Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene

Not the family environment it once was:

My husband and I took our two young nephews here last night, because my husband had never been to the Olive Garden in all his 45 years.

The food was fine and what you’d expect if you’re someone who HAD eaten there before.

The staff was another story. While our waitress was friendly, it became evident that she was high, along with at least two other waitresses. Running back and forth, starting something at our table and then taking off, making crazy faces (smiling and squinting one second and grimacing the next) sweaty, talking a mile a minute…the whole thing.

The scary thing was that these waitresses that were each maybe 90 pounds soaking wet, we’re carrying big full trays very closely over our heads as we sat at a table in the middle of the section we were in. Nevermind the fact that we had kids there, one of whom, coincidentally, had just come from a traumatic situation with his mother who is an addict, and he has been placed with us. He is ten years old and he said “is it Just me or are these waitresses tweeking?” (Yep.)

When we left, my husband called to speak to a manager. He very kindly and calmly said he just wanted to make them aware, (in case by some crazy chance they hadn’t noticed) that half of their wait staff was high.

The manager, Stacy, was defensive and fired questions at my husband saying, “ok but was she rude? Did she not give Good service? Were you Not taken care of? Was your food bad?”

My husband just said, “ you know, it’s ok you have a good night.” ….Because clearly the manager was aware but didn’t care. (she WAS talking pretty fast, so who knows…. )

Needless to say, we didn’t have any meaningful conversaron or engagement with our server, I held my breath every time one of them flew by with a big tray over their head (and ours). And I left feeling like this was not the Olive Garden experience I had expected or wanted my family to have.

I felt sad for the waitress who told us, “ I work open to close. There’s no Set time for closing it’s just whenever it’s done.” That explains a lot….

“Olive Garden…. When you’re here you’re family” ( at the expense of the overworked 40 something waitress who is developing a meth habit to keep her job....

My boyfriend and are spending the weekend in Coeur ďAlene for a mini vacation. We came from Cheney, Washington, not super far but still a drive. At the motel we are staying at we seen a commercial for Olive Garden, he hasn't eaten there much, today was his second time but like my 10th time. Let me just say the food was amazing. From our perfectly made appetizer, to our first course of Meal. All the way to the main course. The Chicken Parmigiana was by far some of the best. The side of spaghetti noodles with spaghetti sauce went beautifully together with the chicken. It was perfectly seasoned. Wasn't to salty either. My boyfriend had the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo and he said it was amazing. We choose the 5 Cheese Marinara for the sauce for our bread sticks, because our server Devon H suggested it. Saying it was his personal favorite for the bread sticks. My boyfriend was not sure about eating the salad because he does like to choose his salad dressing, but after trying a bite he realized that the dressing they use on all the salad was amazing also. The portions were big enough for us to take leftovers back to our motel for a midnight snack. Now let's talk about our server, Devon H he was to put it simply was AMAZINGLY AWSOME. Right away Devon H made us feel welcomed, respected and heard. He was able to find things out of thin air to relate to us about. At first my boyfriend and I felt a bit out of place due to our many visible tattoos and piercings. But Devon H helped us to lesson our anxiety and feel totally comfortable. Wevtruly enjoyed ourselves tonight and had a fabulous time. Devon H is an amazing server and is right on top of his service. I didn't have quite enough to give him the tip I felt he so deserved. I did give him what I could. If you would like my opinion as a manager of a food service place in Spokane, Devon H is an amazing host. He definitely has a way to make his customers feel comfortable when they feel totally out of their comfort zone. So I would definitely recommend going to this Olive Garden and we will be back when come to visit again. Thank you so much Devon H you are amazing and totally appreciated by us....

Sad to report I had a TERRIBLE experience with my most recent order - so bad that I didn't finish my food, and apparently what I did finish was bad enough to give me FOOD POISONING so bad I had to take the next day off work! Even though we've never had a bad experience at this Olive Garden before. I ordered carryout for 3 people- all three of us ordered a pasta dish, two of us chose the chicken & gnocchi soup, the other chose the salad, and 18 bread sticks to share. Neither of us could even FINISH our Alfredo pasta dishes because the sauce just tasted bland and off. The shrimp in mine had a pungent metallic taste. The soup tasted bland, and all the breadsticks tasted like they'd been undercooked and left out too long. They also had a pungent metallic taste. None of us finished our dinner, and the other didn't even touch the salad for fear this would be bad too. We called about an hour later after picking at our food and finding everything unsatisfactory and were offered a full refund. We accepted and were told it can take "up to 48 hours" to see the refund. All THREE OF US has gastro issues the next day. Mine was so bad that I stayed home from work and rested, going to the bathroom every hour and having awful stomach cramps. And honestly, I may not have written this review if I had received my full $95 refund, but I didn't! I placed the order on the 12th, the full charge posted on the 14th, and today we called again to see what the issue was. We were told that the "refund has already been put through"! And now they're telling us that we just need to wait longer for it, and then gave a bunch of excuses as to why we couldn't have possibly gotten sick from their food because of their food safety and holding temps, even though we were nothing but polite. Absolutely unacceptable on every level! Poor food quality, poor taste, poor attitude from customer service, and lack of transparency in the refund process. Would NEVER...