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| - Chain restaurants seem to get a bad rap, especially from yelpers, self-proclaimed foodies, and those that, in general, dine out a lot. I, myself, am not a big fan of chain restaurants, although there are a few exceptions. And the chains that I like are because the food is consistent, you know what you're getting (which, I admit, can be a good or a bad thing.)
I haven't been to an Olive Garden in probably five years or so, and have only been to the Monroeville location two or three times ever. However, my mom had a gift card and wanted to go, so we went. We ordered the calamari and stuffed mushrooms for our appetizer and both went with the endless salad and breadsticks for our meal. The food was decent, as expected. For the soup, I got the Pasta e Fagioli which was very good. My mom had a bowl of Chicken & Gnocchi and the Pasta e Fagioli, and said she liked both.
Our waitress was extremely friendly and attentive. My only real issue was that she brought out our appetizer, soup and salad all at the same time, which was odd. Since the soup and salad were supposed to serve as our entrees, I would have preferred if she at least asked if we wanted it all at once or to wait a bit. If we got a regular dinner, it wouldn't have been served with our app, so the soup and salad should have been no different. Also, the salad had too much dressing and became a little soggy. I did mention this to our waitress, who offered to bring us a new bowl. We declined, but only we were full already.
Overall, not a bad experience. I would return, but probably not in the near future, simply because I am not in the area often.
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