Dining Out: Olive Garden (Kokomo, IN)

As a chubby, food-loving American I have to admit that this is a selling point.

 Exterior: 5/5

Photo from olivegarden.com

This is one of the more eye-catching restaurants in the 931 commercial on the southern end of Kokomo. There's theming going on, but it's subtle. They do a nice job maintaining the greenery around the place and the color scheme is warm and inviting.

Ambience: 4/5

A quiet corner in a bustling restaurant.

The food presentation enhanced the decor.

The ambience in the dining area is a titch outdated, but honestly I'm ok with that because it hits me in an "I'm eating at Olive Garden" nostalgia place. The decor is, again, themed but subtle. We were impressed that the parking lot was chock-full when we went a little after 6pm on a Tuesday night. Despite the crowd, though, there are so many little nooks and crannies built into the interior that everything seemed quiet and there weren't many folks in our immediate vicinity. That was also an asset vis a vis kid-friendliness. And even when our kids were being... themselves... the waitstaff was always kind and professional.

Variety: 3/5

Tour of Italy

Pasta/cheese/meat, Pasta/cheese/meat. (And some vegetables.) If you like those things then boy oh boy have I got a restaurant for you. Fortunately they manage to combine those ingredients in an extensive number of combinations. You actually have something to think about when you peruse the menu. 

Quality: 5/5

Unlimited Salad

Calabrian Steak & Shrimp Bucatini

As a hipster Millennial, I feel I have an obligation to look down my nose at the chain restaurants that were popular in the early 2000's. Face-saving aside, I do genuinely prefer to dine at places that are locally owned and operated. But! I will make an exception for the Olive Garden, because Holy Everything the food is so good. The sauce on my bucatini had wonderful kick to it which was a great accent to the surf-and-turf nature of the dish. And that salad, that unlimited salad, is and always has been amazing. Dare you to eat the banana pepper! And of course it's perfectly paired with the breadsticks.

Kid-Friendly: 5/5

Wonderfully customizable!

Kids Cheese Pizza and French Fries with Smoothie

Kids Macaroni and Cheese, also with French Fries

Although in retrospect we could have just let the 1YO eat the unlimited breadsticks and saved some money. 

I felt very at home bringing my kids to the Kokomo Olive Garden. The menu is colorable, which is great, but it also has a great list of options, pasta and non-pasta, each of which can be paired with a side of the child's choice. Both of my kids chose fries, which is their usual m.o., but if I wanted to urge them into more unfamiliar territory I totally could have. Now when I tasted their food I thought it was bland, but since they both gobbled up their meals I'd imagine it was perfect for a kid palate. 

Would Eat Again?: Green Light

If for no other reason than the giant fistful of branded Andes mints we got at the end of the meal.

Yeah, I like Olive Garden. It's a nationwide chain and a corporate giant and all that, but it's one that manages to consistently offer a quality product. It's pricey - definitely a sometimes food unless you're like independently wealthy. But it's great when you feel like a convenient splurge, and the bonus is you can take home leftovers and make two meals out of each of the dishes. We had a great experience.