Our server Josh made the whole experience for us tonight! I believe he was one of the best servers I have ever had. The fact that he was so attentive to our needs and friendly especially to my 2 year old really set him apart from a lot of people in the service industry around here. The food was also delicious and we got it in a timely manner considering how busy they were.
UPDATE APRIL 2022: STILL a solid 5 stars. Fast seating tonight, outstanding service, as we have come to expect. Always consistently good food and always a great value. Tonight we started with the calamari app. Never greasy. Never salty. Always satisfying. We each had the eggplant parm - al dente pasta, crispy breaded eggplant. The salad is always served crisp, cold and large. My wife had the "glass and a half" of wine (Mondavi cab) served in a petite carafe. I had a 22 ounce Blue Moon draft. A note: the take home dinner price has increased to $6 per entree from $5. Still a bargain.It's a shame that the reviews are all over the board. Our experience tonight was perfect. It's New Year's Day and every restaurant we drove by on the way to Olive Garden was packed, and the Olive Garden was no exception. We signed in and were told to expect a wait of 20 - 25 minutes. My wife looked down at the pager they handed me and it had an ad on the front that said half-price wine at the bar while we waited for our table. The cabernet they served is coincidentally one of our go-to wines when we want deep body and good flavor at a competitive price - Robert Mondavi Private selection. So we paid $4 per 6 ounce serving. Great way to start the night! We were seated in about 5 minutes instead of the 25 we were told to expect. Another great start! Our server was pleasant, sharp and a professional. She was attentive throughout our dinner. We started with a two-item app of seafood stuffed mushroom caps and their "new recipe" fried calamari. The calamari was served with two dipping sauces and the app did not disappoint. For our entrees, my wife had the eggplant parm which came with a side of spaghetti, and I had the salmon piccata with a side of herb-crusted zucchini. She ordered the marinara sauce on the side because she prefers to dip her eggplant bite-by-bite into the sauce so the eggplant stays crisp and is not overpowered by the sauce. Her portion was HUGE. We ended up taking half of it home. The eggplant was perfectly cooked - crispy, tasty, not salty. My salmon piccata was "interesting". The salmon fillet was large. The fish melted in my mouth. Creamy, soft, moist and tender. Not sure that it was grilled, per the menu, because there was no hint of smoke or char, but it worked. Unfortunately, for my taste, the sun-dried tomato and caper sauce was salty and did over-power the dish. The zucchini slices were served practically raw. They lacked flavor and detracted from the dish. That said, the zucchini was about as mediterranean as you can get. Would be more appreciated in Italy than it is here. Nevertheless, while I would not order the salmon piccata again, it was a good-enough plate. My wife ordered the "zeppoli" for dessert (warm pillow-like Italian donuts) which were served with two sauces - a warm raspberry and a warm chocolate. The "donuts" were coated with confectioners sugar. There were OH MY - EIGHT of these. The order would easily have served 4 people. Like the eggplant, we took half home. We have neighbors who have been under the weather all week and we noticed on the menu that if you have a dine-in entre you can buy entrees to go for just $5 each, so we bought two for the neighbors - a Lasagna Rollata and a ziti with meat sauce. These are full-size portions, but a-la-carte - no sides. Great value! All-in-all, a very affordable, pleasing dining experience. We'll do it again.UPDATE: May 2021: Another hit! Great dining experience. Great wait staff. Great value, great food. We had the Chicken Marsala which came with a side of Fettuccini Alfredo and the Eggplant Parm with a side of spaghetti. Each portion was HUGE. The Caesar salad was, as usual, cold, crisp and chock full of goodies. My wife had the "glass and a half" wine special. For an extra $2 you get 9 ounces of wine instead of 6. Great value. We took advantage of the $5 entre take-home so no need to cook the following night. Olive Garden continues to knock the ball out of the park.
STOPPED IN FOR SOME QUICK SOUP AND SALAD GREAT PRICE AND CLEAN RESTAURANT EXCELLENT SERVERS AND FOOD
Did a take out order with quite a few things included. My measure of getting good take out service is if the to order is correct and the food is good and hot! This location almost always does excellent! Finally the customer engagement by all staff up to the managers.
Of course it's Americanized Italian, but food is hot, fresh, and tasty. Standard mo of unlimited bread sticks and salad is always great- get the Alfredo dipping sauce for the bread; it's unlimited now.Buy the full bottle of wine versus by the glass and you'll find its much cheaper.Hit or miss with wait staff. Last time was not great but prior to that our waiter was great.
My best friend and I had the best experience with one of the most amazing waitresses ever! She was so wonderful and so sweet! Said she had been working here for a while! We came around 4pm when it was quite busy and she was so respectful and was genuinely kind and a joy to talk to! The food was also amazing, there was a slight mistake that was fixed immediately! Corrina or Corrine was our waitress name and I would indefinitely visit again knowing she had such amazing customer service!
We had a large take-out order. They handed the food to us and of course it was missing something as they’ve done many times before. We told them we were checking to make sure everything was inside and they gave an attitude about it, assuming it was all inside. Turns out we were missing 2 entire meals. Then later that evening after it was eaten, the people who had the fettuccine got diarrhea… gross. I don’t wanna know what was in the fettuccine here that caused it. Poor service and then must be poor cleanliness.
There is a reason why a place is packed and awaiting list all the time. Let's do italian. When you order the chicken scampi, make sure you have them melt fresh mozzarella on top:)
You get the expected consistency of a large chain. We usually are there just after dinner rush and have found our servers to be attentive and the food comes out in a timely manner. We enjoy going back to this place.
This Italian chain restaurant in the Queen Creek Marketplace is a nice albeit busy family oriented eatery. It consistently provides food catering to the tastes of families which is it’s strength and weakness.