Olive Garden
reviews and complaints

Dear Olive Garden,
To whom it may concern,
I am writing you to let you know of the horrible experience I had at you Arcadia restaurant at 430 E. Huntington Dr. Arcadia, CA
I feel so bad as I was the one who recommended that we celebrate my niece's graduation at Olive Garden.
We were a party of 12 people. We arrived at your store at approximately 8:00pm and it took so long to be seated. Well after we were seated and made our orders, it took so long to get our meals, that by the time they brought the food we all were so sleepy and tired we all took to go boxes.
We kept asking "what is taking so long? And no answers. On top of everything "the food was COLD! We left your restaurant at 10:30pm "Really? That is way too long for anyone to have to wait for food service! " Very, Very POOR customer service.

I went into your store and I had the worst service. I live in Ocala, fl and visited on 5/14/18 at 19:47 hrs, along with my daughter. We were first served by a young lady who assumed we did not want to sample the wine and immediately took the wine glasses away never offered us to sample it I asked her to have a sample of your wine and brought only one glass which I had to share with my daughter. I then ordered a pitcher of watermelon sangria and she brought over just two glasses when I advised her that I wanted a pitcher she grabbed the glass that my daughter was still sipping on and said that she would have to redo the order which I was okay with but she should have left both glasses which I would have paid for in addition to the pitcher. My daughter got up and grabbed the manager and ask to be moved and requested to have a new server. The new server Brenda was very nice. The manager complied but a see more annoyed than accommodating they went ahead and move me over provided me with the new server and never apologized for the terrible service that I received. I have been a long-time customer of Olive Garden and I've noticed that a different times the service is a lot better then others I just hope that in the future either have the manager teach the servers to maintain the level of quality of service from other times or at least apologize for the servers that are poorly trained. I was hoping to have a good meal with my daughter especially since we didn't get to celebrate Mother's Day I will not go to your restaurant in Ocala ever again.

I ordered a tray of lasagna and two salads with bread sticks for mother's day dinner. I requested a 5:10 pick up for my food on Wednesday May 9th for Sunday May 13th. Plenty of time to cook my tray of lasagna and make two salads. The pick up location was at the Washington PA location. I got there at 5 pm and checked in along with 15 other take out orders at that time. I did not get my food until 6 pm. All they did was apologize for the long wait. Something was not right. I heard a waitress tell the hostess that they were out of something but the hostess said I heard that wrong. WHY would it take an hour to get my food? The lasagna should have been put in the oven to come out at 5 and the salads are pre-made. What was the problem?

I had a dozen people waiting for their dinner and two of them were elderly and wanted my wife to just take them home. That is why I wanted a 5 pm pick up.

Please email and explain why me or anyone in my family should ever go back to Olive Garden.
dan.[protected]@gmail.com

Management not following rules meaning breaking rules and making there own as well as not being respectful to workers n threating to write them up and writing up people wrongfully and puting fear into workers so they dont repeat the same offense again . When equipment fails they dont repair it right away n sometimes dont do so at all to save money . Theres lots of things need repair n we tell management n they dont do nuthn about it until its fully messed up or not working at all. Where they store there pasta and other food and ingredients on the kitchen line need repair and are dirty aswell as no fans and oil dripping from the ceiling and other places etc.

When someone is wearing attire that doesnt suite your style there is no reason to degrade them. Especially as they are walking out of the building and are only 3 feet away from you. I dont understand why there is a society that requires you to wear a suite an tie. I didn't walk in shirtless as this one customer looked it like, but there is still no need to say what's on your mind while the customer you are upset about is only three feet away. I will no longer be spending my money at a place that has guests that want to degrade people based on their attire. Be careful what you wear to a restaurant nowadays. Someone might think that you're being inappropriate or inconsiderate.

My mother and I visited Olive Garden Clermont for lunch April 6. As we were seated I asked a question and as the waitress started speaking to me another waitress came over and interrupted and they left. My mother and I sat down and waited and waited started counting the minutes and waited Finally I flagged down a young girl who said oh you've not been waited on, let me get someone. So we waited and we waited, we had been there about 20 minutes and I flagged down someone very aggressively and asked when are we going to be waited on and she said just a minute and a few minutes later the manager came and apologized. The manager apologized and gave us a free dessert to share. My complaint is with how 2 people can be ignored, told someone will be right with you and no one came. It will be a long time for me to return to an Olive Garden, customer service is everything!

My husband and I went to eat at Olive Garden last night. The table we were seated at had a party of about 10 across from us. The waiter came and took their food order without even acknowledging we were there. The party was very lively, a.k.a. very noisy. After about 10 minutes of this we got up and asked to be moved to a quieter location. It took them a good 5 minutes to seat us at a different table after telling them repeatedly we didn't want to sit at the bar which is where they wanted to sit us. We finally got to a different table and waited about 5 minutes. Finally I ordered an appetizer at the kiosk. Then the same waiter from the other dining area came. I asked for the wine sample, said it was good and asked how much a glass was. The waiter couldn't tell me so after he looked in the menu and still couldn't tell me I told him to just forget it and bring me water. We got our drinks then someone different came out of the kitchen with the appetizer I had ordered on the kiosk. We had ordered a take 2 sampler, the fried ravioli and the lasagna fritta. She set it down and left. No plates. We pushed the button for the waiter. He never showed up. We flagged down a waitress and finally got our plates. The lasagna fritter was plain without the Alfredo sauce. We finish that, still no waiter. By this time we had been in the restaurant at a table for 45 minutes. No salad, no bread, nothing but water and the appetizer that was not like it was described. At this point I got up and asked to speak to a manager. He walks me back to the table as I describe what had transpired. He apologized and said he had been tied up with a drunk person at the bar for 20 minutes. We'd been there 45. I asked him about the lasagna fritter not having the Alfredo sauce. I was told that because it was a take 2 it didn't come with the sauce, only if it was ordered by itself. I asked him to show me where it said that. He said it didn't but that's the way it worked. So...okay...you have a description of an appetizer but you're not going to serve it like it's described. We told him at that point we were leaving. He said okay, not to worry about our bill. Our bill was water and an appetizer that I had to order myself and didn't come as described. So that was our "dinner date". Oh, and we had driven 30 miles for this.

I'm an employee at the vero beach olive garden. I want my name to remain confidential to prevent further conflict.

Rich Welsh is not a good manager. Very disrespectful and usually targets me out of all the employee's and gives me a hard time.

Tonight, I went to olive garden as a guest and ordered something to go. I spoke with my coworkers and Rich, who is my manager came to me and said in the loudest and most disrespectful way that I need to leave because I'm a distraction. I replied that I'm a guest at olive garden currently. He responded again in the loudest and most disrespectful way that he didn't care and told me to leave.

I again said that I was a guest and that he needs to stop, but again he persisted with telling me to leave and that the people I was speaking to were busy. And I responded that I am a guest here and that I wasn't distracting anyone and that it wasn't busy. And that guest have the right to speak to the employees/coworkers.

Now, when my coworkers come in as guest, rich will not complain about them or anything. He has something against me and it's going to lead me to quit working at Olive garden because it has become to stressful to work in or be around these conditions as a guest at the vero heach olive garden.

April 21 we had dinner at this restaurant in Hilliard, OH. We have been here before and I always order the above entree. This time it was 1/4 inch thick and breaded to size of a normal eggplant entree. It was over-fried and very disappointing. I thought I was eating only breading. The salad had so much dressing it was soggy. We can usually count on Olive Garden when we are traveling but this was a very sad experience.

On arrival, i was totally ignored by the host while she chatted with her friends. another host stepped in to seat us.. 2 adults 2 children., they were moderately busy with several large parties.. our server was excellent, he was hustling as were others. my compliant is not with them... the food was terribble ordered combo appetizer, no cheese inside the mozarella sticks. zucchini bites 4 small balls were so crisp an dark brown to the point of being burnt... the kids were so disappointed... table next to uz sent silverware back twice because it was dirty... our server sent the manger to both tables zs he too was upset about the food an things... the manager took the app off our bill an gave us his discount...that was fine but i think there are deeper issues there. the waiters are busting butts for customers who in return have bad experience because of poor food an managemnt...which some people will deflect that in tbe tip! i personally am not thaat way an i am an over tipper which i make sure is cash to the waiter... $30. on $65.00 bill in this case because i tipped on what it should been if the food didnt suck... WAKE UP CORPORATE YOU HAVE SOME ISSUES AT THIS LOCATION! I also drove over an hour to this location...

So yesterday I was at your location on loop 410..
It was me and 2 other people, everyone else had received their food except for me... so I flagged down the waiter, she said she had lost my order and she would go have it remade. I'm waiting now 30 minutes before I get my food.
During our time there she did not come back to check on us, to see if we needed anything, did not refill drinks. The entire experience was just very unpleasant.. there was a major lack in customer service.. we felt like she had forgotten about our table the entire time..

I feel you did a great job resolving my concern. Thank you so much. I still was not completely satisfied with my food though. It just may be the location I am going to. I usual go to Grove City OHIO but the last two times I have not be happy at the Hilliard OHIO location. My food was overdone again and I asked for my sauce to be on the side just on the main dish and they didn't sauce any of it. I am sorry to complain again but I just want you to be aware. Thank you so much!

Hi,
I am an employee at Olive Garden in Wichita Falls, Tx. The reason for this message is because me and all of my other coworkers are very upset due to the managers' new rules. The rules are if you don't have 75% or more on attentiveness you can not pick up shifts, you can not stay straight through, you can not switch times or switch shifts, you can not close AND you can't give away shifts. Okay so most of them are okay but giving away shifts? What if it's an emergency and you really can't go in? They would rather be short on a server that night than them giving away and them picking up. Now if you don't show up you get written up but if it's an emergency? We're getting our shifts covered so that's what should matter. The attentiveness score is not a problem, people pay on the Ziosk now, but most don't take the survey. What are we supposed to do? Tell them not only do they have to pay on the Ziosk now, but they also have to take the survey? I just feel like they are pushing us way too much and hard. I don't think this is fair that some of us are in college and need money but we can't pick up shifts due to a score that we can't force to go up. Please I hope you try to fix this because we are alllll tired of this. Everyone is upset. Yesterday a girl picked up for this guy because he couldn't work and she got there and they sent her home because of her scores. Please do something about this.

Om may 7 th i took my daughter and family and friends to olive garden ... We came in at 2pm and told them part of the party was here resceptionist at the front told us verry abruptly that our res.Was at 2;30 but snippy ok.. We all sat down to wait for the others. Then we placed our order 3 meat ball bowls one without cheese food came all had cheese my guest said dont worry ill keep it ...This young african american waitress who took our order came to the table to argue that we did not say one with out cheese my sister in law said she would keep the meal again it was not her fault then she huffed as she left the table ...2xs before the order we were waiting for friends about 10 minets they all were there 10 more minuets go by went to the front to tell them we were all here she told us waitress will get there when she can the place was not even busy... This was my daughters 50th birthday not a great time...Ck #39132 table 100 christina c

I called at 10:30 and was told they were closed but i could speak to the manager. I told the manager i wanted to place an order for delivery to a physicians office for 1pm, order would be $100 as stated on internet and the pharmaceutical representative would be calling in with credit card information. He put me on hold and then took my order. This order was place on may 7, 2018.

I receive a call from the pharmaceutical representative who was not happy. She stated she was calling about adding to the order and was going to give her credit card information. She was put on hold so they could talk to the manager. Person stated the manager couldn't do the order unless it was $125.00. She stated internet and message while on hold said $100! she wont be placing any orders with olive garden.

We eat at Olive Garden, many times a month, sometimes more than once a week. Never had a bad experience till now. Our food was cold, some of the food came out wrong and my mother in law had a hair in her soup. A HAIR! We told the server about it and then a manager. Nothing was done.

When we got our checks, my mother in law went to ask a questions and the server Nathan looked at her and said "You're not aloud to complain anymore". He said this very loud and brought attention to himself and the table. He was very ill and very disrespectful to all of us.

Nathan and the Kitchen manager were both rude at the table.

This was such a disappointing lunch.

Placed a to go order, waited the 30 minutes for it as the receipt stated, and I paid online. I went inside to pick up my food which was sitting on the counter for I don't know how long. No one would come to the counter to hand me my food but instead i had to wait an additional 10 minutes just to be helped. I then had to wait another 5 for additional salad dressing that I had requested with the original order. Once I got home less than 5 minutes away, my food was cold and soda flat due to ice melting. That was unacceptable, someone should always be manning that to go counter i n case of crowds. There were 3 other people waiting as well and we were all told they were in the back waiting on breadsticks. Mine were already in the basket with the rest of my food so why did I need tonwait for someone else's food? Not a good look.

Visit on 5/5/18. I realize it was not only a holiday but it was also graduation. HOWEVER, that's not the customers' problem. The wine glasses were filthy and when we told the waitress, she just put them back on the rack so they were used by others! My forks had dried food on them. I requested clean forks, same thing with the second set!
Appetizers came, they were overdone, or they need to change the oil for frying.
Food was lukewarm and when we asked for more salad, it came as we were finishing our entrees.
This Olive Garden used to be excellent...don't think we'll be back. They are plenty of other restaurants to dine in!

I was already having a bad day and decided to come to Olive Garden with my husband and our 3 year old son. We did not want to wait for a table to open up so we sat by the bar. I am normally one not to complain but my 3 year old son cut his hand on glass that was in our booth! We got a few sorrys and a band aid but my son was seriously upset. The manager talked to us but did not offer to discount our food or anything. We had a bill over $50. Bad experience. Most likely will not be coming back for awhile

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.