Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Jackson Township

WAIT TIME: We were quoted a 15-20 minute wait and waited 35 minutes. About 10 of the best parking spots in a lot that is generally full were reserved for takeout orders (and were empty) while people were parking in adjacent lots and walking to Olive Garden. I have never seen a restaurant allocate that much parking to takeout, and their parking situation really is not conducive to such a commitment.

ATMOSPHERE: The restaurant is aging and is showing wear and tear. They see a high volume of customers every weekend. The lights are kept dim, and it is a good place for a date or quiet conversation, but this is not a "fancy restaurant" any more. It is very much a chain store.

SERVICE: The server was attentive and cordial. Drinks were refilled in a timely fashion. Soup and bread sticks were refilled as well. She was responsive and receptive to special requests.

FOOD QUALITY: The soup, salad, and bread sticks were standard. I ordered the Giant Stuffed Shells with a meatball. As a rule, I generally do not order red sauce at a restaurant, but I was not impressed with the fettuccine alfredo last time I ordered it and was in the mood for something new. When the shells arrived, they were dry and crispy on the edges as though they had spent some time under a heat lamp. There was very little sauce (which was what disappointed me about the fettuccine alfredo on my last visit), and there was no sauce at all on top of the noodles. I can only assume that corporate (or local management) has made the decision to lower food cost through portion control on the sauces. The meatball tasted a great deal like an oversized Spaghettios meatball. Overall, an edible, but generally underwhelming meal.

PORTIONS: With unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks, noone should go home hungry. The portion size on my meal was more than I can eat at one sitting, and half of it went home with me in a to go container. At $18 a plate for pasta, it should be ample portions! I added sauce to the dish at home when I reheated it, and it was actually quite...

The service was great. The food and drink were not. I had the shrimp scampi. The shrimp was fine, with no real complaints. The angel hair pasta was overcooked and mushy, while the noodles around the outside were dried and stuck to the plate. The mushy inner noodles were saturated in olive oil/ butter (I honestly couldn't identify the flavor). There was also asparagus and bits of tomato, both of which were also overcooked. The amount of asparagus was just sad. There was very little flavor to any of it, and I basically just ate the shrimp. The included salad was drenched in dressing, saturating the croutons and making the entire thing almost inedible. The breadsticks were not great, as they were a bit stale and dry with very little flavor.

I also had an Italian Margherita, which was just awful. It was 90% ice. The massive, top-heavy glass was filled to the brim, which caused the sticky concoction to spill over the sides and onto the stem when the server put it on the table. After drinking half of the roughly 2oz. of liquor through a straw, I attempted to pick up the glass to drink the rest and try the salt on the rim. The wet, sticky glass stem caused it to slip and spill all over the table and myself. They were kind enough to give me a replacement, albeit without the originally included shot of amaretto. The 2nd drink was better prepared but was still 90% ice.

If I had been dining alone, I would have sent everything back and left. I also didn't want to inconvenience the severely understaffed crew. It was genuinely one of the worst prepared meals I've ever had at...

Our waiter was fantastic! He bent over backwards to make our experience a good one. My son & I tried the parmesan meatballs appetizer (because parmesan is my soul mate!) & neither of us liked them - thought they tasted more like the breadcrumbs added in meat mix, than actual beef or sausage meat (?) HOWEVER, the wait let the kitchen know & we were able to switch it out for another item. I was very grateful for that! I normally opt for their shrimp alfredo or steak gorgonzola - like their lasagna, so meaty! SO GOOD! But - chose garlic & lemon butter sauce angel hair instead this time, with asparagus, tomato & shrimp. WOW 🤩 My mouth is watering now as remembering: absolutely delicious! We also both got soup. I enjoy the zouppa tusacana (sausage & potatoe, kale leaves), my son got a couple bowls of creamy chicken gnocci. Those are the white milky broth types we chose this visit. Sometimes we opt for the tomato based soups they offer: 1)minestrone, which has lots of chunky beef and kidney beans or the other 2) pasta fagiole - small pasta noodles and a bit of ground beef, but more veggies (carrots, chunks of tomato) We asked for extra black olives, tomato slices, and hot pepperccinnis on our salad: boom! SO many! As well as an extra side of creamy italian salad dressing to dip them in. Writing this out is making me hungry 🤤 For a chain italian establishment, this location had excellent food prep & presentation, was super tasty, savory breadsticks as always, and really great entree choices. The taste itself? Scrum-del-ee-OH-tious ! I wanna go...