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No, it isn't a fancy gourmet restaurant, but if you get a good location it's actually good food. If it's not a good location then it's very mediocre and not worth eating at, but the good ones are actually a nice place to eat pasta if you live in an area like mine with nothing else but Fazoli's or Pizza Hut for pasta.
Olive Garden only appeared after I left the USA, so I have no experience of eating there.
Having lived in Italy for a few years, I strongly suspect that I wouldn't enjoy eating in an Olive Garden as much as you do. I'm also certain that an Italian tourist who decided to eat in an Olive Garden would have many WTF moments when they saw the menu.
I know for a fact that American tourists in Italy also have many of those moments if they're brave and visit an Italian restaurant or pizzeria rather than sticking to McDonald's or what's on offer in their international chain hotel's restaurant.
I actually took someone's advice here and made my pasta more al dente and it really does make a difference, before my penne was mush in the bowl, now it has texture
I usually go out to eat for food I don't know how to cook or if it's like specialty, I much prefer my own sauce
Omg I love cooking & I have mad pasta tips. Cook it until it's almost unedibly aldente (still hard, like 2-3 min from done) & finish it IN the sauce. The pasta absorbs tons of flavor from the sauce & also put a scoop of the water used to boil the pasta in the sauce- the starch helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.
Ooh I'm definitely gonna try that next time I make pasta! That makes a lot of sense actually, there's hardly ever any sauce inside the noodles, I remember my aunt making pasta and it always having sauce inside; but she married Italian! 🇮🇹
Sometimes at the stove, I wonder if people thousands of years ago would consider it alchemy or something