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| - Another date night! This one wasn't my choice though, and knowing how I feel about chains as well as my high standards for Italian cuisine, I bit my tongue and hoped for the best.
We had to wait about 10 minutes on a Tuesday night to be seated. Apparently Olive Garden is a hot commodity in Champaign....
We were seated and I was quite indecisive about what to get. I settled on a build-your-own-pasta with alfredo/cream sauce and added Italian sausage. For my choice of soup, I got the Tuscan bean, and of course the notorious breadsticks. The soup was pretty tasty, it had like beans and zucchini and onions and a bunch of other things in a tasty tomato-y broth. Not bad! The pasta I got wasn't too bad either, the noodles may have been a little overcooked but the sauce was pretty creamy. I did not like the sausage. I'm no tubular meat expert but this tasted really institutional and for the upcharge it cost to add it to my pasta, I probably should have just went meatless or ordered the chicken, like my smarter date did....
The thing that really upset me about the experience though was the service. I don't remember the server's name, he was actually quite personable, but our meal felt very very rushed. Our soups came out quick which was good, but I was not even halfway done with mine before our dinners had arrived and we had to move our soups out of the way to eat our dinner. I'd consider myself a fast eater, too so this was frustrating, especially since I wanted to actually talk to my date, you know, the reason why I'm here in the first place!! This wasn't the last straw though, I was probably 75% done with my entrée when the server comes up and asks if we are interested in desert. Ugh! We looked at each other and both agreed this meal was unnecessarily rushed. At that point I just asked for the bill which he pulled up on those tacky tablet things a lot of chain restaurants have now.
The food wasn't even as bad as I thought it was going to be, but the hurriedness of the service really put me off. 2/5
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