All-you-can-eat soup, salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden is one of the chain-restaurant-world's great dinner deals. And it's actually relatively healthy, if you don't drown your bread in Alfredo sauce and overdo it on the salad dressing and croutons. (They'll charge you at least $1 for a side of sauce, anyway, and that'll add up quick.) You will be seated next to someone who's having a birthday. You will be seated next to a screaming baby. The minestrone soup is not always up to par (sometimes it's too watery). But, especially if you need to stop somewhere off the freeway, this is usually the best choice for cheap Italian eats. Oh -- try not to go on a Sunday afternoon, unless you really want to be trampled by stampeeding post-church patrons.
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