The Olive Garden Experience

On my fifth restaurant experience I ended up going to The Olive Garden. The Olive Garden is located at 2011 Walden Avenue in Buffalo. This hidden gem is one of my all time favourite restaurants. Unfortunately The Olive Garden was closed down throughout Canada but there still remains a few locations in Alberta, Winnipeg and British Columbia. There are hundreds of locations in the United States. I was in Buffalo for a little shopping trip so any chance that I get to The Olive Garden, I gladly take it. 

We went in around 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. and there was absolutely no wait, which is pretty well unheard of! Everytime, no matter what time it is, there is always either a short or very long wait-list at the door. So we were quite happy to be seated right away. Our server was very nice and brought over some wine to taste before she took our orders.  After our orders were taken, our server brought over their famous bread sticks and unlimited Garden-Fresh house salad. I don’t know what it is, but they are both absolutely to die for. I normally fill up on just the appetizers and take my entrée to go. 

For our appetizer we chose the Create a Sampler Italiano. You get to choose from two or three choices of either calamari, stuffed mushrooms, fried zucchini, chicken fingers, fried mozzarella or toasted beef or pork ravioli. We got two orders of the fried mozzarella and one order of fried zucchini. It is served with a warm marinara sauce. 

For my entrée I got the Chicken & Shrimp Carbonara. It is sautéed chicken and perfectly seasoned shrimp tossed with bucatini pasta in a parmesan cream sauce with savoury smoked bacon and roasted red peppers topped with freshly grated parmesan cream. It was extremely tasty, but I was too full to even finish half of it. 

I always feel at home at The Olive Garden. It’s like being at my extended Italian families house for dinner. The prices are great and no matter what you order it is always delicious. If you have never been, I strongly recommend the drive to one of their many locations.