Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

My fiancé and I came in here for a lunch date together. We waited approximately 10 minutes to get a table, which was relatively quick considering how full the restaurant was. The host was kind, friendly, and got our reservations in quickly. Once our name was called, we were sat in a more private and secluded area. Bri was our waitress and her customer service skills absolutely blew me away! She was on top of everything, very attentive, had no issues accommodating, and always had a smile on her face. I haven’t seen a more dedicated and hard working server since pre pandemic days. In my opinion, Olive Garden should feel extremely fortunate and lucky to have an outstanding asset like Bri working for them. Bri if you’re reading this by chance, thank you so much again for working effortlessly to get me that cheese grater. You have made one pregnant woman happy beyond her wildest dreams. We ordered the all you can eat soup, salad, and breadsticks. Everything looked fantastic, was made fresh to order, and tasted amazing. The chicken gnocchi soup was my personal favorite and I highly recommend dipping your breadsticks in it. It was so good, I had two bowls without feeling guilty about it. The breadsticks were soft, fluffy, full of flavor, and came delivered to our table hot out of the oven. With each bite I took, the salad had my tastebuds dancing with enjoyment and absolute delight. I had a lemonade to wash down this lovely lunch, which wasn’t too sweet or sour. It was perfectly made, which doesn’t happen very often. My fiancé had the raspberry lemonade and enjoyed it so much, he had three refills while we were there. All in all, I was really impressed and please with the entire experience my fiancé and I had this afternoon. It has been well over 15 years since I have visited an Olive Garden and we will definitely be coming back to this fabulous location...

We check in at 12:20 with call ahead seating stating our table turn was ready and possibly a 10 minute wait. Understandable. Lobby was full. The 2 hostesses seated entire lobby. We waited. More people came in. Still was by passed for another full lobby. (We are a family of 5) There was possibly 50 people seated while we still waited. We asked 3x if we were going to be seated. I went to the kitchen area and asked to speak to the manager. (Privately) He went to see why we were being bypassed. The girls told him our name was called 5 minutes earlier! My party was standing there patiently waiting. Never unkind. The 5 minutes was the 5 minutes it took to speak to the manager. My family was standing right there. 100% these 2 girls lied! He said it was in the computer we were called 5 minutes earlier. They watched me go toward the kitchen. It feels as if they added that for him to say that we were called. He got us seated. When we were seated these 2 girls went (blatantly in front of us) to tell our waitress we went and reported them to the manager to dirty her about us. This waitress never let these 2 girls words affect her. She was kind, caring and served our table with respect. We tipped her 20%. This manager NEVER came and apologized or even check up on these girls. I asked him to check how many folks were seated from 12:20 until he seated us. We live in A2 and many, many friends live here and can attest we are kind people. I am hurt for the disrespect we received and in our Building Business in this community we would never disrespect a client. Not one of Olive Gardens guests even knew we were upset. We handled it with dignity. Somebody needs reprimanded. This manager and those two young...

We love Olive Garden! We were excited to visit last night after trouble with their online waitlist system malfunctioned a few weekends ago and the waitstaff told us our alternative after being in line online for 30 minutes was to join the 40-minute in-person line when we got there...with our toddler. But that's a different issue.

What's appalling to me today is that, after visiting with my family last night, my husband got violent food poisoning after eating the seafood alfredo. My son and I, who didn't have that dish, are fine. He's been vomiting for hours.

When I called to report it to the restaurant, the manager, Darryl, first asked how he was doing (nice, I thought). "Not well," I responded. "Is he in the hospital?" I thought it was weird that she asked that? Would she be concerned then? Because it was a potential legal threat? "No, but he's been sick for hours and is in rough shape." "Well, food poisoning doesn't usually kick in until 24 hours later. Did he eat anything else yesterday?" "Well, yes, but at home, so not likely to have caused it." "Okay, well, I'll fill out an incident report, thank you. Hope he feels better."

I was calling to warn other people. I was expecting for more empathy and an offer to cover the cost of our meal, at the very least. Nope.

Unsettled, I took to Google. The CDC says food poisoning from seafood usually develops 3–6 hours after consumption, but up to 30 hours later.

Not only did she miss an opportunity to save a customer, but she was just wrong.

I hope my husband feels better soon. I also hope you're careful before you order something with seafood at...