"Olive Garden" is Still an Excellent Italian Restaurant

My husband and I both love Italian food but oftentimes we have different ideas of what good Italian food is. I lean toward more exotic and gourmet choices while my husband prefers spaghetti or lasagna. Therefore, it is sometimes hard for us to decide on an Italian restaurant that suits both of our needs. However, we both love "Olive Garden." For a chain restaurant, this particular one tries very hard to maintain its quality no matter where you might go.

On our last trip to "Olive Garden," my husband ordered the Lasagna Classico while I tried their new Sicilian Shrimp Scampi. We were both extremely pleased with our choices. They were served piping hot, fresh, and amazingly delicious.

The Lasagna Classico contains layers of pasta, meat sauce, and mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, and romano cheeses. The thing that makes this lasagna stand out is that it is light, rather than heavy like many lasagnas we have found in other Italian eateries. This is due primarily to the fact that, while "Olive Garden" includes meat in this dish, they do not overdo it. The emphasis here is on the fresh cheeses. The portion size is excellent. It is large enough for the most voracious appetite, but small enough to prevent a tendency to overeat. It comes with the restaurant's all-you-can-eat salad, which is worth the trip to the garden all on its own. "Olive Garden" serves perfectly chilled, crisp greens, which includes a variety of different types of lettuce, carrots, red cabbage, red onion, roma tomatoes, and mild peppers (which are served on the side). At your request they will add freshly grated cheese and course ground black pepper. It is simply amazing!

The Sicilian Shrimp Scampi comes with thinly sliced slices of baguette bread topped with a wonderful sauce made from extra-virgin olive oil with white wine, garlic, and lemon then topped with large perfectly sautéed shrimp, chopped green onion, roma tomatoes, and black olives. Actually meant to be antipasti (appetizer), this dish was light and airy and unbelievably delicious. However, it was also large enough to serve as a meal. In fact, I couldn't finish mine and shared it with my husband.