No Spoiled Olives in the Olive Garden

Olive Garden Restaurant Review

Location: 15355 Eureka Road
Southgate, MI 48195
Phone Number: (734)-282-7838
Times: Sun.-Thurs. 11:00 AM-10:00 PM
Fri.-Sat. 11:00 AM-11:00 PM
(Olive Garden)
Rating: *** out of ****

The first few steps I took as I walked into the Olive Garden didn't exactly give off a feeling of wonder or excitement. At first glance the atmosphere seemed to be pleasant enough and the restaurant was fairly clean, but there just didn't seem to be anything special about it. However, the closer I looked, the more I realized the pleasantry of everything around me. The restaurant provided a nice, calm feeling to help its guests feel comfortable and the service, for the most part, was very good. On top of that the food was outstanding, with a hot, spicy flavor being dominant above all others. The only minor problem I had was with the prices, which seemed to be a little on the high side. Ultimately, the Olive Garden Restaurant creates a feeling of relaxation and satisfaction that will make you crave a return to its gently ordained interior and superbly crafted meals. The interior of the Olive Garden is made of plaster white-walls. Hanging on a few walls are dishes made of china and pictures that portray chefs from the restaurant's past. In addition, the constant conversations of people can be heard in a quiet, muffled voice. All these elements combine to form a nice relaxing atmosphere, one that isn't too excessive in its presentation nor too bare of any form of personality. Part of the effort to help keep this atmosphere intact can be seen in the form of mostly-clean floors, walls, and tables in the restaurant.

With the exception of a few leaves near the entrance and the occasional garbage scrap here and there, the floor of Olive Garden was virtually spotless. Even the restroom seemed to have been scrubbed and cleaned. The walls and tables were largely the same as the floors in regards to how clean they were, with a few smudges and forgotten straw wrappers to tarnish a perfect surface. Despite these little blemishes, I knew the restaurant staff cared about their customers' view of cleanliness and felt almost at home sitting at a clean table with my family. The service provided by our waiter and waitress also helped us feel comfortable.

Before I was able to get too comfy in my clean chair, a waiter and waitress came over to greet us. Two servers were needed to effectively tend to our family since my aunt, uncles, cousins, and grandparents had come with us to celebrate a birthday my grandpa had recently had. Throughout our stay at the Olive Garden our waiter and waitress treated us with respect and attentively took our orders, making sure they had heard us correctly when we told them what we wanted. As the hours passed, the service seemed to slow down a little. Our waiter and waitress gradually came by less and less to check up on us and we had to wait several minutes to recieve our check when we were ready for it. However, every single food and drinking item that was brought out was so good, albeit pricey, that we managed to forgive this minor inconvenience.

The appetizers we had while waiting for the main course were the Brushcetta, pictured above, and the stuffed mushrooms. The Bruschetta was essentially made of several pieces of warm, chewy bread with a small dish of crushed tomatoes for dipping. The bread itself had a slightly salty taste to it while the combination of bread and crushed tomatoes gave off a warm, sweet flavor. The stuffed mushrooms had crab meat inside and provided a hot flavor almost like garlic. I found myself enjoying the stuffed mushrooms more than the Brushcetta simply because the flavor of garlic given off seemed to be more enjoyable. Altogether, the appetizers cost a total of $12.60, $6.25 for the Bruschetta and $6.35 for the stuffed mushrooms. Other menu appetizers we could've chosen from were the Caprese Flatbread ($6.25), the Sicilian Scampi ($9.95), and the Calamari ($8.50). There was also a vast majority to choose from in regards to drinks, including red and white wine for $5.25 and soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi for free (Olive Garden). I found these prices (except for the free soft drinks) to be very high. A couple of appetizers for $12.60, as well as everything else, just seemed to be a little too expensive for me. At least the prices for our main course items were almost the same as those for the appetizers and drinks. The main course I had was the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, costing $9.95. This dish would have been almost tasteless if it wasn't for the spicy sauce that came with it. The sauce had a ground-up combination of meatballs and mushrooms and, together with the spaghetti itself, provided an abundance of extremely hot and spicy flavors. I've always been a fan of spaghetti and found this particular dish to be satisfyingly delicious. Other dishes my family had were the Ravioli di Portobello ($11.50), the Stuffed Chicken Marsala ($14.50), and a pizza with cheese and pepperoni costing $10.95 (Olive Garden). I was told that all these dishes were pretty much the same in terms of flavor, with spicy being dominant and cheesy being subdomiant. These meals filled us up so much that we just didn't have any room for dessert.

Even though we didn't have anything after our main meal, a few dessert items were the Black Tie Mousse Cake shown above at $6.25, The White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake for $5.25, and the Lemon Cream Cake for $6.25 (Olive Garden). All the dessert items looked extremely good and seemed to emphasize a wide variety of flavors, as shown by the names of the items above.

I would strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys a calm, gentle atmosphere to eat in and a wide variety of hot and spicy foods, if you can stand the prices. The service and cleanliness aren't perfect, but they're good enough to help make your stay enjoyable. Though we didn't have any dessert, I can tell that those particular food items can only add to the fullness you'll experience by devouring everything before them.

Give the Olive Garden a try and you won't be disappointed.

Works Cited

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany. 2009. Web.

22 Nov. 2009.

Ryanrules95. Olive Garden interior. 19 Feb. 2009. FlickR. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.