Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in North Carolina

This is one of the most difficult reviews of anything I have ever made. Let me explain. The service was the best I have ever had, and I had been a regular at places to the point of not even having to order anymore. Our server was the sweetest human being I have ever met. The manager was nice, and all of the staff was extremely nice. That said, it was also the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant. To start, we were beside a toddler, and I don't hold this against them, who just discovered that she could shriek. And she loved to do so at an ear splitting pitch. Again, I don't hold this against her or the parents. It just is what it is. But then we started getting our food. The mozzarella sticks were literally the worst I have ever had, and I am borderline obsessed with cheese. It's really difficult to get me to say no to cheese. I shrugged it off and said oh well. Then our food arrived, and we started to dig in. Well, my family did. I personally couldn't make it past the first bite. I ordered something simple. (Make your own pasta) As soon as I put the food in my mouth, I was roundhouse kicked by this pungent gross odor like flavor. It literally tasted like i licked the armpit of a construction worker mid summer who hadn't showered in two weeks. I gagged, forced myself to swallow, then pushed my plate away, feeling absolutely guilty because everyone else was loving their food, and it was so damn expensive, but I just couldn't eat it. The server saw I had pushed my food away, so she offered to take it away and asked if there was anything else I might want. I said no because I had tasted that flavor in almost everything i had eaten to that point. The bread sticks, cheese sticks, and now my entree. She insisted I had eaten something because I had only eaten a little salad and she felt bad that I didn't eat. In the end, she brought me a piece of strawverry shortcake. It was devine, but still had the aftertaste of what I had tasted on the other food. After that, we got our checks. For the meals of one adult and three children, it was $80. That's insane for what was ordered. In the end, I feel guilty for not enjoying our experience and having a negative review because the staff was so insanely sweet and thoughtful but it doesn't remove the experience that I had with my food and me table neighbors. I hope everyone else enjoys the food more and best be aware of how much you...

1/5 for disappointing food, small portion sizes, & high prices but great service & a clean restaurant. 👎

My fiancé & I had no issues with our waitress: she acted attentive & cheerful but didn’t hover & gave us space when our entrees arrive. 👍

Unfortunately, we didn’t enjoy the food. The “unlimited” breadsticks tasted very bland without any flavor & seemed underbaked since they felt soft & doughy. We dipped them in the two sauces that came with our fried calamari appetizer, though that didn’t help much. Furthermore, the first basket of breadsticks that was brought to our table only had 2 breadsticks, & there were 2 of us there— just 1 each; we weren’t offered another basket until after our entrees already arrived, but we declined because the first basket was so flavorless & disappointing. 👎

The unlimited salad didn’t appeal to either of us: the taste of vinegar overpowered everything else in the salad; so, we tried it with the grated Romano cheese, but then the dish just seemed like cheese with vinegar. 👎

The appetizer of fried calamari was average, though its breading wasn’t crisp at all; like the breadsticks, the calamari’s breading felt doughy & soft which made the whole appetizer mushy since the calamari itself has a squishy texture.

I ordered the shrimp scampi, but regretted it & didn’t finish it. The small bowl of angel hair pasta had decent portions of asparagus & tomatoes on it. However, there wasn’t much shrimp, & the entire dish seemed to be swimming in oil. It was unpleasant to eat, overall— just very oily with strong punches of tomato. The asparagus was average. For $19, I wouldn’t order it again. 👎

I also ordered the Black Tie Mousse Cake as a dessert. The entire slice of cake tasted artificial & felt frozen; I could see small ice crystals on the top of it, almost like the start of freezer burn. And the mousse in the cake wasn’t light or fluffy/airy; the whole cake was heavy, thick, & cloggy— sticky & unpleasant to chew. 👎

My fiancé’s ravioli lunch entree ($15+) & spiked strawberry drink both tasted average, neither disappointing nor impressive— just plain.

We left a 25% tip for our waitress since she did such a great job, but we won’t be returning to this Olive Garden (or any other) for a very long time. Neither of us ate at an Olive Garden location in years, & this meal made us want to...

Fine for a take out night, but I won’t ever step foot inside this restaurant again. About the restaurant itself: bathrooms were filthy and the paper towel dispenser was broken. Our server was fantastic but the rest of the night was a disaster. My son wanted his birthday dinner there and I called two weeks in advance to make sure our party of 10-15 could be accommodated. I was told they don’t take reservations on the weekend but if I called ahead on the day we could be put on the waiting list if there was one. I called about 45 minutes before the time I told everyone to be there. She got me down on the list and I got the waiting list text. All was going fine. I also checked with them ahead of time to make sure it was okay I brought an ice cream cake as that was what my son wanted. They said no problem they could put it in the freezer while we had dinner. Great! Right? Well it would have been if that was what happened. Everyone gets there about 15 minutes to 6pm and we are told it would be another 30 minutes. I’m a little annoyed as that is why we were calling ahead, but it’s a Saturday night, so not that unexpected. I told the hostess about the phone call about the cake and asked if we could go ahead and put it in the freezer. I reiterated it was an ice cream cake and she said she would take care of it. We were finally seated over an hour after the “30 min wait” the server was great. The food was not. Those who ordered soup quickly switched gears to salads as the soup was too salty to eat. Main courses were fine, what you would expect from casual dining. When everyone had finished eating I asked if they would bring out the cake as everyone was settling their bills. The server brought it out and I could have cried when they opened it. This was homemade and frozen when we got there. It was completely melted. The server said it was put in the cooler. There is no way it went from completely frozen to melted in the time we were there. I believe it was just put in the back and forgotten about. There were apologies, but overall nothing was done. If you are craving Olive Garden, do yourself a favor and pick a...