Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Tacoma

7/2/25 7:30 pm. I'm not sure why this place has a waitlist because it certainly not needed. No doubt this place will always have its loyal following of that I'm certain. But In a world With an abundance of restaurants, why anyone without a coupon would choose to eat here is a mystery.

The portions are liberal and so is the sodium. I'd recommend the cuisine if water retention is the purpose of your visit. The food is served in one of two ways: very salty and exceedingly salty.

I was unaware that eggplant Parmesan required deep frying, and then covering it with warm marinara, and of course, salty mozzarella.

That being said, the eggplant Parmesan was tasty, and the spaghetti marinara served as part of the dish was passable.

My companion ordered a make it up yourself or have it your way dish which contained a white, not quite Alfredo sauce with mushrooms, somewhat reminiscent of a lightly accessorized can of cream of mushroom soup. The three medium sized meatballs were moist. Whether they contained pork or beef, remains a mystery. This dish was tasty and of course, liberally laced with sodium.

The noise is an assault on the ears. Everything and everyone is loud. Plates are not placed on the table -- they're clanged down in front of you and literally not figuratively tossed into the busser's cart as witnessed by my eyes and ears. By the way, the busser's cart remained in the front of the house near the bar for quite some time. Our server, who did not appear part of hearing, had difficulty understanding a patron of unknown Eastern European origin. To bridge communication gap he proceeded to speak louder of course.

At this point, I was longing for the bar as Initially suggested by my companion, not because I needed a drink to sedate my auditory nerve endings, but because it was an oasis of quiet and calm as opposed to the U-shaped area we were marched to after I asked not to be seated directly across from a large table, when there were at least five or six empty ones. At that point clearly we were on punishment as the seat the hostess chose was directly under a speaker blaring 1950s Frank Sinatra which failed to drown out the table over the half-wall next to us or the obligatory screeching child who no doubt was also on punishment. On the way out, it was clear her ire was not reserved for hapless patrons. Her colleague asked her if she whether she was willing to seat another group as there were suddenly four or five groups waiting (why they chose this establishment I will never understand, perhaps there were discount coupons crushed in palms eager to grasp a menu?). She replied she didn't want to, but she would do it anyway -under protest, barely disguised of course.

Speaking of this bespectacled hostess graced with shoulder-length straight black hair, an amped-up hyper-kinetic march and a blank countenance completely devoid of warmth, I simply must thank you for setting the tone prior to seating us. It is now extremely unlikely I'll ever return for excessive heaps of sodium (unless it's a sweltering day and water retention is my goal), clanging dishes, unhealthy and unavoidable noise pollution and of course your brusque demeanor to boot. I found my one and only visit to Olive Garden consistent with my previous nonexistent impressions and expectations.

I skipped my usual bathroom tour, which I save for the last so it won't disrupt my enjoyment of the meal if insects or other undesirables are lurking about. I am pleased To report so did not see any hint of that. Well tbh I didn't enter the washroom after I saw strategically placed garbage cans, full of used paper napkins, and rolled up rubber mats right behind the door. At that point it was enough and the evening...

I feel like Olive Garden has really gone down heel in the last couple of years. Prices have pretty much doubled, and the food went from being properly prepared to heated up frozen dinner style. We decided to do an order pickup last night. We ordered two chicken parms with soup/salad/breadstick, a total of 3 meals, and 3 deserts. Which totaled over $115 with tip included(of course 🙌). I was completely fine with the salad being most just roman in big containers, and the breadsticks being subpar. When I went to eat the chicken and gnocchi soup, I realized that the gnocchi wasn't actually gnocchi (potato PASTA). When making gnocchi, the density of gnocchi to dumplings is different than actual dumplings. You'll see below. They are called chicken and dumplings(not gnocci). Google now calls them dumplings as well, which is strange. They were the weirdest, most evenly square round dumplings without the pinch, with a very strange texture, large and fluffy. They were not slightly dense, with that famous gnocchi texture. Now I'm from the east coast we're they make the gnocchi fresh daily, so I was completely taken back when I called and asked the manager if the chef messed up making the gnocchi. I was told that nothing had changed in many years from the manufacturer to the store and then blamed my 'allergies', making me the 'issue'. I don't recall having allergies currently, so that was some serious gas lighting and quite disrespectful. I now feel like (after having this conversation with the manager) Olive Garden now(on the west coast at least) uses a pre-made soup, with frozen 'gnocci and canned chicken), yes you get more chicken but it throws the texture of the soup off. Can chicken pulls and falls apart in your mouth, but not like a nicely slow cooked chicken. More like, I've been sitting in my own juices for too long and gaining a weird texture canned chicken has. Then, for compensation, they went from offering me a $20 gift certificate to quickly changing it to $10 certificate to cover my next soup order. Which was super weird because of the amount of what the actual soup/salad/ breadsticks combo actually cost was approximately $15 without taxes. I woke up this morning to a coupon for a free appetizer with the purchase of a full meal. Which is NOT what we discussed. Oh, and the coupon has a two week time period to use. There is so much pressure to come back in a short amount of time. I'm not even sure I wanna come back after this experience. This review is literally over soup, and I've personally had it with purchasing overpriced food and getting frozen diner quality. I will not recommend this Olive garden, nor its soup. So, if you like properly made pasta dishes/soups or have a sensitive pallet to changes in recipes (like I do); I do not recommend this Olive Garden. Beware of the chicken parm, it had my husband stuck in the bathroom half the night. 🙌 He was...

Shoutout to Larissa, our server! She seriously provided the best service we've had at a restaurant ever. She was super attentive, and made sure everything was perfect, and was so on top of things it blew our minds. It was so busy when we came in too, yet she was always walking by and taking care of our table, and her other tables, and like seriously so on it when we needed something. Breadsticks, salad, and then she even picked up on my sister being vegan and offered to make a separate bowl without dressing for her and passed by with oil and vinegar shortly after as she was moving between tables. She overheard us ask what side of the to go box was the top and told us when she walked by, and came by with cheese whenever we got served another part of our meal. Like always on it. And not even in like an annoying way like I've noticed some servers are at places, when they ask how the food is every 10 seconds. She just made it a point to take care of what we needed every time she walked by and it really made a difference in how our experience was eating here.

Moving on to the food, which was also amazing😍 I got the unlimited breadsticks, salad, and minestrone soup, which is never a bad choice. Then I got the creamy mushroom pasta, which I ate all of, it was so good. And I tried some of my partners spinach artichoke dip, which I liked as well, but not as much as everything else I got. Finally, I tried some of my partners Cabernet, which was really really good, and I don't usually like wine. I ate the food way too fast to take a photo though this...