Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

O… M…G!!! Best restroom I have ever been in! Not only did Dean Martin serenade me during my business, but I didn’t see a single scrap of toilet stall graffiti anywhere. The TP was super soft, like wiping my bottom with the finest chinese silk with the strength of egyptian cotton. (They probably got it from Costco, felt suspiciously like the Kirkland paper I use at home, just saying.) The coup de gras of this visit was the trash can positioned ever so carefully behind the door. GENIUS!!! Because of this I could use a towel to open the bacteria riddled door handle and dispose of said towelette without having to pull off a savage hook shot into the mid sink trash hole. This avoided the inevitable march of shame to retrieve the often missed trick shot while still protecting those delicate food handling digits from contacting the dreaded brass handle of doom!!! But I digress… a very clean restroom indeed.

Wouldn’t even eat here. Sounded like Frank Sinatra singing Nirvana’s Teen Spirit when I walked up to entrance, and was told when I walked inside there was no wifi… WTF??? So, went to Applebee’s instead and had a super bacon cheeseburger.

Two girlfriends wanted a casual but classy near-​to-​home New Year’s Day early light dinner out in closing celebration to the holiday, and with the prompt of an Olive Garden coupon, there we embarked! It was a very perfect choice for us. Greatly made so by the very attentive server, perfect checking in, always gladly assisting us, from a salad or ice tea refill, to table clearing, answering questions about the menu, etc. One of us chose the salad, other the minestrone soup and we shared the stuffed mushrooms appetizer. Then we both had the garlic rosemary chicken on spinach. Minestrone soup was light, with fresh zucchini in it; salad simple but tasty (and free refill option which I guess is Olive Garden’s way). Mushroom caps were tasty; would have preferred skipping the added (modest amount of) baked cheese on top so will try to remember to ask for that to be omitted next time. Chicken entrée includes two very tender medallions. We both ended up taking one medallion home. Then just some coffee to finish. which comes in a personal server? decanter sort of presentation, classy and your refill is right there and warm. Coffee is moderately robust and therefore I could skip adding the cream! Lastly, when we arrived the place was mellow, but by the latter part of our meal, the place was hopping! Seems other couples, friends and families had a similar idea of their local Olive Garden as a nice finish to the holiday together.

When The Olive Garden first hit the restaurant scene they were great. The food portions actually resembled the pictures, however, now, not at all!!! Just like everything else mainstreamed they cut quality for cheap food and labor. Or for their electric bill, its always Freezing in there. Staff is a toss-​up sometimes you get someone who actually appreciates their job or they hate it and could care less to make your dining experience pleasant.

Thank you Sherri for the wonderful service, you truly made our catch up a lot more fun ! Great service and good food.

We eat here at least once a month but always have the soup and salad with bread sticks. This is the best dish on the menu. But on Veterans Day we each had an entrée and were very satisfied. We would rate the server «Jay» with 5 stars. The meal certainly gets 4 ½ stars. Olive Garden Restaurant gets 10 stars for doing such a kind act of serving veterans all across the United States a free meal! Thank you to OG.

We came in on Veterans Day. It was the longest wait for a table that we have had for a long while but they where moving people in and out very quickly. When we got to our table we were greeted by Corrina our waitress, she was very professional, efficient and very pleasant, I have to say the best server we have had this far. The food made it to the table just as fast tonight as it does on a regular night. Thank you for the support for myself and all the other veterans that you served on Veterans day.

Love the zuppa toscana and the pasta is never over cooked and always hot. The breadsticks saved me throughout my pregnancy as I craved them every day and they are all u can eat ;) not a 5 star because the service is hit or miss even though the manager always comes by to check the table it’s still not always on par

We went to celebrate a birthday an lucky for us it was never ending pasta day! The service is always pleasant though rather slow. The food good as always and we had leftovers to take and snack on later. I think this was the first time we have ever been there that we only waited about 5 minutes. Usually it’s a lengthy wait

Staff is extremely friendly and caring. They all seem like they love their jobs! I had a male waiter who sadly I forgot his name but he treated my grandparents and I extremely well a couple months ago. He didn’t talk about the usual «how is your night going?» which was nice it was nice getting to know him! I’ve eaten there on multiple occasions but I would have to say my favorite waitress was Tania. She was this short girl with an amazing bubbly personality. She checked on us in a timely manner and didn’t forget what we ordered (which is rare). Overall this place is a great place to eat. I gave it 4 stars because the only issue is the amount of waiting time can be long on busy nights and if you call sometimes the line is too busy.

Watchout! No family style meal allowed.
My son and I had a lunch there. I ordered an entrée which come with limitless salad, and my son had an entrée with limitless soup. We shared the entrees as well as salad and soup family style meal.
When we got the bill, we each got «ticketed» with additional charges: I got additional charge for soup and my son got charged for salad.
The waitress said since we each had salad and soup thus the additional charges for each.
The problem for me were:
1) We did not order the additional salad and soup, but were charged without prior notice
2) Since we shared the food, the portion for each individual’s limitless salad or soup would of course cut in half per person,
3) In the sense, the waitress is «Policing» the customers.
4) They falsely advertised as a «family friendly» restaurant, but the reality is «The Family Style» meal are penalized.
No more business from my family.

I’ll start by saying that we normally skip chains and prefer eating at local restaurants, especially when it comes to Italian food. There are so many better options in the nearby area at similar pricing.
We have eaten at Olive Garden before so knew what we were walking into. Plus, we were shopping at the Costco across the street and didn’t feel like a $ 1.50 hotdog or $ 2.00 slice of pizza for lunch. Not this time, anyway. Olive Garden it is!
I actually do like their soup and salad deal. The salad always is cold and fresh and the minestone soup is good too. That was my plan going in, but after reviewing the menu I noticed that they were offering their new breadstick sandwiches. They had a meatball sandwich that came with soup or salad … all for only around $ 8.00. That seemed like a good deal so when the waitress arrived I ordered it.
The waitress said, «Excellent choice! I love the new meatball sandwiches.» That was encouraging. I was feeling good about my selection until she added, «They’re just as good as the meatball sandwiches at Subway!» Wow. What a buzzkill. Good thing her manager didn’t hear her say that. The smile left my face and I was bummed, but decided to still give it a try.
The sandwich arrived. The new breadstick sandwiches aren’t as thin as their normal breadsticks, but they’re not much bigger either. I think my sandwich had 3 small (about the size of ping pong balls) meatballs on it. I don’t care so much about how large the portions are as long as the quality and taste is good. Well, I struck out. The sandwich was bad. It tasted like something you’d get on an airplane. I think they microwaved it. Horrible.
My wife ordered the chicken parmesan sandwich. It wasn’t much better. It was overcooked, tiny and also tasted like airplane food.
My son had some children’s marinara pasta. He liked it. At least they had one happy customer!
The place is clean, the people are friendly, and the soup and salads are good. The other pastas aren’t bad either, just stay away from the sandwiches. But if you want a really good Italian dining experience there are a lot of better options that are nearby and at the same price.

The food tasted like it was frozen and they just heated it up. It does not seem like they actually cook your meal when you order it, but more like it is just sitting in a large industrial refrigerator waiting to be popped in the microwave. It is also very noisy and difficult to carry on a conversation with anyone at your table. With all of the great local Italian restaurants here in SLO I think only tourists or people traveling on the 101 should eat here. A typical chain restaurant.

I went to Olive Garden for a late lunch with my girlfriend and was satisfied with my experience. We ordered the herb salmon w/​mash potatoes, spicy calamari, stuffed mushrooms, and chicken carbonara. I would highly recommend the zuppa toscana.
Pros:
— unlimited breadsticks, soups, and salads with your order of an entrée
— attentive customer service
Cons:
— relatively high prices
— main entrees other than pastas are below average in quality and taste

Olive Garden never fails to make me full. This one isn’t typically crowded very much so we always never have a wait time. The staff is very attentive and make sure our soup bowl is always full. I couldn’t even eat half of my entrée b/​c I was so full off breadsticks and their delicious zuppa touscana. I always order the chicken carbonara. Our server even gave us 5 fresh breadsticks to take home. I just wish I asked for soup to take home too.

Great dinner experience. The best part was being in SLO and not ending up with some Cal Poly student with rude or unconcerned attitude. We actually had a full fledged adult who knew how to make diners feel valued. I didn’t catch her name, but she is from Chicago. I was just grateful we had an actual adult instead of one of the many careless young’uns that ruin customer service far too frequently in these types of places. That goes along way with me. The food was good. There were a couple problems: some of the salad was brown and none of it was crisp. The long hair that was in my salad was also not the most excellent thing. Our food otherwise was super. We had chicken Marsala, a kids plate of spaghetti with meatballs, and some other chicken lemon sauce dish. The gnocchi soup was fantastic.

This was a good way to spend a Sunday night on a 3-​day weekend. Mario was a fantastic server! He is super friendly and easy to talk to, and gives great customer service. The food and atmosphere were great as always. :)

I give this Olive Garden a solid 2 stars. The food is good, simple OG food. I wish we had one closer to my house. Sometimes you just want a simple $ 12 plate of chicken parm. Unfortunately, in Paso all you get is upscale or overpriced crap. Too much dried oregano, that sort of thing. Anyway, I come here for happy hour a lot with my friend. They have $ 3 Cosmos and they make them really good. The last time we were there, we sat in a booth in the bar, and the guy was EATING where we could see him. He was literally standing behind the bar, eating salad off of one of the big serving tongs (weird, I know). So I can’t give more than 2 stars for that gross behavior. Usually there is a survey on our receipt, but of course on that occasion there wasn’t.

Our server, Lexi, was very helpful with suggestions and was very friendly. I had not been to an Olive Garden in years, Italian is not my favorite. The menu was complicated, with about a million choices. Lexi was patient and I went with her suggestions. Soup and breadsticks were very tasty, and the beer and glass were ice cold. I was very pleased. Again, the service made the meal.
The best part was the attention given to an elderly lady at an adjacent table. The host that took her to her table spent about ten minutes listening to her. He even sat down, and was then joined by the server that did the same. I am sure she is a regular, and it seemed like she was very happy.
The manager should be commended! Leaving, I saw a sticker that Olive Garden is one of Fortune Magazines top 100 places to work. It shows. I like Italian food a little better now!

You know what you are here for: soup, breadsticks and those wonderful thin mints. Getting anything else is risky… Just surrender to those salty buttered rolls and the steamy Parmesan sprinkled soup, enjoy one of the guiltiest of American pleasures for 7 dollars (+tip).