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07/14/2008: "Olive Garden - Tempe, Arizona"
A trip to the mainland is never complete without a visit to Olive Garden. I'm sure many people would say that Olive Garden serves very commercialized Italian food, but I think it's the best I've tasted! Until I visit Italy, it will have to do for now. If I were to compare it to the Italian cuisine we have in Hawaii, it can't even compare! Anyhow, here's my little ditty about our Arizona Olive Garden experience.
Benvenuto! Click here for more pictures and the full review...
Interior shots of the restaurant 
Olive Garden Menu 
Obligatory picture of water. I noticed that the water in Arizona tastes very much like chlorine but when you squeeze lemon in, the taste is gone! Now I see why people ask for lemon in their water, I would have been dehydrated otherwise! 
Sampler Italiano ($9.25 USD). You are able to create your own appetizer platter, we choose the three choice option and went with fried zucchini, stuffed mushrooms, calamari.
Delicious stuffed mushrooms... 
Zuper Zucchini...
Fried calamari is always a treat! 
We receive two sauces for dipping, marinara and a garlic aioli... 
Salad comes with the meal, the waiter also tosses the salad for you table-side.
The salad tastes all right, not sure what kind of dressing they serve but it was a bit zesty. Italian dressing perhaps? 
Delicious garlic infused bread sticks! 
We tried to capture the steam rising from the bread, we failed. Interesting tidbit, the table next to us asked for some alfredo sauce for their bread. I think the bread is flavorful enough by itself, but not a bad thing to try if you like it. 
Tuscan Garlic Chicken ($13.25 USD). This dish is served with pan-seared chicken breasts with roasted garlic, red peppers and spinach in a white wine and garlic cream sauce with curly fettuccine.
Look at the whole pieces of garlic they provide...yummy... 
Noodles shot! Tuscan style...Noreen had this dish and the taste I had was delicious! I would definitely try it again. Perhaps she could comment with her own thoughts at a later time... 
Grilled Shrimp Caprese ($15.75 USD), grilled marinated shrimp served over angel hair pasta with melted mozzarella, fresh basil and tomatoes in a garlic-butter sauce.
All important noodles shot. Overall, I liked this dish. They give quite a bit of shrimp so that's nice. If I were to order again, I think I would choose the Tuscan Chicken dish to try.Olive Garden
1010 West Elliott Road
Tempe, AZ 85284
(480) 777-0032
Sundays - Thursdays
11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Fridays - Saturdays
11:00 am - 11:00 pm
Price
Food
Service
Replies: 6 Comments
on Tuesday, September 2nd, jenny said
Kristian, you and your calamari. Craziness. And yes, give me olive garden any day over what we have here... 
on Tuesday, September 2nd, jenny said
Thanks again for the feedback Noreen! Yes, we had too much food but wasn't the ride there terrifyingly fun? 
on Thursday, August 28th, kristian said
fried calamari! always a good choice! we need an olive garden in hawaii.
on Sunday, August 10th, Noreen said
Great pictures, Jenny! The tuscan chicken dish was really good! Very garlickly and creamy with a slight tang, which made the sauce lighter. Don't usually care for grilled chicken breasts, but this one was moist. Next time I would either nix the appetizers or just do appetizers and salad. By the time we got our entree, was pretty full so couldn't fully appreciate it.
on Monday, July 14th, jenny said
Hey Lori! Great to hear from you! I'm excited that you get to try Olive Garden later in the year! I hope to see a good review! ^_^
on Monday, July 14th, Lori said
Thanks for the great review! I'll be trying out Olive Garden for the first time when I go to Vegas later this year.
