The Olive Garden Sister Restaurant Known For Fresh, From-Scratch Food

In a world of preservative-rich dishes, it can be hard to eat out and actually trust what's on your plate, which is why some people prefer cooking at home to ensure fresh ingredients. However, at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Olive Garden's sister restaurant — dishes are made from scratch, so they're pretty close to a home-cooked meal. It sounds expensive to dine, but most meals are under $20. Cheddar's also offers a gluten-sensitive menu (but be careful of this restaurant menu wording that leads customers astray).

The restaurant's barbecue ribs are slow-cooked, and its chicken tenders are hand-breaded, so someone took the time to prepare them in the kitchen, which feels more personal than the usual chain restaurant experience. Other comforting meals grace its menu, including steaks, burgers, and sandwiches. Cheddar's has more than 180 restaurants dotting 27 states, so you can imagine the challenge of providing a consistent experience, all while offering fresh, from-scratch food. Now, "from scratch" is a bit of a loose term, but at Cheddar's, this appears to mean cooking as much food as possible from fresh ingredients in-house.

The term "from scratch" can mean a lot of things, depending on how you interpret it. Sometimes it starts right from the raw ingredients, and at times, it's about using a boxed mixture but cooking the dish yourself. There are other popular chain restaurants owned by the same company as Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen and Olive Garden. Their parent company, Darden, also manages Yard House, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Longhorn Steakhouse, and more. And while each restaurant's branding is different, Darden generally practices and improves sustainable efforts while sourcing its ingredients from traceable origins.

Meanwhile, a Reddit poster who claimed to be a previous kitchen manager of Cheddar's mentioned that its meals can be a combination of fresh components and packaged mixes. For instance, Cheddar's appears to boil whole potatoes for its mashed potatoes, while still using a powdered base to improve consistency. But, of course, since it's a Reddit post, you can take it with a grain of salt. However, if that was indeed the case, it can be a bit of a turn-off for some diners.

Nonetheless, Cheddar's appears to be much better than other restaurants that use ultra-processed foods as a cheaper alternative for greater profits. The from-scratch concept has personal touches that stand out when compared to other restaurants. As such, if you want a dish that has actually been touched and prepared by human hands, Cheddar's is a great and affordable option.