Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Garfield Township

Traverse City has a limited number of dining options on a Sunday night, much less Italian options. I Googled Italian restaurants in TC and the first option that popped up was the longstanding chain restaurant, Olive Garden. We knew we’d been there once before but couldn’t say when or how long ago. In fact, the only thing we could remember about Olive Garden is likely the thing that you remember about Olive Garden: Everyone gets an endless supply of breadsticks.

We couldn’t remember much else, and that’s why we decided to give it a try.

First off, let me tell you that it probably tastes exactly like an Olive Garden. If you like Olive Garden, you should go there. The service is wonderful and the atmosphere is exactly like every other Olive Garden in America.

For those of you who are hoping for medium to high quality Italian food, this is not your jam.

The calamari arrived and the serving size was huge, maybe the size of a disc golf frisbee. Sadly, they tasted bland and were soggy. We got some soup and it was delicious, but that was the last tie I'd use that word for the rest of the meal. I ordered the spaghetti, and the pasta sauce was sugary and overly sweet, and the noodles were not properly drained, there was a puddle of water on the plate that the noodles and sauce seemed to float in. My wife got the fish and said it was serviceable, and isn't that what we all want from a night out on the town?

Overall, it was a disappointment, and as I chewed on a mediocre breadstick, that's when I suddenly remembered my last experience at an Olive Garden in Columbus, Ohio, about 10 years ago. I remembered thinking to myself, "This meal is such a disappointment. You have to remember how much of a disappointment this is, so you don't return." But as Emily Dickinson said, "Remorse is memory, awake." I remembered just one moment too late, and I had no one to blame for settling for mediocre, corporate, chain restaurant Italian food but myself. 2 stars because it is an Olive Garden, and I think the Traverse City restaurant is exactly what is expected of an Olive Garden.

I'm almost positive that in another 10 years, once the memory of this visit has worn off, I...

Our school recently had the pleasure of taking 100 K-2nd graders out to eat at Olive Garden and to say their day was made would be an understatement. Our students were beside themselves and treated with all the respect of an adult. They ordered off the menu, were checked on regularly, and had a truly remarkable experience.

They desperately wanted to leave a Google Review to share their praise of the visit but since they are too young, I will share the paper version of their Google Reviews that will be mailed, complete with illustrated picture of their dining experience, to the restaurant itself.

One of my 2nd grade students wrote, "Jessica was the best! Actually, I would give her 1000 stars. The same with the restaurant.

Another said, "My server was amazing. She gave us all the breadsticks and I just loved it!"

Still another praised, "Ty was the best server because he asked if we needed anything."

And one last one to round it out, "The whole team was awesome. They got me and my friends everything we asked for. They filled my water and got us breadsticks. It was the best."

Clearly we could've survived on breadsticks and water alone LOL. Thank you again Olive Garden for giving our students such a wonderful dining experience along with the opportunity to shine in their independence! A core memory was created that day and it will not soon be forgotten.

Mrs. Kittleson 2nd Grade...

When I first arrived to pick up my order I walked in to pick it up from the mobile pickup counter where 5 workers were standing around and didn't even realize that they were supposed to be getting a mobile order ready. I told them I would be outside waiting, which I did for about 10 - 15 minutes, and in that time another much larger order was brought out to another customer who had arrived after me. It didn't help that if you make a mobile order for pickup at this place that their public wifi doesn't reach out to the mobile pickup parking spots so you're forced to use another business' wifi to verify that you've arrived to pick up your order, but only if you're lucky enough to pick up a connection for longer than 5 seconds.

When I got home the pasta was a disaster. Whoever cooks the pasta at this place is a caveman. The custom pasta I got only had three things, pasta, sauce, and chicken. Whoever put it together cut the chicken into super long strips and placed all the chicken into the center of the pasta, and then poured all the sauce straight onto the chicken, so when I got home all the pasta on the outside was cold and had no sauce on it. If you want to eat terrible pasta save some money and do it...