Italian Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Boiling Springs

I would like to start by qualifying my current opinion about the Italian Garden. I started eating at IG regularly in 1993 and continued through 2000, when I moved away from the greater Boiling Springs/Shelby area.

Since then, I have regularly returned, often just to eat my favorite sandwich meal, the Hoagie. It is safe to say that I have eaten hundreds of meal at this restaurant and at least 200 Hoagies. The Hoagie with fries is, in fact, my favorite sandwich meal on the planet. It is my comfort food. I have friends bring it to me To-Go when they come up to Asheville from Boiling Springs. If anyone loves that sandwich more than me, I would be surprised. Luckily, my wife fell in love with their pizza years ago, so I was always able to convince her to stop by on the way through.

Yesterday, we were on a vacation day and stopped in for lunch. Standard order for our family and then we waited...and waited...and waited for our food to be ready. They only had one server working the entire restaurant and I have never seen the kitchen take that long to get food ready...ever...in 30 years. When the food finally arrived, I thought that the worst was over. I was sorely mistaken.

They have changed all of their sauces and dressings to cheaper alternatives. The Hoagie was constructed exactly the same, but the Italian dressing was clearly some cheaper brand. The A-1 that I always eat on my fries had been replaced by a knock-off brand. The pizza, sadly not only had a different sauce but a different crust, as well.

I had heard a while back that Abdul and his family had split and that he had started his own restaurant, but I figured that at least that the Italian Garden would maintain the service and quality that they had always had. Nope.

Yesterday was my last ever visit to Italian Garden and it...

Pizza and Italian pasta restaurant located in a former movie theater across the street from Gardner-Webb University in downtown Boiling Springs, NC. Adequate pizza and typical Italian fare. Good food for the area but nothing memorable. I have always recieved friendly and attentive service. Priced reasonably except for sides. $1.50 for a small side of (jarred) jalapenos or pepperocinis? Yikes! And that's just one example. Beware, they will charge you 3.5% extra for the 'priviledge' of using your debit card. They say that they don't profit from this surcharge but none of the other businesses, including restaurants, in Boiling Springs do it. This practice has been outlawed in 10 states with pending legislation in many others. Until they stop this practice, I always subtract the surcharge from the gratuity anyway. Relax - I am a 20% tipper. The server ends up with +/-17% tip anyway. I am just passing on the fee back to the business. I refuse to pay extra for using my debit card when in today's business environment over 80% of all retail and restaurant transactions are of the non-cash variety. In addition, they run everything as a credit transaction with no option for debit. Debit card fees are much lower than credit card fees which range from 2% to 4%. This makes me curious as to why ownership chooses to stick it to everyone even when they could reduce fees if they chose to do so by running debit cards correctly...even as they claim to not profit form these surcharges. To Ownership: credit card/debit fees are not an unexpected cost of doing business. Be responsible and budget for it so your customers don't feel like they're being nickeled and dimed...and in the case of debit vs credit -...

Updated review: We’ve went back twice since my last review, and things have gone downhill. The food isn’t good anymore. Not at all. The tzatziki used to be delicious but now it isn’t even edible—like some nasty grocery store knockoff. Anything with a tomato-based sauce is awful. The fries might be good if you get them hot, but I have never had them NOT old and cold. The tables aren’t clean, and if I hear “I don’t want to be here” one more time from the employees, my head will explode. The only redeeming quality was that our last server was very nice and attentive—an older, red-haired lady. Other than that, everything has hit rock bottom. Italian Garden, what the hell has happened?? I can’t give any more chances.

Previous review: I’ve been coming here for years. The food is always pretty good, but the service needs major improvement. The young ladies serving tables aren't personable or friendly; they certainly don't make guests feel welcome--they disappear for most of the meal, offer short/curt replies and shoulder shrugs to questions, and they generally seem to have a disdain for their jobs. I guess this place would be a lot nicer if it wasn't staffed entirely by the local college kids. It's a shame, because the food is legitimately good most...