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Another possibility is the patron brought the rat leg with him figuring he’d get a free meal, at the very least, and right up to the $25,000 he’s seeking in his lawsuit.

This. People are always trying to scam big corporations like that, figuring at the minimum they'll get free product and/or a little "shut up and go away" settlement money since that's often cheaper for the company than paying their lawyers to fight it.

Chicken foot soup is a delicacy. Why not rat foot soup?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK: …if so that rat foot could have fallen in at a central facility, been missed and frozen, which means everyone that got soup from that batch had rat soup.. Ugggh....

Another possibility is the patron brought the rat leg with him figuring he’d get a free meal, at the very least, and right up to the $25,000 he’s seeking in his lawsuit.

I guess that is possible. I'd think that if this was the case the guy would have dropped it in the soup and yelled "There is a foot in my soup". Not gone to the trouble of actually biting it, puncturing his mouth, vomiting all over, then having to seek medical attention.

I'm not big on saying OMG, but I must have said it out loud about 5 times while perusing that article. I went back to look at the pic as many times.

Yeah, 25k doesn't even begin to cut it. They should pay that and throw in some extra money for good measure. They need him to feel taken care of.

That said, I'm done. Never again.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
I guess that is possible. I'd think that if this was the case the guy would have dropped it in the soup and yelled "There is a foot in my soup". Not gone to the trouble of actually biting it, puncturing his mouth, vomiting all over, then having to seek medical attention.

If he had just said “Hey, there’s a foot in my soup!”, nobody would believe it. Even with the theatrics needed to sell the story, the waiter and presumably the manager still didn’t believe it. Why not? Because they know, like you and I do, that the food is all prepackaged slop and there’s no chance a rat leg was introduced into the food at the restaurant, unless it was the patron that did so.

The irony is, I might actually believe it got into the food before it got to the restaurant if all he did was say “Hey, there’s a rat leg in my soup!” But did you see the size of that thing? There’s not a chance that makes it from the tiny, little, stamped steel, Olive Garden soupspoon into my mouth. I’m glad he was able to snap a picture, what with all that puncturing, vomiting and such. That’s all part of his story.

Also part of his story is he went to the urgent care and got a tetanus shot. Maybe one of our resident doctors could answer this: Would a tetanus shot be warranted for a puncture inside the mouth from a boiled to shit rat leg? I’m pretty sure if it got into the food outside of the restaurant, it’s been boiled to shit by Olive Garden and that would kill the spores from the bacteria that cause tetanus.

Then there’s this nugget:
“In the weeks and months after, he suffered from increased anxiety and depression, felt like he couldn't eat meat, and stopped going to restaurants unless he could see the food being prepared.”

I don’t believe it one bit (or bite?) and it causes me to question the entire story which of course is the guy and his lawyer’s story looking for that $25,000 payday.

But hey, it got clicks and we got to bash Olive Garden; as if we needed another reason.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:

Erj_Pilot - I see Olive Garden as being the Taco Bell (related to Mexican food) of Italian food. Very little if any connection other than name and theme.

I had not been to Taco Bell in a few years. A couple of months ago we were driving to Florida. After a long day of driving, I was too tired to look for a good place to eat. There was a Taco Bell right next to our hotel, so I went there.

The food was vile and disgusting. Even though I was famished, I ended up not finishing it and tossed it. It was better to go hungry than try to eat that sewage.

To add insult to injury, my credit card got hacked that night. I'm pretty sure it was the girl at Taco Bell who did it.