Full- Service Restaurant with Fast- Food Quality
Written: May 24 '00 (Updated Oct 28 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice Atmosphere
Cons: Not Worth the Price You Pay
The Bottom Line: Olive Garden makes good salads but the food is easily topped by other Italian restaurants.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Olive Garden |
Olive Garden is a large Italian restaurant chain with nearly 500 stores in the United States and Canada. It began in 1982, when General Mills Restaurants, Inc., decided that it wanted to expand into the full- service Italian restaurant business. The first Olive garden debuted in Orlando, Florida and the chain quickly grew to become one of the largest full- service restaurant chains in the United States.
Olive Garden offers a pretty decent menu selection which includes pizza, salads, soups, and seafood, along with the Italian dishes like lasagna, manicotti, spaghetti, fettuccine alfredo, etc. They also have a menu section called the "Garden Fest" which features low- fat alternatives.
Your dining experience begins at Olive Garden with unlimited house salad, breadsticks, and tomato sauce for dipping. The house salad is quite good, and most people have no problem consuming several platefuls before dinner arrives. The breadsticks, dipped in the special tomato sauce, are also pretty good. However, these appetizers don't do much to prepare you for the so- so dinner that comes next.
The dinner items that Olive Garden offers are all fairly generous in proportions, but they are not very good. Often, the pasta is hard and brittle. Other times, it is overcooked and mushy. These problems are likely a direct result of the fact that the Olive Garden is usually very crowded and the staff is probably too busy to properly prepare the food. The food tastes like it was cooked several hours earlier, then microwaved before serving. Olive Garden really needs to improve in this area.
Besides the appetizers, there are a few other bright spots on the Olive Garden menu. The desserts, for instance, are very tasty. Olive Garden serves good cheesecake, very good tiramisu, and great chocolate mousse cake. And the wine list is impressive for a chain restaurant. It offers a wide variety of name- brands and a good selection of different styles.
The atmosphere inside Olive Garden restaurants is pleasant, with numerous plants and ferns placed around the bar and dining area to give it a warm feeling. I also like the fact that the chairs are on rollers. I'm sure this sounds silly to some people, but the rollers make the dining experience more comfortable by allowing an easy transition from standing position; to seated; and back to standing.
Olive Garden will likely remain a popular restaurant in spite of its shortcomings. It has a well- known name and there's little competition in the full- service Italian restaurant chain segment. Still, if you really want great Italian food, your best bet is to search through the yellow pages for a local mom & pop Italian restaurant. Olive Garden does have good appetizers and desserts, but it's dinners are mediocre at best and are definitely not worth the money. So, if you have a craving for tasty Italian cuisine, then forget a large chain restaurant like Olive Garden and let your fingers do the walking.
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews of Other Full- Service Restaurants:
American Style Food:
Denny’s
Hooters
Perkins
Waffle House
Damon’s
Steak ‘n Shake
Cracker Barrel
Frisch’s
Max & Erma’s
Golden Corral
Shoney’s
Bob Evans
Hard Rock Cafe
Outback Steak House
Friendly’s
Red Lobster
Texas Road House
Bill Knapp’s
Ground Round
Fricker’s
Hops
Applebee’s
O’Charley’s
BW-3
Ponderosa
IHOP
Ruby Tuesday
Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q
Famous Dave’s
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Cafe
Ryan’s Restaurant
Italian:
Carrabba’s
Romano’s Macaroni Grill
Mexican
Chi- Chi’s
Cozymel’s
Chipotle
Recommended:
No
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