Okay, I know, chain restaurant. But last night by the time we got into Fort Lauderdale and checked into the hotel, it was almost 10 PM, our stomachs were on Pacific time and there wasn’t much open. I think how much you enjoy a restaurant also depends on what your expectations are. In visiting The Olive Garden, I wasn’t expecting gourmet or expensive, just something okay and reasonable. So we had salad and breadsticks, the usual stuff they put on the table. The salad was good and the breadsticks were salty and flabby. John had mussels and I had eggplant parmesan. The mussels were good and the eggplant was okay. At least you could taste that it was eggplant. There was a fresh tomato sauce which was a little on the sweet side and an uninspired lump of spaghetti. It was all fine. We also had a bottle of Montevina pinot grigio. The bill came to $44.
So unlike the experience at the Silver Palate where we spent $100 for bad food, we had reasonable food at a reasonable price. Maybe our expectations were just lower or after flying all day with only a snack, we were really hungry. But our experience at The Olive Garden was good and even though we got there 5 minutes before they were ending dinner service, the waitstaff was friendly and efficient.
John’s grade – B+
Mary’s grade – B