Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

The service is good. Food is great. The wait: terrible.
I have been here multiple times and I’ve had to wait at least 10 minutes EVERY time, no matter the day or time. This is a very well taken care of location and its relatively new so it’s really nice to have the same Olive Garden experience that this chain is known for but just a little above the rest ;-)
Just be prepared to WAIT!!!

I know, I know. I’m reviewing another chain restaurant and… a faux Italian restaurant at that. But… hear me out for a minute. Because today I went to Olive Garden specifically to try one of their specials: the lobster ravioli. And I gotta admit, I was impressed.
If you read the description, it describes the dish as being covered in a «lobster Alfredo sauce» (as if there were such a thing, but okay) and I didn’t really know what to make of that at first. But I was definitely willing to try it because… lobster. *shrugs*
The first thing I will tell you about this dish is that the sauce, as well as the lobster raviolis themselves, are very rich in taste and flavor. That’s it! That’s really the best way I can describe it. The way the cheese interacts with the lobster meat inside the ravioli is something I only WISH I could recreate in the comforts of my own kitchen. This is honestly a refreshing surprise to the palate as well as a vast improvement from my former meal of choice, the seafood Alfredo (which has long since declined in quality, not to mention quantity of shrimp served with said meal).
Oh yeah… did I mention the lobster ravioli comes with shrimp as well? The sauce made them taste quite delectable as well.
Since it has literally been years since I’ve been to an Olive Garden, I should mention they have apparently updated themselves. You can now view and pay your bill directly from the table electronically, via their touchscreen remote register. The thing I like about this the most is the fact that I no longer have to be bothered with the cumbersome nature of receiving four print outs of the exact same receipt, only to leave two copies on the table and throw the other two in the garbage. No… I can just have the receipt emailed to me. All restaurants (or at least the major chain ones) should get on the same sheet of music when it comes to this sort of thing. This way, we wouldn’t have to wait on the server to return to get the check. The only other restaurant I’ve seen execute this successfully is Chili’s.
Our server was terrific! Very attentive. We were just having a classic lunch date today, so nothing too fancy. Wait times were fairly spot on, from the appetizers to the main course and the wife’s dessert. Nothing felt rushed or delayed. Let’s just say today was a 20% tip kind of day.
Two complaints though: 1.) They didn’t quite nail the chicken parm for the wife. Although that didn’t surprise me much; few places do. And 2.) This restaurant still has no public WiFi. I know… they have remote registers with the card reader attached, but no WiFi. Such a shame.
I may have to take the wife back there again, if only to get her to order the lobster ravioli special for herself (she sampled some and loved it as well). Though I’m afraid that’s pretty much the only time I’ll be visiting Olive Garden: for any specials I may want to try. The regular menu… well…it doesn’t do much for me, hence my staying away for years at a time. After all… if I can make a far superior seafood Alfredo in my own kitchen, what’s the point of ordering theirs?
My final thought: keep the specials coming, O/​G! They are, by far, your best commodity at this point.

This place has good food and a prompt, professional staff. Seating was immediately available. The only negative is that the kitchen was a little slow. I recommend it for a casual date night.

Food was great, always is, but the service we got from Eric V was horrible. Not only did he forget about us half the time, I had to get a different waitress to help us out. Guy didn’t even clear our plates as our table would get full. We had to pile the dishes inwards the end of the table so someone would see them in order for them to get picked up. Very disappointed Olive Garden, very disappointed.

We waited on a Monday night for more than an hour for our entrees. We had two children with us and we were sat in the bar area. We were given plenty of salad and soups but our drinks were continuously empty. Again, we were in the bar area. I don’t understand why it takes over an hour to get food.

Great food always enjoy going with friends and family. Hi Freddy. He is a nice waitress.

My favorite waiter is Brian L. Food is good. Experience is good. Great prices and specials on food.

Service was good, food was out quickly and very tasty. Told the manager I was pleasantly surprised, as Olive Garden can at times be hit or miss but this was an all together nice meal. Highly recommend this particular restaurant over the others in El Paso.

I am usually happy with the service and food from Olive Garden, but I have to say that has not been the case so far. I ordered the Tour of Italy, and I was very disappointed with what I got. The lasagna was only one layer of pasta that was thrown on the plate, and the chicken was a dark brown that tasted old. While I do appreciate the fact that our server politely handled the situation and brought me another plate, I do not plan to go back. I do not recommend this place if you want a quality meal.

Worst service I’ve ever had at Olive Garden! Waited more than an hour went to the hostees she said they were just cleaning the table then waited 30 more min just for them to tell us they were setting up several tables for us then we waited another ten and still not called went to return the buzzer and they were like just 10 min more I got tired and walked next door to Red Lobster

How can this possibly have a solid 4 stars? If that is the case let’s make everyone a winner and rate noting below 4 stars. Seriously food and service is sub-​par.

Hubby and I went in last night, and got a table instantly. Our waiter was friendly and had out drinks and breadsticks fast. I wasn’t crazy about the strawberry lemonade because it was carbonated. But the food itself made up for that. My husband got sample it Italy, which he enjoyed. And I got a chicken Caesar salad with Parmesan chicken, was super good! Would return here (:

I came here the second time but service was horrible today. The girl did not smile once and was very rushed. The food was good though so that’s what it’s 3 stars

This is my all time fav place to go I love the Alfredo and pretty much everything at Olive Garden is amazing

Best service I’ve gotten in a long time. Jackie our server was so nice & accommodated for our kids. Was on top of our drinks & always asking if we needed anything else. Even with the place busy, she was on top of it. I will be coming back because of her.

I used to work for this chain, so I have a degree of expectations. My family and I, 2 adults and 2 toddlers dined in for lunch. Our server was Stephanie. She was very pleasant, attentive and clean. She pre bussed our table and kept our refills (drinks, salad and soups) coming! It was relatively busy and she was on too of everything. The restaurant was clean, not too much chatter from the servers. We enjoyed our timely dining.

Good

Typical Olive Garden location. The service at this location is always good, and the food is always what you expected it would be. Is it the best Italian in town? No, but you always know what you’re getting without have to worry about inconsistency.
The all you can eat soup and salad at lunch is phenomenal.

It’s a chain, what else can I say? Apparently, no one likes to cook in El Paso on Friday nights. We went at about 6:30/7pm and the place was PACKED with a minimum hour wait. We decided to order our food to go and waited instead. I will say that while we waited, I did enjoy the Strawberry Lemonade Martini… YUM!!! Our food was standard at best and nothing to write home about. One of the soups that we had (chicken?) was a little bland and the tiramisu was a little more average than I remembered.

I love the soup, salad & breadsticks lunch so much I’m going to marry it! We’re registered at Target, which is right on the same shopping center.