Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

380 17th Ave NW, Rochester - 55901
189 reviews
Italian Salad Soup
(507) 288-8722

We had the most amazing server. Not only was LALO attentive, but had a great sense of humor. He has to be one of their top servers. He did the suggestive selling like a waitperson should, made sure we had everything we needed. Food was typical chain restaurant food, good but nothing to brag about. (Although I did notice extra shrimp in the Alfredo)! Thanks again LALO, your service was excellent!!

We ordered our meal online and picked it up using their curbside service. Overall the meals were good and the desserts were tasty. I enjoyed my Chicken Parmigiana and my wife had one of the gluten-free pasta options. The breadsticks were a bit disappointing as they seemed overcooked and were really chewy. They also did not have that garlicky and buttery goodness that I remember them having. There are a few bad pieces of lettuce in the salad as well, I would appreciate a little bit more quality control there.

Ambience is great. Slightly better designed than the average olive garden. Food taste was just as you would expect. We did not get bread sticks until the very end and only after asking multiple times. The lady serving us was very busy and not available for very long periods of time. Hated this experience.

Former employee here. I didn’t last longer than 2 weeks here because despite them serving a large population of disabled people with the clinic, they absolutely refused to train me more because of my learning disability which I made known on my application here. I was called “incompetent and unteachable” (exact words from my trainer) and when I went to the store manager about it he basically agreed with the person. The good service you get here is because they belittle their employees every second for not being good enough. Go somewhere else, or at the very least tip your servers well there. They have to go through a lot with the horrible treatment they get from upper management.

Stop by for Soup & Salad. Decided on tea collection at Olive Garden. Really great selection of teas. Will definitely stop by again.

I have wonderful memories of what how great it was to go to Olive Garden and have delicious food (early 2000's). And it's that memory that tricks me every time I go back and give this place another chance.Now the food is just gross. I had the large stuffed shells, they weren't even cooked through. Our waitress was nice but not good at her job. Completely forgot our drinks to begin with and forget about refills. This place is bottom of the barrel now. The prices would make you think you are fine dining, because they are high. But nope, you're basically having a microwave dinner and it's palpable how much your waiter/waitress hates their job.

Booths are a bit small. Staff was friendly and they were very clean. Food was fresh and delicious and it came quickly.

If you haven’t noticed already I rather enjoyed the drinks and they were cheap for what you get and very yummy. I go for the endless soup and salad for $10. It’s a perfect lunch date with myself. I can’t comment on the other food items. I just love the Zuppa Toscana soup and the drinks clearly. I give only 4 stars because it was a very slow service and took a little long for my food to arrive. I’m a server so I’m very patient but that was too long. Server was very nice and friendly though.

I had my husband pick up some standard dishes from there yesterday.We ordered soup with both entrees...There was a bug in my soup.It wasn't even a super tiny bug either.I've never been so grossed out in my whole life.Of course, I didn't find the bug until I was already half done with my soup.The standard of cleanliness is not up to par this place should be closed down!

We had a nice lunch from the lunch menu. I had the endless soup and salad bowl which comes with their breadsticks. I choose the Zuppa Tuscany soup which I really enjoyed along with the Italian dressing for the salad. Others in the group choose the baked ziti which they said was the best they ever had.