Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

This has been one of my favorite places to go since could remember. The other day I went in, since I hadn’t in a while, and the food was still delicious as always. It was later in the night that we came and they welcomed us into the restaurant even though it was about closing time. Even with it being at closing time the restaurant was still packed with customers! The Zupa Tuscana soup is my favorite! I have at least 2 bowls of it before I eat my main entrée. I get the chicken parmasiana and it meets the expectations.

For me, Olive Garden is 100% 3 stars – a solid and resounding a-​ok.
For my 12 year old son?
Plant the idea of unlimited breadsticks in the mind of a near teenage boy and eyes glaze over, incessant chatter ceases, and an expression of – BRING it! – takes shape.
In a post dining survey (which I allowed my 12 year old to fill out at the table), he wrote: «Olive Garden, you have exceeded my expectations 10-​fold.»
Ahhh…to be 12 again.
I ordered the grilled salmon and parmesan broccoli side dish. The salmon was ok. It was kind of weird in that I would have one bite that would be moist and spot on in flavor and another would be dry and lacking in flavor. So, maybe unevenly cooked would be an apt description? The broccoli was fresh and cooked al dente (awesome!).
The pre-​entrée salad and breadsticks were good. I’m not a huge fan of iceberg, which is primarily what their salad consists of – but the dressing is flavorful. I recently had their breadsticks at an event and found them to be a bit on the salty side. They’ve definitely dialed the salt back and this time I found them to be much more palatable.
Both my husband and I ordered their Long Island Limoncello, which was sweet lemony goodness and at $ 7, a fair deal. My son got a limeade mocktail and was in 7^th heaven. Everyone at our table also enjoyed the fried mozzarella appetizers, which aren’t the usual stick variety of fried mozzarella. They’re slices of mozz breaded, fried, and then drizzled with their Alfredo sauce (decadent deliciousness!)
Our server was prompt, friendly, and happily packed up what we couldn’t eat for us (which was nice because after all the breadsticks, my son could hardly any of his pot pie and I feel certain had I attempted the to-​go packaging, it would have been a red sauce everywhere sort of disaster).
A-​ok.
But…a final word of advice – want to be a hungry pre-teen’s hero? Bring them to Olive Garden.
They’ll adore you.
10-​fold.

This was our first time at an Olive Garden. It was quick service and really yummy food. Our server Steven was really nice and attentive. I ate the fettuccine Alfredo and my boyfriend had the chicken Alfredo. It was a good portion size and tasted great. The sauce was a little too rich in my opinion but still delicious. It came with salad or soup and we had the salad which was yummy as well. Great service! Thanks for a great first experience Olive Garden (:

I just want to say that our visit here today was the best yet.
Thank you Brett for an amazing service.

The Olive Garden has amazing food you can’t go wrong with anything you choose. Also the Staff are friendly and have a since of humor about them. Whenever I go here they treat my little family, it is almost like being at a party at a friends house.

Had a great time there last night. Started off with wine and for dinner we had their new breadstick chicken parmigiana sandwich. It was amazing. Met the general manager Tyler and he was such a sweetheart. I was so impressed with the presentation and taste. Great job guys!

New GM at this location and it shows. We have been eating at this particular Olive Garden for years. We have always enjoyed the food and service but the new Manager has made some big improvements in service and in the kitchen.
I took away one star because the Olive Garden isn’t really an Italian eatery, which it tries to be. Someone might argue that taking away a star because the franchise is missing the mark isn’t fair to a local business. I would counter with the argument that the franchise would need to be worthy of 5 stars to begin with. So in my opinion this location is all that it can be given the limitations of the franchise.
If you like Olive Garden, you will be very pleased with this particular Olive Garden. If you are looking for old world Italian, keep looking, and if you find it in the Treasure Valley be a good egg and Unilocal it for the rest of us.

The food was fabulous. The fried Mozzarella is one of my favorites. Shrimp Fresco is great with this awesome spicy sauce. But mostly, our waiter (Ian) went above and beyond to keep us happy.

Always a good place to go when you can’t think of anything else, the old stand by.
My kids love the breadsticks, as everyone does, and usually the food is exactly what you expect.

This place is usually busy. We have been a few times and usually have very nice servers and enjoy the food.

I would give them half a star but I can’t.
I went in an hour ago I went in with my family of 5 ppl not many right? Ok so I went in with the girl in the front, she said hello «friendly» alright I said it’s fine maybe she’s having a bad day busy day maybe. But no she said it’s going to be a 10 min wait alright I can wait 10 minutes. 10 minutes passed 20 and it came to half an hour. In all of our wait people came in and as soon as as they came in they got seated down. I said maybe because they’re less people but no it wasn’t the case if they can make room for 12 people they can make room for 5 people.
Never will I ever come here as much I love Italian food I’m taking my money and business else where bad service bad attitudes.

What happened at O.G. From 1 to 5 star experience!
Visited for lunch today and from start to finish I could not ask for better service or food. It seemed everything was just working like clockwork and our server Beth was AMAZING.
Why was it so good?
The new lunch menu ROCKS and everything was served hot and seasoned well. I opted for the $ 7.99 chicken parmasean sandwich with fries and endless soup. What a deal!
*Always been a big fan of the gnocchi soup, it was hot and creamy with nice chunks of chicken.
*Sandwich had gooey cheese, plenty of sauce, and crispy chicken pieces.
*Of course unlimited fresh buttery garlic bread.
Service problems could be the thing of the past with the POS table systems to order and pay.
All I ask for a good experience is a good deal, friendly efficient service, and hot flavorful food,

YOU NAILED IT O.G. Congrats.

These days I usually prefer to eat at local places, but sometimes it’s nice to enjoy a nostalgic meal, especially when that also means gorging myself on unlimited breadsticks and salad. Add to that the best white sauces (like alfredo) I have ever had (it beats anywhere local, as well as local restaurants in other states, in my opinion) and I am a fan. Olive Garden also usually has different promotions going on — in this case, ‘2 for $ 25′ where two people get breadsticks, soup or salad, an entrée each, and a dessert to share (or a mini dolcini each) and it makes sense why this place is always packed on the weekend. The drinks are also pretty affordable if you want to indulge in a nice glass of wine (or two, or three…). The employees are usually friendly, although service is not stellar. In any case, this would be my go to pasta fix if I was hungry and looking for food I know is consistently good.

Olive Garden is just about the same anywhere you go. Exact same layout (in my experience), same menu, and same dishes. As a chain, I actually appreciate the consistency.
The location happens to be near my work, so I pop in occasionally when I’m craving soup. (I hardly order anything but the Soup, Salad & Breadstick combo — in my opinion, the menu is overpriced for the quality of Italian food they serve.) It’s cheap, quick, filling, and always pretty good.
The service is sometimes hit or miss, but most often the wait staff is friendly and helpful.
I’m not a huge fan of chains, but this one checks out enough to keep me coming back. At least, when I’m craving soup.

I haven’t had Olive Garden in years and I must say I was pleasantly surprised with my recent visit. I have a hard time branching out from the Chicken Alfredo but it was as delicious as I remembered. We had a party of 6 and everyone ordered something different. Everyone enjoyed their meal and there were no leftovers to take home.
I haven’t found an appetizer on their menu that I can’t live without but the black tie mousse cake is the bomb!

Kudos to Olive Garden
Had an excellent dinner here last weekend, despite a 35-​minute wait. The waitress was attentive and efficient, but not as friendly as I would have liked. The place was packed and very busy, so I was okay with it. The manager made the rounds, greeting us and asking how we were. I appreciated that greatly. Great place to have an above-​average dinner.
But the highest praise I can give to this OG is the way they handled something I did that was very foolish. I paid with a card, leaving a good tip, but I LEFT MY CARD ON THE TABLE! How could I have done that???
I didn’t realize that i didn’t have my card until today, a week later! We’d just finished a great breakfast at Steve’s Café (another review I need to post) and I pulled out my wallet to pay with my card, and… no card! Looked three times, checked every pocket, checked the car… nothing! I remembered the last time I’d used it, called OG, and quickly was handed over to a manager who confirmed that they had my card. We zipped over, showed my ID and was given my card immediately.
Good job, OG! We’ve had no suspicious activity show up on the card, so we’re thankful for your help!

This place is close to the mall. It has essentially became the end spot after the shopping. And it’s fun to watch the bartenders come and go within the last couple years during my stay in Boise. The only thing I’ve mentioned couple time and I wish the restaurant to beware of it is HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVING WI_​FI IN THE DATA-​DRIVEN ERA IN THE ENTIRE RESTAURANT!!!

Update:
To clarify: three stars, in the Olive Garden context. Not as compared to fine Italian dining, but what you know you’re looking for in a chain Italian restaurant.
We had better luck last weekend at dinner at Olive Garden. Again, my pasta was gummy and the sauce wasn’t good. I got primavera sauce, in which I expected vegetables but only had a few pieces of things I could identify as veggies. It mostly seemed like marinara with several chunks of yellow squash thrown in. The bucatini was limp and clumpy, as if it had spent a few extra minutes boiling and could have been eaten with or without teeth.
However, we got our salad with dressing on the side, and it was great: crisp, fresh, and cold. It had a nice mix of veggies other than romaine, and it was fun to get chunks of fresh roma tomatoes, olives, and pepperoncinis. Our server also offered us a second bowl of breadsticks when we ate the first three, which I appreciated. They’re definitely tighter when offering «endless» salad and bread than they were before, but I appreciate that they aren’t wasteful.
My pals got a gorgonzola steak entrée and the tour of chicken Marsala, and both were happy. The gorgonzola steak was quite rich, but that’s to be expected. The chicken Marsala disappeared completely, so it must have been good: he had little to say about it beyond that it was creamy and not overcooked.
We ordered the Black Tie Mousse cake, which arrived literally seconds after we ordered. It must have been plated before we ordered because there wasn’t enough time to even have sliced it and put it onto a plate before it arrived, and it seemed hilarious that there wasn’t even a charade put on to pretend it had been anything other than pulled directly from the reach in. It was good, though: the fat, sugar, chocolate bomb that we expected. I could tell the waitress was itching to push us out of there by that point, so we were fine with getting out of her hair. Turning tables is how they make their money and Saturday is the big night, so it’s totally understandable. She was a very nice lady and once we turned down the wine didn’t push the issue, which I also appreciated.
I like it when a restaurant takes feedback and really tries to improve. The manager of this restaurant contacted me after my last review and said he had spoken with his staff, which I appreciated. I think it’s awesome he was so receptive to what I’d said and even though I don’t exactly think the place pulled a 180, I do think the fact the manager believes in listening to customer feedback is awesome. Thanks to the GM for working hard, and the staff for all they do. I know they make no money and deal with mall people all night, which has to be horrible. Thanks for sending us out food anyway!

Stopped in for the Never Ending Pasta Bowl.
Fettuccine alfredo was pretty good, they didn’t skimp on the sauce. I had my bowl and was full, when we were leaving they offered a free togo box full. Of course we took them up on the offer.
Staff was nice, service was quick.

It’s a national chain. When you go in, you know exactly what to expect – the food is okay. The pasta is always a little over cooked and the salad is mostly iceberg lettuce drenched in dressing that tastes like it came from a Kraft bottle, but it’s edible and predictable.
We always find service to be a bit spotty here. I don’t think you should have to ask for refills on your drinks or «all you can eat» soup and salad, but that’s what we’re forced to do here. It also takes a really long time to get our bill or to have them run our card.
We eat here about once a year, usually because someone else chose it, and that seems to be plenty.