Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Bountiful

I am just leaving two stars so this review gets noticed.

My friend and I had the weirdest experience there today.

Our waiter was Joshua P. We had just gotten there after a hike and were tired and super hungry. Joshua was nice at first. We ordered the endless soup and salad and a few drinks. He brought back the salad but no drinks. A while later, he was giving drinks to another table, and walked by us and said our soup was on the way. I said “can you bring us our drinks too, when you have a chance.” He didn’t say anything so I assumed he didn’t hear me? Later, another server brought us our soup so I asked him to give us our drinks. The second server bought them and we said “thanks so much, you are awesome!”

After that, Joshua was just cold to us in the most obvious way. Didn’t check on us, didn’t refill our “endless” food, didn’t say anything. He did put some more breadsticks on our table, to which we said “thank you,” but again, he did it without saying a word.

Eventually I called him over so we could leave, and he was abrupt and cold. When he left our table he didn’t say anything. Didn’t said “have a good night,” didn’t say anything. We even said “okay thanks so much dude!” And he legit just turned his back to us! It was so obvious and weird. I assume he figured we wouldn’t tip him well since he heard us compliment the second server (I think his name was Ethan or maybe Braden, but he was great!) Honestly, there is an easier way to correct that miscommunication with people you are serving then being cold.

I understand that everyone has bad moments, but I think even if he was offended about the drink situation, then just come over and say “so sorry about the drinks, it slipped my mind!” We didn’t care, we just wanted to eat.

I wish I would have confronted him at the restaurant and asked where his behavior was coming from to try and help the kid not be so upset and cold towards us. I hope it didn’t effect his night in the way it seemed too. I’m certain he is a good person, but that behavior was simply disappointing. Hopefully this review can spark some conversation about handling conflict and recognizing that confronting situations is easier than just ignoring the people you are serving. 🤍

No hard feelings though. I’d eat...

Pretty disappointed in what is usually mine and my husbands go to restaurant. We never have an issue with service or our overall experience but this last time was pretty bad. Our waitress was great. She was attentive and on top of refills. Me and my husband were enjoying our entrees per usual when we noticed a different waitress crying. We tried to ignore it, but it was a bit distracting especially during a fairly empty restaurant, we even noticed other guests pointing it out. While I was in the restroom she was in there cleaning up and I felt the need to ask if she was doing okay and that’s when she absolutely hit me with everything. I’ve never had such an uncomfortable experience. I was disgusted to learn about how management and other servers treat each other. She informed me that the favoritism is high and even told me all the staff to watch out for. I was shocked to hear such negative things coming from a current employee especially to a complete stranger. Me and my husband have been here countless times and have never heard or seen such horrible things, but she told me it was terrible here. I felt overwhelmed by this knowledge and obligated to inform my current waitress on the situation. I told her I didn’t feel comfortable returning to such a hostile environment. She was thoughtful and listened carefully and never once tried correcting what I was telling her. She offered for me to speak to management but after what the other waitress said I didn’t dare feel comfortable speaking with the management about the matter. I hope everything gets resolved and we can return again later down the road but for now, I have a sour taste...

We went to Olive Garden to celebrate good grades with our kids. The waitress and service was great. They split an adult entree for our 12 year old twins to share without charge. They kept us stocked on bread sticks. No complaints on service. The food was not very good though unfortunately. We've been to Olive Garden a number of times to compare this experience to previous meals. The bread sticks were overly salted. We were all trying to brush off garlic salt that was crusted onto the bread with butter. My children liked their meals (cheese pizza - how can you mess that up and ravioli) but we did not. My husband ordered spaghetti that was overcooked and almost soggy. I ordered fettuccine alfredo with chicken (always my go to). The chicken had a weird texture. It was almost like they tried to tenderize it or flatten it but it gave it a strange mouth feel that was not appetizing. My husband also tried my chicken and felt the same. I paid extra for chicken that I set aside and didn't eat. The atmosphere was typical Olive Garden dining, nothing fancy and a relaxing dining area. We were seated by the kitchen with servers frequently passing by and also loudly saying "corner" around corners or "coming in" to warn at swinging kitchen doors. It was understandable fire safety but also very distracting. My kids started getting a laugh every time the staff would loudly announce themselves. Overall I'm strongly weighing the food in this review. With prices going up I expect to at least have similar taste/value that I did before at Olive Garden and this just missed the mark. I don't think we'll return to Olive Garden...