Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

I have not been to Olive Garden in a while but my daughter picked it so that’s where we went. Our server Melinda was so good the food was good so overall it was a good night. i got the stuffed Marsala chicken. The portion was good it’s was served hot so I was happy. My hubs got the tour of Italy that you pick from the special menu so you can try3 things. He thought it was fine. My daughter got chicken fingers, they were the norm frozen chicken fingers. I usually love the breadsticks and I do love garlic but it was way to much for me. Overall it’s Olive Garden and if you go there for really good Italian you will be disappointed but the food is still good. Melinda made our experience so good we will come see her again pretty soon.

Allow me to start off by saying our server Robert was wonderful and very comical and the food was great. However, I will say that I was dissatisfied with our table. We were seated in the very back of the restaurant which I would have been fine with except for the noise. This table was right by the kitchen and I was having trouble hearing the conversation going on with the person I was dining due to the vibration of my booth from the serving racks being returned. In addition every time someone would go in or out of the kitchen there would be this awful screeching sound which just added to the inability to hear what was going on at my table.
I give this restaurant 4 stars due to the fact that my experience tonight with my server and my meal was great.

Something must be wrong because this placed smelled so very bad. It was bad bathroom bad. We were going to leave but we were crunched on time. The food was good. Our waitress was excellent and I wish we’d gotten her name.

Well where to start. Come in the front door and we have to wait (plenty of tables open) next the people with the same size party somehow skip in front of us. I’m ok, I’m patient. We get to a table and sit there without a welcome to be seen for 15 minutes. I get up and go find a manager.
Well finally after 25 minutes I get a glass of water. The rest was fine. But I was very dissatisfied with my initial service. The rest was ok, prob cause it was by the manager.
I know why I only come about 1x every 2 years now.

I’ve been going to this restaurant chain since I was a teenager, my first boyfriend took me on our first date here when i was 17 so it has alot of memories. I don’t think i’ve ever had a bad experience in the 15 years i’ve been going here. I love the lasagna and the pasta trio bowls, i wish i could have gotten one of those unlimited pasta bowl cards last year but i’m not always that fast and lucky i guess: P.

Excellent service every time we dine here. The food was excellent and the service was even better. Good came quick and our waitress was very polite and helpful. Thanks for another great dinner! We need more restaurants in Little Rock like this.

We have always been satisfied with the service and food at this restaurant. Today I had the luncheon mini pasta and salad. My wife had the chicken Alfredo. Both were excellent, as was the service.

Food came out quickly, although the salad was a little soggy, and the bread sticks were somewhat stale. That being said, the Tour of Italy was pretty good. Taste like it always does. The service was awesome though, our waitress was on point.

Poor service. Took 30 min or so to get salad and even later to get our bread rolls. Food was not great for the price. Waiters did the best they could. Will not be returning.

I’d rather go to Macaroni Grill! We visited both establishments days apart, after not going to either for years. I seem remember the quality of the food being better, but to be fair, my standards may have changed over the years. The wait staff could use more training, but that being said, our waiter did do a decent job & after I realized I could add shrimp to my Alfredo the hostess called it back to the kitchen for me! That above & beyond is why they got 3 stars! Everything I had here, I had at MG also, and MG does it better! The best part was the soup, that came with my order, unlike MG which you pay extra for!

I love the Olive Garden. It has been a favorite of mine for years. I have been to this particular Olive Garden more times than I can count and have always had great service and amazing food. They really try their hardest to make me feel at home.

The service was good, but the food was not that special for the money that I spent.

First thing, you KNOW this is a chain. You don’t expect an intimate dining experience with incredible food. We went on a very busy Saturday evening, with a BIG group (my version of wait staff hell if there every was one) and we even had the audacity to ask for a knife and plates for a cake we had brought in. Although we had to wait awhile… hour? 45 minutes? we were socializing — excuse me — nuts to butts — and seemed to get seated right away. One of our party had dietary concerns and the manager listened to her and gave her the assurance that her food would be indeed to her specifications. Our plates and knife arrived at the perfect time for the cake, ALL our food was yummy, with plenty of rolls, extra forks, water, refilled drinks. Did I mention that the place was busy? The restaurant was almost total chaos as other people stopped by our table to visit, and I am sure everyone in our party did not arrive at the same time. We had a GREAT meal. Not even sure why I would think about going anywhere else on the night before the LITTLE ROCK MARATHON!!!

This particular restaurant is on par with other Olive Garden’s I’ve been to. Service was timely and courteous. The orders were accurate and hot. Server had her fundamentals down keeping water glasses and salad bowl full. The tour of Italy is my favorite.

Tried again. 3^rd time. Lunch at 1:00. Unlimited salad, soup, breadsticks. Salad ok. Tried Toscana Zuppa (?) soup. Almost no sausage, kale, or potatoes — just broth. Breadsticks were cold. First service was slow. Second time had to work to get attention. Drink refill — not a chance. My advice is to find a restaurant that does not treat customers as a burden. Go elsewhere.

O my! Where should I start? Service was horrible. Hardly any dressing on the salad and not much sauce on the pasta. I was very disappointed.

My extended family went for Sunday dinner recently. The grandpa asked for no pepperoncini in his salad for dietary reasons. Oops, they were in there and it had to be sent back. The 6 meals were brought out at different times, allegedly because «the order got split up in the kitchen.» Oops, how does that just happen? The drink and side dish wasn’t brought for the littlest one until the server was reminded. Oops. Fresh grated cheese was only offered to some. Oops. A whole tray of entrees went crashing and breaking. Oops. Wine from one side of the table was billed to the other. Oops.
While the food tastes decent here, at the level of Olive Garden, this place is NOT being managed well. At least Macaroni Grill has some attitude to go along with its issues. I think I’m about done with Olive Garden.

I’m sometimes in the mood for just soup and salad for lunch, and this is my first choice on the Westside on a weekday. I sit at the bar and get the unlimited soup and salad combo with peach ice tea for a beverage. It’s fast, inexpensive for what you get, and tasty. I’ve eaten at several Olive Gardens in my time, and this is among the best. The service at the bar at lunch is great.
I know, you might laugh at a recommendation for an Olive Garden, but go see for yourself.
Enjoy!

I was thinking that I didn’t want to write a review about the Olive Garden because it’s a chain etc. But I went recently and it was so awful, I just couldn’t let it go.
Maybe it was because I was there on a Saturday with a large group (about 8 people) but the service was poor and sporadic. It was packed and we had to wait close to an hour for a table to open up. I ordered the unlimited soup and salad but if your waitress only comes back one time after delivering the food, then what’s the point to ordering unlimited? The salad is okay and the soup isn’t bad at all. I had the minestrone. I can’t eat the breadsticks. They are pretty gummy.
My son had a kid’s pizza. He liked it but it was pretty spartan.
I’m getting sick of spending good money for okay food.

I sheepishly admit to liking Olive Garden. It usually offers predictable, reliable, edible pasta, at a budget that won’t break the bank, and delivered at a speed that should satisfy diners at the edge of starvation.
This Olive Garden is just like all the rest, except with a slightly more casual atmosphere than most.