Olive Garden

A good friend gave me and my husband a gift card to Olive Garden as Christmas present. We decided to use the gift card for a nice lunch with my mom on a Saturday afternoon. Olive Garden is more of an American restaurant than an Italian restaurant. Most of the patrons are traditional Americans in their forties or fifties. We were taken to a booth seat by a waiter who is about 80 years old. When our waitress came to our table, she offered to pour us some complimentary wine. Since it was only noon time, we felt it is too early for a drink and so we passed on the offer. My husband likes to eat the freshly baked breadsticks which is warm and relatively soft.

The three of us ordered two pasta dishes to share. One of the dishes is the Seafood Alfredo which is shrimp and scallops tossed with spaghetti with creamy alfredo sauce. The size of the shrimp is very small and it is not bouncy enough. The scallops are quite fresh but also pretty small.



The other pasta dish that we ordered is the Seafood Portofino. This is definitely the more original dish between the two. This is mussels, scallops, shrimp, and mushrooms with linguine in a garlic-butter wine sauce. The garlic-butter wine sauce is rich in aroma and the wine taste is not overpowering. The mushrooms match very well with the garlic-butter wine sauce. I am surprised by the nice effect of mushrooms in a pasta dish. The mussels are pretty chewy. The shrimp and scallops are just average.



The lunch was nice but all of us would definitely prefer California Pizza Kitchen instead.

HOKAT Rating:
80/100

Address:
1 Worcester Road, Framingham MA 01701
508-879-7285