Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in The Woodlands

Went there with family first meal out as group we had party of 9. Wait time was good. Personally, I am a very patient and understanding/empathetic person, but last night the waiter rubbed me the wrong way and my whole dining experience was not great at all. When I go out to eat at a restaurant I order well and tip at least 20 percent. As a pregnant woman I had my mind set on my order which would of been around 20 bucks for my plate plus I was going to order that yummy looking/tasting cheesecake. When my fiance asked the waiter about the never ending pasta the guy explained because of the pandemic the company was losing money and would go bankrupt if they offered that but they had the take home dish option which was cool we planned to do that in addition to our dinner order. Then once everyone in the family got their and we asked for breadsticks and salad for the table because going out for dinner we all intended to order entrees which have always included breadsticks and salad. Plus a couple of appetizer were ordered. The guy then asks how many were having salad so he could portion it out to the exact number of people. He stated that the company policy was for it to be portioned because of plate sharing and they didnt want customers stealing from the company it would cost money. To say to me anything about plate sharing or customers stealing put me in a bad mood. Then the whole time during our visit he stood within10 feet and stared at our table maybe for service to be fast but it was not comfortable to me. I have a personal issue with anyone being too close or staring put it togther and no good. So when it came time to order I told him to charge me for the salad and i didnt want anything else. The only reason I didnt get up and leave is because my two small children were hungry and looking forward to going out there to eat as that is one of our favorite places. We ordered a frittata app and was brought a ravioli app that they had to change out. We ordered two take homes that were not given to us. At the end, when he was figuring out how to charge us he came and said that because I didnt order an entree I would be charged for the salad which I said that is fine with me...why would I order my meal and dessert when it was assumed that I would be plate sharing or stealing salad(that's how that felt when those comments were made) then he said I want to apoligize I dont have to charge for the kids salad. And I asked when did the kids ever get charged for salads individually when they eat from the bowl..he said that was a mistake in his understanding.

My advice is when a customer asks for something to be brought to the table bring it to the table. If it costs money and you have to charge it should be reflected on the tab. Do not make comments about customers stealing or plate sharing because I took it as an assumption about me or my family. If there is an issue with the tab that should be discussed after the dining experience. I know two of my party members who went there with an appetite for pasta and meat entrees due to the attitude and words of the server ended up just ordering an appetizer and I ordered nothing but a salad. As an employee of a company I do not ever tell patrons any money issues of the company or mention any reasons a company could be losing money as it relates to individuals. I provide the same customer service and treat each person I deal with with respect and leave any judgements unspoken.

We all have issues during these times and things we are having to deal with, but when you go to work you have to learn to separate personal from professional.

The best part was the lemonade. Thanks for refilling my cup That is why I give 2 stars.

I will not visit this location again and thank God they have a location in Conroe to get my business when I want to take my...

Very rude staff, forgot our food and made us feel bad for reordering it, 30 minutes for a simple answer on how long is the wait time (apparently no wait!). I have never written a bad review before. That is how bad this experience was.

30 minutes to get a simple answer.

We call olive garden to find out the wait time. They say they will get the hostess. 30 minutes and two people later, they finally tell us no wait time!

Staff treated us terribly.

Waitress is all smiles and polite til she finds out we're ordering soup and salad. After that, we get an experience of her basically angrily asking for our next soup orders, putting cheese on all of our soups despite only one person saying yes for theirs, slamming dishes on the table as she takes them away, forgetting one of our party member's food, essentially being very rude to us when we ask to reorder it. And we could tell she was being different with us because she was super nice and smiles and happy with the big table that just walked in next to us, despite one of their members also ordering soup and salad only. It was clear the tip was the motivator. Despite us paying early and tipping 20% while we waited for our last round of soup (because we just wanted to leave as soon as possible after this experience), she sends the manager out to us. Two of us had asked for soup at the table (this would be bowl 3 for each of us), my sister asked for to go bowls as it was likely we weren't going to finish the full bowl and she wasn't getting another bowl. The manager basically yelled at us for trying to take the soup home as we had already paid. Which we hadn't even gotten said soup yet and no... the other party member and I wanted to eat it there. But since we only saw our server every 30 minutes, we were trying to get everything done as easy as possible so we could eat, pack up, and leave. She basically took the to go bowls she brought out back with her and went to get our soup we ordered. At that point, we just left. We felt really upset after that experience and just...

For starters, bring earplugs and a heavy coat. We should have picked up the clue when we entered at 730pm and the place was almost empty and we couldn't hear ourselves think. I mean it's enough it was too loud but it was jazz music, the obnoxious brass filled shrill kind. I asked for the quietest booth and we sat down and I was glad I brought a coat. My husband who is rarely cold went out to the car and brought in a coat for him, our daughter and one for my lap. You could hang meat in there! The server was slow in bringing the breadsticks which were awesome as usual, and the salad which had too many wilted and brown lettuce in it was brought right before the meal. (Hardly time to eat it) After surveying the restaurant for a quieter table we moved into a sort of separate room where the music wasn't blaring. There was a large family with 3 kids and a baby, but I would take their noise over the jazz any day...the table location was good, but it irritates me that I specifically asked for the quietest room in the place and wasn't given it. I had to hunt it down. We had to ask for more of our drinks (ran out and big delay in refilling). The main dishes arrived hot and full of yummy cheeses. Each dish required ample additional salt. We had to ask for cutlery. We ate, she brought us the second halves of our eat one, take one, which were both the wrong dishes. We didn't feel like waiting so we ran with what we had. We have been to multiple Olive Gardens but we will not be returning to this one. Very disappointing. It didn't get one star because the breadsticks were good, and although inept she...