PkrKat,
I worked in the restaurant business for about 16 years...mostly as a cook with a little supervision/management training near the end. It sounds like the restaurant you worked in was well-managed. People don't realize the effort required to keep a restaurant clean. It sounds like they went over-board on the required training though.

Most of my cooking days were done at TGI Fridays. Believe it or not, back in the early 80s when I started there...TGIF prided themselves on using only fresh ingredients and everything was 'made from scratch'. I learned to make all the soups/sauces and everything else from scratch. When I last worked there in the early 90s (as a second job)...almost all the soups/sauces came frozen in a plastic tube that you put into boiling water to heat up and a ton of other stuff was pre-made. Most of these chain restaurants these days are just taking frozen/prepared foods and heating them up for you...often in a microwave. It makes them more consistent...but consistently mediocre. As a result I rarely eat out but when I'm in LV...I'm eatin' like king...too many great restaurants that actually prepare your meal from scratch.

I couldn't agree more..

I too enjoy an great meal when I am in LV and the good thing about being there is pretty much all the top casinos have restaurants that are pretty amazing..even if you hit a so so meal once in awhile the chances are it was just that meal that day..and probably not how it is supposed to taste..gotta love competition...makes for good customer service.

We used to eat at our local TGIF's all the time a few years ago when they had the trivia game there..I actually had some pretty good meals ..haven't been in a few years though since they took the game out.

I worked at Cheesecake Factory and the server training there was just as extensive as the Olive Garden story. The difference is that CF has over 200 menu items to learn and it's actually good, and you'll make decent money working there. I've worked at restaurants more on the Olive Garden level and didn't have more than a week and a half of training. I would have spent less time putting up with that BS than you did, and I'm typically too lazy to quit anything.

And the sauce thing...when I worked at CF ten years ago all sauces were made on the premises, then they started bringing in one or two pre-made, and I'm guessing by now most of them come on the truck every morning. Similar thing happened when I worked at California Pizza Kitchen- at the time the dough was all made in-house at the restaurant. Started showing up frozen soon after, and you can definitely taste the difference.


Eli

The ribs at ellis island are pretty kick ass and camn be had for under for under 15 bucks

I agree that the other food is pretty shitty in the casino, but give the ribs a shot...sit on the patio and drink dollar ellis island micro brews from the bar.

I don't think anyone would be disappointed

The steak at Delmonico's is overrated. IMO. I will mostly likely never eat there again. Would much rather try some place else.