First off, the Zuppe Tuscana is perhaps one of the best soups out there in ANY chain restaurant -- and as SB said, the all-you-can-eat lunch special is the best thing you can eat for less than $8 anywhere.

In NJ, a hop away from NYC, I'm blessed to have (too) MANY great options for Italian food. But I don't get why ppl feel the need to knock Olive Garden just because it's a chain. It's decent.

(Though I did knock a certain ex-member here who traveled to NYC from out of the tri-state and ended up at Olive Garden in Times Square -- WTF?!)

While I think their Zuppe is the best (I have the recipe and can make it at home, so...), I think Carrabba's is a better chain (the food is good, but perhaps the foodie-wanna-be in me likes to sit at the kitchen bar to watch them cook, adding to the enjoyment ;))

Breadsticks... please... I like the idea of them, but rarely are they fresh. When they're stale, they suck big time.

Salad is good (hence, the soup/salad/sticks lunch deal).

I rate Italian places by their meatballs. Olive Garden barely passes. There are so many places that obviously do NOT make their own meatballs. At least there's a question here lol. But their sausage is really good!

Some entrees are actually exceptional. Most are just average. But there's nothing bad there....