Olive Garden is already well known to Brazilians, unlike many other restaurants that we have talked about here on the site. With several units spread throughout Orlando, the Olive Garden has excellent food for a very cheap price. That combination we love!
The menu is basically Italian-American, but there you will find everything: meat, fish, chicken and appetizers that are worth it. If you want to see the menu of one of Orlando’s units, click here. But what I like most about the Olive Garden is that it is always a receptive and enjoyable option at the end of a tiring day of shopping or park.
The food there is well served and in one of the times we went, Re and I ate couvert (the wonderful bread and butter, always for free, I already talk more about it), starter, each one ordered a plate and in the end the bill was $30! And look that we left rolling from so much that we ate (always! hehehe).
The Olive Garden has a style typical of so many other American restaurants. It’s very informal, which is why I think it’s so receptive and can be visited even after shopping or in parks.
The typical stone architecture makes us, with well-trained eyes, able to identify a unit of the Olive Garden from afar! But in fact, the style is very classic American: you arrive, order a table and two: either you are taken to your direct table, or you receive a pager to be notified when your table is ready. Many units have a screen showing the waiting line of the tables, which is always nice to manage the expectations of the most anxious.
When the pager rings, just deliver it to the front desk to be taken to your table. In general all the units are big, but the night is normal to have a line anyway, see? The restaurant is usually divided into several small rooms, with thick wooden tables and comfortable chairs or the famous “cabinets” with sofa.
You can check out the electronic version of the menu on the table, or wait for your waiter to give you the traditional version to choose what to eat.
I think our trips to the Olive Garden say a lot about who Re and I are. For starters, they always serve a delicious bread, free and at ease. We eat this bread without stopping and FURTHER, we ask to enter the Olive Garden! Self-control is something we don’t know very well.
Before saying anything else, let’s go to the free garlic bread dumplings at the Olive Garden, the restaurant’s highlight for me. The last time I went, I must have eaten about 3 buckets of bread, no kidding! I must have eaten about 15 baguettes alone, which comes wet with so much garlic and olive oil. Don’t stop eating, even more so because it’s free! If that wasn’t enough, you can ask them to bring more butter (“extra butter”) for you to pass on the bread, without paying anything extra for it too.
The menu changes from time to time but keeps the most famous dishes in the house. We really liked arancini (risotto dumpling), which has already left the menu, but the Fonduta of 5 cheeses arrived on the menu did not do for less. It’s very tasty!
Besides these appetizers, I also recommend ordering the salad. I’m one of those who likes chopped salad, seasoned and ready to serve. Olive Garden’s is like that and it comes in a huge bowl for you to serve. The salad there is very good and is already included as an accompaniment to any main course.
With the main course, we practically always order the most classic dishes, especially the pasta. See that everything here is an Americanized version of Italian food, so expect more spicy sauces and spices different from an original Italian. Still, we like it a lot.
Among our favorites are Fettuccine Alfredo and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, which is the famous bolognese noodles of Sunday, so just ask the waiter to bring “parmesan” that the party is done.
Another very tasty dish is Chicken a Parmegiana. For those who are curious and want to try several dishes, a good order is always the Tour of Italy, which brings small portions of 3 dishes : (lasagna, fettuccine alfredo and chicken a parmegiana). Many times we order this dish and share it but we always leave the lasagna aside, since it is not so good. Another dish to escape is the pasta with meatballs, which is HIPER spicy.
If you have a little room left for dessert, amidst the typical American options, you’ll find a hot cookie filled with Nutella. Re who loves Nutella thought it was great, despite the pre-made dessert style.
The prices, as I said, are always well in account but may vary depending on the unit and logical, from what you order. In general, I avoid the International Drive, for reasons that I have quoted several times here on the blog: everything there is always fuller and, because it has a lot of tourist, easier target of robberies and robberies. We also avoid deserted regions. When I go to an Olive Garden I try to go to the 536, in Lake Buena Vista, or in the parking lot of Mall at Millenia.
Of course it will depend on what you ask, but we spend between 15 and 25 dollars here. As the dishes are plentiful and we like the salad and the bread, we usually share the main course, but if you are hungry and want your own course, see that it is not so expensive (around US$25).
The Olive Garden is so successful because it brings a great value for money in a very informal environment that goes well with Orlando. Good food, good price and free bread. It couldn’t go wrong! And to see other good and cheap options in Orlando, click here.
Name: Olive Garden
Address: 12361 State Road 535 – Orlando, FL 32836 (See all stores on Google Maps)
Phone: +1 407 239-6708
Price: US$10-25 per person
Hours of Operation: 11am-10pm
Menu: click here to view the menu (in English)
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