Olive Garden review: Restaurant in Covington, LA

My husband and I came in on November 11 for Veterans Day. Instead of being welcomed and asked if we were veterans, we were immediately asked if we parked in To Go Parking and told they wanted those parking spots left open for patrons picking up their orders. I informed this rude person that my husband was a 100 percent disabled veteran and there were no other parking spots close to the building. I'm sure she would have asked us to move our car, but someone next to her interceded and said it was okay. We were put on the wait list and sat down. We then heard someone asking about getting a voucher for the Veteran meal and I told my husband I would rather do that than stay there at that time.

The next day I called and asked for the manager. It turned out that the manager who came to the phone was the person who stopped the rude person for further chastising us the day before. She was not at all apologetic when I expressed my feeling that the person who spoke to us first was rude. She informed me that the person was trained to chastise people who parked in To Go parking intending to eat in. I was told that they had cameras and could tell who parked there. It's too bad they don't have cameras watching the people who park in handicapped spots with neither handicapped license plates nor placards, which is actually illegal. The last time I checked, parking in To Go parking if you are not there to pick up an order was not against the law. Anyway, I told this manager that the person was rude and when she was told we parked where we did because there were no handicapped or even close spots, she should have simply shut her mouth. The manager told me that was rude and the other person was not. She continued to defend her the fact that the employes were trained to accost people who park in To Go parking and walk in to eat.

It seems to me that she is more concerned with making sure the employees don't have to walk very far to deliver food to cars than with disabled customers having a close place to park. I told her she could have converted some of those parking spots to disabled veteran spots for the day. It would have taken a couple of minutes with a computer and printer and a little bit of tape. She told me she was sorry I felt they had not done enough for the veteran customers, after all, we were getting a free meal. There were free meals all over town. Two more restaurants in the same parking lot were giving free meal. We wanted Olive Garden, and frankly the soup and salad were the draw, because meal choices were not the ones we normally get there.

The whole experience left a bad taste in our mouths, and no, a free meal does not even come close to the respect someone who did three tours of Vietnam and now has several diseases and medical conditions related to these tours deserves. Nor does it show the respect I deserve after being in a field hospital helping doctors put soldiers back together, or worse, sending them home in body bags. We were simply there to have a meal, like we have done there before. It happened to be free. Also, could someone please tell this manager that telling me she was sorry if I feel that something was done wrong was simply a waste of breath. Basically, she is saying she feels they did nothing wrong and the fact that I do is not important. I doubt that I will ever return to this restaurant. She also kept telling me she was very busy did not have time to discuss a situation that she felt was not important. Maybe, instead of training her employees, this manager should be given some more training in taking responsibility and showing respect to customers.

There are plenty of other restaurants here, including the one we went to when we left. That meal was also free, the hostess very graciously asked if we were Veterans, thanked us for our service, and immediately showed us to our table. The waitress was very welcoming, the food was great, and the service was excellent.

We are not a couple of grifters looking for a handout. We tipped our waitress very generously. We also tipped the busser, who was working himself to death. We will return to that restaurant.