Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Bismarck

I went into my local Olive Garden in Bismarck about a week or two ago. The appetizers and soups and salad were great however our service was very slow and our drinks weren't refilled once. We assumed our server who was also the bartender was just a little busy so we didnt say anything. When I got my meal I had the chicken alfredo and my chicken was so overcooked it felt like I was biting into a rubber bouncy ball. I wasnt mad at that time I figured I'd just let my server know and see if I could have the chicken remade. She argued with me that that is how its cooked and that different chicken has different textures as though I'd never tried grilled chicken in my life. After 2/5 mins of refusing to accept that the chicken could be overcooked the server offered to have my meal remade asking me if I wanted my chicken pink at which point I became concerned that my only options were overcooked chicken or undercooked chicken so I ordered my meal with no chicken. She never had her manager speak to me and I let the situation go and went home. Upon getting home I was looking at my receipt and noticed that I had still been charged $4 extra for the chicken. I called the restaurant to see if they could refund me the $4 as I had to have it remade and didnt get my chicken. At which point the manager asked me to walk them through the situation as I did the manager also started to argue with me and tell that I was wrong and didnt know what I was talking about. At which point I proceeded to inform her that she wasnt there and couldn't possibly know what happened and offered to have her speak with my dining companion and he could tell her what he heard which was the same as me. She refused. I asked her to refund the chicken $4 after arguing with me for another 5 mins on the phone about the situation she then offered to refund my meal. This was my first experience dining at olive garden and I am appalled by the lack of customer service they displayed. I never intended to escalate the situation and as a server myself I can tell you that this restaurant at least the Bismarck location doesn't have the basis of costumer service which is that the customer is always right. I spent nearly $90 on a meal for 2 people including a very generous tip for very poor service. I would never recommend...

Update from 2 years ago: much better service

So I love the unlimited soup, salad, and breadstick, which makes this so sad to give the restaurant 2-stars instead of 5. What this rating comes down to is the terrible service that I have received the last two times I visited (we had the same waitress both times). On the first visit, she told us it was her first week on the job so we were pretty forgiving. We pinned her unfriendliness on just being awkward and overly busy. When she almost spilled water and dropped leftovers on my baby's head, I figured she must have been really nervous.

A month later, I came back, and I had the same server again. She was more friendly this time but still real quirky. The service was mediocre but then when my non-techy friend asked for help with the bill, the server was somewhat insulting and quickly entered in information and then made my friend pay for my bill. I realized the mistake as soon as it was my turn to pay, but it was too late at that time. So we turned on the assistance needed light on the tablet, and we waited.... And waited... And waited. 15 minutes passed by and then I went to a very helpful busser and he finally got the waitress to come back.

The waitress then tried to blame the problem on us even though she had been the one to enter in the information and I had to refocus her attention on "let's not blame; let's fix it so we all can get on with our lives." Well she finally went and got her manager, then we were refunded and were billed correctly.

Anyway, Red Lobster and La Carreta and many other restaurants in the area have similar quality food but have really well trained servers.

I most likely won't be back to Olive Garden unless I hear some really great things from...

Last night, we had just finished a long day at the zoo. My workplace sponsored a customer appreciation day there so I literally finished at work, ran home and changed, then met my boyfriend and his daughter there. I've been feeling under the weather lately, so spending a few hours outside in the muggy heat did not help. We just wanted to eat quick because we were starving and his daughter wanted olive garden so we went there. We were seated immediately and told our waiter would come momentarily. We waited a bit and a young gentleman took our drink orders (you could tell he may have been new, but very nice). We waited probably another 10 min and received our drinks from the manager, telling us our waiter should come shortly. We waited at least another 20 min, our waiter passing our table multiple times, not stopping to take our order. I think the manager could tell we were getting antsy, so she came over and asked if she could take our order. The rest of our visit, the manager took care of us. She definitely made up for our wait; she was friendly, personable, and we loved all of her recommendations for food. We had forgotten all about our wait in the beginning and were ready to pay for our tab. However, she informed us that our food was paid for and that we should enjoy the rest of the evening (she even gave us extra food to go!!). We left a tip at the table but I wanted to make sure to reach out and let Bismarck's Olive Garden know that she was fabulous! She went over and beyond great customer service and we appreciated her generosity so much! She was a manager on the evening of 6/14/19, I really wish I could remember her name. So please reiterate to her how amazing she treated us and it definitely made our night!...