Olive Garden

07/23/06

Above average food and service for a chain restaurant.

by fsumidn at Citysearch

During a late lunch for two after walking the Timuacuan Preserve we tried this Olive Garden location by Regency Mall. We were promptly seated with a minimal wait to a nice corner table away from the major walkways. Our server was very friendly and timely with everything during our visit. She offered good recommendations on the new menu items and was probably the best I've had in town so far. Too bad I'm terrible with names or I would recommend her.

For an appetizer we ordered a sampler of Stuffed Mushrooms and Calamari. The mushrooms were delicious and the calamari was cooked just right and not greasy in the least. The usual drik order of a Strawberry-Mango Margarita, blame the gf for hooking me on them too, was very refreshing. For our main courses, I had the Braised Beef & Tortelloni and she ordered the Five Cheese Ziti al Forno. The Tortelloni is a new menu item which I was told by our server to be the best stuffed pasta so far in her opinion. I have to agree with her after ordering it for myself. The mixture of braised tenderloin, portebello mushrooms, and asiago filled tortelloni was fantastic and was pulled together by the marsala sauce. The leftovers at home were killer too. Her ziti was very cheesy and tasty as it should be as a classicly offered dish.

Overall I recommend the Regency location over other Olive Garden's in the Jax area. The food and service were the best so far in such a large chain restaurant. I've had less than satisfying results at other locations in the area.

• Pros: Best food and service in a large chain restaurant or Olive Garden in the area.
• Cons: Nothing too serious. Assume wait time would be horrible at a later hour as usual.

03/21/06

My favorite place to eat in Jax

by amykat321 at Citysearch

My boyfriend & I go to this Olive Garden about once every 2 weeks.We have 1 server that we love (Robert). He is very quick with greeting, drinks, appetizers,clearing food out of our way, boxing food up at the end. We request him everytime.The main reason we go there is probably because we get such great service from him.He actually has our orders memorized & usually brings out our appetizer 2 minutes after we are seated. When we are brought to our table,our drinks are usually already there! He stands out from any other server is b/c he never treated us poorly b/c we are young. Many places think that because the people are young they will not tip and give them bad service.I love Olive Garden's food. The warm garlic breadsticks are wonderful.The salad is great as well. You get a lot of food for the price!

• Pros: food, service-friendly/fast, endless salad &bread!
• Cons: parking, wait/crowded, hosts are unorganized

07/24/04

The McDonalds of Italian Food

by jclind at Citysearch

Everything tastes as if it came out of a can. The breadsticks are little more than reheated brown and serve sticks of dough. The soups are too heavy on the beans. I can think of worse places to eat Italian food, but there are LOTS better, even in Jacksonville, for example: Michaelangelo's, Enrico's, Carrabba's and Salerno's. Even Johnny Carino's is a much better choice than Olive Garden.....

• Pros: None