Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Brunswick

Update 3/2/2020: Both the corporate office and the new GM reached out to me within 36 hours to correct the issues we experienced. We went back a week later (2/29) around the same time to try again and this time was a 180 from the first. None of the staff was arguing, the food came out correctly and promptly and tasted much better. I appreciate that the GM also took time to call to fix the issues herself, not just relying on the corporate office. We'll return and I hope the next experience mirrors this one and not the first.

2/22/2020. Seated at roughly 7:20 pm, left at 9 pm. Party of 3 seated in the "cafe".

Pros: The stuffed cheese shells were good. For a Saturday night (2/22) @ 7ish the wait wasn't awful. Shrimp fritta appetizer was good.

Cons: The worst experience I've ever had at an Olive Garden and in my top 5 worst experiences at a restaurant period.

Extremely unprofessional staff. Several employees loudly discussed how another employee messed up the tickets for a large party and that they obviously needed to go back to training on large parties. Several tables were looking as this transpired as it was behind the bar and involved about 5 employees. Drinks served, no straws. Requested straws. Received straws after requesting them a second time. Got straws about 10 minutes after drinks were served. Salad was served 15 minutes in with 3 breadsticks (that we had to ask for because they didn't bring them out). Waitress stated that was the only breadsticks she could get because the kitchen was low. Salad was underdressed and served with 2 whole black olives and 1solid slice of tomato--which was the top piece with the stem remnant that you don't usually plate. Breadsticks inedible due to the large amount of salt on them. Scraped them off the best we could and ate 2. Asked for new ones and she said once they were out of the oven she'd bring them. We ordered the shrimp fritta (or something to the effect) with the sauce on the side and 2 of the endless stuffed pastas. Scampi sauce didn't come on the side when served, had to ask the server for it. First round of stuffed shells were good. Shrimp was good. Had to ask for drink refills, one glass was completely empty at this point as it's been roughly an hour since we were seated. Ordered a chocolate mousse for my daughter and my 2nd dish of the pasta. Asked if we were going to be able to get the breadsticks we requsted (roughly an hour has passed at this point). 5 minutes later the server comes back with exactly two breadsticks (she had to "fight" for these 2 because of the shortage) (they were also still inedible due to the salt) and says they only have the berry cheesecake because the others are still frozen. She asked if I wanted to take home a frozen one or maybe get the chocolate lasagna. I told her I didn't want to pay almost $8 for a slice of cake my daughter wouldn't even eat half of. She shrugged and apologized again and asked if I wanted her to remove the mousse from the bill or take home a frozen one. I declined and asked her to remove it. She goes to, I assume, remove it and comes back with our bill. At this point I haven't even received the 2nd dish of pasta I ordered and I'm being given the bill. She then brings us over 4 Andes mints and says she's giving us these chocolates because of the mousse issue. The complimentary mints that are given to all guests with their bill. 2nd dish of pasta arrives. And right on top is the entire green tomato stem, chunk of tomato still attached and all. I gave her the food back and asked if you guys had new cooks or something since everything went the way it did. She said almost all of the staff was changed, including the manager, very recently.

At this point, I paid our bill and left to go find my daughter the chocolate dessert I...

We actually love Olive Garden's food. But highly disappointed in the customer service at Olive Garden in Brunswick, GA. We went to enjoy a family dinner on a Monday night. It was not busy but when my children and I walked in there were two hostess at the front counter with a server standing in front of the counter with his back to us. Now I waited patiently and instead of saying oh we can take you over here or letting the waitor know we were there one of the hostesses motions to me in an abrupt, harsh way pointing her finger at me to the other hostess. She never said a word. I could not believe that she was motioning at me like a child who was getting on her nerves but I let it roll off my shoulder thinking I will just make it through dinner and just let thw manager know so they might work on their hostessing skills. I text my husband to let him know that we were seated in a booth near the front right. He shortly comes in and explains that he came in and was not greeted at all and he even said in a cheery voice hey how are y'all tonight and three people stood there and said nothing didn't even acknowledge he a possible paying customer had just walked in the door and done their job. I could not stay I was furious that we paying customers people that help pay their pay check were being treated with such rudeness. We are a family of four who would order drinks(I was planning on some coffee), appetizers, food/entrees, and even dessert plus we are very generous tippers(I don't say that to brag on us as a family but both my husband and I have worked in the SERVICE industry so we get it... And isn't interesting that it's literally called the service industry and these people were the hostesses they clearly don't get any part of their job I'm not saying sing and dance for us when we come in but really you cannot even say hi when a paying customer walks in and greets you) all that to say they lost at least a $60 bill+ tip AT LEAST plus not sure we will go back anytime soon due to this incident. I did ask to speak to the manager I explained that we did not want anytbing I just wanted to let him know what we experienced so that hopefully they can work on this he asked if we wanted to still dine in and we declined. Nothing much to say about the manager because he really didn't have much to say he did apologize and agreed that this was not acceptable, just including that so you have...

Wellllllll...... I was disappointed greatly because of numerous things. First it took enough time for a party of 6 to be seated next to us, greeted by their server, their drink & app order taken, drinks brought back to their table, & a refill later BEFORE our server ever came to the table. Then when we finally did order.... they were out of my fav sauce (creamy mushroom) because 'the sauce did not meet their expectations of good'. I understand that the batch you made wasn't exceptional as it should have been but make another batch. So our server asked if there was something else. NO! I came to eat a specific dish! So she excused herself for a moment while she spoke with the chef. (Added plus on her part) He said he could saute mushrooms & put them with alfredo sauce ... this is as close as they could get to it. I agreed that I'd try it. (This was the beginning of a down hill spiral to complete disappointment!) Server was lack in customer care after this point. Finally got my soup & my guests salad. Drinks went unfilled. After the table next to us got their app, their refills, their food, paid their bill, and had been gone approx 15 mins we finally got our food. The attempt at creamy mushroom was not a hit. I ate probably 3 bites & pushed it away. Server returned (finally) & asked how it was ... I just said 'it's not creamy mushroom'. Which in honesty I appreciate the thought but it wasn't good...AT ALL! THEN we got our bill and I got charged for substituting the creamy mushroom for alfredo sauce. Ok... the fact that it was not available was OUT OF MY CONTROL! And then you charge me (without even stating the fact that it's a charge in the first place to sub) for a lack of something that was completely out of my control! Needless to say it will be a while before we return to this location! Oh I do need to mention the manager came by our table and "apologized" for taking so long but 'my "special" dish would take a lil longer to create'. Something that wasn't relayed to me at time of order. I was so disgusted with it all at this point I just nodded with as blank look as I possibly could because I was so ticked off by such a comment. I would have rather her said nothing at all to me us! The 2 stars are for the delicious breadsticks that were fresh out of the oven, the delicious gnocchi soup, & my guests both said that their food...