Olive Garden
reviews and complaints

Today i was at the olive garden in Whitehall pa. I was served my food with a piece of hair wrapped around my shrimp. So i asked for a new dish and it came out. The waitress or management brushed it off as of it was no big deal. No one offered to do anything for us and there was no manager to even appoligize . Then we go to pay and the waitress charged up s for someone elses bill that was way more expensive and we have to wait to get refunded now.

The first time my family of 5 went to the Olive Garden in lake city Florida, an hour away from home, the service was terrible..it took a long time to get seated, drinks and our food and we were the only table in our waitresses section. When our food finally came out my sons salmon was raw. They fixed it and the manager comped his meal. That was the first positive thing that had happened all night. Since I've waitressed in the past, I know things can happen but still a little taken back because my boss would have fired me if I took so long to wait on one of her customers. So we were reluctant to go back in fear we'd get the same service. Then the commercial came on advertising the stuffed manicotti which is my absolute favorite! We decided to go back tonight so i could satisfy my taste buds. We waited only 5 minutes to be seated, things were looking up. We sat down and after about 3-4 minutes the manager greeted us and let us know our waitress would be right over and offered to get our drinks but knowing he was busy i politely declined and said it's ok we'll wait on her to order them. I watched a couple, that came in behind us, get their drinks, breadsticks, and place their order while we still had no waitress. We all decided on what we wanted to eat, and had time to watch my son play a few games on that thing.. still no waitress. We sat there for 20 minutes with no drinks, no waitress, nothing. I made the decision to gather my family and leave. The manager seemed surprised seeing us walking toward the front door and asked, "has she still not came over?" My husband said nope and i let the girls know at the hostess stand that the last time we were here it was terrible but i didn't complain. We decided to try it here one more time and now we'll never be back. Olive Garden has always been one of my most favorite restaurants. The food, sangria and service has always been outstanding. I'm not sure what's going on with the one in lake city, but they are never really all that busy while the longhorn next door and Texas Roadhouse across the street have ppl lined up out the door to get in. It's not because the food is better, it's 100% because of service! I am not one to write a negative review. - I've waitressed, I get it. Matter of fact, this is the first one I've ever written and it's because i had my heart set on a meal and that i couldn't enjoy because no one would ever come and ask me what i wanted! If y'all care about your reputation and keeping your doors open in that restaurant competitive town, I'd suggest revamping the customer service aspect. Just because we have kids with us (ages 15, 10 and 6) and we may not order a pitcher of sangria, doesn't mean we won't tip good. I've waitressed, remember, and I tip close to 40%. The waitress at Sonny's can vouch for that tonight.

From the time she greeted us until check she was rude. From tossing extra menu on table to not filling salad and rolling her eyes as we asked for more to drink. May 2, 2018 at noon was our visit. Never have I been treated like this we was trying to celebrate my daughter s 16th birthday . My daughter did not want me to ask for manage to avoid her being embarrassed. When we asked for check she pointed to table top and said it's on there just look. I am a server bartender myself and it took everything in me just to tip I am sorry but I just had to let you know about this. Thank you for your time.

Order take out food 2cheese Rav 2 soups 1 lemon cake 1 cheese cake
I waited for soup for ten min I had everything elese in bag already they forgot soup no biggie
Left green tree on way
Looked down soup all bag inside and out
I'm assuming kid was off
I had a mess
The container was empty in bag the one soup was fine
Need to wrap these or something
I had to wait to after work and go car wash and clean my floor board my car stinks and was soaked in my rug!

We went for lunch today 5/2/18
And our food took 45 minutes to get it I asked my server why our food was taking so long and he told me because someone dropped one of the plates and they have to make all the dishes new again. When to food finely got to the table I send back the spaghetti because they give me roasted garlic asiago and I asked for spaghetti alfredo. Them I heard when my server went to the manager and said I'm not going to deal with this, after that the manager come to the table and said I heard the your food was taking so long I going to take the appetizer for you guys.

To Whom it may concern,

My name is Emily Larson I was hired October 18th, 2018 at the Olive Garden located at 1190 S Koeller St, Oshkosh, WI. This letter is my resonation of hosting at Olive Garden. When I was first hired I was told that Olive Garden prided itself that team members were "a family". I'm writing to you today to inform you that this statement is false. I have never been so mistreated and taken for granted in my life. I have been scheduled unconventional shifts, denied transferring positions, and completely disrespected and disregarded as an individual.
I try my best as an employee hired is expected, I pick up shifts and work my hardest with no recognition. I get scheduled double shifts just about every other day of the week. In other words, Olive Garden takes up all my day but only pays me for half.
Hosting was not a good fit for me because I take things to the heart. I have asked on numerous occasions if I could train to switch positions. Every day I work, I cry at least once a shift, I was told that they would "look into it". Three months after my first request to switch positions I am still a host.
The reason I am truly writing this letter is the misuse of power in this restaurant. Today is May 1st, 2018 and I would like to officially file a complaint about the General Manager Ben. I called earlier this morning at 9:00 AM to ask Ben if it was okay if one employee covered my lunch close shift. So I could go to my medical appointment at 1:00 PM. I was scheduled to come in at 11:00 AM. Ben proceeded to I quote " Don't come in I'm marking you as a no call no show". Once more I was on THE PHONE WITH HIM when he stated this. According to company policy, you must call two hours prior to your shift to not be marked as a no call no show. I followed company guidelines and he simply decided that was not good enough for him. He then proceeded to tell me that I needed to schedule appointments around work, work is my life nothing more.
The ironic part of this is that I had tried the full week prior getting my shift covered. No one would take it so I tried my best to find a solution. All host scheduled agreed with my plan all I had to do was run it by the manager. Ben decided he would rather be understaffed then listen to what I had to say. I think it is very unfair and unprofessional to mark me as a no call no show as Ben did. Not only did he violate company policy he was rude and arrogant. I'm writing this letter because I'm fed up. I will never work at an Olive Garden facility ever again. This job took up every second I had for the past seven months and I have nothing to show for it. I will be pursuing other jobs at this time. I apologize for my abrupt decision and not putting in my two weeks. But, I simply cannot work there another day or I fear I will have a complete emotional breakdown.

If you have any questions or need to contact me my contact information is provided below.

Yours Truly,
Emily N. Larson
Phone: [protected]
Email: [protected]@gmail.com

We arrived at the McKnight Road Olive Garden, and when we walked in Chris (the Manager) opened the door for us. No one was standing at the first podium, but at the second podium an employee was hunched over leaning on the podium.

Chris walked about to the first podium and stated that they would clean a table of for us. When the hostess came back, I stated I would like a booth. At this point I was told they did not have any booths available, with an attitude from the hostess. I stated that I found that hard to believe. After the hostess snapped at us we agreed we would not be dining at this location. We went outside, and called the manager, Chris answered the phone. We stated that we had just been inside, and requested a booth, and were told there weren't any available. Chris replied "you can believe this or not, but the last hour everyone that came in requested a booth". Our response was I find that hard to believe since your parking lot is empty. Chris then stated "what do you want me to do kick people out of their booths". I have never had a manager speak to me in such a rude and unprofessional manner. I will not return to the McKnight location. The manner is quite unprofessional along with the staff at that particular location.

As a matter of fact we drove to the Olive Garden in Cranberry, and had terrific service, and food.

Very bad customer service. Very negative experience.

25 minutes to be seated.
20 minutes for a waiter to come an greet us/ take our drink order.
17 minutes more for her to come with the drinks and no bread or salad.
10 more minutes for bread after we were seating for almost 50 minutes.
we asked the waiter (Daniela S) what happened that everything is late.
Her response:
The bread is in the oven.
They had finished the chocolate milk so they had to look for it in the warehouse.
My drink was not ready, because the bartender was working by herself.
The salad was not ready because she was waiting for the bread.
When I received the bill the pen did not work.

Vahanesa De La Cruz
[protected]@aol.com

Visited the Olive Garden Friday evening, April 27/18 my common law spouses first time, I have been there several times. The meal is always awesome, never a complaint there. Its the vents/blk track lights that we had a problem with! They are extremely dirty with dust and really need to be cleaned! kind of grosses you out after a nice evening of good food and a couple of drinks.

During my dine in at Olive Garden tonight there was a group of 10 kids or so sitting behind us. They were very loud and inconsiderate of everyone sitting around them. This was not the biggest problem that I had even though I had to basically yell at my girlfriend in order for her to hear me across the table. About 5 minutes into getting our drinks, we see chap-stick fly across the floor next to us. We let that slide, we understand that they were kids and kids don't always behave regardless of the venue. But what happened during the end of our dinner was completely unacceptable. A wristband lands on our table just centimeters from my girlfriends food. One of the girls from that table decided to walk around and take the wristband off our table and asked why we had an attitude when she took it off our table. This was also completely unacceptable. We decided to take action and get a manager at this point. I have no idea what she told them, but it didn't help the situation. The kids behind us were still talking and being very disrespectful. They should have been asked to leave. So after all of this, I was being stared down and I asked if there was an issue. Then another kid from the table decided that he wanted to ask who was asking the girl if there was an issue and whoever it was would be dealt with. So I stood up in defense of my girlfriend and myself and told them it was me and they should grow up and be respectable to others who are trying to enjoy their meal. This could have been solved earlier if the manager would have done her job and either had us move or told them to be respectable. Why did I have to be the one to discipline these kids? Your job as a restaurant is to serve and tonight you failed in doing that. I am very disappointed and just wish all of this would have been taken care of in a different way.

Just to not have any confusion, server was great, management could have done a better job.

I used the curbside pickup, and when I got home which is 45 minutes from the restaurant I did not have full order. I ordered 10 meals and only received 5. I called the restaurant to let them know. It is so far away to go back we ended up all sharing our meals to feed everyone. I love the Olive Garden. The food, the service is always great when I eat there. Just disappointed in the curbside service this particular time. Just would not mind some courteous compensation. I don't get to Macon as often . I live 45 minutes from everything. I was just disappointed in the cubside service.
Thanks,
David Perry

Manager Justin was extremely rude to my family and also heard him berating a server and made the employee cry in front of us. I have never seen such an unprofessional person of power in a restaurant in my entire life, use his "power" against a server who couldn't defend themselves. Check who you hire Olive Garden. Never coming back to your west springfield location again until you learn how to hire a decent manager to represent your company. Good riddance.

Today we visited Olive Garden. The service was pleasant. After my salad, breadsticks and fries I was full and decided to eat my Chicken Sandwich at home. A few hours later, I just happened to eat more than half of my sandwich and I noticed the chicken to be fully pink, RAW! Uhg, that's a No Go. I have to worry about food poisening now. My husband who ordered the identical meal is worried that he didn't check his and may have eaten it also raw. That's inacceptable and poses a real health hazard. I'm byond disappointed, see pics.

My family went to eat at Olive garden Monday night and my husband was very sick after he ate Alfredo. He got food poison. I took him to the hospital as soon as we left. So u might want to make shore that the cooks are cooking in a clean place. My husband was in bad shape. But not only that the server that we had never got use a refill. I re yes to get her to come over and she would turn the other way. We got another server to get them for use but they never can. When we got bill I told them I want to talk to a manger. I guess they never got me one because one never cameo to the table. I payed my bill for my family off 4 and left. My husband was in the bath room getting sick. That is y i took him to hospital and found out it was food poison. U need to also tell your server to be nicer to there customers.

Working at the Kingsport store was awful. Sonya Grubb is the worst person to work for. She let's people work that is under the influence and nodding off when talking to tables. She talks down to all employees except her favorites. She has no compassion for any of her employees. After I quit, because of her, she is refusing to give me the paper work I need.

I went to eat with my husband and kids yesterday and received a very bad service by the waitress she forgot everything. First our salad and soup took to long and we received them at the same time as our food except my childs food it was a plate of macaroni and cheese with brocoli and we received it by the time we had already finished our food. Oh and when we recently arrived we asked for a highchair for my daughter and we had to remember our server like 3 times buy still never got the highchair so my daughter had to eat in a regular chair and besides when my daughter received her food it was all cold and my husband was asking for more tea and he never got his refill and the same server got there drinks to the table beside us so i don't know why she couldn't put one more drink in her tray cause she had only four in it she could've put one more and so my husband stood up to complaint with a host and the manager was there but the manager said he didn't know anything and wasn't gonna do anything and so my husband came back to the table and said "let's go" and since they saw him really mad then the manager came and asked if we wanted refill still but obviously we just wanted to leave and the manager just saw my husbands face and said I'll print you your ticket so we could just leave. He didn't do anything about the situation. Check # 24466, table 64, server Michelle L

I posted the following on Facebook social media so that everyone else could see it because OliveGarden does not have an option to post on their facebook page! Hopefully, this will make Olive Garden lose customers, enforcing a raising of standards since, quite simply, it is of such a substandard level at present that I am surprised they are still opened.

Olive Garden (Williamsport, PA)

Poor service, poor show from this place that NEVER seems to get any better, despite giving them feedback. From not having the order ready at the stated time for pick-up to the dubious ingredients of the minestrone soup, you could be forgiven for believing this location uses kindergarten mentality staff. My youngest child could cut lettuce better than the large 'lumps' they are dishing out. Our own fault for giving them the benefit of the doubt and trying them again after several months of staying away. Would have posted this on the actual Williamsport OliveGarden's page but they don't have an option for that (of course) - always a bad sign when an outlet doesn't actively seek to hear feedback, good, bad or indifferent. That makes a HUGE statement about the management and the staff can only be as good as their leadership. In this case, that means an overall poor performance. Take your money, your date/ family elsewhere - Olive Garden is just not worth it anymore!

Patrick & Marilyn Roy
20 Ticonic Street
Waterville, Maine 04901
Cell: [protected]
4/18/2018

Olive Garden Corp.
Darden Restaurant, Inc.
1000 Darden Center Dr.
Orlando, Florida 32837

To whom it may concern;

My wife and I are both seniors, I being 71 and the wife is 68.

Living on a very limited income, once in a while we enjoy going out for lunch, we enjoying going during the slow hours as most chain restaurants have special lower rate for lunches. Knowing if I ordered some chicken I would be able to take my left overs home for my another meal.

Today we went to Olive Gardens in Augusta, Maine.

My wife and I ordered from the 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM special. Our request was the Chicken Parmigiana for $8.99 each.

I asked the waitperson what was included in the meal, the waitperson informed us the meal included chicken, pasta and marinara sauce and of course the soup and salad . I then asked if the chicken was a whole breast and she said that it was a whole breast. I then asked the wait person if she knew how many breast a chicken had and her answer to me was two breast.

I told her that she was incorrect with the answer. I made her aware that if I didn't get a whole chicken breast that I would want to speak to one of the managers. The manager brought us our lunch and when he placed our plates on the table I asked the manager, (TIM) where was the rest of my chicken breast. He then informed me that I got what I ordered. I did tell him I ordered Chicken Parmigiana which on the menu specifies ONE BREAST.

Most people do not know that a chicken has only one breast but I do. The Manager also told me that most of the food served at this place was per-weighted at a different location then distributed to the other Olive Garden. He also mention the chicken were all weighted at the same amount. I then asked him if I have a 4oz. Chicken breast, (one half breast) which originally weighing more then the allowed portion they would trim it down to a smaller weight size, he agreed. I then mention to him that it could be possible that I could have less than 1/2 a chicken breast, he again agreed with me.

I also told him that the menu said ONE CHICHEN BREAST and if I didn't get a whole breast that I would follow up with a complain to Olive Garden headquarters.
The menu does not mention what the weight size of the chicken breast is. Even still I only was only served 1/2 a chicken breast.

You can fool some people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. I'm sure there are millions of people that order chicken from Olive Gardens that don't realize that a chicken has only breast thus only 1/2 a chicken breast is served instead of a whole chicken breast. The manager also mentioned to me that of all the years he worked in a restaurant that I was the first person that ever brought this up to him.

Now I'm assuming when this chicken is prepared at the processing plant the trim goes to other chicken by-products which can be made of the scraps thus earning money from what should of been on my plate this afternoon.

False advertising is deceiving many people which don't know what a chicken breast is and are getting ripped off.

I'm also sending this letter through USPS.

Thank you fro your time.

Patrick Roy

I had just started at Olive Garden, today would of been the last training day for me. I arrived on time walked through the door just for the manager to tell me I couldn't work in the pants I had on ( black Jean like) yes I understand their dressing policy they have but due to me still being in training mode instead of letting me waste my day and sending me home because " I couldn't work " she could of had Me finish our training modules videos or even other training information instead of on the floor. Very rude and un professional.

I called the Olive Garden restaurant here in Cheyenne, Wyoming and made a reservation for a going away party of 50 people for Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 6:30 pm. The day came and we started getting calls and messages from friends stating that the hostess was telling them that there was no reservation under our name. We were informed that they were very rude to every single family that came up to ask for our reservation, what they didn't realized was that half of the people that were in that waiting room was part of our party. We had to change our reservation to a different restaurant on the spot due to not being able to be accommodated. One of our friend stayed and afterwards told us that the hostess was still being rude and talking about us very rudely in a waiting room full of people after we left. I am not in anyway pleased with this information and how we were treated tonight. We have never had any problems with the restaurant in the 9 years that we have lived here and we actually frequent the establishment quite a bit. I just can't believe the way the situation was handled. It was supposed to be a nice celebration with our family and Friends giving us the opportunity to say our "goodbyes" and "until next time" because we are a military family, instead it became one of the most stressful event.