Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Charleston

I have to start by saying, I am a fan of Olive Garden, in general. The Huntington Mall location is one of my favorite places to eat.

But this location just ain’t it. We waited for over a half hour to be seated, which is fine and to be expected during dinner hours. So, no complaints about the wait time.

But they took us to a booth that was literally too small for me to sit in comfortably. I am not a small man, but I have never not been able to fit in a restaurant booth before. For reference, I am 5’8 - 250 lbs. I could barely breathe in that booth, and definitely couldn’t eat a meal there.

So, we asked if they could move us to a table. They said we would have to go back on the wait list. We were there for my daughter’s birthday dinner, so we said that was fine, we would wait. It was another 30 minutes, before my wife went back to the hostess to see how long the wait would be. They had forgotten to put us back in the system.

So, they had seated literally everyone else in the waiting area, and there we sat. Finally, after almost an hour the 2nd time, we were seated at a table, and got to have our meal.

The Salad was great, very fresh, and not the least bit soggy. One of the better salads I’ve had from Olive Garden. My wife and daughter loved their soups. Then, the entree was just ok. Nothing special, really.

We actually had pretty good service when we finally got in. The booths are just way too small the average person around here. If you are not a skinny person, be sure to request a table, because you will not fit in most of the booths at this place.

Also, i was upcharged for the soup that was supposed to come with the meal for my wife and daughter. My total bill was around $115.00 (tip included) I did tip 18% in spite of the lackluster performance in getting us seated. It was the waitress’s fault we weren’t seated for that long, or that the booth...

TINA & HER TEAM OF SERVERS ARE WHAT KEEPS THIS PLACE AFLOAT!!

This place was just okay but we had an incredible server named TINA who made this a great experience.

I'd like to give TINA 5/5 stars and someone needs to promote her to a management position. We were seated promptly by the hostesses and immediately TINA came by and apologized for the delay. She had probably 5 or 6 tables already and managed to be an accommodating incredible server to everyone.

The food here is just your standard typical Olive Garden. Nothing special; however, I had never seen such a hard working server here at Olive Garden other than this Kind waitress Tina.

One of the managers even came by to greet us and asked if we needed anything. We asked him for two separate items and he forgot to return to bring either back. It made me question the hiring choices at this Olive Garden Establishment because the managers should be just as attentive, if not more attentive to the diners than the servers.

I know this place was busy when we were here, but it seemed like the management for the evening enjoyed walking around and talking with the diners instead of actually lending a helping hand to the very busy servers. I in fact made eye contact with the one manager a handful of times who never stopped by at our table until we were getting ready to go. Not going to fault him for this, but it's shocking to see the difference in work ethic between the male managers of this Olive Garden and the diligent female servers and hostesses.

Hopefully Olive Garden can improve working conditions for all employees because it's the hard working women like TINA who will build and grow...

WORST OLIVE GARDEN IN THE UNITED STATES

I really wish there was a review warning me about the lack of cleanliness, health and safety, and the complete disregard for guest welfare at this location. Since there wasn't, I'll provide one for the rest of you in high hopes that you'll heed this warning.

I'll start with, the servers are likely the ONLY people keeping this place in business.

We arrived early for lunch and there was no excuse for what we experienced. To say the kitchen needs an update in food safety training is a stark understatement.

One of the downsides about visiting restaurants around the country is sometimes you visit a place so disgusting, so gnarly, and with such disregard for food safety that you end up with food illness and a horrid set of symptoms which I won't describe here.

The greasy feel and fingerprints on our table , the entrance door, and every other surface we passed should've turned us around. To our detriment, we gave this location the benefit of the doubt.

When reported, the manager was dismissive and indifferent. When a food service professional cares nothing about its customers reporting food illness after dining at their location, it's completely telling of an environment in which this has likely happened many times before.

As someone whose sense of smell and taste have remained intact and at peak function before/during/after the COVID-19 pandemic, I urge you, DO NOT EAT HERE.

If you experience food illness symptoms after dining here (or anywhere in the area) contact environmental services with the Kanawha County Health Department.

The people of Charleston...