Olive Garden (Bellingham) – Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup, and Salad?? Uh Oh…

On our way to downtown Seattle, we stopped by Olive Garden to get some noms as it was nearing noon. Meta Knight and I have never visited Olive Garden before despite seeing all those drool worthy commercials online. I guess we always figured Olive Garden wouldn’t be very good since it’s a chain restaurant.

Our friends said that while Olive Garden’s food is quite meh, their portions are huge and you’ll leave feeling happy and full. It wasn’t much of a sales pitch but we took it. 😀

Inside, the interior is what I expected it to be. Old looking tables and chairs, dated carpet, yellowy lighting, and Italian looking home decor. All in all it was comfortable, though you definitely do not feel like you’re dining in a nice establishment.

The one really cool thing about OG is that they’ve adopted a new system where patrons can order drinks, appys (not entrees), and pay at their table! It’s all through this tablet and you can flip through beautifully shot menu items, take your time, and order when you want. On the other hand, when you are done and want to leave, you just pay through this device and head on out! I can see this being very useful for patrons who are in a hurry or just coming on their lunch break.

I don’t know about you but I always found Olive Garden’s marketing and food photography to be top notch. How it ACTUALLY looks and tastes on the other hand… is probably very different.

For our lunch, we all ordered a pasta and all of their mains include unlimited soup or salad, and breadsticks. Here’s my tip of the day: a lot of their pastas are really fancy and cost $15-20 USD. Skip all of that. Go for the simplest pasta around $10 USD and I guarantee you will still be just as full since you have unlimited sides (and the sides are good! If better than the pastas!). 

I got the Unlimited Soup (Chicken and Gnocchi) and it was surprisingly really good! It looks horrible don’t get me wrong, but the flavour was there. I would gladly get it again.

The Unlimited Salad 🙂 Its a standard salad comprised of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, croutons, parm, and olives.

Now let’s talk about these Breadsticks. If there is a way to describe it, they are like little fluffy pillows of heaven. I can honestly just enjoy these with unlimited soup and I can be good for lunch. Even if you are not into bread, you must give these breadsticks a try!

Our entire table got the Cucina Mia! which is essentially Choose-Your-Own-Pasta. It was roughly $10 USD in Bellingham but in Canada, it’s $14.79 CAD. This one was the Angel Hair + Traditional Meat Sauce + Meatballs (+extra charge).

This is the Angel Hair + Parmesan Pesto + Italian Sausage (+extra charge). There wasn’t enough sauce so Meta Knight found it quite dry.

I chose just the Angel Hair + Traditional Meat Sauce without any toppings and I couldn’t even finish my plate! It was A LOT OF FOOD.

Overall, the entrees were average at best and the pasta was cooked just slightly over al dente so it was a tiny bit mushy. Regardless, it’s a still a great deal for lunch and I would go back just to eat all the sides and bring home the pasta.

Service  Rating: 3/5

Food Rating: 2.5/5

Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

 

Happy Eating!