Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Cary

The restaurant wasn't busy, but after ordering, it was disappointing when I mentioned I had a online account and wanted to give my phone number attached to get my points, for I've done that in every other Olive Gardens, but our waitress..I believe her name was Sharon? Was animate though they had posters and the ordering tablet at the table we sat at and all of them, that they did not do that?? Seems strange to advertise, have the tablets but not use the system for the loyal customers who go here and should be able to earn towards food rewards.. the salad was good, but the 3 breadsticks were a tad cold, and no more were offered during our meal, the Eggplant Parmigiano was ok.. hot but not much sauce and it was lacking enough spaghetti..as well my tea was close to empty but couldn't get attention of server so it was never refilled, so.. after dining then sitting there never checked on not even once ( this at a not busy hour, and not many dining so no excuse for it) as well if it was mentioned I would had gotten desert but no desert offered so lost money for Olive Garden, and my pet peeve,, sitting 35 minutes after we were done and not having the bill brought over.. I finally got her attention and she slowly brought the bill to us, it was close to $30 for lunch for the 2 of us, this no appetizers, no deserts just the meal and a very expensive glass of iced tea, and though I wasn't to happy with the experience I still left a 25% tip..this after watching the waitress stand around and chatting..and even on departure I had to ask a couple times for a 2 takeout boxes..that slowly was brought, but then no bag to put it in.. so another 5mins to get a bag to put the boxes in.. maybe the waitress was having a 'Off Day' but if you spend hard earned money, leave good tips and don't complain, shouldn't I expect just a nice lunch with good service? For after not "dining in" for months, after spending a long morning at a Drs.office, after spending more money than it was worth, and after not being able to have my Olive Garden account not credited for our purchased meal.. and though the waitress was friendly enough when she came to take the order.. she just was not good at her job..at least not that day.. I really looked forward to dining here, but after this experience it will be a long time before I do again..hope that perhaps this be read as not an insult but as a chance to see how to improve your establishment.. I hope to try and stop in again oneday, but perhaps requesting a different server..til then for others considering dining here, if it was this way not busy, you definitely won't want to come in at noon or if they look busy.. for you may end up having an...

My two friends and I went to Olive Garden tonight, one of our favorite restaurants, and were very surprised by the poor service we received. It was certainly the worst we have ever experienced at any restaurant. First, we waited roughly ten to fifteen minutes to be greeted (which was not a big deal at all, since we assumed they were just busy). Then, when our waitress came to take our drink orders, it was clear she was not happy to be serving us. She barely said a word and seemed annoyed by us being “young” and only ordering waters to drink. The next time she came to the table, she raised her voice from roughly 10 feet just to ask if we were on one or two checks (which is a little odd considering we had not even ordered and we usually use the tablets on the tables to pay anyways), she then took our orders without saying a word. She went above and beyond to display her displeasure in serving us both verbally and non-verbally. Instead of asking each of us what we wanted, she looked at the next person as if she was annoyed that we were wasting her time, then walked away without saying a thing. Our salad came, but no bread ever made it to the table. When other tables were sat near us, however, we listened to how differently she interacted with them. These tables all received “Yes ma’am’s” and smiles, but she did not speak to us only mumbles or complete silence. The difference between our service and other tables was laughable and made it clear she was capable of being kind, but chose not to be when she was speaking to our table. Further, the table beside us also received bread before we ever did, despite arriving 20 minutes after us and instead of asking if we wanted any bread or more salad, our waitress took our salad bowl and asked to take our appetizer plates as if she were clearing our table and sending us out of the restaurant before we got our food. Was truly a very weird experience, I hope she’s doing okay. Needless to say, we were incredibly uncomfortable and decided to ask for the manager.

I never write reviews, or ask for the manager, but todays interaction compelled me to do both. I mainly wanted to write this review because of the amazing experience we had with the manager, Teresa. She went above and beyond to listen to our concerns and to make us feel heard and understood. She did her best to make up for the poor/weird service we received, and helped us get to go boxes and bread, since we were no longer wanting to dine in. Teresa is absolutely the reason we will be returning in the future, and we really appreciate her...

So im gonna be 100% honest in this review. Tonight my folks and i went to this location and got there a little after 4:30pm and we were seated pretty much right away. Thats the only good thing about the evening. My folks and i ordered our drinks and an order of breadsticks like we normally do. However it took us literally 20-25 minutes to get the damn breadsticks. The waitress did not even ask us if we wanted any dipping sauce for the breadsticks! Then after getting them point my folks and i were like screw it and may as well order considering how the night was going. So we placed our order and to me it was a pretty simple order. I ordered the cheese ravioli with light sauce and no baked on cheese which no telling if the waitress even cared enough to write it down. My mom ordered egg plant parm with light sauce to have it on angel hair and no baked on cheese. My dad ordered a simple bowl of rigatoni with meat sauce. I am not kidding that took at least another half hour to get the meals and when we did they of course screwed up the order! there was baked cheese on top of what my mom and i ordered and they put regular spaghetti on my moms after we simplly asked them not to. They didn't even have my dads order on the tray. They took the meals back And when they were brought back the ravioli was sub par and luke warm at best! They still didn't have my dads order. The waitress finally came over and saw my dad had nothing. She put a so called rush on the meal and when she brought it over it looked like it had been under a heat lamp at 7/11! So my dad quickly ate and he had just asked for the check which took the waitress 10-15 minutes to bring that! The so called manager, lady with glasses said she took some money off the order which my dad saw no discount! mind you we didn't order alcohol or desert! It took the waitress another 10 minutes to bring back a whole $6 back to us! We did receive a few insincere apologies from the waitress who i think had her pig tails too tight and that bull ring on her septum im sure wasnt helping her cause! This is one restaurant we will be avoiding from here on out! this place is absolutely horrible and would not recommend anyone eat here if they value their sanity and just want a good meal without a hassle of a screw up! I expect this kind of crap to happen with Mcdonalds but not Olive Garden! This location should really be shut down or hire a whole new staff who knows what they doing and dont lack common sense and decency! Olive...