Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

My wife and I come here on a regular basis. The staff is polite– the food is amazingly awesome! I love the soups, the breadsticks with Alfredo dipping sauce.
Main dishes are mainly pasta based. Chicken Alfredo, chicken & shrimp carbonara, you get the point– I recommend this place to people going by themselves? Or groups!
Great Enviroment! Bring everyone! Have a blast!

At long last comes The Garden of Olives!
Came here with my parents for Dad’s Birthday. Great service, pretty good food, but one glaring issue that makes me mad. Bear with me!
They have brilliant marketing here, and being a marketing guy, I give them an A+. They offer half price wine in the bar while you wait for a table. Smart… very smart. So we started there. Not the best wine list, but it pairs well with this type of place. Had a glass of Diamond Coppola Cabernet that wasn’t too bad.
The menu has changed so much since I was last here. Back in the 90’s, this was a great first date place, and a spectacular value for a 21 year old that could get out for under $ 25 without breaking a sweat! Now days, it’s a far more pricey affair. A glass of wine for my parents and I, two appetizers, an entrée each set us back $ 100. Not outrageous by today’s standards.
Surprisingly, the food was actually pretty good. Being vegetarian, my options are limited, but rather than just pasta and sauce, I opted for the eggplant parmagiana. At $ 14.50 it’s way overpriced. Four medallions of aubergine and a side of spaghetti. Even including salad it’s pretty steep considering the meat dishes are the same or just a tad more. However, the quality has come a long ways. Well cooked, lightly fried, and not greasy at all. The sauce isn’t watery and has some backbone to it. Appetizers were the highlight for me. Artichoke fritters… very tasty! Fried risotto balls… gimmicky but pretty darn good actually! My parents both enjoyed their meals as well. They had some gluten free options which is important for my Mom, and a good steak and linguini option for my Dad. I even got him to pronounce gorgonzola! Salad was fresh, soup was great, hpowever I leave those «famous» bread sticks lie… just not for me, no fault of the restaurant.
Overall, a decent value, and a step above the mediocre chain places. Restaurant was super clean even though it was busy. Restroom needed attention, and one of the sinks wasn’t working, no water all. Totally silly for a place like this that gets super busy. That’s a quick phone call before you open to get a plumber out and get it done pronto.
I’m keeping this review at 3 stars, although I’m hesitant. Where it loses a big star from this reviewer is this. First of all, service was excellent. The young lady waiting on us did a great job and really made it special for my Dad. The little tiramisu cup comped for his Birthday was really sweet. Five stars there. However, I put the restaurant at fault for this growing trend at chain places to order appetizers, drinks, and paying your check with these mini touch pad systems at each table. Really impersonal and a tad rude having the customer do the work. I realize it speeds up wait times, makes the kitchen more efficient and accurate, but really it’s just another gimmick aimed at increasing the bottom line for the restaurant.
Biggest issue for me however, is that you are asked to take a survey on this mini computer after you’re meal. We were told that if we didn’t the server and staff get a «zero». I find this insulting that as a customer for dinner it’s my job to protect the staff’s jobs. I love feedback from customers, and it’s very important to improve service, but to have the restaurant put pressure on their servers and staff like this is completely inappropriate. This alone will keep me from returning to eat here. I expect certain things when I eat out, and certain sets of standards regardless of quality. Pulling a stunt like this after you’ve eaten and about to pay was extremely off-​putting. The poor server was embarrassed having to ask us to do the survey, and I don’t blame her. It’s degrading. There are much better ways to get surveys and feedback. Have customers go to a website, fill out a survey, and reward them with a $ 5 gift card for their next visit. Well worth the time and money and you will get much higher quality feedback. Having customers do this at the table with a touch screen in totally unprofessional and really puts a black mark on an overall nice experience.

We had a wonderful dinner tonight at the Clackamas Olive Garden. The server Kellie was very attentive and went above and beyond just order taking. My husband wanted the shrimp Alfredo, but wanted additional shrimp added… When dinner arrived it was the best we have ever had there. Thank you Kellie for being a wonderful server. we will be back…

Steak? At Olive Garden?
Yes, ooh my, yes! I am compelled to say yes again.
Being in the minority in my family that doesn’t like pasta, I put on a brave face and forage at the pasta palace. I’ve never felt like trying the steak since it seems so far out of their wheelhouse so to speak. I ordered the steak Toscana. Having low expectations may be part of my delight in what I was served. It was cooked to medium rare perfection. The herbed butter added that amazing last bit of flavor to an already tender, moist flavorful steak. I am often the first to be finished at the table but this time I finished last because I was savoring every bite.
While pasta isn’t my thing, I do have to give then credit for doing soup, salad and bread sticks really, really well. I went with my favorite Zuppa Toscana and they delivered on the piping hot, well flavored scrumptious soup that I love.
As we were celebrating a great visit from our daughter before her return the next day to finish up four years of University on the east coast we went a little wild and ordered the smoked mozzarella fonduta. Once again these guys knocked our socks off with a flavorful, melty, incredible experience /​indulgence. I would encourage it to all my friends.
The rest of the family? The eggplant parmesan with a side of broccoli was tender, tasty and happily consumed by our veggie daughter. My ‘shroom loving wife was quite taken by the portobello ravioli.
If you haven’t tried the belini peach ice tea, it is also one of my favorites here, don’t miss out.
The hi tech order from your table gizmo helped get the appetizer out quickly as well as settle the bill. If your dining with several people and want to split the check, it would make that painless. Even though I picked up the whole tab, it was convenient to pay whenever I was ready and not to have to ask for the check. Having said that, as soon as I stated checking out, our server was right there to clear the table and provide the required take out boxes, though sadly there was no steak left to go home with us. A big shout out to our server Taylor S who was able to offer some great suggestions and made sure our beverages were never empty.
Service here is always to notch. They work as a team to make sure everything is coming out as soon as it is ready. While the best front of house managers impact is making sure that all runs well and is almost invisible, the one here does all of that. It was an unexpected and nice surprise to have her come by and check in with us and help us package up our food on the way out.
I’m leary of giving 5 starts to most any chain but this place really unshackles the chains to deliver a great experience at a good price.
We’ll be going back, even if it’s only to console us because our daughter is 3,000 miles away killing it at college.

So, I understand this is a chain restaurant, and usually, they aren’t the best. But tonight, we had a great experience compared to visits to other chain restaurants in the past.
I had a gift card, and I was craving soup. When you want soup, all-​you-​can-​eat soup sounds amazing! So, we headed to Olive Garden.
There was a little bit of a wait. The host quoted thirty to forty minutes. It was more about fifteen minutes. I worked at a restaurant before. It’s know it’s better to quote a higher time.
We got an awesome booth that could fit six. It was awesome, because my child likes to move around… a lot! We were greeted almost immediately by our server, who offered a wine tasting and got our beverage orders. He came back in good time with our drinks, and he took our food orders.
I got the chicken and gnocchi soup. I liked it. It was simple, and I didn’t expect much, but it tasted a lot better than my expectations! Oh, and I got a salad, because it’s the Olive Garden. You have to get the salad. My fiancé liked his shrimp scampi, and it was on the lighter menu. So, lesser calories. Yay! I’m pretty sure the manager came by our table, because she offered my child grapes and brought them out. That was a nice gesture. We didn’t fill up in breadsticks, because we didn’t need the extra calories… but we really wanted to! (It’s the new year. We’re trying to be good.) Overall, a good experience. I wouldn’t go here all the time, but I wouldn’t mind coming back once in a blue moon.

Here it is another chain restaurant. Plenty of seating and always a wait even when there are tables ready. I dont know what i was expecting something with a slight bit of flavor. Sadly i was disappointed. This place also throws a new wrinkle in. A way to ignore each other at the table. As you sit down you are asked have you ever used our system before? Its a game system with the menu built in. You can order drinks. But alcoholic drinks cause it doesnt know you are over 21 till you get your first drink. You can order off the menu but not if you have any soecial orders or want to build your own meal and no kids meals on the machine. There are games. Plenty of games. All kinds. Enough for the kids to fight over and want to play. The real thrill is when you get the bill. There is a cost for the games. It goes directly on your bill. Its kind of a hidden cost. Nothing ever prompts you or ask is it okay to charge you just ring up the charge. Then tbe most insulting part is you pay the bill right there. Never have to wait for the waiter. It comes up and says here is the amount for 20% tip. Explain to me why i would tip someone i didnt order drinks or food from? A runner brings me my food. Not my waiter. Did i mention the food?
Thats because its flavorless. We spanned the globe
Four different sauces. Four different meals. Chicken Seafood Meat and just pasta. There is nothing to describe. Nothing jumped out nothing was not what it said. It just lacked any distinguishing flavor. If blindfolded i dont think i could have identified the meals by tasting them. That includes the alfredo. Maybe they are buying their food from the airplane service people the prices are certainly that way. We pass the packaging and preparing cost on to you. Its heated up to order right out of the plastic bag. I can only say if you want the endless breadsticks and salad or soup. Stick to it. There is no reason to roam to the wasteland of a menu.

We always eat in the bar so this review is based on that.
The reason for eating in the bar is that there usually isn’t a wait and you get really fast service. PLUS theres a bonus… FREE WINE tasting-​if you like. :-)
This isn’t authentic Italian but they are at least pretty consistent and economical. It’s a great place for families too. Cause when you eat there you are like family! lol
You can’t go wrong with the all you can eat soup or salad and endless breadsticks.
My favorite dishes include the Alfredo sauce. The Alfredo sauce is pretty yummy and if course fattening. Cream and butter… How can it not be good. :-)
Of course there are many other pasta and non pasta dishes to chose from as well so check their website for current menus.
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The never ending pasta bowl is always a plus. The only draw back was not being allowed to have grilled chicken as the extra on it. We asked the server and were told only the breaded chicken can be added.

Always good service, that is one of the main reasons I like this place. Food is ok. Soup is really good. Enjoy the staples, come for what you like. Best for groups, you’re there for your friends/​family, not so much the food anyway. And the great service can handle a group with ease.

Maybe I’m just easy to please. My friends are constantly suggesting new and other Italian places other than the Olive Garden. They might be accurately doing so, but why mess with perfection. I have yet to have a bad meal here. The service is always spectacular, the food is always what I’d hope it would be. For the life of me I can’t figure out what the rub is with some other reviews. No disrespect intended here, I’ve just been reading and trying to remember a bad time, I just can’t. I’m sure that restaurants can appreciate and utilize constructive criticism, but I got nothin. If they disappoint in the future I might whine about it, but until then keep on keepin on! And try the stuffed mushroom caps for an app, you can’t go wrong!

I can see now why I received such bad service… at this Olive Garden, it clearly is an issue of just bad management. I went to the actual Darden Restaurant website to voice my dislike for my dining experience, but was left with a limited amount of characters to express the bad taste left in my mouth. Surprise! Not ONE member of this stores management team has reached to express ANY concern! I wasn’t looking for a free meal but the hope that, for a chain restaurant, they could embrace the basic fundamentals of customer service and at least offer an apology. Thank you Olive Garden, and the Darden Restaurant Group… you don’t need to reach out; done with you. I’ll make sure to do whatever I can to discourage ANYONE from dining at any of your establishments.

A family night out turned disaster when our bottomless pasta dish stopped coming out because the «computer was down». The poor staff couldn’t serve us because the computer was down. Guess the young crew never experienced taking orders manually with a pen and paper.
Of course adding fuel to the fire, guests were not informed the reason for long wait.

Awesome, I love Olive Garden so I’m probably a bit bias, but this place deserves better reviews. I’ve eaten here a few times and the service is just as good as the food, fantastic!

I went here because it was someone’s birthday. Virtually every person in the entire restaurant was either obese or morbidly obese. It was like a caricature of Americana. (Walking in here and you will truly glimpse why we are at the end of empire.) The service was excellent (Ryan was the server). Good drinks with a decent amount of alcohol. The salad was okay if you like iceberg. The sauces for the breadsticks were quite good. Surprisingly good main meals. Very kid friendly.

Yes a corporate restaurant, not much cooking in the kitchen, but, hey, I didn’t want to waste the gift card, the food fills me up, the price is fair and the service is excellent, Not Italian, Italian-​American. Salad better than at other comparable places. Best thing of the bread sticks is the garlic salt on them, Fill up. The tour of Italy was a perfect amount, the eggplant chewy, cheesy and bland; rigatoni very bland but a decent sauce. the tortellini very good. I’ve like the lasagne in the past, the ravioli – not spectacular but better than i can buy in fred meyers.

I have not been in an Olive Garden for 5 years. Last time I went, I tried three different sauces and none of them had any flavor so I didn’t need to go back but we had received a gift card from someone and we went back. This time I thought I would try the cheese ravioli with meat sauce thinking it would be a safe bet. When I received my dinner I noticed that the pasta itself
looked like some I had seen packaged at the store (dark yellow color not light like I’m used to).
When I cut into a ravioli I saw that it was not filled with ricotta cheese and such but instead
it looked like the cheese you would see on a pizza. It even oozed out of the ravioli and left
the other half empty. When I tasted it, it also tasted like pizza cheese and was horrible. I sent it back and ordered the dish my daughter had because she said it was good. By the time I got it though, I had filled up on salad and breadsticks (which didn’t taste as good as they used to). I only ate a small amount of the Sausage stuffed Rigatoni but as it turns out, that was a good thing. The next morning my daughter had bowel issues for half the day.
My advice is search Italian food on you Unilocal app and go somewhere else.

I am basing thus review upon my overall experience at this location over several years. The majority of the time, the service is wonderful and the food is divine. There have been, on occasion, less than stellar visits. The last few have been as such.
We were sat in the back corner. Our server had only our table and everyone else around us was served by another young gal. It seemed like our server may have been very new which would explain why he only had one table.
I know what it’s like to be a new employee in a customer service field. It’s nerve wrecking, overwhelming and you’re constantly worried about messing up which usually makes you mess up more. That being said, our drinks went unfilled for a good 15 minutes. We were never checked on during our meal. Perhaps it was nerves that made him forget that we wanted alfredo sauce on the kids tortellini and not marinara. A learning curve could absolutely throw of timing in bring food out (it took almost 20 minutes for salad and breadsticks).
Things that were probably not within his control, nerves or not: the salad had virtually no dressing, the chicken scampi had almost all noodles and no veggies, the sauce it was cooked in tasted like drinking a straight glass of wine — it was not cooked down and there was not enough sauce at all, the «crispy» Flatbread pizza appetizer was anything but. In picking up a piece, it wilted in my hand because the bread was so soft in the middle and t he kids broccoli was barely steamed enough to chew.
This seems to be an ongoing trend with this location in the sub-​par food. The last several times, the breadsticks have tasted old or dry. Ultimately I still like OG, but the frequency of disappointment is starting to make me rethink my frequency in dining.

Horrible experience up there, on weekend.. It took 1 .5 HOURS to get food «TO GO «. Was deeply hurt, i felt like I was asking for free lunch, When I Even got gave 10%tips.
Was crying for hours, felt horrible all day.
I could not eat this food after all, my husband too. Never coming back, after years of visits.
Note: it doesn’t mean you will go through the same.

Typical OG but great service. We were in on Christmas Eve, and despite that the staff was pleasant and seemed happy to be there. We had bread on our table before we even could think to ask. The usual food, what you always expect from OG.

Love OG. Love this location. It is one of my favorites. It can be a little busy, but, it’s across from the mall, so, that is expected.
I’m addicted to the salad and breadsticks (HUGE pregnancy craving!!!) and the staff keeps them coming without being asked.
Weekday lunches or early dinners are the best times to avoid crowds.
See ya there!