- Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo are two of the most popular chain restaurants serving pasta.
- We ate similar meals at both restaurants to see which is more worth the dough, and we were impressed by Buca di Beppo's kitschy charm and mostly tasty food.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .
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We ate similar meals at Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo and found the smaller pasta chain crushed the competition
Valentine's Day is upon us, and nothing says romance like sharing a plate of spaghetti.
lady and the tramp 11
It's almost Valentine's Day, and nothing says classic romance like sharing a big plate of pasta.
But not every town is lucky enough to have a red-sauce joint of its own. For many this Friday, that special spaghetti dinner will be shared at their favorite Italian-ish chain restaurant.
Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo are two of America's most popular Italian-American restaurant chains. So for this Valentine's Day, Business Insider sent me and Priscilla Zhu, retail's visual features fellow, out on a carb-filled mission to eat similar meals at both and find out which is better.
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Here's which pasta place is more worth your dough.
On a rainy Monday morning, we took the subway to the Olive Garden in Times Square, New York. Olive Garden has hundreds of locations across America.
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We entered a gloomy, dimly lit lower level and were directed to a long, narrow escalator.
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The elevator took us several stories up to the main dining area.
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Upstairs was actually remarkably spacious, bright, and comfortable, if sterile. The expansive windows had an incredible view of Times Square.
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Here and there, there were pictures of Italy on the wall. Otherwise, this Olive Garden could have been a generic cafeteria.
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We were overwhelmed by the massive menu, which included lunch specials. Eventually, we settled on two lemonades, an appetizer sampler, soup and salad, a Tour of Italy, and a chocolate brownie lasagna for dessert.
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Our soup, salad, and breadsticks came out first. They looked kind of sad. But before we could say "soggy," our appetizers came out, too.
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The sampler ($17.29) comes with a choice of three appetizers. We chose calamari, mozzarella sticks, and lasagna fritta.
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All prices are pre-tax and accurate to the Times Square location of Olive Garden that we went to.
I was surprised by how good the calamari tasted. Although tiny, they were crispy enough and not too tough.
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They were salty, but the tangy marinara mitigated their salty bite.
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Lasagna fritta is fried lasagna. Its not very Italian as far as Im aware, and to pretend otherwise feels disingenuous. Its also embarrassing to say out loud.
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It was as weird as youd expect fried lasagna to be, but surprisingly, I didnt hate it.
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There was plenty of creamy ricotta inside to contrast with the crispy, doughy exterior. However, Im not sold on the texture of fried pasta.
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The mozzarella sticks were more like mozzarella rectangles.
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They were lightly breaded outside and melty on the inside.
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The gooey cheese gave us everything we wanted from a mozzarella stick.
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Olive Gardens salad ($10.99 with soup) is a pretty standard house salad with romaine lettuce, croutons, and an assortment of basic vegetables, all drenched in Italian dressing.
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Its unlimited, which is a bonus for some. But a bite of the salad might have revealed why Olive Garden just gives it away.
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Theres pretty much nothing of interest or value in the salad. Its like eating water.
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The zuppa toscana was largely the same story.
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It was simultaneously watery and oversalted. Priscilla said shed expected it to be creamier. There were also mushy bits of bacon fat floating around.
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The massive chunks of potato were unwieldy and tasted like theyd been tossed in as an afterthought.
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As we waited for our main course, we went for Olive Gardens most beloved staple: the breadstick (free!).
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They, too, are light as air and come with endless refills.
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But these oily, lightly seasoned breadsticks are somehow endlessly eatable.
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Give me a basket of these and a cup of hot marinara, and Ill be happy as a clam in linguine.
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Olive Gardens lemonades were surprisingly good. (They cost $4.75, and Olive Garden calls them "limonatas," but I had to draw the line somewhere.)
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I got kiwi melon and Priscilla got blueberry. These lightly carbonated, fruity drinks were the perfect amount of sweet.
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They were our favorite part of the meal.
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Finally, our Tour of Italy ($26.79) arrived: chicken parmesan, alfredo pasta, and lasagna.
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We divvied up the goods.
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For the hefty price tag, the portions were pretty meager. The tour was a series of disappointment after disappointment.
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The fettuccine alfredo was just creamy pasta. Though not quite good, it was alright.
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But the chicken parmesan actually tasted bad.
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It was dry, overcooked, and oversalted, and neither the tomato sauce nor the cheese added much flavor.
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Thankfully, the lasagna was pleasantly average. It had neither offensive nor outstanding flavors. It just was.
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That made it far superior to its compatriots. Id be satisfied with this lasagna if I were a college student and it was served at my dining hall.
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Thats not saying much, though. College me had really low standards for food. If it tasted bad, I just doused it in spicy sauce. Sadly, I didnt have that option here.
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From the outside, it may look like tiramisu. But on the inside, its pure American sugar death.
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On the ninth day, someone woke up and said, "but what if brownies were lasagna?" Thus, the chocolate brownie lasagna ($10.49) was born.
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The layers of frosting are thankfully not just sugar and butter, but sugar and cream cheese.
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The result is a cloying bite of sweet with a touch of sour and a hint of existential despair.
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Priscilla and I had the exact same reaction to this confounded concoction: "What the heck?"
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After wed tried a bit of everything, our stomachs were left feeling queasy. But we still went back for some more calamari.
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The meal, however, perked up at the end when the mints arrived. We stuffed our pockets like greedy children and waddled our way home.
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The next day, we broke out our umbrellas and made our way to Buca di Beppo, also in Times Square.
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This Buca was situated on the third floor of a building with a Planet Hollywood in it.
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Even though it was nearly 1 pm when we arrived, the place was nearly empty.
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It looked like the kind of red-sauce restaurant you dream of eating at when youre an immigrant kid whose parents dont know what spaghetti is.
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The walls were plastered with posters of Italian film stars, old news clippings, and other memorabilia.
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The ceiling was covered with empty wine bottles, all over which previous guests had scribbled messages.
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We ordered soup and salad, lasagna, and chicken parmesan from the one-page lunch menu, as well as an appetizer platter and tiramisu off the dinner menu.
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After a while, the waiter came out with our soup and salad, lasagna, and chicken parm with fettuccine alfredo.
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The soup of the day ($12.00 with salad) was tomato basil. Compared to Olive Gardens watery mess, this looked creamy and promising.
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All prices are pre-tax and accurate to the Times Square location of Buca di Beppo that we went to.
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But although it was rich and tart, it was also saltier than Leonardo DiCaprio after his latest Oscar loss.
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Unlike Olive Garden, Bucas salad doesnt come with endless refills.
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It comes with slightly nicer ingredients and presentation, but otherwise its largely the same deal: greens, dressing, and a dash of color.
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Soon enough, our waiter ferried out a giant plate of our appetizers: the Buca Trio Platter ($35). Buca, youre not fooling anyone with those cast iron pans.
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But the calamari won over the skeptic in me.
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It was crispy outside and soft inside, with a juicier, more flavorful bite than Olive Gardens calamari.
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The spicy shrimp was also surprisingly good.
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It was crunchy and garlicky with the perfect amount of spicy.
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If I thought Olive Gardens mozzarella rectangles were weird, Buca went the extra mile and gave us mozzarella triangles.
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But the proof is in the pull.
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Oily, lightly battered skin cracked apart to reveal dense, elastic mozzarella that just kept going ...
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... and going ...
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... and going.
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We moved onto the chicken parmesan and fettuccine alfredo ($16).
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Our disastrous "tour of Italy" at the Garden had left us with low expectations.
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But wrongfully so. Bucas alfredo is denser, creamier, and altogether tastier than its counterpart at Olive Garden.
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The chicken parmesan also outdid its hockey puck of a predecessor.
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It was tender, juicy, and cheesy, with a delicate layer of crispy breading.
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It was easily the best main on the table.
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The lasagna ($15) was a different story. It came with a thick hat of mysterious white stuff we assumed was cheese.
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But the cheese and the pasta were dry and dense. They tasted like they had been reheated from frozen.
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However, it was saved by the lip-smacking meat sauce, which every immigrant child whose parents cant cook spaghetti dreams of.
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Speaking of spaghetti, we couldnt help ourselves. So, we ordered a plate of it ($15).
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On top of the sprawling mound of spaghetti was the biggest meatball I had ever seen.
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But to be honest, the spaghetti was more appealing on the plate than it was in my mouth.
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The meatball, while tender, juicy, and very large, didnt taste like much of anything. It could have benefited from some of the salt in the tomato bisque.
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The tomato sauce, too, was lacking flavor. After the impressive meat sauce on the lasagna, Id expected more.
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We finished up our meal with a family-sized serving of tiramisu ($18), or as Olive Garden would call it, espresso cake lasagna.
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Like everything else in this meal, the tiramisu was insanely rich. The mascarpone cheese tasted like butter.
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Priscilla and I agreed that we wished the layers of espresso-soaked cake were thicker. But, overall, we were pleased that the tiramisu wasnt overpoweringly sweet.
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At Buca, we were impressed by the plentiful pasta, impressive appetizers, and warm, welcoming atmosphere.
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Priscillas takeaway: "This is what I was imagining when you told me we were going to try Italian restaurants."
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As we packed our leftovers into takeout tins, our takeaway was clear. Given the choice between Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo, wed choose the second in a heartbeat.
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SEE ALSO: I ate the same meal at Texas Roadhouse, Outback Steakhouse, and LongHorn Steakhouse. Here's how they compared.
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