Olive Garden - MANAHAWKIN

Ahhhh, today service was soooooo slow, I sat and waited for breast and salad for 15 min. The server came by with my water. Then disappeared again... and again.... come patient, and all would be well. You can substitute lasagna for eggplant or an extra chicken in the tour of Italy for 2.99..... try it.. the falls is always great.

I was SHOCKED when my daughter said I want to go to Olive Garden for dinner because I had long ago crossed Olive Garden off of my list of chain restaurants that I might even consider for any meal. But, when your daughter says go ... well, I went and was very pleasantly surprised. The first thing I noticed was the cleanliness of this restaurant. It was missing the all too present Olive Garden scent that I had breathed in at various Olive Garden locations over the years. Believe me based on past Olive Garden experiences I was looking at the cleanliness status of this restaurant because that is one thing they can 't ship in frozen to the franchise and I was pleased to see a spotless well cared for dining area. Alright, it is impossible for a franchise restaurant whose menu comes from a corporate headquarters far far away to ever get a five-star rating. It would be so wonderful if one of these franchise establishments allowed their local chefs to create a few speciality items that are unique to the location but the menu in Manahawkin is going to be the same menu at the one in Seattle. The ingredients are not locally sourced but shipped in their freezer bags and cartons. Now, that my editorial rant is over, which is why I will always choose local over corporate, I want to say the service was warm, welcoming, and pretty much outstanding! It always begins at the door but carries through to those who clear the table, and, on this visit, which was shortly before the 5pm dinner rush, every person we interacted with was friendly and helpful. I like soup ... I also am thrifty so getting a bonus bowl of soup at no cost was a plus that Olive Garden offers. It was rainy/cold outside and while the soup was somewhat salty it was also warm and comforting. We are attempting to limit carbs hahaha yes, we were at an Italian chain restaurant but we did limit the intake of breadsticks, which were served warm. Surprisingly to me ... we all enjoyed our entrees. Visually appealing, at a proper temperature, and providing us with a tasty meal. One HUGE NEGATIVE was the game machine on the table. People should be coming to dine together putting away their cell phones and just taking in the ambiance of their meal. When OLIVE GARDEN places a machine that takes up 5% of the table out there it is only a call to play and THEY CHARGE YOU TO PLAY!!! We left happy but I could tell that the waiting crowd was not all smiles because there were 4 staff members up front talking with each other while pretty much ignoring those waiting for a table. And, there were empty tables within view from the waiting area (I am sure that the restaurant didn 't have enough wait staff to cover all of the seating areas. . If we had arrived a half hour later than we did this could have easily turned into a 2 star or 1 star review (It was going to be 4 stars until I thought about the game machine and remembered the four staff members ignoring the waiting 5pm crowd. .

Always a delicious dinner or lunch. Consistently good! Service is appropriate Traditional surroundings. Cozy, nothing extraordinary Chicken Margherita is best for low carb diet and very satisfying!

Fast service. Tasty fresh meals and attentive servers here. We went here for lunch and it wasn't too crowded and our meals came out quickly. Ended up getting dessert to go. The portions were huge as always. We'll be back!

I was so happy to give this olive garden a better review. My daughter and Dad have always loved olive garden. So we finally got my dad out of Covid hybernation.... He had so much fun and we had a funny amazing waitress. We ordered the new shrimp appetizer it's lightly breaded shrimp, pepper and onion with spicy ranch and marinara dipping sauce. Survey says very good! Daughter and I had the endless soup, salad and bread sticks. Our favorite! My Daddio had the chicken Parm with zuppa Toscana. He really enjoyed it. I would definitely go next time before 3:00 for the lunch. The soup and salad was way so much food that I couldn't touch the appitizer.