Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

I’m not a super big fan of places like this but my boyfriend likes the franchises so I compromise every once in a while. I’ll say service was good, our waitress was very nice. I got the soup salad breadsticks and mini bowl of fettuccine Alfredo. Breadsticks are always good, salad was a bit over dressed, and my pasta was bland, very bland. Tasted nothing like Alfredo sauce, more like a white cheddar macaroni. So I sent it back. Other than that, it’s a toss up with a place like this, and if course there are several better pasta options. I’ll still try to avoid the franchises as much as I can lol

The staff has poor customer service. We were ignored not greeted at the door. We chose to sit at a table by the bar. The waitress working the bar also ignored us, so we left.

The service was good and if you find a food that you like, order that. My wife ordered something different that on TV looked great but after the food came it looked nothing like it at all. She said that the taste was not good and filled up on the soup and salad.

The service and food here was excellent today. We were immediately greeted and seated and our server, Eric, was very friendly and attentive. Even my husband was surprised at how good of a service we had since we’ve had some bad experiences at other restaurants. To top it off our food was delicious – chicken Alfredo, eggplant parmigiana, and an appetizer of calamari and stuffed mushrooms. Everything was great.

I’ve been sitting at the front for a good 10 minutes and no one bothered to greet me or ask me if they could help me. There were about a good 6 – 7 people at the front where all they were doing was chit chatting amongst each other. I’m guessing this is why it’s slow in this particular Olive Garden. You just get ignored.
I decided to transfer to the bar and it’s been five minutes and no one has greeted me still. Amazing! I wonder if their food is gonna be better than their attention span. Out of five employees, two are working. The other three are just standing talking or staring. Yup!
Their saving grace was the person in charge of to go orders. She was very organized and on point. Her customer service was great and she was able to convince me to give her an awesome tip through her service.
The other saving grace was the food. I ordered chicken and shrimp carbonara, zoupa toscana, and grilled chicken flat bread. Don’t order the chicken flat bread to go. It’s not worth it. It’s cold by the time we got to it. As for the carbonara, that was awesome! The grilled taste of the shrimp was just to die for. I was truly impressed that the food I ate came from that restaurant. The cooks/​chefs cooked this to perfection. It wasn’t salty, nor was a it overcooked. The shrimp was at the right chewing texture, and the chicken was had great flavors to it.
I give the cooks 5 and overall customer service 1. The person who gave me good service got a 5. So, it’s a 3.

Went for late lunch with a party of 10 difficult people all my familia lol Remy and Megan were are servers they were awesome! Everyone ordered from the new items and usual had a blast the house wine tasting was great we bought a bottle. Yummiest ever! Gracias to everyone involved we truly enjoyed all the meals and our servers! Remy and Megan probably spelled the names wrong.

Dear Olive Garden breadsticks,
I’m not sure what it is about you that makes you so extraordinary, but you are the reason I had a delicious carb overload the other night. Thank you, and damn you.
Sincerely,
Sorry I’m not sorry.
So yeah, this one time my hubbie was out of town for work and I was swamped with work myself. Grocery shopping was just not in the cards for a few days and I was craving some pasta on this chilly fall day. I remembered I had a Darden restaurant gift card, so I popped online to Olive Garden’s website. Turns out you can order take out right online and it’s super simple!
I definitely got a little carried away with my order, but I justified it by thinking it could be lunch/​dinner for a few meals since I was avoiding taking the time to pick up groceries. With that being said, I ordered the spicy calamari, ($ 9.99), five cheese marinara dipping sauce for breadsticks ($ 3.49), braised beef & tortellini ($ 15.49), and chicken & gnocchi soup (which came with my meal).
YEAH. Moral of the story, maybe don’t make a carry out order when you’re starving and stressed.
The website said my food would be ready in 45 minutes and it was there ready to go right when I arrived. The girl working take out orders up by the bar was super friendly and efficient. She double checked my order in front of me and made sure I had silverware and napkins. Here’s the breakdown of my meal (s)…
Breadsticks: ⁵⁄₅ — The main reason I will consider a meal at Olive Garden. I was given 3 breadsticks with the dip I ordered and another 4 with my meal. That’s a lot.
Spicy calamari: ²⁄₅ — Just enough spice. I wish the calamari was crunchier, it was a little too soggy for my liking. I did enjoy the two different sauces it came with though. FYI, not so great when re-​heated.
Five cheese marinara dipping sauce: ⁵⁄₅ — pretty straight forward, but cheesy and delicious. A great pair with the breadsticks.
Braised beef & tortellini: ³⁄₅ — the tortellini was awesome. They’re huge and filled perfectly with asiago. The basil-​marsala sauce and portobello mushrooms were good too, I just wish there was more of it. The slices of slow-​braised beef were a little disappointing. I thought they would be more along the lines of meat that melted in your mouth along with the pasta, but they were just pieces of beef that seemed out of place.
Chicken & gnocchi soup: ³⁄₅ — Just okay. There wasn’t much chicken, but the Italian dumplings and spinach were good. This soup wasn’t as creamy as it should be though.
Everything reheated well as leftovers accept for the calamari, so maybe keep that in mind if you decide to go on a random Olive Garden binge like I did :)

The service was not so bad but I left after ordering an appetizer that was $ 10 and my plate looked pretty empty like they count every piece of it, I was so angry I decide to leave and did not order a meal, I guess when you don’t go to a really good Italian restaurant that is what you get

The food here is okay but I specially like the all you can eat breadsticks and salad they keep bringing you more and more and then you get filled up before the main entrée when I order the entrée I ordered the sausage and pasta Rustica and was mild not too spicy the sausages well done tasted great with the pasta and I would definitely go back just for the money 2 for great deal good service great wine selection and I would recommend it to a friend

Terribly slow service. Ordered carry out and the place wasn’t even busy but took forever to get us our food that we preordered an hour prior. It also smelled pretty bad in the restaurant.

If you are going there for lunch than Kelsey is your co to sever! What a prodigious server, where to even start on this service. I swear she has to be a mind reader with her uncanny yet delightful intuition for the things I needed, might have needed, and didn’t even know I needed it yet. If I was even thinking about possibly in the future needing a refill, BAM, it was already there. On that note she’s quick and stealthly like a ninja which is l kind of cool if you think about it. She’s also extremely knowable. She could easily be the Poindexter of olive garden. On top of all that she’s genuine about everything she does. It’s kind if you mixed mother Teresa with your own mother… long story short, she’s simply the best

The service is ABSOLUTE horrid. I’m writing this as I’m sitting at my table. They brought our food before we got our soup. What?!? I told them I don’t want my food now, the runner looked utterly confused as I said we hadn’t gotten our food yet. Never coming here again.

Great chain! Just got back from out of town and needed lunch BEFORE grocery shopping. The Olive Garden has a great kids menu, so we stopped here and weren’t disappointed. We like how family friendly they are. We were surprised to see they have Gluten Free options, something we keep an eye on for family that comes to visit.
The food and service are always good.

One of the best Italian foods in Naperville. The Food was great and the prices were OK comparatively. I love the starters than the Entrees. The Smoothies are great too.

The waitress was very nice, but seriously hire some extra staff! The service was absolutely terrible. We waited for about 40 minutes for a salad and soup ??? Really ?? Then they forgot my chicken. It’s not the servers fault, she was the only one for the bar and dining room. Seriously hire some more staff, you need it !

Havent been at Olive Garden for some time. I had my house salad with some yammy bteadsticks. For the main dinner, I had Grilled Chicken Tascano. Good combo of flavors. Of course, no dessert. I did nt even finish my main course. :) breadsticks were filing. Service was good enough. Speedy as well. Friendly atmosphere. Make sure to call ahead for your reservation if you do nt want to wait for a bit, especially on the weekends. Enjoy.

Oooohhh the breadsticks and soup.
Seems like this olive has a lot of young, unexperienced waiters and waitresses… hey, it’s okay, you gotta start somewhere.
I know I know it’s olive garden it’s not a 5 star dining establishment. But really? Last time we went the waitress was so timid and had chewed off nailpolish which really freaked me out.
Other then that, the food is good. Meaning, If you are looking for a quick bite to eat before you shop until you drop, this is the kind of place.

We do not go to Olive Garden very often. In fact the last time we have been here was about 7 years ago, mainly because there isn’t one in our area.
The only thing I found odd was the fact that the dining room was practically empty when we arrived and they told us the wait was about 15 minutes, maybe less– we were the only family in the wait area. We took a seat and then a minute later they called my name like the wait area was crowded. They could have been going through a shift change, but it was just one of those moments that leave you confused without an explanation. It didn’t bother us, we just found it a little funny.
Our server was fantastic (I think her name was Lexi?!) and patient (we had our children with us) and answered our questions about menu items knowledgeably. The children’s menu was good. My son liked building his own meal and the stickers and crayons kept my toddler busy. The bread sticks and drinks were continuously refilled and we didn’t have to ask for anything. The food was delicious and overall the price wasn’t as high as we were expecting for the four of us. Our dining experience was very pleasant.
If we are in the area again, we’d definitely come back.

Since when did only ‘soup salad and breadsticks’ cost $ 11? You so crazy Olive Garden.
A few new dining options, including a small plates/​Tapas section, are a much welcome addition to a typically ho-​hum menu. Our server was good, and when he asked if I wanted cheese on my food, I told him to ‘cheese it up, my good sir.’ My date gave me a look because he was putting cheese on an already-​cheesy pasta dish, but I countered her disapproving stare with «yo dawg, I heard you like cheese, so we put cheese on yo cheese». Our sharp waiter picked up on the Xzibit meme, so kudos to him.
My Tour of Italy was good as per usual. The salad didn’t have any pepperoncini (those midsized green sport peppers), which are my favorite part of the whole damn thing. It was nearing closing time @9:45pm so I didn’t press for any dessert, but I know for a fact that their mini dolcini are both adorable and delicious. Another solid outing at The OG.

I have never, ever, thought of Olive Garden when thinking about where I want to go eat, but because this place is popular, I often end up here with a group of usually-​sane people. Because of that, I’ve discovered a couple of things on the menu that I like, and that I might actually crave if enough time passed: the mussels appetizer and the mushroom ravioli with the sun-​dried tomato sauce. The mussels are flavorful and usually cooked well, and I have to say – I think I might actually REALLY like the raviolis.
Otherwise, the pastas are bland and over-​cooked, the sauces are bland and depthless, the soups are bland and boring, the salads are okay, the bread is decent, and the desserts are forgettable – literally, because I actually can’t remember even one. Thankfully, I’ve found a couple of things that I enjoy, and I should also mention that my experience with the service here, so far, has been very good; a couple of times the service was a little slow, but it usually isn’t, and it’s always been friendly. I feel, though, that I have to give two stars – and not three – because on the whole, the food there is pretty bad. The service and the two things on the menu that I like are the reasons its not one star.