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| - I haven't been to an Olive Garden for years. We had a large family dinner to plan and a very fussy group of diners ranging from age 6 to 81, so we decided to give the Metrocenter Olive Garden a try. As a vegan, I was very happy to see their online menu that clearly indicated what I could order, and so happy that the bread sticks are vegan by default now!
The vegan options are still pretty limited - bread sticks, minestrone soup, salad with no croutons or dressing (but they will bring you oil & vinegar), and pasta with marinara.
We went on a Saturday night fully prepared for chaos. We added our name to the waiting list before leaving home, hoping our table would be ready when we arrived since it said the wait was only 11-15 minutes. However, we still needed to wait about 10 minutes for the table - not an issue really, especially because of the "half of wine" when you wait option that kept my mother-in-law happy. The place was packed, but our server was a pro. She managed our table of fussiness just fine and everyone enjoyed the experience. Every item came out as ordered, she kept the flow of drinks, salad, breadsticks and soup coming, and took the time to talk with us and treat us "like family." I was impressed with her skill!
The food was far from gourmet, but got the job done with no complaints from the crowd. I'd like it if they expanded the vegan options - i.e. make vegetables an option for the build your own pasta toppings, provide vegan salad dressing/crouton options, or offer a vegan cheese option. But the restaurant made what is usually a stressful event for our family quite the success! Thanks!
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