In the U.S., we treat Italian food like a personality trait. But if you’ve ever traveled to Italy, you know the food there doesn’t look, or taste, anything like what you get at Olive Garden.
Think fettuccine alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread on the side… none of it’s standard fare in Italy. And dishes like chicken or veal parm don’t even exist there.
One tourist found that out the hard way.
“It doesn’t exist in Italy?”
TikTok creator Gabby Donahue (@gabbydonahuee) posted a video of her father at a restaurant in Italy trying to order chicken parm. Not by name, but by showing the waiter a photo of the dish on his phone.
“My Boston Irish father trying to order a Google image of the Olive Garden chicken parm in Italy,” Gabby wrote in the video’s text overlay.
The waiter looked at it for a second and shook his head.
“Only in the States,” he said. “It doesn’t exist in Italy.”
Gabby’s dad couldn’t believe it. “It doesn’t exist in Italy?”
@gabbydonahuee @Olive Garden ‘s biggest fan 😭😭😭😭 #italy #cultureshock #chickenparm #olivegarden ♬ original sound – Gabby Donahue
“I don’t know what it is… on the pasta?” the waiter asked, trying to make sense of the photo.
“Yeah,” the dad replied.
Then came his honest opinion, “No. That’s horrible.”
Gabby’s dad laughed. “Horrible? Wow. Look at that. That doesn’t…”
The waiter cut in again: “That looks good… but.”
“It does look good,” her dad said. “It tastes good. I’ll tell you what, I’m gonna mail you some. I’ll send it to you.”
The waiter smiled. “Okay? Olive Garden chicken… I’m gonna search…”
People loved the waiter’s blunt but polite honesty.
“‘No, that looks good’ while looking completely disgusted was the most Italian reaction ever,” one person wrote.
Another added, “Olive Garden chicken parm is actually horrid.”
Someone else said what many American tourists eventually realize: “Imagine my surprise when I went to Italy and found out my FAVORITE Italian food—chicken alfredo—isn’t actually Italian.”
And one person joked, “Bro remembered halfway through his disgust that he’s at work.”
“You know he was so excited to go to Italy to get Olive Garden cuisine from the motherland,” someone else quipped.
