Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Altamonte Springs

This is my first poor google review, as I’m someone that likes to give people the benefit of the doubt. However, I had such a terrible experience that I need to share. I first arrived with 1 other person about an hour before they closed, but as regulars of Olive Garden, we knew exactly what we wanted to eat (just salad, breadsticks, and soup).

When we walked in the door to the host stand, the two hostesses did not greet us until at least a minute of whispering among themselves. Once we were seated, we ordered immediately. The server from the very beginning had a very rushed tone and reminded us multiple times throughout the night that they were closing soon. I understand this because they want to go home, but we also asked what time they close to confirm we weren’t staying over time, and we still had 40 minutes. Not only was the server rushing us the entire time, but we were told multiple items, the cappuccino, Bellini, and soup, were not available “because we’re closing soon.”

To top the night off, towards the end while I was eating my food, an ENORMOUS roach crawled behind me. One of the servers came up and saw it, said “yeah this is above my pay grade” then walked away with no communication. One of the other servers attempted to catch it with his bare hand, then claimed it “must’ve gone outside” because he lost it, even though the windows don’t appear to open…

After this ordeal, I stood up and did not sit back down. The server came up to me and was laughing about it, followed by the manager who was also laughing. They claimed they never see bugs in the restaurant and gave a very insincere apology as they laughed through it and we were never offered any sort of compensation in any form for this experience, even though I had just told my server I wouldn’t be finishing my food after that, to which she again laughed and replied “yeah I don’t blame you.”

All this to say, we had an atrocious experience here and will absolutely not be returning. Had the customer service been better, I could have overlooked the...

This Olive Garden is basically across the street from my condo. I am a member of their so-called "rewards program", although I don't think I have ever received anything other than a free dessert on my birthday. I wrote a 5-star review about a year ago, and although it pains me to have to revise it, I wouldn't be telling the truth if I left it as such. The experiences I have had since then leave me no choice. I have wasted tons of money and time on this location. Olive Garden used to be my favorite restaurant, my go-to for my birthday dinners or family get togethers. I am very fond of the Black Tie Mousse Cake, the delicious salad, and quite a few of their pasta dishes. However, I have ordered takeout from this location at least three times since my prior review. After the first horrible experience, I contacted corporate via the survey that was emailed to me. I received a wonderful phone call to follow up, and received a gift card for my troubles. Their corporate customer service IS 5 star, and I mean no ill-will towards any of the people who I have spoken to about my issues with the orders. This past order was by far the worst. I ended up throwing the entire meal in the trash. I posted pictures to show what I received. They didn't include the extra butter, sauce, or salad dressing. They put heaps of gross smelling, very old onions on top of the salad, which was far from fresh to begin with. The pasta was cooked completely wrong. When is there shredded cheddar cheese melted on top of the ravioli, so thick that you can't see the pasta through it? And the appetizer was not cooked at all, or had been left sitting out for way too long. It was cold, each piece was... Squishy? It was disgusting and so disappointing. Olive Garden can be great. But if I were you, I would try a different location. Hands down. I've given up on any more chances for...

We held a baptism celebration at Olive Garden. I will say that up to the event it's self the process and managers were wonderful. But the day of the event it was a nightmare. The day before they called go confirm the day and had the wrong date, no big deal we got that fixed and they assured me everything for our big party would be ready for us. We arranged a hour time window so if the baptism ended quick they would be ready if we got there sooner then later. We arrived and were told they don't take reservations and were 30 minutes behind as they had to wait for servers to come in. When speaking to the manager they never told us this no reservation as they helped me plan the whole event and said everything was ready for us and our big party at the time I arranged and no worries. The person who called our party and was walking our party to our section to sit down suddenly disappeared and we were all wondering where we were suppose to sit and found a random server and confirmed that was the right spot. Once we got to the tables the adults didn't have all menus. Then the food was ordered and everyone was angry because they were coming out and going I have a spaghetti and meatballs and asking everyone who was the spaghetti and meatballs and all the other dishes did the same thing so they didn't know who had what. They forgot a kids meal and messed up a kids meals and completely forgot another guest who was the first one to order and he didn't get it till people were finished with meals. People were asking multiple times for items as they weren't being brought after asking. It was crazy unorganized and just a mess.

All this in mind, I wouldn't host an event at Olive Garden again but I would continue to have a...