Restaurants in Manassas or Virginia as a whole are usually “typical,” and are commonly just fast-food places. While I enjoy these places a lot, I’ve had that feeling there’s no variety, maybe except for the occasional swing to a less commonplace, but still all the same.

Now, if you want a place not so generic or common, Olive Garden is truly a place to eat. Since they were founded in 1982, they’ve accumulated quite the menu, and for being a restaurant that started in Florida, it has a good assortment of items.

I’ve personally never really had a taste for more…”European” styled dishes, if you can call them that; but most of them, if not all, are very well crafted, and extremely good. Their menu consists mainly of pasta, with soups, salads, and a few meat entree options.

Coming into the building was a very warm experience, it was dim enough to give it a nice and easy-going vibe, and most of the interior was wood which gave it a very appealing look from my perspective. Being seated at a table was also relaxing, since we had gotten a booth, the cushions were firm in a good way, but also soft.

Our waitress, Ashley, got us started with some drinks. I got myself a classic lemonade which went down very smoothly and didn’t leave a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. Two of my friends got a Coke, while the other ordered a Dr Pepper, these both are good drinks if you’re familiar with them and don’t entirely want to try something new.

When our food came out, we started with the basic salad but also the widely known bread! I personally didn’t have any of the salad, but I did eat some of the bread which had quite the flavor; very soft insides, but they were way too salty for any of our tastes. That couldn’t really stop me from eating two of them.

The main course was quite the assortment, as I got a medium-rare 6 oz sirloin that came with a side of fettuccine alfredo. and the others got five cheese ziti al forno, chicken alfredo, and spaghetti with meat sauce.

My meal was very well cooked, the fettucine gave it so much flavor with the already juicy steak. The chicken alfredo was also cooked to perfection, and while my friend said it tasted off, I gave it a bite, and it didn’t seem so different from what it said it was. The five-cheese ziti al forno had the most flavor out of all of the meals, in my opinion. The sauce with the pasta made it stand out much more than the other three dishes. In my opinion, the spaghetti with meat sauce was possibly the most generic entree. The pasta wasn’t hard or too overcooked, and the meat sauce had a lot of flavor, but all-in-all it was just fancier spaghetti, even if it did taste very good.

Overall, the food was excellent, all of it was cooked to complete perfection.

Sadly we didn’t have any dessert, but that’s alright. Even if these foods don’t appeal to your appetite, they have quite a list of different menu items to choose from.

My group’s experience was completely our own and may differ from person to person.

So please, tell us your own experiences or opinions in the comments!