Review: Olive Garden Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Braised Beef

I’m a creature of habit – If I find something on the menu that I like, that’s what I stick with. When we dine at Olive Garden, I always get the 5-Cheese Ziti!

But for some reason, I decided to try something different over the weekend. Olive Garden has been heavily promoting their Herb Cheese Soffatelli line of dishes. I never heard of a Soffatelli before, so I did a quick Google search. I think Olive Garden made up the name specifically for their dish, as I can’t find anything else on it.

In any event, here’s how they describe the dish:

Olive Garden has just announced their Herb Cheese Soffatelli line of dishes, utilizing both Chicken and Braised Beef in both entrées. The Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Sautéed Chicken features Artisan puff pastries filled with 5-cheese fonduta and herbs. The dish is served with sautéed chicken in a creamy garlic sauce. The other option is a Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Braised Beef, highlighted by similar Artisan puff pastries filled with 5-cheese fonduta and herbs served over a bed of braised beef in a balsamic demi-glaze. Hungry yet?

I decided to try the Herb Cheese Soffatelli with Braised Beef. I secretly hoped that it would be similar to Beef Wellington, one of my favorite dishes that I can’t find anywhere. But I knew that with cheese instead of pâté, and braised beef instead of fillet steak, that it wasn’t going to be spot on.

It’s a decent enough dish, but I don’t think I would order it again.. While it was tasty, the cheese in the soffatelli is VERY strong, and it overpowers the rest of the dish. The beef wasn’t as tender as I would have liked, and I finished the puff pastry long before I ran out of beef.

At $15.50, it’s one of the most expensive items on the menu. And then there’s the nutritional facts: 1230 calories, 79g of total fat, 35g of saturated fat, 1880mg of sodium, and 64g of carbohydrates! (And the chicken dish is even WORSE for you!)

Kudos to Olive Garden for trying something different, but it just wasn’t working for me..