Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbia

Our assisted living facility called ahead to let your staff know that there would be 13 of us coming to lunch on the 23rd. Unfortunately, another group showed up slightly before we did &, without asking a name because it was an unlikely happening, our "reservation" was given to them. We waited while tables were set to accommodate us & our server, Prince, was wonderful. But, a group of that size should've had 2 servers as we waited quite awhile for everything. Several ordered only the soup & salad but most, if not all of us, did get one or the other. After the first 3 bowls of salad were emptied, we asked for more of that & breadsticks. After a wait, we were told your restaurant had run out of salad, they sent someone out for an ingredient run, breadsticks were just put in the oven but neither was expected to be available before we were ready to leave. Prince was very apologetic & continued to try to accommodate us. One had to send her order back & it came back to her still wrong. We asked to speak to the manager & Larry came out. She told him what was wrong with her meal & we mentioned about the lack of salad & breadsticks. He literally rolled his eyes when I then said I had ordered the $6 cold to-go add-on meal & was given a hot one. He said he'd only charge those who ordered soup & salad for the soup & he agreed to comp the incorrect meal. It took forever to get what we needed & instead of the manager offering to help, he kept saying Prince would take care of it. That young man was probably overwhelmed but he, Prince, continued to smile. Larry should have comped everything for the soup & salad people & he never once apologized yet Prince did. Larry was a terrible example of what a good boss should be. He left our group of 13 with a poor impression. We may be seniors but drinks were ordered & this was close to a a $300 tab. As we were nearly getting ready to leave, out come 3 more bowls of salad & fresh breadsticks. Needless to say, we took boxes back. We feel Larry needs more...

Went to the location on Harbison Thursday night (May 29th) to celebrate my son's graduation. We were sat a table 70 right in front of the kitchen entrance. We sat there for 10mins until a server came got our drink order. After she had brought us our drinks we gave our order. We sat another 10mins before we received our soup. We never received our bread sticks or our Alfredo boat nor did we get offered cheese for our soups. My ex ordered the soup and salad and never received her salad. After finishing our soup I told the waitress that we are still missing a salad and bread and the sauce for the bread. Finally she brought it out to us. She never brought a plate for the salad. My ex decided enough was enough and went to talk to a manager. My son and I overheard our waitress tell the table right next to us about her night being busy and customers being rude. We felt attacked. And she gave me a look as she walked back towards the kitchen. At this point my daughter still has not received her entree. And we never saw the waitress again. The manager came and told us that he was very sorry for what had happened and he told us do not worry about paying for anything. I don't often write reviews nor do I like to complain I understand serving as a busy job and it's not easy but this was a special night for my son's graduation that was not so special. I hope the server that served us that night understands that she ruined a night for us and that wasn't right and I don't like to wish anything bad upon people but I do not think she should be employed has a server anywhere if that's how she continues to treat people. We literally had to ask her for soup, salad, plates, food, my son's drink to be refilled, cheese boat, breadsticks, we had to ask for everything and then we were treated rudely...

Went for lunch with my mom and granddaughter. Took along time to get our food. Granddaughter didn’t eat her pizza because she was not feeling well. So I asked for to go box. When I picked up the pizza to put it in the to go container, I saw it was black on the bottom. This was the kind of black from looks like a dirty oven and a burnt pizza, even my 9 year old granddaughter said it looked nasty. I had already paid for my food. So I went to ask for a credit on the pizza. My 84 year old mother took my 9 year old grandchild on out to the car while I waited because grandchild wasn’t feeling well. I sat there at least 20 more minutes waiting for the refund on the pizza. Finally I went up to the counter, and waited on the customer ahead of me. So how many other transactions had I already been back at my table waiting on them to take care of. So then the staff takes a look at my ticket again and goes to get another a manger. Mind you, I’ve been waiting already about 20-25 minutes. The second manager comes out, doesn’t speak, non apologetic and commences to doing something in the computer with my bill. I had paid partly with a gift card and the remainder was on my debit card. I told her at this point she just should refund my debit card portion and just keep the gift card since it seemed to be such a big ordeal. This manager loudly says this is for the food you ate. So I in turn responded back to her, that my granddaughter was served a black dirty pizza! This manager in no way offers to compensate, apologize or anything that sort. Instead, she runs my debit card again to recharge it and sarcastically tells me to have a nice day. The prices were outrageously high and it was freezing cold in the restaurant. I will never be a customer at this Olive...