Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

I normally avoid chain restaurants, but this Olive Garden breaks the mold.
Their staff is very friendly, and their food is above par. not your typical cookie cutter chain. OG has upped their game with their menu, and they are always changing in seasonal options.
This visit I had the bruschetta appetizer, of course with salad and bread sticks. I chose the new Chicken Marsala Ravioli. This was to die for! creamy rich buttery sauce with pillow raviolis stuffed with hearty chicken. I highly recommend it.
I got a slice of their Chocolate cake to go and was in heaven! I had enough left overs for lunch the next day.
This Olive Garden in particular has definitely risen above any other I have ever been to.

When it comes to a chain restaurant, I feel like I should rate it against the chain, rather than against other Italian options. After all, you know what to expect at an Olive Garden, so I’m going to tell you why THIS Olive Garden is among the best I’ve ever been to.
The food is as you would expect. Nothing really different there.
It’s the service that makes this one stand out. Only on special occasions like New Year’s Eve have I ever had to wait long for a table, and everyone from start to finish has always been very friendly, very quick, and very accurate at everything they do, from the hostess up front to the general manager coming around to check how everything was.
As I said, you know what Olive Garden is all about, so take comfort knowing that this particular Olive Garden is among the best.

Let me start off by saying I am not one to complain, having worked in food service, however, the service I received was far less than par, even bordering on abysmal. I call in my order of a tour of Italy, and a sausage stuffed rigatoni. Then I’m asked if I would like soup or salad. She lists the soups and I choose the one that they are conveniently out of (of course)! After opting for a different soup I’m told that it will be 15 minutes. Which seems perfect because that’s the exact time it takes me to get there. So I walk in and say hello to the hostess in passing, which only gets me a sideways look in return. So I walk to the bar and the pick-​up spot, which is empty. After standing there for 5 minutes, and 8 passes by 3 seperate employees without so much as a hello… I ask a passing server if they could alert someone that I am here. She immediately comes out and says they are packing it right now. So after another 6 minutes of nothing, a server (also in passing) asks if I have been helped to which I say they know I am here but it has been about 10 minutes. She apologizes and says she will look into it. She goes to the back and returns saying it will be one moment. After another 5 minutes a final server comes out with my food and apologizes for the wait, saying she had been taking another pick-​up order for the last 15 minutes. So I’m thinking maybe I’ll be offered a free desert, a free drink, or even a coupon/​discount. Nothing! She tells me the total and I pay. I go on my way having waited nearly 20 minutes. The only saving grace is that the food was great, sadly not great enough to warrant a return with such poor service. Sorry for the rant, but the frustration is still fresh. To those contemplating going here I wish them good luck. I certainly would not recommend.

One of the original Italian Chain restaurant’s.
I’m a fan of their soup, salad and breadstick lunch. The perfect balance of crisp fresh salad and hearty meal.
I enjoy their pizza. The pasta is my least favorite thing on the menu.
The spicy calamari is pretty darned good!
Olive Garden is an easy, quality dinner/​lunch place. Service is usually good.
I do think it’s overpriced.

I enjoy going for the «all you can eat» soup and salad! My favorite time to go is lunch time and have couple drinks and leave happy and full. Great place to go. The staff is friendly and the prices are very fair.

Walkin’ into Olive Garden. Friendly faces. Hi! I’m going to the bar, thanks! What’ll you have? Hi Wire Bed of Nails. Whap — whap = the sound of my neck as my head does a double take. Delicious local beer at the Olive Garden? My tank is empty. Fill’er up Mac! Early arrival for a Unilocal event.
Olive Garden looks totally different than it used to. Patio like seating in the bar area — a little odd but I’m feelin’ it. A huge menu revamp. Darden restaurant group among others took quite a beating during during the recession, as casual dining traffic decreased. I think they just recently sold off Red Lobster. Now they’re makin’ a comeback. The new menu –pretty good, you’ll need to pick and choose your own preferences. The herb grilled salmon and chicken Sorrento are both killer! Some great new pasta dishes. And the Zeppole is heavenly! The best part of Olive Garden is the staff = super professional — they work hard at making you feel well cared for and they succeed!

I had not been to Olive Garden in years and I am so glad I was able to visit recently during a Unilocal event. First– the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful. One of our servers, Lauren, was one of the nicest waitresses I have come across in Asheville. Everyone made us feel very welcome.
Olive Garden has updated their menu and they really have upped the bar here. This is great because IMO, Asheville is lacking in great Italian pasta dishes. Good to know I can come here and get something delicious to go quickly if I wanted to. It’s not always easy sitting down with a toddler. and glad this is an option!
Started off with the crispy risotto bites. YUMMMMMY! I never order stuff like this (even though I love fried food) and they were perfectly breaded and the cheese was so good. it wasn’t over-​fried either. Also had the Mediterranean flatbread which was so flavorful. If you like olives. you will LOVE this. One of the entrees tried was very tasty as well– the Northern Tour of Italy. The alfredo was great, chicken parm very juicy and tasty, and tortellini delish.
Last for dessert there was the Sicilian cheesecake… WOW. I am NOT a cheesecake person at all (unless it’s a chocolate one) and this was INCREDIBLE! So rich and the strawberry sauce was just perfect.
Such a great meal and wonderful staff at this location. Glad to see a chain restaurant that really cares about it’s customer service with yummy food!

We were greeted at the front with a warm welcome but a little confusion on seating which took a few minutes.
Appetizer — we had the spicy calamari which was pretty good not a whole lot for $ 10 but still good
Salad/​bread sticks — this is what this place is known for. Salad was spot on however bread sticks didn’t seem to be fresh possibly sitting out to long. They were not soft and warm as they typically are which was disappointing.
Main entrée: My wife and I split the Tour of Italy. Chicken Parmigiana was dry, Lasagna was warm not hot, & Fettuccine Alfredo noodles were not fresh/​soft and sauce was Luke warm.
The server (Caleb) was awesome. He offered suggestions on the menu and filled our glasses countless times. His service couldn’t have been better.
Odd fact/​Tip: Their parking lot when pulling up doesn’t seem that large until you get to the back… HOLY COW this parking lot is HUGE. If the lot was full there is NO WAY they could accommodate that many people in the restaurant as this would be past occupancy for fire code.
If you are looking for a chain semi Italian restarant select this place however there are other LOCAL Italian options in Asheville that you should try!!!

I visit often but as of lately the service can be hit or miss. The food is what keeps me coming back.

Definitely not the best Olive Garden. The building looks like a vacant Mexican restaurant. The service is pretty good and the wait time was not bad at all. But the food wasn’t worth the price at all. Very poor experience all around for an Olive Garden.

My friend and I had such wonderful meal last night at OG. We both got the new 4 course meal. I love their chicken and gnocci soup… i always get it. My friend does the same with the pasta fajool. They have a wonderfully rich alfredo sauce and the salad was crisp and we had lots of cheese grated on top of course.
Its a definite go to for a girls night out.
We also had great service from August !!

On my way to a gymnastics meet with my sister and we stopped here at Olive Garden. The waitress was FABULOUS! She was polite and continuously checked in… but not excessively. And it was no down time! The Olive Garden is seeing a waiting line on this Friday night. But we still were taken care of to the fullest extent!

On a cold winter evening, I went to this olive garden craving for their minestrone soup. Now all of us know how olive garden advertises about «unlimited» soups & salads. While we were half way through our first helping of the soup, the entrees were out. I didnt quite like that as I could have definitely had a second helping.
Other than that, the food met olive garden taste standards. Only wish they improved their service

Olive garden is always there to save the day when all the other restaurants are closed and you feel like having italian food. Our table was waited by a good knowledgable waiter. One wouldn’t come to expect an expertise from the waiter. He was amicable. Minestrone soup was good. But the mushroom ravioli was a disappointment. Other dishes were just average.
Bottom line: Not a bad place if you are hungry late in the night.

Our party of 5 thoroughly enjoyed our meals and we had great service.

Had take out from there tonight and there is no way it could have been any worse! The rotini was completely soggy. The sauce (on the side) was ruined. It was soured and I could not eat it. It had gone bad. The salad dressing cup was unsealed so I had to throw it away as I was uneasy about eating it. Finally the «chicken breast» was 4 tiny strips of meat that was not even a whole piece as there was not even end pieces. It looked as if it had been taken off of someone’s plate who had not finished their meal. It was a meal wasted. I have never been so disappointed!

Good food, excellent service, and super customer service by the Manager. We had several people at our table and split checks and had coupons. Enough to try the patience of the most seasoned waiter. He took it in stride and got the manager involved in trying to sort things out. They apologized and finally got everything done to our request. To our surprise, the manager even gave us a gift card for being so patient with them. That is not only great customer service, it meant a lot to us, and we will be sure to return.

I’m a fan of Olive Garden. I’m a pretty «same thing» kind of guy… so I always get their Chicken Alfredo with their Zuppa Toscana soup, and a boat of Alfredo Sauce to dip the bread sticks in. Their Chocolate/​Raspberry swirl cheesecake is legendary. *Tip: In the «Autumn Months» they have a caramel pumpkin cheesecake that is soooo good!

Seriously, I don’t care if it’s authentic or not. I totally love their zuppa toscana soup. I only wish they would bring back their spinach bruschetta…

My meal was good all of our food came out hot and fresh.
My wife did have an issue and the manager did take care of everything.