For those of you who have never spent time living in a country that's not your own, it will be hard for you to fully imagine the surprise desires of FOOD. We craved all sorts of things we were so used to eating while living in Peru and, fortunately, received a few lovely care packages to help curb some of that craving. Yet, among a few other places, there's nothing to replace walking into that ole Olive Garden... the smell... the dishes... the BREAD... .ahhh.
It was definitely one of the first places we had to go to and it was also for my good friend, Sarah, who is still living in Peru with her husband and boys. They are in the States for Christmas and his parents live 2 hours from us! Mike and I went up to visit for the afternoon/evening and it was so wonderful. And nice of his parents to let us steal them for an evening!
Abby, another good friend who used to live in Peru and now is back in the States ALSO lives nearby, so she drove over as well. Yea!
Anyway, so we left the boys behind and caught up just us girls. The two of them wanted to go bowling. I didn't tell them then but I guess I'll tell them now... I hate bowling. Haha. Probably mostly because I have a lame wrist in my good arm (I'm left-handed) so I have to bowl with my right. It is ridiculous. Check out my score from the second game (middle line):
Not that they did much better! :) Sorry to any of Mike's Wisconsin amazing-bowler relatives, if you are reading this... you have to love me anyway...
After bowling we drove over to Olive Garden. As we were walking in, one of them (to remain unnamed until further approval) asked me if I was going to do a restaurant review on it. I said, nahh, I don't really want to tonight (which is often the case!). But she was sad because "she really wanted to be on the blog" so then of course we had to do one! I told them, though, that they'd have to help me remember to take pictures because I always forget.
With Olive Garden being everywhere, I've dined there many times throughout my life. Plus, it was a company favorite at one place I worked in the past. I enjoy several dishes but I think I have to say that my top favorite is the Chicken Scampi. If I haven't been in a really long time, I'll order that. If I've been recently, I'll sometimes branch out to try other things just because I've had my Chicken Scampi "fix" in recent taste bud memory!
Abby ordered one of their new dishes, the Grilled Chicken Flatbread. It looked, smelled and apparently tasted marvelously. She easily gave it a 9/10 overall and was considering even higher. The look on her face when she said "and the Cheeeeeese" said it all.
Unfortunately, our little Peru girl had a disappointment with her dish, the Stuffed Chicken Marsala. She wasn't impressed with the mushroom sauce or really the overall taste. It received a 4/10. But don't worry, apparently she had already gone to OG the stinking night before and had her favorite (Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta - a 10/10 she says), so don't feel too sorry for her. :)
Oh, and Sarah was talking and forgot to say "when," which resulted in a giant pile of cheese! It looked even funnier in person.
And a completely irrelevant picture of my favorite 2 little neighbor boys all cozy in their PJs...
Needless to say, I will definitely return to the Olive Garden. It is a classic.
P.S. The mints... they are 10/10.