'More unli soup, breadsticks': Olive Garden opens second branch in Glorietta, more to come
MANILA, Philippines — It's still the same generous portion of the favorite Fettucine Alfredo pasta and unlimited servings of soups, salads and garlic breadsticks for the second branch of Italian-American restaurant Olive Garden in Glorietta 3.
The 113-seater Glorietta restaurant will open tomorrow, Jan. 9.
Amid other local and international franchises closing shop, The Bistro Group opened its second branch just three months after opening its first Olive Garden at the Mall of Asia (MOA) in Pasay City.
Taking up space at the former location of another one of its concepts, TGIFridays, at the third floor, the Glorietta branch has the same rustic stone passageway and modern interiors with olive green accents like the rest of Olive Garden restaurants around the world. TGIFridays, meanwhile, has moved to the floor below, visible from the escalator going up the third floor.
"The regular customers of MOA love the never-ending soup and salad, the never-ending freshly baked garlic breads. It's different from other fast casual dining restaurants in the Philippines. Olive Garden makes it unique. They're famous with their generosity so the customers love it," said RC Tiongson, chief operating officer of Olive Garden Philippines.
Tiongson also handles TGIFridays, Denny’s, Bulgogi, Watami, Hard Rock Café and Randy’s Doughnuts.
Amid logistics woes and rising costs of supplies including flour, an important ingredient in making pastas, Tiongson said they continue with the brand's concept of "never-ending" servings, at least for their soups, salads and garlic breadsticks.
"We don't need to shortchange our customers because of inflation. If you try to make your restaurant efficient, then it should not affect you that much," she said.
Fans of the popular American-Italian fast casual restaurant can still expect to have their favorites, including the Fettucine Alfredo and Shrimp Scampi, with the waitstaff freshy grating a generous amount of cheese on each serving.
For bigger families or larger groups, plates of Tour of Italy — a plateful of Italian favorites, namely, Chicken Parmigiana, Lasagna Classico and Fettucine Alfredo — and the party favorite Lasagna Fritta resembling pull-apart, deep fried square breads with creamy, chessy filling are must-tries.
Apart from these, Tiongson revealed that they are launching three new items on Jan. 16. These are Braised Beef, Open-Roasted Chicken and Garlic Tuscany Chicken. These will be served with either mashed potato or garlic rice because "Filipinos love rice."
She also revealed a third branch is scheduled to open in March in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
"If you're asking me why we keep on opening, we took the opportunity to keep on opening while the others are closing. We're very aggressive in getting new concepts and opening more restaurants for this year," Tiongson said.
She added that they are scheduled to open more restaurants this year, including introducing new concepts such as Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian all-you-can-eat steakhouse.
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