An old favorite. I can't believe it's taken me this long to tell you what I think of the Olive Garden!

Well, in case you were wondering, I love it. You go there for continuous soup and salad, and soup and salad make a beautiful lunch. I usually have the veggie minestrone. By yourself or with some friends, it's a nice place, priced well, very neat and clean, and consistently good. The help is nice, too, and that's particularly important to me, because I am not the world's easiest customer. The bubbe has needs, and expects them to be met... with a smile!

But back to the food. The salads are very good, too, because they are very simple, and if you want more they automatically bring you more. Here's how we used to do it when we lived in Ventura County: Harry would have the soup, I would have the salad, and we'd eat our fill. It cut our expenses. Now I don't know if they knew we were switching plates when we got sick of one thing, or if they'd like it if they did know. I guess they must have known, but because the help is nice (which as you know is particularly important to me) no one ever said anything about it. Soup and salad is a very adequate lunch, and you'll find no more adequate one than at the Olive Garden. I think I'd like to go back some time, even though we eat very well at Hollenbeck. See you there!