The Olive Garden Sister Restaurant That Actually Makes Food From Scratch

Nobody's denying that Olive Garden, with its best-appetizer-on-the-menu breadsticks and its Tuscan-inspired decor, isn't a vibe from time to time; but it's generally understood that you don't go there for a truly authentic experience, Italian or otherwise. While it does make some items from scratch (its soups, for instance, are made fresh in-house every day), a lot of what you'll eat at Olive Garden has been frozen for a good long while before it's prepared. With that said, there's another restaurant owned by Olive Garden's parent company which does make its food from scratch: Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen.

Admittedly, some people may quibble over whether Cheddar's food is truly made "from scratch," but this is one of those situations where there's a gray area. Cheddar's is a modestly-priced casual dining restaurant chain, so making everything truly "from scratch" at that scale wouldn't be economical — the math simply would not be mathing. A Reddit comment from a former Cheddar's manager said that while some shortcuts were used (including the use of boxed mixes), most items were made from something resembling scratch. "After working for several corporate chain restaurants it was the closest to actual scratch cooking," they said. You know what, we'll take it.

Unlike Olive Garden, which was started by the cereal company General Mills before being sold to Darden Restaurants, Cheddar's had a more humble beginning. It was founded in 1979 by a pair of friends named Aubrey Good and Doug Rogers, who opened the first location in Irving, Texas. Who is Cheddar, you might ask? Nobody in particular: The name was suggested by a fifth grade class and it stuck. For a while it was called Cheddar's Casual Café, but in 2015 the name was changed to emphasize the from-scratch quality of its food.

As for the food, it's pure American comfort. It's a little more rustic than, say, Applebee's, but it's not quite in Cracker Barrel territory. There are its well-loved honey butter croissants which come free with each entree as well as the popular starter of tortilla chips and queso (plain or with beef). As for entrees, there are an assortment of chicken dishes, including chicken pot pie and a chicken tender platter (themed after the late NASCAR legend Kyle Busch, who was sponsored by Cheddar's). There are also some grilled favorites like steak and baby back ribs. In other words, you won't leave hungry.