Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbia

Genuinely the worst Olive Garden I have ever been to. I only gave them 1 star because you cannot give them 0. First, we were not even asked to be served a drink for 40 minutes of being in the restaurant sitting at the table. 3 different servers told us that they would be back to take our order & then did not. Finally I went & told the host that we had been there for over 30 minutes & not even ordered drinks yet or been provided with a water. When we finally got our order taken, they messed every single thing up about the order (the only thing they got right was the salad & breadsticks which are impossible to mess up). After waiting an additional 30 minutes after ordering (& drink orders being messed up several times) we asked one of the servers if our food was being close to done because we had an appointment to get to.we allowed ourselves an hour & 40 minutes to have lunch. At this point we had been at the restaurant over an hour. The one server (one of the 3 that were helping us?) told us that the food wasn’t even started yet. We then told them to cancel it & we will just pay for the salad & breadsticks & drinks but that we needed to leave because of our appointment. They then told us that it was ready so we asked for it to be boxed so we could take it to go because we didn’t have time to eat at this point. The manager came out & was very apologetic & told us they would give us a discount. However, when we went to pay on the kiosk- the total had been cut in half by 50% ($66 total after discount) The kiosk wasn’t working & we tried 3 different cards so I asked them to run the card manually at the register. When we got the ticket back, it was all of the sudden only reduced by 25% (total $101) they also gave us the incorrect itemized receipt. After asking about why the total went up by $40 he said that the discount was applied & pointed at it & walked off. Oh & the best part? Attached is a picture of my 6 oz sirloin with fettuccine that was supposed to be MEDIUM RARE. I literally threw it away. -100/10 would not recommend eating at this location, EVER. Totally ruined my best friends wedding dress shopping day. Oh & we were also late to the...

It was my 75th birthday, and was looking forward to going out for dinner. I chose Olive Garden. I normally order Pena , but decided to get the cheese Rivoli. Big mistake. The Rivoli did not have Ricotta cheese. In fact I barely got any cheese at all. There was only a sliver of some sort of melted cheese. It was horrible. I only ate one , and ate the only meatball I asked for when ordering. The meatball was very good. Additionally, we got Calarmari, as our appetizer. That was also a disappointment. They were not the small tender, slightly battered piecels. They were extremely large pieces piled on top of each other, and most of the breading (which was very different) was falling off. The bill was over $120.00, so I doubt we'll ever go back there again. Sorry, Olive Garden, you've lost your way on this one!

UPDATE: 2/28/2023 I received a prompt reply to this review from Olive Garden, which was very surprising and much appreciated. They not only emailed a reply, but additionally followed up with a personal phone call from the owner. Very few businesses will care enough to reply at all.

As I spoke to the owner, I was assured that my next visit would be excellent, and even asked for suggestions!

I am so impressed with the way this was handled that my family and I will go again. I've been to many Olive Garden restaurants in the past and always had a very good experience, so I'm definitely going to try it again. Most situations deserve a second chance, especially when they truly care.

In lieu of this update, I will try to revise the stars. Being elderly, I'm not sure I can accomplish this, ...

Stopped in at 345 pm on a Tuesday and were greeted with.... No one. Just a couple waiting to be seated. When the host finally came, we were told "I'm sorry we're completely full, it will be a few minutes and we'll have more servers on." Interestingly we watched four tables clear while we waited on the host. The restaurant itself was nearly empty which makes sense, it was a Tuesday afternoon. Three groups came in behind us including some elderly folks that clearly could have used some chairs. While we were waiting, a server left and asked a couple to stand from their bench because she had stashed her purse in there. This is all within about ten minutes. I assumed they were working without a manager considering you would never want to rush your kitchen at a non prime time... And then a manager walked by, spoke to the host, and walked into the back with the host.

At this point, there were 12 people waiting to be seated, 15 people had cleared from their tables, 1 server had left, 1 server had come in, and someone in the bar was attempting not to be seen by the crowd at the front of the restaurant. I asked to speak to the manager when the host came back... And was promptly greeted by a manager other than the one I had already seen. So they had two managers on and couldn't bother to even seat people to get them started on bread sticks and water. That was enough for me.

This was on the heels of having the greatest experience at an Olive garden ever at Times Square. The Olive garden in Columbia has really taken a nose dive since being hit by that truck. Didn't realize it damaged their common sense on top of...