Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Christiansburg

I was here, the Christiansburg Olive Garden, last Wednesday, April 10, 2024. To the shock of everyone I was with, this was my first time at Olive Garden. I had tried going to a different Olive Garden a few times back home, but it was always too busy. I had heard a variety of reviews and was super excited. I know a lot of people love Olive Garden. I was with a larger group, and our server was great. He was attentive and very nice. I appreciate him!

First things first, those breadsticks were incredible. I have heard of the legend of these breadsticks, and boy they did not disappoint. They were buttery and salty, which almost reminded me of a soft pretzel, but in the best way possible. Unlike a pretzel, they were also garlicky, which was exactly what I was craving. I absolutely love that you get refills, and I am glad that we got a refill. If I didn’t know I had dinner on the way, I could have solely eaten those breadsticks.

With your entree, you can get either a soup or a salad. I chose salad, as well as almost everyone else at my table. We got a big bowl of salad brought to our table with our breadsticks. I am not sure what I was expecting, probably a sad house salad. Just some lettuce with a sad, small variety of toppings. This salad was different, even though technically a house salad. It was loaded with toppings. It had croutons, red onions, carrots, peppers, olives, and most importantly tomatoes. It has a nice Italian dressing and parmesan cheese, however we chose not to get the parmesan cheese on top, but I was not missing it. I am not a huge salad person, but I would definitely eat this one again.

For my entree I got chicken alfredo. I love pasta and I prefer alfredo over marinara, so I thought it would be perfect. Unfortunately I was wrong. It started out okay. The alfredo was creamy and stuck well to the fettuccine. It was heavy, as most alfredo is, and was the perfect opportunity for leftovers. There was a lot of chicken in a ratio to the pasta which is usually a good thing, but not today. The chicken was very underwhelming. And worst of all, one of my pieces of chicken was slightly pink in the middle, a sight you never want to see when eating chicken. It is quite off putting, and it made me lose my appetite. When I got to the restaurant, I was trying to decide between the fettuccine alfredo or the chicken alfredo and I definitely made the incorrect choice. Luckily, I did not get sick. I did not eat the pink chicken, or any of the other chicken off of my plate after that, which was a bummer but also made sense. I could have probably sent the plate back or notified our waiter, but I decided to just eat the pasta, and maybe another breadstick. Usually, I would love getting a portion the size of this one. It ensures I will have a good lunch the next day, maybe even two. Unfortunately, I just did not want to risk it, and I was grossed out so my leftovers went into the trash.

I am not writing off Olive Garden entirely. I do believe in second chances. I did not get sick and I enjoyed parts of my meal. I think next time I will stick to some vegetarian options though. At the price point, I can not justify wasting another meal because of some...

I took a visit to the Christiansburg Olive Garden recently, in a group with about 5 other people. I was initially expecting a wait, but to my pleasant surprise we were seated quickly as well as promptly tended to by our server. I don’t recall his name but he was very nice, polite and attentive to our table! He was quick with fulfilling our requests (and our waters) and I didn’t have a moment where I thought he was being slow or negligent. I have no complaints about the service at all, for both the hosts and the servers. It has been about 10 years since I went to an Olive Garden, so I wasn’t sure what to expect for the food, but glancing at the menu and seeing options on the pricier end made me have higher hopes. This would prove to be a mistake. In the meantime, I do know Olive Garden has a reputation for their breadsticks, so I was excited when they were delivered to our table. They were really good! I’m a fan. They were salty and tasty like I remember. My only nitpick is that the next rounds of breadsticks that came out seemed to be a little overdone, but that was not a big deal to me or my table. I opted for a soup (Minestrone) instead of the house salad, which I did not try. Unfortunately, it did not uphold the joy that the breadsticks brought me. It was not much of a soup at all. It had very little broth at all and it was mostly noodle. I’m not sure if it is meant to be served like that, but hopefully the soup I received was just a mishap. I did appreciate that I was not charged extra for the cup of soup, as I would have regretted spending money on it. It did end up tasting fine in the end, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling of wanting more broth. For my entree, I chose the Five-cheese Ziti al Forno, as it was one of the more affordable options on the menu. I come from an Italian family myself so I know what good pasta tastes like, and while I was not expecting the most high-end pasta in the world, what I received was still disappointing. There was far too little sauce on the noodles for my liking, and there were many noodles left “naked” on my plate without any sauce at all touching them. When I dug into my pasta, it was watery in parts and the cheese wasn’t melted over it like I had expected. It wasn’t really melted at all, in fact. This led to a rather unpleasant textural experience. And, unfortunately, the taste wasn’t enough to save it. I have had better pasta from take out pizza joints for a fraction of the price. I know Olive Garden is a chain, but much of my disappointment stems from the fact that I cannot justify the price of the food for what you get. The only thing worth visiting for, in my opinion, is the breadsticks. For 20 dollars (maybe a little more), I would suggest stopping by a local Italian restaurant for a much tastier and more fulfilling meal. But, if you are willing to drop 20 bones on a plate of mediocre pasta, maybe this is the place for you. Again, the service was wonderful, but this visit made me realize that maybe Olive Garden is just not for me, and I may have to wait another 10 years before giving it...

I love Olive Garden. So, when I was out of town this weekend, I naturally stopped by OG for dinner. The power had gone out as soon as we got there so their system was rebooting. We were told it would be awhile before we could get seated. I asked how long awhile was going to be and she couldnt tell me. So, I suggested writing my name down and creating a waiting list that way. We didn't wait longer than 4 minutes and the system was working again and we were on our way to being seated. The place was crowded which is usually a good sign, but not so much once we were seated. The menus were dirty and torn. The table top was worn pretty bad. From use throughout the years I would guess, but it doesn't add charm like you would find in an old diner, it shows lack of care. To the left of my bench, on the wall, was nail holes with splintered wood and the table beginning to pull away from the wall? The wine glasses that are on your table...ugh...mine was clean and I did have wine. My husbands glass was full of residue from a previous drink! Good thing he doesn't drink so that glass wasnt used at our table. Our appetizer, seafood stuffed mushrooms, was ok but presented poorly. It was like a small premade square of a cream cheese mixture was placed in the mushroom, baked and then served to us. We ate them because we were hungry. We (just 2 of us at the table) had two bowls of salad. We like the salad so this in itself isn't too big of an issue. Our server, who was great by the way and verry attentive, apologized that our food was taking so long. When our food was placed on the table, the first thing I see is a finger smear of red sauce on the handle of the spoon stuck in my chicken alfredo....which is a white sauce. That had me a bit grossed out and then I looked at the noodles. You could see right away that my meal had been under a warmer for quite some time. The entire serving of chicken alfredo had fused together in one large pile of rubber noodles. When I attempted to mix it together, it simply folded on to itself like an overcooked omelette. When I was asked about my meal from the server, I told him I didn't care for my chicken alfredo and that it was rubbery. He offered to have a fresh plate come back out but.....I always feel something will be done to my food if sent back, so I declined. I didnt ask to speak to anyone or even complain at the time. I am assuming she was a manager. She was very polite, apologized for my meal and took the cost of the chicken alfredo off of my bill. She was very pleasent. My issue with this place is not the servers but with the cleanliness of the building, obvious much needed repairs/replacement of each dinning spot in the facility and food preparations. They are below an acceptable standard. These issues could be addressed with better care of the facility and a cooking staff that is either better trained or plates of food actually be looked over by management before being taken from the kitchen. I will go back to OG, just NOT the one in...