Olive Garden

The Times Square Olive Garden is the largest in the world. It stretches an entire city block between 47th and 48th Streets, and when we went there two Saturdays before Christmas, the wait for a table was four hours long. (Thankfully, you can put your name down, and they’ll text you.)

Seated amongst 500 other people, you can feel completely anonymous here. Still, Manhattan’s only Olive Garden stays true to its slogan, treating each guest like a valued family member. Even at its busiest, your server will kindly recommend the alfredo dipping sauce for your breadsticks, double-check that you understand what unlimited really means, and make sure your breadstick arsenal never gets too low. Even New York City's finest establishments could learn a thing or two. 

photo credit: Kate Previte

Those breadsticks—covered in butter and garlic salt—taste much better than you’d expect, and the iceberg lettuce salad is worthy of a second helping, which works out well, because it’s unlimited. The same can’t be said for the pasta. It’s all extremely overcooked, probably because it was frozen 20 minutes before it arrived at your table. For best results, avoid the pasta altogether and stick to the $15.99 Never-Ending Soup, Salad & Breadsticks. Order a few pitchers of sangria, and challenge your server to live up to their promise: “If you want 500 soups, 500 salads, and 500 breadsticks, I’ll bring that to you.”