Olive Garden Northlake

Olive Garden Northlake Location

8225 Northlake Commons Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28216
704-494-4473
www.olivegarden.com
(No Pictures from the meal as my camera konked out on me, sorry about that)

Olive Garden? how can a person actually write a review about the Olive Garden?

The Olive Garden and the public view of it has always eluded and confused me. I see people and critics using it as a measuring stick of who to dis, or a restaurant with about as much street credibility as Kevin Federline in Harlem.

But why the dis, what’s the problem, and what is the source of this lack of credibility. I find the answer is generally linked back to the “hate the establishment mentality that is everywhere in society. people hat Wal-Mart, but love to save, people laugh at McDonald’s but their fries taste better than any caviar on the planet, and lastly patrons mock Olive garden as being a “Wonder bread wop” (quote Tony Soprano), but the fact is they have the best bread and salad you will get at any level.

I have long entered this restaurant looking forward to dipping those salty hot breadsticks in some Alfredo sauce as the highlight of all eating out trips. Any critic that denies the amazing breadsticks at the ‘OG’ is lying to themselves and trying to make themselves feel superior. This place excels at the pre-meal warm-up.

If you go in and get the Alfredo dipping sauce, salad and spinach artichoke dip you will every time be lying if you don’t love it. The question I have long had is why do people lie about their love for it?

IM TELLING YOU NOW: Its ok to love a chain, its ok to admit they do a pretty good job even though they are the McDonalds of Italian food.

Now with this all said, I have to laugh as this latest trip to the ‘OG’ newly built in Northlake was a bit disappointing.

If you haven’t been to Olive Garden recently, there are a few changes that are for better and worse. The decor has changed in the last 5 years with high ceiling better lit and featuring a bar on the agenda. The new look for Olive garden is brighter and more to the lunch crowd in my belief. Long gone are the ’80s with the fake Italian paintings and low light for after prom dates.

The new look is nice, and if you want to grab a drink or two the bar is much more useful than in the past.

The next change that I notice is the price increase across the board. Everything on the menu seemed 2-3$ higher than just 9 months ago. The best tasting treats on the menu (Chicken Alfredo Pizza - YUM) went from $6.95 (a steal) to $9.95. This is still cheap, but they did finally figure out what a great bargain I had been getting away with.

All menu items used to range from $8.99 to $14.99 and seem to have shifted to about $9.99 to $18.99. I know this is still pretty cheap eating, but the change is significant and you will notice it too.

We went on a weekday around dinner, and got seated way in the back again. The manager apologized for the slight disarray of the back area, but I honestly didn’t see any issues. Keep in mind this was coincidence, since nobody recognizes what I am up to until after the meal when I’m taking photos and leaving.

Our waiter was there on his day off, was friendly and as attentive as we could have hoped. The service here is always standard fare to good, I have never had an issue.

Out comes the best part of any ‘OG’ visit, the breadsticks and salads, and what a let down this was. Not fresh like normal and the waiter pulled an oops I forgot to offer grated cheese. The salad looked as un-fresh as the bread was, I was surprised as it is usually so good here.

My Wife had the new dish Portabella and steak Alfredo, I went for the Seafood Alfredo with Shrimp, Mussels and scallops. If you don’t know I am addicted to scallops after eating at Golden Taipei so I always order them up now.

Our meals we’re very slow to reach the table. The waiter apologized for the long wait twice and once averted his eyes in embarrassment as to our wait.

After the long delay without the normal fresh bread to get us by the meals cam out and looked great on the table. This great look was half deceiving unfortunately.

My wife was happy with the steak and portabella and recommends it. The steak was soft and the plate was huge and filling. The leftover made it to the next day from her meal.

The seafood Alfredo was very lacking. The dish was almost exact in taste to the Vampire Killer Pasta I invented and wrote about 1 week ago. The difference is that my pasta had about 25 shrimp and only cost me $5 to make. The taste of this dish was so simple and lacking any reason to want it again. I essentially had a plate of pasta with butter and garlic mixed with a few bits of seafood, very disappointing. This marks the first time my wife has out ordered me in a restaurant.

If you go to the ‘OG’ just get the standard dishes is the lesson today. Get the chicken Alfredo pizza and let those who roll their eyes at your lack of sophistication go take a flying leap. The fact is the ‘OG’ makes great breadsticks(usually), has great salad with pepperocinis (usually fresh) and makes great standard food items like lasagna and Portabella Ravioli. I just will be a bit more cautious with ordering off the norm as they may be trying to hard to charge more and name dishes uniquely and have forgotten to do the little things I still think they have in them.

I will give this location one more try as I assume this weak outing was a fluke from what is normally a good franchise with great pre-meal food. If they fall short again, I am more than happy with eating Mexican food instead.