DINING OUT -- MARY FURR

LUNCH/DINNER

As has been the custom for 16 years at Olive Garden, a diner is

greeted at the door of the spacious restaurant and led to a booth or

table in one of five intimate dining alcoves. The design of the

restaurant really makes you feel as if you’re in a cozy place, with all

its murals and mirrored walls.

Olive Garden is the only restaurant I know that urges refills of soup

or salad that begin a meal. Even for one person, server Aldo brings a big

salad bowl filled with greens, Roma tomatoes and purple onion slices.

The minestrone soup, served in a shallow, wide-lipped Italian ceramic

bowl, is chock-full of garden fresh tomatoes, green beans, spinach and

conchiglie or shell-shaped pasta. It’s a veritable vegetable stew, great

with the basket of warm bread sticks. The soup and salad combo ($5.95)

makes an excellent lunch, and with the refill policy it can be very

filling -- healthy too!

The pasta here is outstanding -- light and al dente as in ravioli di

portobello (lunch $7.50, dinner $11.25) -- pockets filled with dark

earthy mushrooms. The large portobello has less moisture than some, which

enriches the flavor and creates a meaty dense texture. It is perfectly

matched to the light creamy tomato sauce sprinkled with bits of fresh

tomato and snippets of green onion.

Tortelloni di fizzano (dinner $10.50) is another stuffed pasta -- this

one doughnut-shaped, and filled with ricotta cheese and spinach and

bathed in a beef and pork Bolognese sauce. One of the specialties

developed in the Riserva di Fizzano restaurant in Italy, the tortelloni

has no need for the freshly grated cheese offered by the server.

Unfortunately, man does not live on pasta alone -- for the

weak-willed, there are o7 dolcesf7 -- Italian sweets. One served in a

stemmed wine glass is strawberries and blueberries with zabaglione

($3.25) -- a mildly sweet custard of whipped egg yolk, sugar and Marsala

wine. Another is berry crostada ($4.25), a turnover of crisp warm pastry

filled with a berry mix beside three scoops of vanilla ice cream and

drizzled with a berry scroll -- a classy dessert that vanishes like magic

-- m-m-m good.

The menu at Olive Garden suggests wines to team with pasta selections,

and Manager Dianne Mavar says the complimentary wine tastings with

hostess Kathy Morgan at 5:50 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, has been

very popular.

Service is casual to slow, but you can use the time to decide on your

entree. Dianne recommends the tour of Italy, which she says gives you a

“taste of the best.”

The Olive Garden has the feel of rural Italy -- you could be joining

the family in the garden for Sunday lunch or dinner.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments

or suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

o7 FYI

f7 Olive Garden

WHERE: 16811 Beach Blvd.

PHONE: (714) 848-1499

FAX: (714) 848-7309

HOURS: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m Saturday and Sunday.

MISC.: Takeout, catering, beer, wine and credit cards.