Olive Garden
reviews and complaints

I went to the Mansfield, TX location on 5.25.18. I ordered the unlimited soup and a glass of wine. After eating a bowl and part of a second I asked for a bowl to go. I continued eating the bowl I was eating but became full which is not hard seeing as how I had gastric sleeve surgery 4 years ago and I can only eat small portions. I asked for a bowl for what was left in my bowl I was eating from and was refused because I was told I had one to go already, but it plight was it couldn't be served to a guest so what not allow me to enjoy it later when I would be hungry again. Because I only have 25% of my stomach I eat about every 2-3 hours. The caucausion bartender when I asked why said because I had a bowl and he left the bar, he returned and shortly after I was approached by an African American employee. It seemed the most racist thing I had every seen that the caucausion gentleman would go get an African American to speak with me and when I mentioned my thoughts I was given a $10 gift card as hush money I suppose. The situation makes me not want to return and patronize Olive Garden ever again. I felt the situation was handled horribly and I was highly offended. I wear my hair natural and I was dressed down that day but I'm a small business owner and I'm 2 classes, comps and dissertation from my PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology with a 3.8. I'm not a miscreant, a vagrant, a thief or anything vile, I just simply wanted to know why I couldn't also have the bowl of soup I didn't complete along with the the one I had to go as I had requested this many times before and been able to do it. I am going to give you the opportunity to make this right before I contact the better business bureau and my attorney because you cannot treat people differently based on racial and ethnic classifications. It has been illegal to discriminate got color since 1968 with the Civil Rights act and I hardly think that Olive Garden would like that kind of press to add to its reputation.

After visiting several Olive Garden Restaurants, I cannot believe how you want customers to pay with credit cards. Half the time the machines do not work, and the server needs to transfer everything over which I feel is more time consuming than it is worth. When the restaurant is busy and this happens, which is quite often, it becomes a nuisance. Also, if you are predominately in a senior community, how do you expect them to use this machine when they can't even know where to begin. Whoever thought this was an ingenious idea, I must tell you it that it is definitely not! Think about your customers and the frustration it causes. We should have the choice to have the server check us out, not only is it more personal, but much more likely to not create havoc when they are trying to wait tables and then have to deal with people with problems with these stupid machine.

Thank you,

A concerned and loyal customer

To whomever this may concern
Today 05/28/2018 I came to the kenner location to have lunch with a friend. We ordered our usual unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks. I had 3 bowls of chicken gnocchi soup, none of the bowls had any gnocchi. We informed the waitress, but she said she didn't know what was going on. Then when we asked could we have another bowl to get some gnocchi, the waitress said they didn't have anymore.
Jzannah Thomas
[protected]
[protected]@yahoo.com

On May 26, 2018, my family and I went to the Olive Garden in Anderson, South Carolina to celebrate my granddaughter's graduation from high School. The service was good and the food was great but when we went to pay the bills there was an issue. The server didn't tell us he had mixed up the cards. Instead he swiped my card twice for a total of over $180.00 for a $82 plus bill and three times for over $260 plus for a bill of $98 plus. I find this very unacceptable.

I am traveling from Ohio, and my daughter's debt card was made unavailable for her to withdraw the money she needed for the Holiday weekend. We talked with the manager but the server didn't talk to her until after swiping the cards numerous times.

I have visited Olive Garden and love the food for years. But I find this appalling that the server didn't talk to us about the issue and we could have corrected him with no concerns, in fact it is funny about the mix up of the cards. However him not letting us know about the issue is unbelievable, is that the way they are being trained now? I am thinking about not returning to Olive Garden again, and I am telling my friends.

I await your response.

Thank you,
Veronica Holloway
[protected]

Saturday, May 26, 2018 3:12PM

My wife and I and her mother just returned from eating at the Olive Garden at the above address in Clearwater. Our server was Patti, and we are VERY displeased with the service we received. We normally receive very good service at Olive Garden, so this is the first time in a long time that we have submitted a complaint.

My wife ordered Whole Grain Linguini and a salad. My mother-in-law ordered Ravioli di Portobello with Minestrone soup, and I ordered the Cavatappi with Chicken Gnocchi soup. We ordered two glasses of water, one without ice, and a cup of coffee.

First of all, we are regular customers of Olive Garden at this location, and are very familiar with what the normal order of service should be, especially since my wife does similar work in her job at the Sheraton Sandkey Resort in Clearwater.

Although the restaurant was not busy at the time that we arrived, we had to wait about 15 minutes before anyone greeted us and took our drink order. Although several managers walked through our area, they didn't seem to notice, which is strange.

Our server was very inattentive, disorganized, and unprofessional, to say the least. When she brought our soup and salad, but did not bring the bread, bread plates, or the cheese to put on the soup and salad, until we reminded her. It was not until we were halfway through eating our soup and salad that she explained that the bread was still in the oven. When she brought our entree, we had to remind her who had ordered which dish, something she should have remembered. Furthermore she waited on two other tables and was cleaning one of the other tables while we were waiting to be served.

We requested 2 boxes to carry out and explained we were in a hurry because my wife had to leave for work, but our server took her time in bringing the boxes. Normally they give us mint chocolate at the end of our meal, but our server did not bring us any.

My husband and I ate at Olive Garden in Port Charolette, Florida 33948 on May 24, 2018 about 4:30. I could not believe the smell in this establishment which I believe is coming from their carpets, either they need a professional cleaning or maybe replacement, myself would not have carpets, they retain odors. Also I noticed how dirty the wood is on all the chairs little bit of elbow power and this will come off. I do hope someone looks into this. Ripping out all carpets would elimate odors. Thank You, Susan Miller([protected]@aol.com)

We visited the Olympia WA restaurant on May 23, 2018 around 7:15 pm. Our waiter was horrible. We ordered dipping sauce for the breadsticks, got the breadsticks, but no dipping sauce, so had to remind him. Took him about 20 mins and by that time, the breadsticks were cold. Later in our meal, we requested more breadsticks and again waited & waited. We pushed the button for server, but never got ours. Another server was walking by, so we asked him for our breadsticks. When we were finished, we ordered dessert to go and take home boxes. Our waiter brought the dessert. We asked for our bill and the to-go boxes again. He brought bill and asked if we wanted to go boxes. For the third time, yes!

Worst service ever!

My husband and I went to the Olive Garden Saturday 19, 2018 in celebration of our 50th wedding anniversary. We were seated in the the middle of the dining room. I asked the waitress if we could have a booth (mainly because my husband has hearing issues). The waitress politely told us the booths were reserved for larger groups. Within 5 minutes, the open booths were filled with 2 people per booth. I didn't want to cause a problem for the waitress, but I feel she should have accommodated us with a booth, especially as it was the end result of 2 people per booth. My husband and I could not converse with the loudness as we were seated in the the center of the room. Too bad we couldn't converse.

Ate at Olive Garden International Speedway Daytona Beach FL.
Had the lunch duo - meatball pizza bowl, salad, other lunch duo spicy calabrian chi, chicken & gnocchi, and macchiato caramel.

Must say the wattress - Tracy T. was new, but very nice and as helpful as one would possibly be.

Bread is something that Italians pride themselves on. Hard crunchy crust with lots of large air bubbles. Your bread was like Wonder bread with garlic powder and butter added on top for flavor slightly toasted. Meatballs, well definitely not to write home about. You could do a lot better. They tasted cheap and frozen. Good quality ingredients and getting Mama's Meatball recipe would and could go a long way in pleasing the discerning taste.

The Macchiato, is not supposed to be light American coffee based. It should have somewhat of a burnt coffee flavor and robust in taste. Way too sweet.

On the brighter side, the soups were tasty and well worth eating.
Going Italian got to be right. That's what it's all about.
Thanks for your time.
Dan Canissario

My check no# was 67254.

My complaint is with the Olive Garden in Springhill, TN. My daughter puts in application and gets a phone call from a manager named Candace. It went so well that basically she made her feel like she had the job. Told her she would see her on Monday, May 21st, my daughter's 21st birthday by the way. My daughter was so excited. She's been a server for a couple years. Right before hanging up Candace asked her if she had any family who had ever worked for Darden before. She said yes, my mom. Well her mom was fired by Candace about 3 years ago. My daughter goes in on Monday. Candace wasn't even there. They sent out a visiting manager to talk to her and she told her no. My daughter was devastated. She actually went back in and asked what she did wrong because she was basically told she had the job. The visiting manager told her it was because of her availability. Then why wasn't she told that over the phone! It wasn't a problem then. I think we know exactly why she wasn't hired. Pretty low down. And by the way. My daughter has received scholarships for excelling in interviews. So please don't try to say it was something else.

We arrived at 7:50pm, family of 4 and was told there was a 20 min wait due to shortage of waiters and the waiters are not allowed more than 3 tables at a time. After waiting ten minutes I noticed the restaurant wasn't overly crowded. Actually it was half full, which should have been manageable. I spoke with the hostess and received a lecture on a server life. So I ask to speak with the manager. within 5 additional minutes we was seated and 20 minutes later a waitress came to take our orders. 45 to 50 min without accommodation of bread nor salad. When our appetizers arrived, they arrived with an explanation of while the orders wasn't right. No fault of the waitress who was pleasant and cordial. Something I cannot say about the hostess. Very bad service and experience. This is not the Olive Garden I came to know over the years.

I was having dinner with my family of 3, asked the waitress Hannah about the dinner special for 8.99. She said its the classics item, under the classic items is the tour of Italy. I asked was that one of them she said yes. So i proceed to order 2 and a kids meals. So when the bill came it was double the amount it would of been. So i asked her about it and the manager on duty came and i explained to her the situation and she said it can be nothing done bout that, i cant adjust the prices. How can u fault the customer when the wait staff gave the wrong information.

Went to early dinner with my 13 daughters, hostess was so rude (Tyler )- we requested a booth half restaurant was empty- told us it would be 30 min wait- then pointed to bar area and so we sat there. The bar area was more like employees break room! Very uncomfortable not worth the $30.00 I spent! After sitting I used restroom and noticed there was a family sitting in the area that he said we couldn't sit in and 2 employees on their phones! So no reason why we couldn't have been seated there. Instead sitting in a bar area with my daughters!

I was told at Olive Garden will no longer be doing custom orders for older recipes. I was told they will no longer have dark Marcella sauce ever again. Server told me that the sales of the store in general are not good, so they're eliminating costs to try to find more ways to generate Revenue. In my humble opinion they are going to lose a fortune, the amount of people who like the dark sauce it's been with Olive Garden since its beginning. So now my family and friends get to save about 300 a month. That's the only thing they wanted, I used to go there and order it for catering, for the dark sauce chicken marsala with linguine and they gave me the fat finger. So I guess this is the end of Olive Garden if all they want to do is focus on pasta and a sauce they're out of their minds. The sauce used to be made in house and then putting bags in the refrigerator who used to be a starter mix they had the dry ingredients they added the wine and they mixed it and cooked it. Not a lot of work the made in big batches and heated up an add a little wine to it before serving so I don't understand why they feel they need to keep removing and changing when the majority of their customers if they would ask like their certain dishes. Sounds to me like certain CEOs do not really understand how Olive Garden works, so either close the restaurant off, Or bring back the Olive Garden. Charge more if you have to, I don't care about price.

The sever started out by bringing one drink at a time.we gave him our app order and told him we wanted to take our time. It was 8:30. He brought the app and again tried to get us to order. He told us the food wouldn't come out fast. We ordered the tour of Italy and the eggplant parm. We were still eating our apps when the soup and salad came. In the meantime my husband had ordered another beer. Now the entrees come, we are still eating our soup and salad
No beer yet, the servers excuse was he had been there all day
I finally had to go to the bar myself to get the beer which has been sitting in the window so of course it wasn't cold. Our food was dry and burnt, the plates were hot so they had obviously been sitting in the window
I have been a bartender for forty years, I know what goes on in restaurants. The mgr came over and took our food back. Food was ok, we normally have a cappuccino and frangelico for desert, but decided to go to the bar for it, since the server was obviously in a hurry to get out. We ordered two cappuccino and a choc mousse. Next thing you know a cockroach was crawling on the bar. We brought it to Steven, the bartender attention, he tried to get it, then the roach starts running towards us. This was by far the worst dining experience ever. If that had happened in my restaurant we would have comped the whole check.needless to say we will never go back to the olive garden in Dover Delaware where we live.

My daughter ordered dinner online frOm the Olive Garden in Cypress CA on Katella tonight and she got me a tiramisu which is my favorite. Well I was very disappointed when I opened the box and my tiramisu looks like someone's left overs. For 7.99 I expect a piece of cake not someone's leftover. I can't even eat it because I'm not sure if it's fresh or just someone's scraps. Whoever served this should be ashamed of themselves. Very disappointed.

Location:
23442 Hawthorne Blvd
Torrance, CA 90505
[protected]

Date: Monday, 14 May, 2018

I ordered the Cannelloni with Giant Meatball with Alfredo and Marina Sauce. The television advertisement made me WANT this dish. The picture in the Menu made me WANT this dish. When the dish arrived, it looked nothing like the picture. It looked more like Lasagna. The cheese had completely oozed from the noodle all over the dish. I requested the Marinara Sauce on the side - thank goodness. Merging the Alfred and the Marinara Sauces would have ruined all the flavors. The Marinara sauce tasted like warm ketchup. The meat ball was a total disaster. it looked uncooked and tasted the same. I could not eat the meat ball I scooped up as much of the cheese as possible. The noodles were much too firm and flat (not circular). Thank goodness for the salad. Sorry, I could have taken a picture.

Tonight 5/18/18 the family (party of 6) went to Olive Garden in La Mesa, CA to celebrate a birthday. Ordered appetizers and it took a very long time but we didn't complain. We were finished with our applitzers and still didn't have anyone take our order or clear empty plates glasses. Many rude gestures were experienced by the waitress. Maybe she was having a bad day. However, she brought one of our party the wrong meal and said she would bring the correct one. We all sat there waiting for his meal to come to the table "15 minutes!" all of our food was cold and the pasta dishes were all stuck together by the time his correct meal was brought out. The people at the table next to us heard the waitress take the wrong order away and after 10 min. they made a comment to us about the bad service too. What a terrible experience. I'm sure everyone will be telling their friends about the terrible experience at Olive Garden.

We were a party of 8 including one toddler. We were there to celebrate graduation. Entered the restaurant and staff said no table of eight is available waiting time 30-45 mins. Spoke to Manager he said he will give us a table in 10 mins. Kids were hungry so we sat on a bar height table. Ordered bread sticks and salad and also placed order for main course. 1 hour past. Our food arrived we said we want to eat that on normal table. The serving staff took our food back in kitchen . The manager was paged but he didn't come immediately. We raised the issue but whole staff no response. Manager came he said I never promised 10 minutes. Kids are super hungry now. But no consideration for kids, promises or solution. They wanted us to eat on the same table. We walked off that place and will never ever visit Olive Garden again

First issue: I ordered Soup and Salad. Gnocchi soup came out every single fine with nothing in the soup except thickened milk and shredded carrots. Our waiter had to take it back to be remade every. Single. Time. The bowls were only partially filled so it was easy to see there was nothing in the bowl. Waste of my tine and your server's, which also affects your other customers.

Second issue: I ordered the braised beef tortellini, which my husband orders on a weekly bases (we order to go quite often). When it came out, instead of the usual braised beef we receive that is pulled and tender, this was legitimate pieces of steak. Maybe the kitchen ran out? Server - who is customer service oriented had it taken off the bill and left it because it's going to be thrown away and well, customer service. Another bowl of soup came out with nothing in it - no chicken, gnocchi, now common place at our meal. I asked for a manager. The server manager, Chris Simmons, came to the table. He explained that we never receive pulled braised beef, it's always sliced and always tastes this way. Both the case, it has never tasted as if it had been charred in a pan/grill as steak would. Regardless he then apologized and took the item. When I expressed that due to inconvenience, it was taken off the bill and as a consulation were told to keep it. His response - if it's not on your bill, you shouldn't have it. I told him how this lack of customer service to some how keep your customer happy had just failed and he was either going to leave the item or give me a discount for the inconvenience AND the extra amount of time I have been at the restaurant during lunch on a week day. With attitude he agreed to take the item and give a $5 discount.
Why did I have to express how customer service works and that happy customers are the customers you should strive for, even if their experience was sub par? Why was it a fight and even a question once I had expressed what the server had said?
For the inconvenience and irritation this has caused, and lack of care on your manager's side - the person who should, foremost, care about service, my family will not be back to the Hampton, VA Olive Garden. And due to the type of managers hired, we will be hard pressed to come to an Olive Garden again.