The Olive Garden — Restaurant in Scotland

This place is amazing, they don’t do reservations it is first come first served and there is a mini waiting lounge with a sofa and some chairs that you can use before being seated. The place was packed, but we didn’t wait long, like 10 minutes. In this time multiple waitresses came and assured us that it wouldn’t be much longer which was nice to hear. The food was amazing, we had the cullen skink which came with bread and a soup of the day for starters, they both came with toasted bread and butter. Both were amazing, the bread was soft and cruncy at the same time. The soups were creamy and delicious. For the main dish we had the mussels, which come in 3 flavors that you can choose from - standard, cream sauce and tomato sauce with chorizo. I chose the latter and it was amazing, full of flavor, creamy , pure joy, it also came with extra toast and butter (yay!). The second main dish was the seafood risotto which was also creamy delicacy. The waitress was extremly friendly and attentive even though the place was packed and she had to serve many tables. For drinks we had the Sangria which was delicious and freshly made. The athmosphere was very friendly and laid-back and we felt very welcome and relaxed. Would...

The Olive Garden was unfortunately hugely disappointing after being highly anticipated by me and my friends. We attended as a group of 5 on 28/12/2024.

There were a number of issues which I didn't expect from a restaurant which attracts such highly rated reviews:

Several of us noted that the food was very bland and not well seasoned. Flavours were muted and very disappointing.

We all agreed that the risotto was very watery. It was akin to congee.

The bread served with starters had a poor texture and did not seem fresh. It seemed to be similar in texture to 1 day old bread.

The bottle of Chardonnay we ordered did not taste like what would be expected from a high quality Chardonnay. Instead of the typical buttery and oaky flavours and textures, it was acidic , sharp, and quite unpleasant.

Several of us really did not enjoy the food and were confused about the reviews here. Also we spoke to some locals a day later for restaurant recommendations and without prompting they actually suggested to avoid The Olive Garden! I could not believe it.

I'm giving 2 stars because the staff were friendly and polite. It would otherwise be 1 star because for the prices the quality really is unacceptable.

Very confused and...

When we saw the phrase "Mediterranean food" underneath the sign, we thought of hummus and pitas with ritch salads and olives. It seems that the Olive Garden of Oban (not to be confused with an unrelated American chain of Italian restaurants) serves mainly Italian dishes with a small variety of other options. I will cede that Italy is on the Mediterranean, but one does not usually confuse the two distinct types of food. When we discovered this, we decided to give the food a shot anyway. I had the duck starter with a pot roast as my main entree. My fiancée had a ceasar salad and the soup of the day (vegetable). To their credit, the duck was absolutely wonderful and the pot roast was serviceable. The soup, however, was rather bland and more "hot pureed vegetables with water" than anything. The salad dressing was very very sugary, which wasn't awful, but it was unexpected. The reason I am giving only 3 stars is that, for the higher price, our food overall wasn't worth it. I would give them another shot, however, if I was in the mood for Italian the next time...