Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

Been here plenty times only cuz my girlfriend loves this place. I think it’s OK but the food is not all that. Friendly service though.

I’m an Olive Garden fan, through and through. It might not be real Italian, but whatever. So sue me.
Right off the bat let me say the deducted star is for the very lackluster server we had. That’s my only complaint.
I had the new trio deal for dinner, which was a TON of food… You get to pick 3 pastas that’ll come to you on one plate, kind of like an appetizer sampler, but with pasta!
— Soup and salad to start: Chicken Gnocchi was amazing, as always. The salad was also super good because of the signature OG dressing, duh. Also, pro tip, ask for a side of alfredo to dip your breadsticks in. MMMM.
— Lobster and shrimp stuffed ravioli: good, but a little too fishy. I know that sounds weird, but the stuffing didn’t taste like lobster or shrimp, it just tasted like fucking ocean water and fish. Eh.
— Ravioli in marina sauce: simple, but really good!
— Alfredo: a classic, and always good.
For dessert we had the Mousse Cake which was literally mindblowing. It’s like chocolate cake, dark chocolate cheesecake, and another layer of cheesecake in ONE SLICE OF YUM. Try it, I promise you’ll borderline die, but in a good way.

I came here for dinner Friday night and ate the calamari and chicken marsala. The menu shows how much calories each meal has, which is nice and health-​conscious. Calamari was delicious. Chicken marsala was good too, although I preferred the calamari. The waiter checked with me periodically, so service was good.

We came in for a late lunch/​early dinner and we were seated immediately. So there is the one star for the speedy seating!
Then we looked at the menu and decided for the special of 3 items on one plate. Lets just say in the picture it looked much much better. The pastas were small quantity– very small. I ordered lasagna, cheese ravioli, and penne pasta. Literally the lasagna was no more then 3 inches wide and 5 inches long– for the price very expensive. I got 3 average size raviolis and the penne pasta was a normal amount. This was 12.99 $. The pasta tasted bland– no flavor– and was actually below average. The soup I got was good, and the breadsticks were full of salt and oil on top. The food quality was bad– very fatty and greasy and tasted more like fast food then anything else.
The service was good, which is why I added the second star. The server kept checking on us and was vey nice. At the end when checking out on the tablet on the table, we saw a charge for a game– $ 1.99, which was weird since we didn’t play any games. Anyways the server took this off of our check and we paid and left.
I definitely wouldn’t be back here ever again.

This was one of my favorite restaurant
It was, not anymore
Quality has decreased over the years
Have taken off the menu many good choices
Sadly this will be the last time I eat here

Came here on Sunday night for dinner with the hubby. Five stars for our server Alejandro and the food. Minus a star for the 45min wait for a table.

We came here tonight for dinner and were told it would be a 35 minute wait. It ended up being closer to an hour. The service was bad but the food was good so we were happy in the end.
It seems to be a love/​hate type of thing here but if they can consistently serve the food we had tonight, we will put up with the negatives.

Awesome service the bartender is great! Meg is thee best if you can, sit at the bar for her! The food of course is good had lunch the meatball sandwhich. Meg suggested the Toscana soup and she made a great suggestion! I was every bit of pleased being that I am a foodie!

Can’t deal with this place anymore. Gave it enough chances. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Meal order took almost 50 min to come after the salad bowl was delivered. I don’t blame the sever he tried. Something is wrong with the kitchen. Ran out of bread sticks and the salad looked like it came from the bottom of the container. Dead give away when a quarter of the salad is small pieces of purple cabbage. May be a while before I come back. Wish I could say this was the first time something went wrong.

Started off the night with two 6oz glasses of Rosecatto from the bar, we noticed that by showing the pager our wine would be half off.
Service was great. Food was delicious. Our server made the experience a lot better after the 30 minute wait.

This is a run of the mill chain restaurant. But what I really enjoy about it is the endless soup, salad and breadsticks for lunch. $ 9. The service at this location is very very good. I have never had any trouble with any of the employees. They really want to please the clientele. The restaurant is also very clean. I have eaten here several times and really enjoyed it

After shopping at Westfield Culver City mall, I sometimes come here to eat dinner. The pastas are expensive here, but the house salad and breadsticks are delicious!
The bathroom is pretty clean, so I am happy about this.
The food here is expensive, so I don’t come here often, maybe every 3 – 4 months.

I know this is Olive Garden and it’s crazy busy because of the location, but my wife and I really like this location. Because of the value of the specials, it’s weirdly one of our most visited Italian restaurants! (and we’ve spent a lot of time in Italy, which makes this even more weird)
We’ve always enjoyed the food at this location and had friendly servers. Yes, there will be a wait and parking will be somewhat disastrous, but that’s life at any restaurant in Westfield Culver City. While you’re waiting, take a lap around the mall or grab a tea next door. There’s plenty to keep you occupied until your table is ready.
Personally, I find it kind of nice that this restaurant is always bustling. There’s something that always feels wrong when you’re in a deserted national chain restaurant. When no one is there, you look around and ask yourself, «Did I accidentally go into Applebee’s?»
The food is the food. If you don’t like Olive Garden, as a chain, there’s nothing that’s going to change your mind here. If you do, it tastes like other Olive Gardens. The pasta is decent, the salad is drenched with dressing, and the breadsticks rule.
What makes this a 4 star Olive Garden? It has a couple cool things going for it:
— Free WiFi (about 8−10MBPS download speeds)
— Pay stations at the table (you don’t even need to wait for your server!)
If you haven’t been to OG in a while, wait until you see a special on TV like the Neverending Pasta Bowl or a three course meal for $ 9.99. After eating at OG for half the price of what you’d pay at C&O’s or any Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, you might be pleasantly surprised like we are every time.

Visited this business a few weeks ago for the first time. I was not aware it was inside the mall. I parked on the other side of the mall and walked through the mall to get to the business. We were greeted in a promptly manner and did not have to wait. We were seated with a friendly hostess. Our server was friendly, however, not too efficient.
We didn’t get offered a complimentary wine like they usually do. The people next to us were offered wine. It was no biggie. We ordered the endless pasta dish because it was a great price. It took a while to get my water order, but it finally arrived. My food order also took a long time to arrive as well. I didn’t know what I did to be served last at my table of 2. The server was gone for a while and was not too attentive at all.
He left us with the bill and didn’t come back until about 10 minutes later. We were ready to go because we had a haunt to catch in Anaheim. It was so upsetting to be served in a less amount of time with no service. The food was great, but not the service. I experienced way better service at Olive Garden in other locations. I do not recommend coming here because the service was not great.

Solid spot for post work out gains (right next to Golds). The salad is whatever, get the soup.
They charge you to play games on the tablet.

My husband and I are New Yorkers that seriously miss good Italian food. We have been in CA for 15 months now and we often find ourselves at Olive Garden.
We have been in the LA area for about 3 months now and have eaten at this establishment approximately 4 times. It is ALWAYS crowded, so we usually eat at the bar. The bartenders have always been quick and service is good.
This isn’t the place for foodies, but if you are looking for a basic Italian meal with salad and breadsticks, this is a good place to go.

Worst dining experience ever. We were sat in a secluded area by the restroom which I think made our server forget us and take forever to get there. Once he arrived we were ready to order not only our drinks but appetizers and entres since we were waiting for awhile.
The soups came but our drinks hadn’t. The soups were finished but our drinks still missing in action. Finally my fiancé got his drink, I still had to wait. Our appetizer showed up 20 minutes later and my drink still not there. Our entres did come out though 10 SECONDS after our appetizer did. Told them to hold the entres. They seemed upset but REALLY? Appetizers are to start off.
Finally halfway through my appetizer I had my drink. Our entres were brought out dried up by the heat lamp I’m sure they were under while we ate the appetizer. Gross. Didn’t even bother with another drink or desert just because of what we had experienced so far.
Also nobody cleared our soup plates or appetizer plates while we had our entres. Talk about lazy.
This place is legit the McDonald’s of Italian restaurants. Will definitely not go back. Try the bbq place across them instead, their service is far superior and attentive. Definitely considering calling the manager on this receipt. Unacceptable.

Let’s be real, the one guaranteed thing about Olive Garden is the consistency in their serving fresh and satisfying salads and breadsticks.
This location is no different.
Located O/​G — Culver City on a whim as we attempted to locate the establishment on Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach. I don’t frequent this area and wasn’t even aware of there being an Olive Garden here.
Need I say: Papi likes???
Parking was semi-​accessible (mind you this place is located within the currently personified as Westfield — Culver City mall yet former home of the Fox Hills mall… and/​or directly next to BJ’s on a side facing the 405 freeway) only for us to do so and notice valét directly out front. Grrrrrr. Really!!! The thought of me having to park my own car frightens me. I’ll stick an olive in that gripe though.
Walking in,… like all Olive Gardens, you’re seemingly taken into a different world. One of imported wines, bountiful cheeses and infinite gondola rides along streams of Alfredo sauce.
The Tuscany-​themed music was the perfect addition as we were greeted immediately and while there was a relatively large crowd affront, we sauntered through and were informed that seating would take a mere 20 minutes.
Not bad for a Saturday evening.
Imagine our surprise to wash our hands and locate the bar only to sit down, attempt to request booze and notice our «buzzing device» going off, …alerting us to there being an available table.
Niccccce. Go head’ Olive Garden, lol.
Walked back to the host (ess) and (get this), we were seated at the table just beside where we’d originally seated ourselves… at the bar. Haha. Wow. Guess we were meant to be seated by the booze, no surprise there!
Service didn’t disappoint either. Our original server took lunch shortly after we were seated however his replacement (God I wish I remembered this guy’s name) was nothing short of a saint. His recommendations were on point and he took no hesitation in checking on us from time to time.
Come to think of it…, I seriously wish he made house calls! He was just that good. Thereon, our visit required the presence of the manager (nothing serious, we used a gift card to pay)…who took no hesitation in visiting our table. We found him to be absolutely pleasant, likable and enthusiastic; a definite breath of fresh air.
We were definitely compelled to conjecture that the «leading by example» mantra is bountifully passed around within this location.
The happy manager of a happy restaurant is without a doubt going to encompass a happy team of employees and the feeling that I derived while at this O/​G location was just that… HAPPY. :-)
(…cues Pharrell’s «Happy» song…)

This review is for the Take Out only. If you are not familiar with the mall, its a bit hard to find! The restaurant is facing the 405 freeway, in the lower part of the parking lot, near the Best Buy store, right next to BJ’s and Lucilles’ (which is also hard to see from the street).
I needed soup for a potluck. Other places like Corner Bakery or Panera only had soups large enough for 4 – 6 people, and the OG had a gallon size soup good for 10 – 12 people. I called ahead for a 3:30 pick up and upon arrival, they had my bag ready.
The soup was packed in a gallon size bucket with a lid, and placed in a card board Olive Garden carry holder. They also gave me packets of utensils (fork, knife, soup spoon, napkin), small bowls (I asked for 12), and a ladle to serve the soup. Unfortunately the OG does NOT provide free breadsticks and charged me $ 4.95 for a dozen. Seriously that’s messed up because if you dine in, you get to eat as much as you want, for basically free while eating something there.
Anyway, the soup was a hit at the party. It served more than 12 people (granted, the bowls were tiny, but perfect for a potluck) and the soup was still scalding hot upon arrival, which was about ½ hour later.
The soup plus breadsticks set me back $ 31, and I even gave the hostess a few bucks for tip. Next time I will ask for 15 bowls and extra spoons.

A couple of days ago I met up with my cousins to celebrate the birthday of one of my nephew’s at this Olive Garden located on the first level of Westfield Mall. At 7 p.m. they were completely packed and we had to wait about 25 minutes to be seated which was not too bad.
We obviously started with the free breadsticks and salad and then for the main course I got the Steak Gorgonzola-​Alfredo ($ 18.49) which is grilled steak medallions over fettuccine alfredo. The breadstick and salad was standard OG quality which means they were terrific. Unfortunately the main course was a complete failure. The pasta was not al-​dente so it did not have a good bite, the fettuccine sauce seemed to be over seasoned so tasted a little salty and finally the steak medallions were so terrible that it felt like I was chewing on a piece of rubber.
Service was terrific. Our server whose name I don’t recollect seemed to magically appear even before we could summon him. We had a couple of 3 year olds in the group that decided to knock over water glasses and throw silverware around which he dealt with without bating an eyelid. He managed to get the perfect balance of being attentive and available without hovering and did a pretty good rendition of «Happy Birthday» with his colleagues towards the end of the meal. We were very well taken care of at this restaurant which suited the purpose of our visit. The rating primarily reflects the service over the food which needs to come up to the level of service.

Als «Italienisches» Restaurant würde ich es kaum bezeichnen, in Europa wird das vll auch anders gesehen als von den Amerikanern.
Vorweg: Auswahl in der Speisekarte ist groß, es gibt Salate, Fleischgerichte, Vegetarisches, Nudeln, allerdings gibt es keine «klassische» große Pizza-​Pasta-​Auswahl.
Als wir nach dem Shoppen den Nachmittag beim Dinner ausklingen lassen wollten, waren wir ganz schön erstaunt, dass fast nichts mehr los war, viele Stühle schon auf den Tischen gestellt, deshalb saßen wir in den Boxen mit den hellen Holzbänken.
Die Einrichtung ist mit sehr viel Holz und Grün gehalten.
Die Bedienung war nett, allerdings etwas sehr aufdringlich. Wir fanden zwar nett, dass er uns eine Menüempfehlung ausgesprochen hat, allerdings hat er zusätzlich fast die ganze Karte vorgelesen. Scheinbar konnte er auch nicht verstehen, dass wir kein 3 Gänge Menu mit inkludiertem Salat, sondern lediglich ein Hauptgericht wollten.
Das Essen an sich war in Ordnung, nicht besonders im Geschmack und und auch eher nicht frisch, hat man besonders bei der Soße gemerkt (glibberig, sämig), Fleisch ok, Gemüse auch nicht frisch sondern zerkocht.
Die dazu servierten Breadsticks waren teigig und nur außen knusprig. Leider auch von außen sehr ölig, was ich persönlich irgendwie unappetitlich fand.
Zum Trinken wollten wir nur Tapwater, eines davon hat leider komplett nach Seife/​Spülmittel geschmeckt, sodass ich es zurückgehen lassen musste. Der Kellner hat sich zwar dafür nicht entschuldigt, aber auch recht schnell Ersatz gebracht.
Ein zweites Mal würde ich nicht hingehen, und auch wenn das mein erstes mal bei dieser Kette war, würde ich wahrscheinlich auch keine andere Filiale ausprobieren.