text: I honestly do not understand the popularity of this place. It's a chain, nothing is cooked up by someones Great Grandma with a secret recipe.\n The Salad and breadsticks are fine. The food seems to be mostly heated up frozen chicken patties etc. Can't I just go to Costco and get the same stuff???\n The pasta is a joke ( seriously how cheap can you get? Pasta is what 99 cents a pound!?) . We ordered Chicken Parm and thought the pasta portion was hysterical for the price. Mainly because a real old school Italian place will give you enough to share with family or just take home. So to us it was pricey for 12.00 or whatever it cost.\n The waiter was fabulous, he was really on top of things. The atmosphere was great, the seats are uncomfortable.\n What Olive Garden has is an A+ in marketing. They stuff you full of a simple salad, and bread so you won't notice dinner is kind of a rip off. The salad bowl is shaped a certain way to make it look huge, all kinds of stuff like that. I have to hand it to them though they are a total genius at making people thrilled over very little. For the Olive Garden fans glad you enjoy it, but it just does nothing for me. Admittedly I was spoiled by old school Italian cooking from my Grandfather.