Olive Garden at Al Safa Street dishes out Italian cuisine in American-sized proportions - in other words, it's the very definition of comfort food
Published: Fri 23 Oct 2015, 12:00 AM
Last updated: Fri 30 Oct 2015, 10:59 AM
Confession time - this is not my first encounter with Olive Garden. After all, this is the restaurant giant known to dish out hearty Italian-American fare at over 800 locations worldwide - making it difficult, if not impossible, to avoid. And although my first experience with the place was about a year ago, I do remember it being a warm, pleasant surprise and couldn't wait for round two of the gorging to begin.
My dinner partner and I stepped into the restaurant on a Saturday night to find it moderately empty - which is always a plus point in a way (think plenty of parking space available). We were led in by the courteous wait staff and seated at a comfortable side booth, from where we proceeded to covertly check the place out. One thing can always be said about Olive Garden - the interiors are as warm and inviting as they get, exactly what you would want to sink into after a long day of work. Sturdy wooden tables and chairs, side booths decked in green, cobbled patterns across the walls, all bathed under the golden light from low-swung chandeliers... there's even a faux fireplace to complete the cosy look. It's easy to see why this is a family favourite.
The place also offers free soup or salad with any main, and my friend and I unanimously decided to go in for some soup as we mulled over our main course options - blame it on the warm conditions that had us craving good ol' comfort chow. My Zuppa Toscana - a broth made with minced sausages, sliced potatoes and beef bacon - was an absolute dream. Rich, warm and hearty, it went amazingly well with the fresh garlic bread-sticks that were served along with our starters. My companion ordered the Chicken and Gnocci Soup and proclaimed it to be the best she's tasted this side of town. So far, so good.
We were already more than halfway full (that's the problem when you have these American-sized portions!), so we decided to eschew other starters in favour of the mains. I opted for the Crab Topped Chicken from their new menu, while my friend decided to sample an old Italian classic - the Raviolli Di Portobello. At this point, I should mention that Olive Garden does have quite a few veg options but they're sadly outnumbered by the non-veg ones.
My grilled chicken, served with a rich lemon cream sauce and generous portions of crabmeat, was finger-licking good, although the portions were way too much for a single sitting. My friend enjoyed her mushroom-stuffed ravioli too, and with its flavoursome creamy sauce, it was easy to see why. Halfway through our meal, we realised that finishing it all would be nothing short of a miracle, and decided to have it packed rather than face the unthinkable risk of skipping dessert.
While my friend seemed to lock in on the Warm Apple Crosata, I opted for a classic Italian favourite - the Tiramisu - but was sadly disappointed. With a layer of cream over extremely moist cake, the Tiramisu was a bit too sweet to digest. Also, by that time, my friend's order of piping hot apple crumble mixture topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream had come in and. well, let's just say the tiramisu was sadly ignored. Having scraped up every last morsel of the Warm Apple Crosata, we sat back with the satisfaction of people who had just scaled a very large mountain.
Olive Garden is one of those places you can safely bookmark as a favourite haunt - the food is almost always good, and definitely up to its international standard. The wholesome Italian chow is also priced extremely competitively - although we would rather not think about what it must be doing to our waistlines. Good food, at huge quantities; they've sure nailed American ideology of 'bigger is better'.
janice@khaleejtimes.com
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