Olive Garden Italian Restaurant in Merced

The food and services overall is good. My husband had Margherita Chicken and I had Grilled Salmon. The foods came with bottomless salad. One thing I didn’t like, I got the old broccoli in my dish.

Great service. Pasta was ok. We we’re seated right away which is good. Shrimp was boiled. Broccoli heavy butter and salt. But it was still good. The only thing that bothered me, was the fact that they didn’t clean up after people were done eating. The bar area had plates of dirty dishes left from the previous people. From the moment I sat down until the bill arrived, they weren’t interested in cleaning up the bar. When I mentioned this to our server, I was simply told “the bar area is slower towards the end of the night. We Won’t have to clean it until later” which was strange. There were two ladies sitting right besides the dirty dishes. I know if I’m going to eat somewhere, I expect the table to be clean and ready for my experience. It’s almost as if they don’t care about our experience, similar to what one would expect from inside of a McDonalds. However, that is a fast food business, this is supposed to be a fine dining restaurant. When you are spending good money, you expect good everything. That’s all. With that said, I won’t be back anytime soon. Good service though.

Had lunch here with my girls ❤️ Food was excellent! Hot and delicious 😋 service was good. Our waitress was very attentive and nice. Will definitely be back!

It was my first time going to Olive Garden to eat and it was great! Am here to celebrate a wonderful friend of mines bday. Everything was good and the service was awesome. Would come here again 😁

Negatives: Ive attempted to eat here 2x before this time and the wait was literally 1hour and 30 min long! It was that long today as well.. and it was just 2 of us. The parking lot was small and you should give yourself ample time to find parking. I was not offered water & I ordered alcoholic beverages 1st thing. The middle restroom had urine all over the seat. My food was not offered to be boxed up for me or given bread bags for my left over bread like the 2 tables on both sides of me were. I had the 2 plastic boxes and bag lasted on the table for us like any other restaurant. I polietly asked the waitress why the shrimp scampi my friend ordered had such fewer shrimp than the shrimp Alfredo I ordered. She went to ask the cook she said he said the scampi gets 9 shrimp and the Alfredo gets 16. Ok theres a consistency. I also asked why I did not get water line all the other tables and we were not offered to have our left overs boxed up she said she just was so busy with all the tables and forgot.Positives: Dawn our waitress was nice! She was just forgetful although she did not forget the table next to us. Maybe its cause my friend said he didnt like restaurant ice? I will never know.The food was really good. We had a appetizer the Stuffed Ziti Fritta, 2 drinks each, a Italian Margarita and a Blue Almafi that comes with the shot on the side. My bidirectional had the Italian Margarita as well and a Spiked strawberry lemonade. I had opted for the Salad that was delicious and he got the soup Chicken Gnocchi which was a delicious chicken dumpling soup. For the entree I had Shrimp Alfredo and he had Shrimp scampi. Although it was very good I was expecting the shrimp to be a little bit more seared than pale. But it was cooked alright. For dessert we shared Sicilian cheesecake with strawberry topping that was pretty good. Jenn who served the salad had a awesome attitude and was very friendly. Eduardo who served the table next to us was really on top of his game! He gave them water and offered them to box up their food was friendly and checked on them often. My bill came to $103.66 I did leave a tip but I was also friendly and understood she seemed under pressure. Nothing was offered to us as a gesture of apology for the missed opportunities in our dining. We were given a chocolate mint each at the end of our meal. The atmosphere was lovely and overall the dining area was clean. I really wanted to give this place 5 stars but I want to be truthful to our first experience. Hopefully Ill come back and the service will be better.

Love everything! Service was top notch, food was delicious, and the atmosphere was relaxing. For a Friday, it wasnt so overly crowded. They may have been busy, but you can tell how they slowly rotated guest in and out made it delightful. Waitress; Kelly, was on point. Took orders quickly, food was delivered fast, I made a special bar request, Kelly went and double-checked to make sure they could make my drink, and that was a go!!. Bartender Camilla made my drink on point. 100% perfect. I didnt feel rushed, was able to enjoy my food and drink without pressure for my table. Will be going again. Thank you for the great service.

I dont travel much, so my opinion as usual is subjective. My experience while eating here was a European styled/San Francisco vibe. That something I havent experienced in Merced before. The food was great, tasted different, and the customer service was good as well. Oh and the bread is good too. Its part of the experience.

Ive been to other Olive Gardens but this was my best experience. We went during the week in the middle of the afternoon after helping to move our college kids. There were other diners there but it wasnt full. The server was very nice and the food was delicious!!!! The salad was crisp and cold as a salad should be with the right amount of dressing. The salad plate was chilled as is proper. The best salad Ive had in a while. The entrees were piping hot and the dinner plate was warmed too, as is proper. Cant wait to visit again, I highly recommend.

Waited to get seated for quite a while which was fine since we were a large party(15). Jen said faster seating without kids and proceeded to laughed as she went to sit other patrons. So me and my large group walked right out. We were just a group of moms trying to feed our hungry babies, thanks JEN.

Excellent service for a grand opening, friendly staff, and a great atmosphere. One of my mothers chicken parmesan was too salty and the manager came and brought us an entirely new and perfect one. Hope to continue visiting this place in the near future