Olive Garden

08/01/09

Loud, brightly lit, and awful.

by lmbretro at Citysearch

All the ambience of a Wal-Mart.

I ordered a fairly modest chicken dish, thinking the $15 was a little much. Entrees showed up about five minutes after we ordered (and before the appetizer). I take that as an obvious sign that all the food was microwaved.

The brocolli in my dish had definitely been stored for a while, as much of it had wilted. Half way through the chicken breast, I started to really scrutinize it. First of all, this is thinner than any chicken breast i've ever seen at the grocery store. And it doesn't have much of a grain (tear a chicken breast apart with a fork and see what I'm talking about). It's processed chicken. Like in those dirty little fried chicken sandwiches at BK. Only with some rubbery pasta and past-prime brocolli, for $14.95.

I feel like I was robbed. Italian-Americans should be suing this chain for defamation of character.

• Pros: Free iceberg lettuce (eat around the brown spots).
• Cons: Processed chicken, high prices.

03/06/09

Do not Waste your Time

by dizfactor at Citysearch

This review is not exactly about Olive Garden's in general, just this particular location. I have eaten at several different ones, and they are generally decent, although not spectacular. This location however is an abomination. Every time I have been there the food has been some combination of cold and horrible, or both. The Alfredo tastes like it was half powder and half water. The salad has often had bad lettuce in it, and the service, well there just aren't enough words to describe how bad it has been. This happened to me twice there, I was eating my meal and waiter came up with a vacuum cleaner and started vacuuming underneath our table, and ran over my toe, which was in a sandal. This sort of behavior is the norm there and I would avoid this place at all times. Seriously, McDonalds is a better option.