Olive Garden
reviews and complaints

Yesterday was Easter and after church my family and I wanted to end the beautiful day with dinner at the Olive Garden. Let me begin by saying the place was jammed pack where the waiting was 30-48 minutes wait. Some of us decided to go to the bar for drinks while waiting and notice there were at least 5 tables that had not been cleared and cleaned. Which leads me to believe a lot of the waiting could have been avoided had there been clean tables. Finally we were called for our table. The table was not properly cleaned, debris on the table, in between the booth seats and the seats were filthy. After 15 minutes our server came over and announced she would be right with us not offering any drinks whatsoever. The server came another 10 minutes and announced she would be with us. Still nothing no breadsticks no drinks. Finally she came over and asked if we wanted breadsticks and salad and added she will be right back to take our orders. One of my family member told her that we've waited long enough and are ready to order. She took our orders and still no drinks. Just for the appetizers we waited 1/2 hour. At or around another 36 minutes our entrees finally came only one of the children's plate needed to be sent back by the another server that recognized it wasn't for human consumption. On several counts we had to ask our server for foods that was suppose to be included with the entrees. Due to the intervals of not eating we all loss our appetites and opted to take our foods home. Before ending our meal I asked the server to order a take out for a family member who could not join, the food was bought out on a plate rather than a take out container and I had to pack my food myself. The overall experience at the Garden was the worst I've ever experienced in all my life and I'm 54 years of age. Also I never been to the Olive Garden and my first experience will be my last. Never got a receipt for my foods I paid for and she never gave it to me after I asked for one.

To whom it may concern, my family and I went to the spring hill mall located in Dundee IL. On Saturday April 15, 2017. This was the worst service that we have ever had there before. We always go here and never had this bad of service. First of all the server wasted along time talking about a lot of different wines to get us to buy a bottle which we didn't want that. Second of all we wanted 30 minutes for our bread sticks when we wanted them when we ate our dinner. And the thing is the place wasn't even busy at the time that we want there. We also want there for 2 of our birthdays & anniversary and this service really was bad. Never had this happen to us before. We also spend a lot of money there and none of us were very happy about the service. Hope to hear back from someone soon in regards to this matter. Thanks Tammy

I have been a patron at this restaurant for over nine years. The service has never been perfect however the quality of the food and the environment more than made up for the service. As of the last three years or so the service has been horrible

Every time I patron this restaurant and i'm unaccompanied i'm harrassed by at least one if the waitresses there. It is though it is an anomaly that i'm a woman who dines alone as I clearly notice that single males do not receive such discriminatory treatment. On this day the waitress was debbie and the female manager [protected]:30 p. M. Who treated me with such disdain that it ruined my whole day and made me feel like no individual should be mad to feel i. E. Humiliated!

I ultimately had a very nice waitress.

The initial experience remains intolerable.

Spring, TX 77380, EE. UU. Last night we had dinner at your restaurant. The waitress Kina threw the vase holder to the table, instead of putting them on each place. she never picked the menus up. I had to put them on the table behind us. She gave us the plates for us to past them around because she couldn't move from the same place of the table. We had to colect the dirty dishes from the appetizers and put them in the side of the table that she was passing through so she could take them away. We still 15% tipped her but I believe that the manager should be around to check on tables and make sure staff is giving good service. It was not a good service at all.

To whom it may concern,
I had dinner at your Downers Grove, IL location and I have never had bad service until today. First, my guest and I were seated at a very wobblying and unstable table, to the point every time we lifted our hands off it would shake. So, I asked the server if we could change tables. We were then seated in a different area with a different server, named Nick. We ordered from the buy one take one home menu. I told him I wanted the gnocchi soup and shrimp scampi, and he kept telling me I couldn't order a soup with the deal with it clearly stated "start off with a homemade soup or house salad". He also kept saying fettuccine alfredo when I was telling him no the shrimp scampi. He asked if we needed anything else, and I asked for a thing of breadsticks. 10 minutes later he brings the salad, but not my soup or the breadsticks. 10 minutes later he came back asking if we needed anything, I asked him for my soup and breadsticks. He said "oh right sorry I was doing stuff in the kitchen". 10 minutes later we got our entrees and I still never got the soup or breadsticks. He decided to give me the soup while I was eating my entree, when there was no point to getting it anymore. When we were finished, he finally gave us some breadsticks. I asked him for to go boxes and the take home meals that we ordered. He brings us the boxes and check and said he will get the take home meals. 15 minutes later he comes to the table and asks if we needed anything or if there was a problem with the check. I told him no I thought you were getting the take home meals? He finally brought the take home meals to us 10 minutes later.

I love eating at your restaurant, but after today's service I am very disappointed.

Hello. My name is Christopher Johnson
I visited your Kissemee location yesterday evening with my family and group of friends we were vacationing with. We took advantage of your buy one take one offer. The service was excellent the food in the restaurant was great we all had a fabulous time. However eating my ziti noodles today from my take one meal i bit into a fair size piece of glass. This was very upsetting, and extremely alarming. Not the way i would have chosen to end my vacation in Florida. You shoud take better precautions in preparing your meals to go. I can't imagine how more upset i would be if it had been one of our 4 children in our group of 8.
Truly Unforgettable
Chris Johnson

Hi, I'm Edith Torres, I always enjoy eating at Olive Garden in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about my last visit. My friend and I were disrespected by the waitress that served our food. We ordered unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks and were not offered a second serving. My friend asked for a second basket of breadsticks and the waitress brought us a single breadstick and told us that it was the only one left and that she would bring the rest later on (which never happened). Once we finished all three courses we waited for the waitress but she kept passing by us and ignored us even when we called her 5 times. My 2 year old son was getting uneasy so I decided we should pay at the front register. That was when the same waitress decided to charge us and when we told her we were not tipping her she got very angry. We tried to explain why, but the waitress kept talking over us and told us that she didn't know that we were "that hungry" when we told her about the breadsticks. She threw the receipts at us and said that we took "too much time eating" and that we "talked too much" during our visit. She embarrassed us in front of other customers and the only person that told her to cool down was a manager (Edgar). Please take matters in this situation. These are the type of employees that don't share the company's interests. We don't want free food, we just want to be respected and have a great time as we had on all our prior visits. Thank you and I'm very sorry for any inconvenience caused by us. Servers name: Karlas.

On March 10th, 2017, we went as a party of 4 for dinner to celebrate my birthday. My whole family loves Olive Garden and have been eating at Olive Garden locations for about 17 years or so. Never had a negative experience. I had called and made a complaint and was told someone would get back to me. I never heard from anyone. I am looking for the receipt which is in a stack of papers somewhere. The bill was around $86.00. We ended up leaving and paying the bill and went to another restaurant for dinner that night.
The waitress kept on bringing the wrong orders and dumping 5hem on the table. It took forever to get her attention to correct the issues and after waiting for what we ordered, the same wrong orders happened. We asked other servers to get her. When she came nerby, she would say be right with you. It went on and on. We complained at the restsurant. We were not appologiz3d to or compensated for what we paid. We ended up leaving so disgusted and eating somewhere else.
This waitress couldn't have her tables. The people sitting next to us were getting the wrong items and couldn't get her to correct it he situation as well. It was not just us.
This was one of the worst dining expriences I ever had in general, and it was at one of favorite restaurants. Thank you.
Nancy Flynn
111 Parks Road
Denville, N.J. 07834
[protected]

I'm not sure that the information we wrote in our receipt is the same as our copy, but we always calculate the percent of tip and round up to make the charge even.
If we made a mistake on the total, I was under the impression that it would be correct to match the correct total; not the total we listed.
$39.58+$8.42 = $48.00, not $58.00
I can mailed you my copy of the receipt

Im only complaining about 1 thing and that was my hostess. Now, my server was great! As we were being seated, I grabbed the kiosk to find a game for my son to keep occupied while we ate lunch. The hostess while asking if i was a rewards member snatched the kiosk from me n place the screen back on the rewards screen then proceeded to tell me that the games were $1.99. I was so shocked that she snatched the kiosk from me I asked her to repeat the statement to me for clarity. After she repeated i just politely nodded but this one thing put a damper in my lunch with my husband. Im an openminded person and usually give people the benefit of the doubt. The Lady was older caucasion with a lot of make up on. I'd just like your place of business to be aware of this incident and the problem reajusted if possible.

Hello
My family and I decided to stop at the Whitehall location for dinner. We thought we would have gotten a nice meal, well we were proved wrong. We spend more than 50$ and out meals where COLD and our portions where small. Our service was not anything to rave about either. In my opinion this needed to be addressed so other customers would not have to waste their time as well and be disappointed. Thank you

Copy of emails
=
Olive garden guest relations
12:01 pm (3 hours ago)

To me

Dear david,

Your loyalty reward points expire after 120 days if not redeemed. Would you still like us to deactivate your reward account?

I am looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Guerline
Olive garden guest relations
=

David peters
3:11 pm (0 minutes ago)

To olive
Dear guerline,

Your response was not at all what I would expect from a "caring" customer perspective and it greatly disappoints me. Your willingness to deactivate my reward account is the final action of your company that tells me how much a customer is really appreciated. My experience in business has taught me to not treat any customer in such a cavalier manner. Does your ceo know how you respond to a customer's concerns? I doubt he would have responded as curtly as you have in your email message.in fact, I believe your email response should be made public for all to see how you treat a customer.

Let remind you that there are many dining choices available to chose from for an occasional meal out with my wife or a luncheon with a colleague. Unfortunately this experience has taught me that I should seek other choices in the future.

A very disappointed former customer,

David peters

4/6/17
cashed out at 9:29pm
check #31627
$58.76

I just had the worst experience at the olive garden in the Stonestown mall. I live near by and frequent this location, but today was different. I feel like the service I received, and witnessed was a reflection of the managerial staff. To start, the drinks we ordered did not come as requested... twice.. and we still never got the drink we ordered. Then as our food came out, our sever seemed to never have the cheese to add to our food (which olive garden is know for). We ended up just getting a cheese grater and adding our own cheese because the server didn't offer it. They just dropped it off and left. Then I noticed that multiple servers were doing the same thing. (This is the first time I have ever witnessed this) After the lack of cheese available, I noticed the servers were not using the serving trays to bring the food and drinks out of the kitchen. I witnessed a different server walking out of the kitchen with their thumb in the salad bowl. Then a third server carried three drinks in her hands spilling some of each onto the table behind us. (very out of character). One of the people I was with ordered a coffee and never got offered a refill, my soup refill was forgotten, and when I reminded our server they brought the wrong soup. When we asked for the check and to box our chicken dish the server brought out a box and left it on the table (usually when I eat at olive garden they box the leftovers for the customer). Our server didn't ask how the check should have been split, and then after telling them how we wanted it, they messed up and we could hear them scrambling to figure out what to do. Another server recommended paying us cash instead of getting the manager. Then the check was just set on the table as our server ran away without saying anything (acting like nothing went wrong, I'm assuming someone got double charged... not that big a deal, but would have been nice for a warning.) and to top it all off, we didn't get any complimentary chocolates with the bill (as is customary here) As we left, we made a comment to the manager, and they seemed to not care that our experience wasn't enjoyable.

I order some food from there and I had something brown all though my food I order shrimp and broccoli pasta there shouldn't be nothing brown in that order it felt nasty a slimy I took picture of it and when I called to tell them bout it all they wanted to do was give me the same thing over I wanted my money back after seeing what I saw in my food I will never eat from olive garden no more

KC North Barry Rd
Ordered carryout combo for 8-14 .Dec 27 2016
Not ready for pu. Got home set up my buffet, the fettucine alfredo was dry noodles-no sauce-none! Lazagna overcooked Hour round trip back to restaurant, guests waiting so went to local market for sauce. OG Store said they would send me a gift card. They did not. Not enuf space to articulate.

My family was celebrating my birthday today. We had been planning for weeks to go to Olive Garden because we love the food so much. When we arrived we could see others waiting and we expected to have some wait time. We were told it would be 45 minutes for our party of 9. We decided to go ahead and stay because we had been looking forward to it so much. We saw almost everyone in the waiting area inside and outside be seated, except for us. After 50 minutes had passed my husband checked with the front to see if we would be seated soon. Without apologizing for the wait, they said it would be another 15-20 minutes. We continued to wait. We saw some parties come in and be seated immediately. We saw other families already leaving that we had seen them when they were being seated. We felt like we were being ignored and everyone in the restaurant was being seated except us. After nearly twice the time we were told, they finally called us back. They never once apologized for the extra wait. And what was even more frustrating was when we were taken to our table in the back room, there were at least 7 other tables that were empty and most were already cleaned off. We could not understand how they could have so many empty tables there when we had been waiting so long just for 2 tables to be put together. Even after a while of us being seated, most of those tables remained empty. We were highly, highly disappointed with our experience. We had looked so forward to it and it turned out to be a very frustrating experience before we were ever even seated. We were pleased with our food and the servers, but it left a very bad taste in our mouth about going back there anytime soon.

I took my family to the Kingston Olive Garden and we had a horrible experience we were treated very Ridley by the bartender then when we finished our meal I paid on the tablet on the table as we were leaving I was stopped and told I needed to pay I tried to explain I paid at the table the manager was rude and I was humiliated and embarrassed she said i didn't pay I tried to show her I did and she continued to talk over me then had a recipet for a totally different amount I will never ever go to another Olive Garden I intent to let everyone I know about how you get treated I want compensation

On 3/24/17, Table 4, Ck #54873, Store Location 1303. Server was Robert R., brought us our soup and brought my daughters salad and took it back and brought it back 10 min later. Brought appetizers and when we asked for small plates to put the food on he look at the server who was refilling drinks and said that he had never heard of small plates before and were laughing. We look around and noticed that other tables had small plates. He brought the plates 15 min later when we were eating the appetizers from our soup bowls and brought 5 plates, we were 3. My son asked someone else if he could have some more tea and the person who refilled spilled it at the table and made a face looking at my son upset, and left, not cleaning it or apologizing. This person happened to be the one the waiter was laughing with about the plates. My son cleaned the table before it spilled on him. Robert brought containers for us to put our food in and put the bread in my daughters container and put her pasta on top of the bread in the same container. We took the bread out and left it on the table. He left and watched the table from far looking for a tip.. We did not leave a tip, we felt Robert did not deserve one.

We were a party of four they seated us at a table by the bar. We wanted to order beverages and appetizers said she would be right back 20 minutes later she returned. Also asked could we have biscuits and salad said we hadn't ordered so she couldn't bring any. Her name was Sarena was very rude finally we ordered appetizers and that took another 30 minutes till we received them. There still were no plates or silverware at table had to ask three times for them to bring some out. We finally placed food order another 30 minutes went by asked to see manager she never came to table. Instead a shift supervisor came to our table to listen to our complaints. The food came out and it was cold the waitress came back once to ask us if we needed anything. At this point we were just ready to leave don't know why manager wouldn't come over and talk to us. The customer service at this Olive Garden was very poor it is located on the corners of Harvard and Richmond Roads in Beachwood, Ohio.

We were guest at your Cary NC location on 3/23/17 we had a party of 16 guests for my son's 16th Birthday . I called ahead to let them know the size of our party and did a early seating arrangement for 7 pm we were not seated until about 845 the servers najee and conner were great.but our food was horrible the noodles on some of the dishes were under cooked or tasted as if they had been sitting out for awhile, soup(chicken gnoochi)was watered down no dumplings and very little chicken was present in it, my dish had very little Alfredo sauce on it and i never got the chicken meatballs that was ordered in my make your own pasta dish the waiter went to get extra sauce and it was cold the best part of the meal was the salad and the breadsticks that I always look foward to had to much garlic on top.my sons special day was ruined I have never had a experience like this at Olive Garden I am a very disappointed coustomer.
Lisa Harris [protected]