Olive Garden Italian Restaurant: All Locations - Plymouth, MA Review

The Olive Garden offers large portions of good Italian food at reasonable though not cheap prices. That pretty much sums up the reason why I grab the chance to eat there whenever the opportunity arises.
Why do I like the Olive Garden so much? Several reasons. First of all, they offer unlimited breadsticks and salad with every meal. Their breadsticks are warm, chewy on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside, infused with a garlicky butter glaze, and quite simply delicious. Their salads almost always use fresh lettuce without any brown spots or wilting and their vinaigrette dressing is tart yet not overwhelming. They're very good about handling special salad requests like no tomatoes and they never whine if you want to keep eating salad during the main portion of the meal or request a refill of the salad bowl.

Secondly, although the decorating is fairly nondescript, I find their restaurants relaxing. The light is low without being dim, the tables are dark wood and generally spaced well - far enough apart that you're not tripping on folks at the next table but close enough together that the restaurant feels homey rather than empty. There are plants and alcoves and little touches that add to that feel.

Thirdly, they grate fresh parmesan cheese on your salads and meals at your table and they don't stint on the cheese. Unlike many fancier Italian restaurants, their cheese comes out in soft tiny strings rather than harder bits or dots that are too small to really taste. They are much more generous with the cheese here than elsewhere; you can completely cover your salad or your meal and they won't say a word. On the few occasions when they grated the cheese out of sight, they happily complied when someone asked for a bit more once their plate appeared.

Lastly, the food itself is excellent. Best at simple pasta dishes, their cheese manicotti and chicken parmesan are both among the best I've had anywhere. Some of their fancier dishes are a bit more hit and miss and some of their dishes just seem odd so I haven't tried them (there are a couple of beef pasta dishes one of my friend likes that just seem wrong to me), but I can mostly bank on really liking their version of any dish I like generally.