Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

Excellent food for Merced. It's the best Italian spot In this city. Great service. The atmosphere is amazing. The only thing is they do seat you slowly when you see tons of empty tables. That would be the only knock on them.

This is our second time eating at this Olive Garden and definitely a good experience again. First visit - great time, great service, drinks never got less than half empty before our waitress came around, food got delivered quickly, and very friendly staff. Even met multiple managers.Second visit - good time, great service, drinks got empty before the next time the waitress came around but only by a couple of minutes. Food got delivered quickly, but the breadsticks (in general) are becoming of lesser quality. They need to put more butter and garlic on the breadsticks otherwise there's nothing special about them. Decided to get the margarita chicken, gluten-free risotto, and chicken parmigiana with fettuccine alfredo (charged for the sub from spaghetti to the alfredo). Chef even came around this time and made sure everything was okay. The ambiance was the fancy casual that Olive Garden typically is, definitely needed to bring a jacket just for inside because it got so cold. Love the Italian music that's always playing.

Endless soup and salad is available on Saturdays too. It says Monday thru Friday only in the menu, but they also do Saturday.The shrimp was juicy and fresh. They remove the tail, which I like. The chicken was also seasoned nicely and juicy. The sauce was creamy and buttery which added to the good flavors and spices.Minestrone soup was goodChicken & Gnochi was also good.They give some large garden salad with Italian dressing. It was pretty goodAdriana our server was very nice.The ambiance in the morning is casual and lively. Music is Italian themed and medium volume.I would definitely come back again.

Super excited to see Olive Garden come to Merced! Located right next to the mall where the old Hometown Buffet used to be, this Italian restaurant is sure to fill all of your pasta cravings! They have a great selection of beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails (the sangria is so good, it's dangerous!). Their endless bread sticks and soup/salad are fantastic. I tried the Chicken Alfredo and the Shrimp Scampi and they were delicious! I love my dishes with extra cheese and dried chili flakes.The interior design is nice, new, and modern. Expect to see plenty of shelves of wine! I got a seat at the bar: it's well-lit and cozy. For being a new restaurant, the staff is also very pleasant and helpful!ProTip: if you go during lunch, you can order the pasta entrees in lunch portion, which will be slightly smaller than the dinner portion and be cheaper!

Bartender was very nice, food is great, ambience was just what I needed after a long day

Had lunch at Olive Garden with friends, expecting the usual comforting experience. The main dishes didn't disappoint, with tasty options like Seafood Alfredo and Spaghetti Meatball. But the starters fell short. The salad was not fresh, the shrimp was too salty, and the bread for dipping was hard. Service was slow, requiring us to ask multiple times for essentials like utensils and water. In summary, while the mains were satisfying, the appetizers and service quality tarnished our overall experience.

My company held a holiday party at the Olive Garden in Merced. I have to say I usually do take out,and this was the first time I dined at the restaurant and the service was much to be desired. The waitress focused her attention on only a few in our party and pretty much ignored the rest of us once she took our orders. We had empty drink glasses that were never filled. Several colleagues had the bottomless soup/salad option and they did not receive the opportunity for additional helpings Because the waitress ignored us. I had to vigorously flag down the waitress in order to get my refill after my glass had been empty for over an hour, and even the refill took forever. When it came time to take dessert orders, the waitress again focused on a few colleagues, and then completely forgot about the rest of us at the other end of the long tables. I was literally speechless as she turned her back on me after taking the dessert order of my colleague sitting next to me and then just walked away without turning around to me and my other colleagues. It was very confusing why she would ignore us...

Not accommodating for handicap I went yesterday worst experience ever the manager had an attitude

The decor is cute and the music was soothing. The food was okay, there was a really long hair in our pasta though. Our waitress took a long while to pass by so we ended up asking another waitress to replace it. At this point we were already waiting on food for an hour. Our waitress came back we the new dish and was somewhat snarky about the hair, when I realized it was dyed the same way and the same length as hers

I would rate this place a zero if possible. We've made reservations about a few days ahead and the host on the phone confirmed for 6:30pm. Showed up at 6:15pm to check in, Kira, a hostess told my wife it should take 10 minutes. My sister showed up at 6:20pm, check in and said that they do not so reservations. Horrible communication, lack of training. Benn Foster the general manager was contacted but showed no signs of concerned. Horrible.