Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Cumming

My family and I met up for lunch at the Dawsonville Olive Garden, and we had an interesting experience to say the least. Right out of the gate, we were all thoroughly impressed with our waitress Clara. She was charming, attentive, caring, witty, and polite. I explained to her that I have an actual wheat allergy so my throat & tongue swell, and I break out in a rash if I accidentally ingest wheat. I asked Clara if she would ask the kitchen if they could make me Marsala sauce gluten-free. I also, expressed that the Gainesville, GA location always accommodated me. So, she goes back to the kitchen and they flat out refused because they were too busy. She apologized profusely to me and offered me a mini menu of the gluten free options. Nothing on their gluten-free menu sounded appetizing, so I thought I would just be safe and get the shrimp scampi sauce over the gluten free noodles. I instructed Clara to request that kitchen only use butter, garlic, & parmesan cheese as the sauce, which she did convey to the kitchen. Once my dish arrived, it only took two bites before my throat began to swell… ugh!

Clara came back to the table to check on us and I immediately asked, “Did they put wheat in this?” Her eyes got big and she replied, “Oh my gosh I don’t know… I’ll go ask the kitchen.”By this time my face has the awesome rash. When Clara returns she says, “I’m so terribly sorry, they did put wheat flour in it!” She continues to apologize profusely, as she takes my plate.

Next up, the manager comes up to the table and asks how everything is going. We all explain what happened and she said, “What I ask of you, is that for future reference you ask for a manager to be sure you get your food made gluten-free, Aka correctly.” All the while speaking in a very condescending tone (as if I wasn’t clear to our sweet waitress about what I needed). I told her the above ^ and said, the kitchen refused to make it. I also, explained how the Gainesville location was very accommodating and even made me Marsala sauce “gluten-free”. She continues to say, “Well the waitress should have come to me first.” I said, “Miss Clara did her job, was thorough, respectful, and kind. She isn’t the one who refused, it was the kitchen.” The manager asked, if she can make me more food as she didn’t want me to go without eating.(which was kind). I asked her if she would have the cooks make a basic sauce…of butter, garlic, and Parmesan… 3 ingredients. So, she brings back a dish with the sauce consisting of white wine and lemon juice (no butter, garlic, or Parmesan). Ugh. Even though it wasn’t at all what I asked for, I tasted it anyhow. Of course it was way too tart. Then, there was this mini back and fourth on understanding what I was asking for… Alfredo, sauce etc? Everyone at the table was chiming in at this point, and they too, were getting frustrated by the way she was talking to me.. She asks again, “Is there anything we can get you to eat?”

I said, it’s fine I don’t need anything. She said, are you sure, “fine” is a four letter word to me? Huh? Which four letter word? At this point, I’m tired, feel like poo, and said, for the 3rd time, “Okay, just use butter, garlic, and some parm for my sauce… but please remember to add the veggies that go in it.

Finally, my final dish arrives and it tasted wonderful. Finally.

In closing, all of this could have been avoided. I wouldn’t have had to suffer with my throat swelling, and a rash If the kitchen listened to Clara’s second request. (Aka making the butter sauce) Instead, it took them more time to keep remaking my dish.

Clara is one of the best waitresses that I’ve come across in a long time. If you do go here, ask for her. You won’t be...

First, I’ll be the first to say that I understand and empathize with having a bad day. However, the conduct of our server was completely unwarranted and offensive. We were a party of 5. We were working an event near by so came in for an early dinner. Once we were seated, our server wasn’t the warmest, which is okay, we figured she may have just had a bad day.

As we ordered, she was very short and didn’t seem eager to help. It immediately made us felt uncomfortable but we continued with our meal. The passive agressive attitude grew throughout the courses and we truly confused as to why she was acting this way. We kept our requests to minimum as we could clearly see she didn’t want us there. We felt extremely alienated by the time the entrees came out but still chose to finish our meal since we had to return back to work shortly.

That immediately came to a abrupt stop as while she was clearing our appetizers she snatched the salad bowl from one of us. We were all completely shocked and speechless by this. I, as the group supervisor, chose to end the meal there. The disrespect of my staff was uncalled for. After that, she abandoned our table. We never saw her or any other server again. It was so odd. I called for a manager, explained the situation and ask for us to receive the check so we could leave. We even stacked and clean the table since no one was coming to.

The manager was very nice. I failed to catch his name but he did what he could to try to make it right. He apologized and explained she may be acting this way due to a family situation? Again, I understand things happen but taking it out guests is NOT the way for those things to be handle.

This will affect us for awhile, as most unexplainable things do. The food was great but to be treated that away unprovoked really made us feel bad. We won’t be back to a place we’re not welcomed and really felt the need to share this experience.

I’m not sure what the protocol in these type of cases but I encouraged Olive Garden reinforce senesitvity training and also train their staff to know when to remove themselves from the floor. Life happens but you must know when to take care of yourself and go home. The server in question name is Kayla J and I truly hope she finds the...

Let me be perfectly clear. This review is only about one person. Olive garden is olive garden no matter where you go. We had an amazing waitress (kayle) she was so sweet, kind, and helped us as much as possible. However the service manager Jim the only way to describe him is a dick. I asked our waitress a question she didn't know so asked Jim he said flat out no in a rude tone to her. I've never seen a man walk around so much acting like he's busy and doing nothing at the same time. He should not be a manager. When we tried to talk to him about what we asked (which we were not rude we just wanted clarification) he said no you can't ask we're describing something he walks away as we're talking. To the point my husband goes ok just walk off I guess. He doesn't know how to talk to people if wasn't just us we saw how he talked to staff it's insane. The general manager was there so we told her all of this and she was so sweet explaining why things were the way they were. It was so bad we contemplated leaving but our waitress was too sweet to be that mean. Then he comes back and says it's always like this in passing to us so again we tried nicely to get him to explain and he walked off mid conversation. I'm telling you guys they weren't busy so him acting like the sky is falling as he's walking around doing nothing, there was NO reason for it. He doesn't know how to treat people, he should not be a manager (husband is a manager for different company and couldn't believe how horrible he was), and he needs to chill cause they were not busy enough for him to be running around acting like he's working so hard (he wasnt). Again all the other staff was AMAZING! I don't think we'll be back at this location mainly cause he was so rude I've never wanted to leave a restaurant so badly. Also, if I see him and he's rude to his staff again I won't hold my tongue. It wasn't what he was saying it's the way he...