Olive Garden

Olive Garden
For this week’s post, I decided to go somewhere a little bit more “fancy”. I’ve always had a problem with fancier menu items because they tend to include everything and anything I would typically try to avoid in a dish. However; at Olive Garden, my options were slightly limited due to my anti-consumption of meat. But to my surprise, I was still able to find something on the menu that I would never typically order. If you know anything about me, I’ve always ordered pasta with just butter and parmesan; nothing more and nothing less. I am also a huge carb-connoisseur, so bread, pasta, and all the things most people try to avoid for health reasons, I eat for every meal. One item in particular stood out to me on the menu. It was called “Stuffed Ziti”. Which if you know another thing about me, it’s that I hate things that are filled, stuffed, or will gush out when I bite into them. Something about the texture of biting into what I would describe as “good” just isn’t appealing. So I decided to order that because it was still technically “pasta” just fried, which I also wasn’t a big fan of. I got to choose my own sauce so I got 5 cheese marinara. The cheese part of this sauce sounded appealing to me but the idea of even mushed tomatoes in my meal didn’t please me.
After eating my salad and stuffing my face full of breadsticks, my food had finally arrived. It took away all my prior doubts because it actually looked and smelt so good. However; I was still very much full from all the food I ate prior and was tempted to just save it for later.
Here is a reminder of how I will be judging the food:
Flavor
How full it makes me
Texture
Would I order it again?
An overall rating out of 10
After my server had nearly broken her arm from how much parmesan I made her turn onto my plate, it was finally time to dig in. For my first bite, I tried to pick the perfect piece that I thought could really showcase the dish a whole. I was a big fan of the sauce, it had a very nice texture and didn’t taste at all like the tomato sauce I expected. The pasta however was a bit of a let down; although my expectations weren’t super high in the first place. I didn’t like the texture of the fried pasta mixed with that of the cheesy inside. The next day, however, when I went to eat my leftovers, the dish was nearly 10 times better. The pasta had softened up to a more traditional pasta texture and the sauce had taken over most of the flavor. It left me wanting more and in my mind, for a dish I didn’t even like at first, I was surprised. I give the flavor an 8/10. I mostly only tasted the sauce anyways which was really a homerun in my mind. As far as how full it made me, that particular night I seemingly had about 5 breadsticks when I normally only can eat one, therefore the dish definitely made me full. However, if I were to order it on any other day, I believe it wouldn’t have been enough to make me full on it’s own. The individual pieces of pasta are good but not enough of them are supplied to feel satisfied. Texture gets a 2/10 because I really didn’t like the rough, crispy feeling of the pasta until the next day when it really wasn’t even crispy anymore. Would I order it again? The short answer is yes! BUT I would only order it to go and eat it the next day after it has had time to soften. For an overall rating, I give this dish a 6/10. While it was very good the next day, if I’m ordering something to eat off the menu, I should be able to eat in then without any hesitations. Also, for the price, it wasn’t that good with the quantity they gave you. Overall, I learned that when ordering pasta, you really can’t go too wrong…unless it’s fried.