Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

Simply put...disgusting. Perhaps I was spoiled growing up in an Italian home but ethnicity aside this food is plain nasty. Last evening, my wife and I both had a grilled shrimp caprese salad...nothing about it was good. The shrimp was frozen, the plate was full of tomatoes, and the sauce covering the dish was chalky but runny at the same time (as if the line chef put to much water into the powdered cheese but failed to mix it properly.) I should have known better going to a place where the best thing is iceberg lettuce and frozen bread!

Horrible is a word too small to describe this restaurant. The food is frozen and the service is rude. I went to the store and bought some pasta, sauce and some meatballs and made myself a meal way more delicious (and cheaper) than Olive Garden.

About a 3.5. I have tried some of their dishes and they are pretty good. I like that you get lots of breadsticks with your meal. they offer a good deal Monday through Friday on the lunch menuIt is a bit more costly on the weekends than I like. Their meals are okay but I have been to Italian Restaurants that are better. the service has been good when we went. Okay but not great restaurant. UPDATE: went there on a Friday and had a lunch item. the lasagna, it was good but a rather small portion. was surprised how small it was. good part is you get unlimited bread sticks and a choice of soup or salad. just disappointed in the small portion served. it was good.

My family and I always love Olive Garde but, since last saturday we decide to !!never!! cameback after we eat that nigth we all start filling sick the same way vomiting stomac pain and we spend all nite in the bathroom and we all have the same for dinner salad, bread stics and seafood alfredo at dinner we notice something taste different but we don't put 2 much atention now we learn our lesen we never cameback. Olive garden is not the same as i was three year o go.

Nothing here I can eat, eats total crap.

I tried (for once!) to order a healthy item and ordered the apricot chicken. Hard to mess up chicken, right? Well the apricot chicken was VILE. It was horrible tasting. No wonder it's low calorie... no one can finish it! Next time I will stick to salad and soup. If there IS a next time. Incidentally, their pasta e fagioli is pretty awful, too.

The only reason we went was because we received a $25 card for christmas. Luckily enough, we were able to get a seat immediately because the other parties were of 6-7 people while we had two. Unfortunately, the waitress, Joy, looked less than happy to be our server, and made sure we knew how much she apparently hated her job. Joy couldn't have been anymore joyless and snappy. I barely had time to order because she was slinging salad, cheese, and breadsticks on the table almost aggressively before demanding what we wanted to eat. Since she was in SUCH a hurry to get this over with, I hastily ordered a random item (they all seemed similiar, anyways.), which was the...I think it was the portabello mushroom ravioli. (yum, right?? what could go wrong?) We enjoyed our fresh salads and breadsticks, which were very delicious even if we could taste our waitress's leftover anger seething in the dressing, heheheh. She arrived with the Apricot chicken item my mom ordered and my ravioli concoction.... Read more

I USE TO LOVE OLIVE GARDEN BUT THE PAST 3 TIMES I WENT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH MY ORDER I CALL ASK TO SPEAK THE MANAGER AND HE ACT LIKE HE DIDN'T CARE MY ORDER WAS CHICKEN ALFREDO AND THE CHICKEN WAS SO HARD THAT I WAS NOT AVAILABLE TO EAT WAS OFFER A GIFT CARD AND NEVER GOT IT IS NOT THAT I CARE FOR IT BECAUSE I NOT GOING BACK. FOR THE RECORD IS THE ONE ON NORTHLAKE COMMONS IN CHARLOTTE NC 28216.

I came here with a few friends for lunch during the week, I have to say it was not what I'd expected. I'd wanted to come here for a long time. Prices were a little too steep for the small portions, and the salad? A big ball of lettuce with a few tiny tomatoes and two or three croutons, bleh. We had hard, dry breadsticks on the table, though they did bring fresh ones halfway through the meal. Our server was only decent, not the kind service I was expecting, but what really made me angry was that I asked for a little extra sauce for the breadsticks and the waitress said sure, brought a small dish of sauce and when the bill came they'd charged me four dollars for it! She had not even informed me it would be extra, my pasta alone was what, 12 bucks, four dollars for some damn sauce?! Ridiculous. and the pasta was only mediocre, I've had better at home

Corporate and cold. Food is tasteless, service is non existant, waiting time is longer that eating time, wine list is a joke, atmosphere is "Hollywood does an Italian family sit-com". An Italian restaurant for non Italians. Sad thing is that if you want "Italian" food in most of flyover country, the OG is the only game in town. Forgeddaboutit!!

Is there less than one star?? Absolutely one of the worse dining experiences I've ever had. The waiter thought we were deaf and "dumb"; the "wine sample" reminded me of the Boones Farm Apple wine we "sipped" in high school and I guess there were two olives and two tomato halves in the iceberg lettuce, because there were two of us. But the thing that irritated me the most was being given a dinner menu at 1:00 in the afternoon and being told that everything on lunch menu was on the dinner menu...did I mention that the waiter thought we were dumb? When I insisted on seeing a lunch menu, obviously the same items were several dollars more on the dinner menu. I then heard him say the same thing to a group of diners near us who did not demand the lunch menu. Since most people leave with a grocery bag of leftovers, even if the dinner portions are larger, do you really need it? Oh yes...and the food was terrible! Never again...

the food is delicious every time we eat there, I especially love the cheese stuffed ravioli in alfredo sauce. The service was great and our waitress Francisca at the Houma, La. restaurantwas very nice and personable, I would rate her service as excellent.We visited on Sept. 5,2010 the day before my 59th birthday. Please bring back the four cheese stuffed ravioli with shrimp, I absolutely love the messaluna. We travel 40 miles to get there we live in Morgan City and sure wish they would open a restaurant here. We also love the salad and breadsticks. And the wait is usually shorter than they say to be seated. I love the cheese so much that I stick my tongue in the pasta between the layers to taste it longer. Sick,huh? I have even tried to replicate the recipe at home with store bought ravioli- close but no Olive Garden. Sincerely Ina Clarke 1320 Front St. Morgan City, La.70380

The food is middle school cafeteria food quality. To say the least subpar. It has been eight years since the last time I ate there, mainly because I was the only one who did not get sick from eatting there (amongst the people in my family). Personally I do not want to chance it on the roluette wheel by eatting at that shithole again.

Horrible customer service !!!!! My wife and I went into the restaurant Wed about 6:45pm. Being the only patrons in line the hostess (mid 40s black man with a gold earing) took us to a table and my wife asked if we could have a booth. He then took us back up front and asked us to wait. By this time there were several parties waiting with more coming in. We then watched him (the hostess) seat a couple in line behind us in a booth. He then went and stood or was hiding down the hall without telling the other hostess that we were waiting for a booth. At this point 7 parties had been seated and the restaurant wasn't busy. A booth right up front was being cleared so I went down the hall and ask him if we could have the booth thinking he might have forgot about us. He gave me a funny look and and said yes. He then walked right up front and grabbed another party, that came in after us that had asked for a table. He walked right by us and seated them in the booth that I had requested. I'd bet m... Read more

I use to work at Olive Garden and I personally love it. Even though I worked there for so long, I still love going there to eat. The portions of the meals depend on which dish you get, for example...the stuffed chicken marsala is delicious but a smaller portion but the spagetti is a large portion. The lunch menu is of course smaller portions with a lower price tag...also, not all dinner selections come in lunch portions. Most people don't know but you CAN order from the lunch menu any time/any day even if they give you the dinner menu, ask for the lunch menu if you prefer. I saw someone say that ALL their food is frozen and they ONLY use microwaves....correction....they hardly ever use the microwaves...only for things like kids mac n cheese. They have huge grills and a huge ovens. All the lasagnas, bakes pastas like 5 cheese ziti, pizza, etc are put into the oven. They cook the chicken, steak, shrimp, etc on the grill (come on now, duh) The soups are made FROM SCRATCH, FRESH DAILY an... Read more

What I've heard is that all their food is prepackaged. Does that mean prefrozen? I guess so. That's why you can't really get the shrimp Alfredo without the sauce. Go by yourself a couple of jars of Ragu and noodles, meatballs from Costco, and feed your whole family for a fifth of the cost. It's kinda like Las Vegas: really cool looking on the outside, but then once you get inside the casinos you find its completely lacking in substance. Eat Thai, Middle Eastern, or Indian food instead; it's much harder to make yourself than Italian. :)

Its an OK place to take a first date I guess because the overall atmosphere is good and it is a mid-upper class restaurant but the thing I hate about Olive Garden is that the stuff on the menu that you order seems WAY over priced for the small amount you get!!

W/the exception of my favorite food, pizza, I really don't like Italian food, so my review of Olive Garden will mirror that. Anyway, I had bruschetta, which was bland. It's basic, but like I said, I don't like Italian food. The ambiance is okay though.

I've been wanting to try it for a long time. The ads finally got to me. Our waitress was nice enough but the overall service was lousy! And it wasn't even busy. The place has NO atmosphere...very sterile. You could be anywhere..in any kind of a restaurant. And chairs on rollers? I don't think so. Salad and bread were ok but then dinner arrived. I had the eggplant parm (which she told me customers clamor for). I had 3/4 thin-beyond-belief slices of deep-fried eggplant on my plate(since when is eggpland parm deep-fried??) ....a spoonful of spaghetti w/sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. For $12.00! My husband had a chicken dish. The chicken was, I swear, 1 breast divided in to 4/5 slices. He got 2 slices, pounded impossible thin, over some pasta and a sauce. For about $15.00! Very disturbing that they can charge this for the quality. I had 2 glasses of wine. $5.35 each for what must've been 4 oz of wine. Very sad. I will never go back .....no matter how tempting (and wrong) the commercials... Read more

Everytime we go there it seems as if the prices are up again. Also they rotate the menu so that when you find something you really like they replace it with something else. I wish they had a lunch portion that was cheaper or senior pricing/discounts. The last time we were there the waiter barely spoke English and didn't understand half of what we said nor did we understand him. When we asked for the gelatto for dessert, he said they didn't serve it anymore! (another disappontment) - go figure - you like it - they take it off the menu. We asked him to bring us a menu so that we could pick something else and about 5 minutes later he brought the bill instead! Ye gads - so we all went to McDonald's afterwards for their 49 cent cone! I also heard another waiter complaining under his breath to another server about a table of 8 he was serving. I was not pleased to see that; unprofessional. Wait until you get home to complain about your day, not at your job where you can be overhead ... Read more

I worked there as a waiter for a year and a half. It's glorifed fast food. The upper-management uses scare tactics on the managers. The food is decent, just don't work for them.

the service i had was horrible! i had 3 different servers they never asked if we wanted a refill the food was gross i expected something different from the restaurant but i guess not and i also seen that they served everyone else better and asked them if they needed anything else after we asked for the check the guy asked us if we wanted a refill... your kidding me right? oh and also the chicken marsala was nothing like i had the one from carabas is way better if you want italian food i suggest carabas i would never eat there again! so i suggest nobody else would either!!! i hated it... worst food i had!

Mcdonald's is better than the olive garden in sterling, va. I order the grilled shrimp caprese without garlic sauce as the server said they could make it without the sauce. Few minutes later, the manager is standing by my table telling me "this is an italian restaurant and so we cannot make the grilled shrimp without the sauce" He asked if i wanted to order something else. Not even at Mcdonald's have i ever been refused a meal without any of their ingredients. I ended up not having the grilled shrimp caprese. The manager was nasty.

I love Olive Garden! I love the alfredo pastas, the salads, and those BREADSTICKS!

My family and I tried the new Olive Garden in Statesboro last night for our sons birthday. We arrived at 6:30 and did not leave until 10p.m. Our drinks at the bar were well made but it was only the fact that we now had a drink that made the prospect of an 80 minute wait bearable. Upon sitting down we all realized that there were a great many empty tables-we only needed two 4 tops pushed together. We were wondering about our hold up. It took 80 more minutes to get our entrees- which places emphasis on the fact that with two people attending our table that each service was in extreme slow motion,drinks slow.silverware slow and all other aspect of our experience then shifed to watching the restaurant flounder as our entertainment an entertaining it was. When our food arrived the plates were so hot from the lights in the food window as well as was it dried out. At the time of service our server aid I can't bring your stuff out until the last plate is made-which more than likely was taken b... Read more

I love everything about olive garden!!!!! I could eat thta salad everyday. go there few times a month. never any problems with service and food always fresh and great tasting, maybe some of you just live in bad places

This is...not too bad a place. The food's decent. Bread sticks are enjoyable. The salad is fresh. And the service is oddly admirable. They do a good job at trying to appear as if they are a "fancy" restaurant, even though they are a "family establishment." The only issue is a lack of diversity. Everything looks like the same dish and is quite generic. Occasionally I'd come across a dish that I love--but they seem to always replace it with some generic garlic alfredo or something like that. The big problem with this place is most the food tastes like it came from a store bought jar and was slightly seasoned. If you're too lazy to cook, it's an enjoyable meal. But if you have the time to add a little garlic salt to a jar of store bought Alfredo you can replicate the food at a fraction of the price.

My husband and I just went to Olive garden a few weeks ago. And what a mess! Not only was the waitress ruid, But the manager I feel never solved the problem either. He offered us 2 dollars off are meal!!!! Wow a big 2 dollars off a 40 dollar meal. We wont be going back to the one in New Port Richey. We will make the trip and go to Wesley chapel. Mr and Mrs Yusko

The more I cook, the less I appreciate Olive Garden. Too many people around here (Mrs. Twan included) seem to think that Olive Garden is the ultimate destination if you're looking to spend somewhere in the $10-$20 per person range (not counting appetizers or drinks) . A quick look at the parking lot around lunch or dinner time will confirm that. That place is always packed. Hell, the Cedar Rapids location isn't even the best Italian food chain in the same part of town. Biaggi's is right across the street, and has much better food. But they advertise well, and I guess that has a lot to do with it. The food really isn't that bad, as I've never had anything at Olive Garden that I thought was bad, it's just that their food is generally rather bland. Whenever a group of people insisted on going to Olive Garden, I used to always get the lasagna, as I always thought it was passable, but I can make lasagna start to finish in under an hour that will blow away anything you'll get at Olive Garden... Read more

An insult to Italian cooking. Dishes look like microwaved TV dinners, pasta is mushy, sauces are bland and taste packaged. I don't see what the big deal is over their salad and breadsticks. Yet whenever I drive past one of these joints, I always notice that the parking lot is reasonably full. I guess I don't understand the appeal; or maybe my taste buds haven't been dulled down by years of garbage chain food.

I agree with Twan, I can whip up something better at home. I can boil a mean noodle.

This is wretched, and about as Italian as MacDonalds. If you like pasta made of rubber and marinated in Quaker State motor oil, this is the place to find it. Having read through some of the positive reviews below I notice a consistant theme of praise for the breadsticks. It strikes me that anyone making a point praising a restaurant for its tasty free breadsticks has revealed a hell of a lot about the overall quality of the joint, not to mention the value of their opinion about restaurants.

I think we can all agree that this isn't real Italian food. My wife and I have eaten at The Olive Garden about five times in the last year or so, and each we paid with a gift card. The food taste pretty good when someone else is paying. The service on the other hand is very good. The waiters are prompt and quick to refill drinks and keep bread on the table. A while back when my wife and I ate there, we were discussing something that caused her to frown. Almost immediately the manager, a young man, approached us and asked "Is something wrong with your dinner, sir?" "No, why?." "Well, I was watching you and the lady seems dissatisfied". "You were watching us?" "Yes, I keep an eye on all the customers" "Well, okay, I guess but really there is nothing wrong" "I'm going to deduct the lady's meal from the total" "You are? "Yes, sir, I am" "Honest, you don't have to do that, we're enjoying our food". I'm deducting it sir" "Okay" You can't beat that kind of service.

I came to this restaurant once, a long time ago, and was woefully disappointed. There was a serious lack of olives, and no garden anywhere to be found. This shameful example of false advertising should be frowned upon. I have contacted my lawyer, Mr. Goldberg, in an attempt to bring a class action suit against the chain re: all of us whom have been so woefully misled. I have given the restaurant two stars however, as they do have a nice wine selection, and my pasta and breadsticks were very tasty. Melanie, our server, could not have been nicer.

The Olive garden has a nice atmosphere it's very comfortable, classy and romantic, however going at certain times is hell. I waited up to 1 hour before being seated on a few visits there, now maybe it was the days that we went but hungry folk don't like to wait that long to grub. On top of that you have to wait for your food to be cooked keep in mind that I could have prepared an eight course meal on my own while waiting to eat at this restaurant. Now when the food comes - awww damn that's when it all goes downhill. I am one black girl who loooooves Italian food 90% of what I cook is Italian recipes, ok back to the food I usually order fetuccini so when they bring it to the table it looks awesome everything I went through previously is about to be redeemed because this food looks delicious. I dig in and get a glob of cheese, cream and oil in my mouth YUCK! not a great combination at all people. Of course nasty or not I will not let any food go to waste, my mission in life, I f... Read more

Pros: Fast service, waitress could not have been more accommodating, food was very nice. Enjoyed the salad there. Cons: Contracted food poisoning from eating the chicken soup. Lost a day off work as a result. I e-mailed their customer services and they sent an apologetic e-mail the next day and also a gift card through the post with an apologetic letter. It could be worse! So i guess they aren't that bad after all.

For years I thought it was called the Olive Oil Garden. They are adept at smothering the taste of everything with 100ml of cheap olive oil, a 1/4 cup of basil and and a half dozen cloves of garlic, even the draught beer.

Awful... You might as well throw some lasagna in the microwave...... Oh..Wait.... that's what they do! Thier entire kitchen is microwaves, no ovens. Nothing is fresh....NOTHING, EVERYTHING is frozen and re-heated. Those of you who think your getting good food are sadly mistaken.....no offense but you are literally paying $20 for fast food. But those of you who still insist on going..... don't ever wait more the 15 minutes for your food (it dosen't take any longer than that to heat it up). If you do either the server forgot to ring in your order, or something is really frozen and it need some time to de-thaw. You will taste the freezer burn YUCK!!!

Olive Garden has always been one of my favorite resturants. I love the bread sticks, salad and of course their food! I also have worked there now for about a year and it is a perfect place to work. All customers get great attention when they come into Olive Garden because each server is allowed to look after only three tables. So if your looking for good consistant serivce and great food I suggest Olive Garden :]

I think you get great food for the money here! I always get the Tour of Italy, which has the fettuccini alfredo, with lasagna and chicken parmesan. Their Pasta Fagiole soup with fresly grated paremsan cheese is VERY good! Also love the Zuppa Toscana soup. (Milk based soup with spicy sausage). I make the copycat recipes at home, the one's from Todd Wilbur's book, because they are the most authentic one's. I'm not a big fan of their salad dressing, but it's okay but needs some changes. Being Italian, they should switch to a red wine vinegar or balsamic instead! Their drinks are over-priced! So I just get water. Not that I can't afford them, it's just that I am conservative and don't like to "over-pay" for something. I would not suggest getting the "All you can eat Pasta" when it is offered....because they are soooo slow, especially being Italian. But I think they do it on purpose so the person is less likely to order seconds, or they simply run out of time and have to get back to work o... Read more

Good value for the money. Not the best, but far from the worst.

Bleh. Yuck. I don't think Olive Garden is worth going to at all. You could probably make better pasta in your own kitchen. The breadsticks and the salad are ok and probably your best bet.

This place doesn't even deserve a full star...the service is even worse than their food especially their "management" if that's what you want to call them. I will NEVER go back. I visited on my birthday and had to re-order the entire tables food 3 times because they kept losing the order???! Go elsewhere.

The food is consistent and the service is good. Love the comfort food. Great atmosphere and they are always busy. Must be doing something right!

I like the atmosphere, that's it. The marsala chicken which is an easy dish to make is terrible. The sauce tasted like gravy and the potatoes were over done and tasteless. Carrabbas (another Italian) has the same dish and is 50 times better. Breadsticks and salad are both mediocre, but they are free. Needless to say, I'd rather blow my money elsewhere on GOOD Italian food. People who love olive garden lack taste.

MY FAVORITE! I mean, who can get enough of their salad and breadsticks?! My favorite is the Five Cheese Ziti al Forno. I get it everytime. Oh, and the Black Tie Dessert. Oh wow, just writing this, I think I'm gonna have to make a trip there this weekend!

I won't give a three to a restaurant whose menu does not guarantee that I can have at least one satisfying (and I mean satisfying to me) main course.

The food isn't great.  It's just... food.  They should definitely not be allowed to call themselves an Italian restaurant.  The decor is very cheesy.  All of the dishes pretty much taste the same. The best thing about OG are the bread sticks and salad.  They have the worst soups of any chain restaurant I've ever been in.  The waitstaff is generally friendly and quick.  I like being able to order the lunch portion at any time.  I usually even have leftovers of the smaller portion.  Their coffee is quite good.

The Olive Garden is bad. They have refused to seat me on numerous occasions.  Furthermore, the food isn't that great.  Every time I see one, I want to drink to forget the awful experiences.