- Today Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo
go breadstick to breadstick.
- Let's talk about that.
(upbeat music)
Good mythical morning.
- Unless I'm mistaken, the Olive Garden slogan
is "Olive Garden, when you're here,
"should you be somewhere else"
- I've thought that.
Of course I've also been to Buca di Beppo
and I thought the same thing.
(both laughing)
- And as two of the most ubiquitous
Italian restaurants on the planet,
today we're gonna pit 'em against each other
head to head and find out which is better.
- Okay, so for a cuisine with so much meat,
you'd think there would be some beef between
these two competing chains. - Ha, ha, ha!
- But their social media accounts
were fairly devoid of any fightin' words,
- Mm hmm. - So that's why
we got involved.
We tweeted, "Hey Buca di Beppo,
"Olive Garden told us your name should be Buca Di MEH-po
"because your entire menu is nothing but MEH!
"Any response?"
- To which Buca di Beppo did respond with a scathing,
"Happy to know we're living rent free in your heads!."
- (laughing) Oh-ho, that was directed us.
- Yeah, yah.
- Well touche Mr. Di Beppo.
(both laughing)
Then in an attempt to stir up even more drama,
we tweeted, "Hey Olive Garden,
"Buca di Beppo told us that you source your ingredients
"from the dumpster of a mall food court Sbarro.
"Is that true?"
To which Olive Garden said nothing.
(Link laughing)
And Buca di Beppo replied,
- [Both] "Nope."
(both laughing)
- Oh man, clearly these two Italian behemoths
cannot stand each other.
- (chuckles) Yeah.
- It's time for Food Feuds
Olive Garden versus Buca di Beppo.
We're gonna taste and compare popular items
from each restaurant and rate them on a scale of one to 10.
We're going to add that up, right?
We do add them up. - Yeah we do.
- And then the restaurant with most points
will be crowned Papa Italiano.
And will win a chance to sponsor a future GMM episode.
- You know you want that.
And as always, we sent a mythical crew member
to each restaurant to pick up our order.
Stevie, are they back yet.
- [Stevie] Guys you won't, you won't believe it,
but there's been a, a delay.
The good news is that I have pre-dialed each representative
from each restaurant and they're on the line now.
Uh, guys can you give us some kind of update please?
- [VOICE] Uh, hi. Bun Jorno Sig-nor-ays.
Uh, this is Buca dirk Beppo.
How can I help you?
- Dirk - For some reason,
I'm not surprised.
Hey Dirk, it's your boy, Rhett.
I'm just checking in on my order. It's late.
- [Voice] Oh, hey Rhett.
Oh, it's so good to hear from you again.
Listen, I-I know your, your food is running late,
but please do not complain to my manager.
I-I accidentally broke a framed photo of the Pope
and he is not happy about it.
(crew laughs)
- Hey, listen, I don't even know your manager.
I'm not gonna complain to him.
I just want to know what's the ETA on the food?
- [VOICE] It should be v-very soon.
It's, it's on its way.
It's comin', but, but ru-Rhutt, can I say somethin'?
- Okay. Yeah. What is it, Dirk?
- [VOICE] I like our little talks.
(crew laughs)
- Me too, Dirk. I feel exactly the same way.
Uh. - [VOICE] Oh, good. Yay!
- Okay bye Dirk!
(crew laughs)
- Can we get Olive Garden on the line?
'Cause that's not here either.
- [VOICE] Hello? This is former Popeyes employee, Patty.
Thank you for calling Olive Garden.
When you're here, you're family. What do you want?
- That's it. So live. - Hey, Patty.
It's-it's Link again.
- [VOICE] Sir, you really have to stop stalking me.
You have a wife and children.
- How do you know I have a wife and kids?
It sounds like maybe you're the one stalking me.
- [VOICE] Uh, I just did a very light Google search.
Uh, besides. - Exactly.
- [VOICE] I'm spoken for.
Dirk gave me a promise ring at the virtual homecoming dance.
Can I help you with something?
- Uh, well, I'm curious.
How do you like working at the Olive Garden?
- [VOICE] (groans) It's okay.
There's grapes hanging everywhere,
but don't try to eat them.
They're plastic. Olive Garden is a liar!
(Rhett and Link laughing)
- Well, w-where's our food?
- [VOICE] Oh, uh, the guy says he dropped it off
like 10 minutes ago.
Geez, bye!
- Okay. - Bye!
- Okay, so we've got the food. Well, let's eat it.
(bell rings) (jazzy music)
- Salada.
- [Stevie] On Rhett's side,
we have Olive Garden's signature salad and breadsticks.
Both items are offered for free with the order of an entree,
but to order the house salad on its own, it costs $7.79.
And if you want extra breadsticks
for takeaway orders, that costs $4.49.
And on Link's side, we have Buca di Beppo's
mozzarella garlic bread, which goes for $15
and is notably not endless.
And their mixed green salad, which is $13.
We'll note that most items at Buca di Beppo are served
family style and intended for sharing.
And all the pricing that we're talking about
is from the closest location to us,
'cause it does differ apparently throughout the U S.
- Oh, this is complicated. I mean, yeah.
When I think Buca di Beppo, I think quantity.
And when I think Olive Garden,
I just think... - Olive Garden.
- (chuckles) Olive Garden.
Now these breadsticks, I think.
- They're good.
- There's no croutons on the salad,
but when you got the breadstick,
why do you need the crouton?
- This lettuce is higher quality.
- [Link] Yeah, this salad.
- This salad, it's got more stuff going on than this salad.
- More flavorful.
- This bread. Look at the cheese on this.
- [Link] This looks good. It looks much better than this.
- Oh wow.
- Does it taste much better?
- [Rhett] Way better.
- It's still very garlicy.
- That's garlic bread.
- But cheesy.
- I love some garlic bread.
- [Link] That is strong!
I'm gonna give the Olive Garden
breadstick salad combo. - Five.
- Five. (bell rings)
- Yeah. - Yep.
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna give this a...
- It's a seven. - I totally agree.
Also a seven. (bell rings)
- There you go, five and seven, boys.
I gotta eat one of these straight up, though.
(jazzy music)
- [Stevie] On Rhett's side
is Olive Garden's Chicken Alfredo, which costs $19.49.
And on Link's side is Buca di Beppo's
Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, which is again,
presented in family style portions.
This is the small, which costs $36,
but as it's meant to feed three people
that makes it $12 per person.
- $12 per person? - [Rhett] That's good.
- Yeah, very, very creamy, very rich.
- The chicken has a nice... - [Link] Sear.
- Sear on it, yeah.
Wow, and I really liked the ch- the fettuccine,
I mean the cheese, - Yeah.
- The Alfredo sauce is very good.
- Yeah because it's thick, very flavorful.
- I'm going chicken only to begin with.
- Yeah, now that the chicken at Buco is smaller pieces.
There's not, it doesn't have that pleasing-to-the-eye sear.
- I don't know. I'm not an expert.
It tastes like it's been frozen.
- That is not a good chicken.
- The chicken is sub par compared to Olive Garden
in a big way.
- The sauce has nothing to talk about either.
- Wow. This is a, - [Link] Dramatic difference.
- There's a substantial difference.
This is an eight for me.
- (clears throat) Yeah, it's.
- I'm eatin' another piece of chicken, 'cause I'm here.
Why not? - I no, but
when you're talking about like
the best Italian food you can get,
you're not talking about these places.
And you know that. We know that.
That's why I feel like, even if I love this,
I can't give it a 10 - Oh yeah.
- Or a nine, so I'm giving it an eight.
(bell rings) We are in agreement.
I'm giving this a five.
- I'm going lower than that, friend, four.
- I'm not gonna argue.
(bell rings) (jazzy music)
- Hey, go over to the Mythical Kitchen Channel
because Fancy Fast Food is back with brand new episodes.
There's a new one that's up this week.
You gotta check that out.
And every Thursday, you can cook along
with Josh, Nicole, and Trevor in the Mythical Kitchen.
- And they also have a podcast, "A Hot Dog is a Sandwich,"
where you can hear them discuss
your favorite, controversial food opinions.
Listen to it wherever you get podcasts.
- Mythical Kitchen, good stuff.
- [Stevie] It's Ziti time.
- [Rhett And Link] Ziti Time!
- [Stevie] On Rhett's side, (chuckles)
we have Olive Garden's Five-Cheese Ziti al Forno
which comes in at $17.49.
On Link's side, we have Buca di Beppo's Baked Ziti,
which is $14 for an individual serving or $32
for a family size serving for three,
which is $11 per person.
- Now this has got a ricotta dollop on it.
- Ricotta dollop?
- And this has got like a, a sprinkling.
- [Rhett] Five cheese. Five cheeses.
- Not, yeah, and. - Count 'em!
- [Link] There's a one.
I, a two. - Yep.
Maybe I see two.
- (chuckles) Okay.
So you're saying they're lying.
- Count, count the ricotta dollops.
- [Rhett] One.
- I'm going.
- I'm getting some of the ricotta dollop.
- I'm going hard on that ricotta dollop.
It's got mozzarella, ricotta.
- Okay, there's not as huge of a difference
between these two as there was the last dish.
- The cheese flavor,
- But the cheese flavor on Olive Garden
- is bringing it.
- [Rhett] It's way better.
- And there's a lot more sauce over here too.
I think this is dramatically better.
- I am tasting all five cheeses.
- And if you'd like a ricotta dollop,
it's only gonna last you so long.
I'm experiencing anxiety
over trying to distribute my ricotta dollop
a little bit through every bite.
- Yeah, you don't want to do that.
- It's not going to work.
- And think about when you're sharing it.
- Because this becomes "blahnd".
This is, this is kind of,
(crew laughs)
- It's what? - "Blahnd."
- It's "blehnd"?
- It's getting tasteless, man.
- This is actually getting better the more I eat it.
- Yeah, and this is getting worse
because the ricotta dollop is getting smaller and smaller.
- That's a really solid seven for me.
- Uh, I'm gonna give it a six (bell rings)
but I'm gonna give this a four.
- I'm also gonna. - Three!
I'm gonna give it a three.
- I'm gonna give it a four. (bell rings)
I'll give a four. You give it a (indistinct)
(jazzy music)
- [Stevie] And finally, dessert.
On Rhett's side is Olive Garden's
Sicilian cheesecake with strawberry sauce,
which will cost you $8.79.
- Sicilian, huh?
- [Stevie] Mm hmm. (chuckles)
And on Link's side is Buca di Beppo's
Homemade Cheesecake with raspberry sauce,
sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts, which costs $15.
- That is more impr-. This looks more impressive.
That just tastes like regular old cheesecake.
I mean, it's not bad. It's good.
- Mm, yeah, uh, it is good, but it's nothing to rave about.
- But the sauce on here and the fact that there's hazelnuts,
I gotta get some hazelnuts.
- [Link] Here, I'll dump some over for you.
- [Rhett] And the whole thing just kind of came apart on me.
- [Link] Yeah, is it, is it, is it powdery?
- What are you, what is missing over there?
- Where? - Something incredibly
- My eyes were closed so I couldn't hear you.
- Something incredibly important
is missing from that cheesecake.
- Uh, (chuckling) it doesn't have a crust.
- It doesn't have a crust.
- [Link] What the crap?
- [Rhett] Is there not?
Is there a crust that I don't see?
- [Link] Let's turn it over.
- You can't just give me hazelnuts
and think that you've solved the crustless problem.
- What in the world?
We were, we were tricked for a few minutes
and then I would have been tricked forever,
if I wouldn't have opened my eyes,
- The cheesecake and the sauce are good.
The hazelnuts are okay,
but this crust is what completes a bite of cheesecake.
Give me a fricking break!
- That is strange, di Beppo.
- This actually the cheesecake's better here.
- Mm hmm - It's actually
a better cheesecake, now, that I come back to it.
- Definitely, yeah.
I never knew that crust meant so much to a cheesecake.
- I never knew!
- And now I know, and I'm giving that.
- That's good. - A solid six.
- I'm giving it, I'm giving it a six as well,
(bell rings) because I've had
really good cheesecake.
- Yeah, this is nowhere near the best cheesecake.
- But. - I'm gonna give this a two
'cause they forgot the crust.
- Yeah I'm going. I'm a two man as well.
Two! (bell rings)
You gotta have crust.
What is happenin', Buca?
- [Stevie] And that means with a score of 51 to 34,
Olive Garden wins this Food Feud.
- Congratulations. And you know what?
I'm only half surprised because I hate olives,
but I'm okay with a garden.
- And 51 to 34, I gotta say
that might be the biggest landslide victory
in Food Feuds history on this show.
Sorry, Buca, y'all got to go back
to the Italian drawing board.
- And Mr. Garden, you won a chance to sponsor a GMM episode.
- Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell.
- You know what time it is.
- Hi, I'm Immanuel from Naples, Italy
and it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
- Ha! - Beautiful!
Beautiful place. - So beautiful.
Click the top link to watch us
try to translate Italian phrases in Good Mythical More.
(wheel whirs) - And to find out
where the Wheel of Mythicality's gonna land.
- [VOICE] We're just gonna go ahead
and mash this together into a nice paste.
You want all that flour to absorb the gravy.
Then we're just gonna lube up our hands.
Why is this not in the jorts? Uh-oh! (sighs)