We popped into the Olive Garden for a quick lunch and to explore the new menu items. Above is seafood brodetto. Similar to a cioppino, but the broth has saffron in it and is milder. Full of shrimp, scallops, tilapia and spinach. I really liked this dish.
My husband's lunch is above and our friend's lunch below. I was so focused on my own lunch, I didn't really pay much attention to what they ordered :) I know the dish below is seafood Portofino.
This is a test market dish at the Olive Garden in Boise, Chicken with garlic tomatoes and spinach in cream sauce with cheese-filled pastry purses. The chicken was good, and while the croissant-like pastries were also good, they didn't seem to be a good fit with a sauce-based dish. They got soggy and goopy. We'll see in the coming months if this dish makes the main or specials menu nationwide.
A quick family dinner at Olive Garden last night. This was something new on the menu since I had been there last: Manicotti Formaggio with Shrimp. It was fine, the sauce didn't taste so fresh to me, but the cheese in the manicotti was good.
We had more Olive Garden gift certificates to use up, so we stopped in last night. Our meal was just so-so. I ordered the steak Gorgonzola Alfredo - I really just wanted the Gorgonzola Alfredo, so I asked for the steak on the side. I LOVE Gorgonzola, but this version tasted a bit off, like something was not quite right with the cheese. The steak was pretty good, though.
Dwayne tried the pork Milanese. It was a breaded pork cutlet...and he thought that's exactly what it tasted like. The cheese-filled tortellini on the side was excellent, though, filled with an Asiago cheese.
The newest dessert on the menu at the Olive Garden. We had a quick dinner there this week and gave this a try - it's called zeppoli, "traditional Italian doughnuts." They were like fair scones. Little bites of chewy, sweet dough deep fried and dusted with powdered sugar. They're served warm and with a side of chocolate sauce for dipping and drizzling. These were good and because of the small pieces, an easy dessert to share, if you're so inclined.
We popped in for dinner at the Olive Garden last night. I ordered this new appetizer as "dinner," along with the all-you-can-eat salad and bread sticks. This is Lasagna Fritta. It's a twist on toasted ravioli or tortellini. The lasagna pieces are sitting on a bed of Alfredo sauce and are topped with marinara. They were very good. This is plenty of food for a meal, too. I shared and still couldn't finish them all.
Four cheese stuffed mezzaluna with sausage is the dish my husband ordered. It was in a tomato cream sauce. He said it was good.
I had the four cheese stuffed mezzaluna with shrimp with a white wine sauce. It was also good. Mezzaluna refers to the type of ravioli in this dish, it's shaped like a crescent moon. Wonder why we frequent Olive Garden so often? Well, it is good, our daughter likes it, and...we have oodles of free gift cards. Thank you American Express rewards!
We had gift cards for free dining at Olive Garden. It's a place we haven't been to in years, because when I think of Olive Garden, I think of pasta. And pasta at home is so delicious, we haven't ordered it at restaurants. We started our meal with soup. I had the creamy chicken gnocchi soup with spinach. It was O-K. Tasted kind of like a canned soup.
I ordered the Venetian apricot chicken. The chicken was grilled and covered with an apricot citrus sauce. It was good. A light sauce that was tangy, but not too much. I asked for fresh grated Romano on my dish, I like Romano or parm on just about everything. We had a nice wine, probably a table wine, a red zinfandel from Rancho Zabaco.
My husband ordered the grilled chicken and gnocchi. I took a taste, it was a good dish.
And this is what my daughter chose for dessert, after ordering her usual "mac-n-cheese" for dinner. This is lemon cream cake. It tasted just like cheese cake. It was good, although we didn't get much more than a little taste because my daughter REALLY liked it. She wants to go back and just order this. We had a nice meal and will return. I wasn't crazy about where we were seated, which was bordering aisles on two sides, but the meal was relaxing when it had been a hectic day.