Some Olive Garden for me...and a $100 gift card for one of you!

Do you have a favorite restaurant that you will go out of your way for? We do. And that restaurant is Olive Garden. I have a long love affair with this place. We've driven for hours to get to one, and every time there is construction in our area we pray that it IS one.
We just love it. What's not to love about never ending, awesome bread and salad? It's family friendly, and the food is always good!
Needless to say, when I was offered the chance to do a review for Olive Garden, I jumped at the chance and then said a little prayer over my application. I was ecstatic to be chosen for the review and even more ecstatic when I realized that we would be able to do the review with FAMILY on my wedding anniversary!
What a fun way to celebrate, surrounded by family and enjoying a meal out at a favorite restaurant.
I'll just say that our overall experience was very good. The waitress and waiter were very helpful and kind. They were patient with the kids' wants and needs and didn't make us feel bad for being a large party, as some places tend to do. We ended up being six adults and five kids.
That being said, I have two small things I would love for Olive Garden to change. One was that I called very early in the day to make a reservation you know, because FIVE small children were involved and was told that reservations were only allowed A DAY in advance! I have never, ever, heard of any restaurant having such a policy and immediately dreaded a long wait with little, HUNGRY kids. Thankfully, we ended up with about a 20 minute wait for our table, which to me, is still way longer than we would have had to wait had I been able to make a reservation.
The second tiny thing would be to PLEASE add (return to?) the kids' standard of "chicken tenders and fries." We don't eat out all the time so being able to have FRIES is a big deal to my kids; fries are not available at Olive Garden. My kids eat healthy most of the time, so not being able to get my kids a favorite "eat out" treat would deter me from choosing this as a family destination. Please add fries to the kids menu.
All that being said, we all enjoyed our meals. Some of us took home leftovers to enjoy again later, and many of us also took home desserts. The breadsticks and salad were as delicious as I have come to expect of them. We had a really fun anniversary celebration and left with full, happy tummies!
We were a little bummed not to be there for their new special which starts on January 23rd - a 3 Course Italian Dinner for $12.95! The 1st course is soup or salad, the 2nd course is one of 5 new entrees, and the 3rd course is one of 5 Dolcini desserts. Yum! And sounds like more food than you can eat in one sitting my favorite!
But maybe you can try it? Want to win a $100 Olive Garden gift card? Just leave a comment on THIS post telling me who you will treat to dinner?! The sweepstakes runs from 1/23/12 - 3/18/12, and here are the official rules.

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.
Want to see all the delicious options available with Olive Gardens 3 Course Italian Dinner? Just visit Olivegarden.com/specials or check out Olivegarden.com to explore the full menu and find a restaurant near you.
Also, visit the Olive Garden page on BlogHer.com to check out the other blogger reviews and more chances to win!