COCONUTS HOT SPOT — The Secret Recipe Group has recently brought in Olive Garden, a chain of Italian restaurants originating from the USA. This very first outlet of Olive Garden is housed inside MidValley Mega Mall.
Its casual dining concept is evident with its tiled floor, stone-clad pillars and wooden beams across the ceiling. The earth tones exude a sense of cosy warmth and the booth seating on one side of the restaurant reminds me of an American diner.
From antipasti to desserts, the menu shows an impressive list of casual Italian dishes. Prices are decent, for the portions and quality given. Most of the dishes are heavy on cheese and cream so it’s a good idea to start with some lighter options like their House Salad which has greens, croutons and boiled eggs tossed with their signature Italian dressing.
Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta
If you love cheese, Olive Garden’s offerings would be just right up your alley. Start off with their Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta – the cheesy trinity of oven-baked smoked mozzarella, provolone and parmesan – it’s a cheese lover’s dream dish. Dip the pieces of Tuscan bread into this and enjoy.
More cheesy delights come in the form of Lasagna Primavera with Grilled Chicken.
It’s a mountain of hand folded lasagna filled with spinach, bell peppers and Italian cheeses topped with tomato basil sauce, grilled chicken and creamy parmesan sauce. If that doesn’t fill you up, I don’t know what will.
Olive Garden’s Tour of Italy serves 3 classics all in one plate: Chicken Parmigiana, Lasagna and Fettucine Alfredo. I would have preferred the pasta to be more al dente but otherwise the flavours and portions are good and hearty.
Tour of Italy
I like Olive Garden’s pizzas, particularly the Triple Cheese Carbonara Piadina – freshly baked crispy flat bread pizza with mozzarella, parmesan, grana padana cheeses, roasted cherry tomatoes and beef bacon.
Triple Cheese Carbonara Piadina
Olive Garden’s pasta list features a good number of dishes served with premium crustaceans like lobsters and prawns cooked in a number of ways with different sauces.
My personal favourite is their Pasta Pescatore which is so satisfying. The deep dish of fettucine is generously filled with saute’ed shrimps, bay scallops and mussels tossed in a creamy red pepper seafood sauce with green beans and tomatoes.
Pasta Pescatore
I like the rich combo of umami flavours from the seafood and the refreshing nuances of red pepper and tomatoes.
For a casual dining restaurant, Olive Garden serves very decent steaks which should please beef lovers. Reasonably priced, the Steak Toscano (200g Ribeye) and Center Cut Fillet Mignon (170g premium center cut) are good bets. Perfectly executed, our “medium rare” servings satisfied the steak cravings in us.
Center Cut Fillet Mignon
Steak Toscano
Olive Garden serves a modest selection of desserts. We checked out a few and the wholesome sweets are pretty good value for the prices shown. My favourite was the Black Tie Mousse Cake – chocolate cake topped with dark chocolate cheesecake and creamy mascarpone custard topped with dark and white chocolate icing and chocolate sauce.
Black Tie Mousse Cake
The typical Italian sweet, Tiramisu, espresso-soaked lady fingers topped with creamy mascarpone custard and sweet cocoa was average.
Olive Garden
Lot F051 Mega Mall
Mid Valley City
Lingkara Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2201-0221
Chris Wan also blogs at Pure Glutton.
