Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Channelview

I gave them a 5 star review because I have been to this location several times always doing the take out thing so although the atmosphere got a 5 I imagine they are mostly all the same and other locations the atmosphere was busy for workers but always seemed a good dining out experience. The service is always great here, never a problem with that! The food got a 4 only because the prior times other than my Birthday that just passed were actually very good! But on my Birthday we ordered as we always do and went and got it, everything was great as usual! But, we got home and the food actually was terrible! Not even close to a 4, more like 1 and that would have been pushing it! I'm guessing they may have hired new kitchen help, I wouldn't call anyone a "chef" at a chain restaurant... I was dumbstruck because the food was always so good and then I guess it was 3 months later or ago since we last ate there and within 3 months the food was terrible! The Fettuccine Alfredo which was always very good was so bland and powdery, it was just terrible, everything! I hate giving bad reviews so if I do give one, everyone knows now that the place is trash! But, it being my Birthday I wanted to really elaborate on the whole bad experience! I hope they make the necessary change or changes soon because this was one of the best locations after visiting several throughout the Houston area! Unfortunately now though, I wouldn't recommend going here or go myself again for quite sometime or unless management reads this and reaches out to me to express their apologies on my Birthday dinner that I didn't even really eat and let's me know they realized the change, recognized it, and fixed whatever the issue was. Probably a new cook and or cook staff I would imagine is the change that made everything terrible. I sure hope they get back to what it has been not so long ago but even if they do I won't know because I won't be back unless I do get some feedback from management. I suppose it could be it was just a bad day/night but again, who knows.... I do know 80 plus dollars for dinner that night for 3 of us wasn't too bad but sure was a lot for bad food! Just for added information I got the Tour of Italy, all of it was terrible and every other time everything was...

I’m guessing these employees are poorly trained. I ran a restaurant as a GM for 8 years and I would have had to do remedial training on a team if I saw what I saw tonight. We were told it was a 45 minute wait which turned into nearly a 1 and a half hour wait. I watched as multiple walk ins that were not waiting before us got seated within minutes. We were a party of 8 with 4 children ( three of them 3 years of age). The entire time I observed a chaotic scene. I witnessed a crew running back and forth and mixing orders up. I witnessed a team in the back of house looking completely lost. I witnessed a manager trying to resolve two different issues while another was on the phone with another issue. After 50 minutes a party of 10 adults walked in and were seated immediately. That was the final straw. We wanted to know why they were seated first and were simply told they had been waiting longer than us. I heard them walk in and say we have 10 people and immediately the host said ok follow me. They were not waiting the entire time but guess who was? Us for the last hour. The manager lied to us and more than likely gave our table away. They kept telling us “we are cleaning the table” 20 minutes of cleaning the table later we eventually got seated. Two individuals who appeared to be managers were talking near the table that we were to be seated at and had a non chalent attitude about what just occurred. No apologies. No sense of urgency. Nothing. The two waiters that took our order were very non accommodating and had more excuses about what they could not do than could. Needless to say the entire experience was inferior and not consistent with Olive Gardens’ customer...

From the moment we walked in last night, we were greeted by friendly smiling faces. The hostesses were very quick to ask how many were in our party and if we needed any children's menus. I thought we would have a long wait time and was very surprised when we were immediately taken to our table. My party was not large, but I was still expecting to wait longer to be seated. Our hostess told us our waiter would be with us shortly and he was. I believe his name was Kevin. He was very busy since it was crowded last night. His demeanor and service was great. The food was delicious. Our family dinner experience was one of the best we have ever had. Table check out was easy and as we left we were again greeted by the hostesses with words of thanks and to have a good night. Well done all. Thank you. Keep up the good work. UDATE 8/26/2023-- The manager "Emily" was a Godsend. We had made a reservation well in advance at a different location farther away from us for a mini family reunion of 22 people. The morning of our celebration, I received a call from that location stating that they were unable to satisfy our reservation arrangements. I had reconfirmed the day before that all was fine. Long story short...I called and spoke to Emily at the Wallisville location to explain my situation. She proceeded to assure me that they had no problem accommodating our family celebration. Even though they don't take reservations, they could certainly take care of us. They did just that. It was an awesome time and great food thanks to Emily. She was a lifesaver and the waitress and waiter that took are of us were awesome....