Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Eau Claire

We decided to go to the Olive Garden for dinner since it has been several years since we had been there. Worst decision of the day. It was between 730p and 8p in the evening by the time we got there. The hostess was very attentive and sat us right away. We asked for a nice quiet place to eat, which she replied, " of course." Absolutely not the case. We were sat in a room with a family who had 3 or 4 obnoxious children. One openly belched like an adult with no remorse. That completely ruined the atmosphere.

Once we were seated, it took the server, Miriam, more than 10 minutes to greet us. She came to the table and acted like she didn't want to be there and we were an inconvenience to her. She didn't know what beers were on draft or in bottles. He ordered a Coors light draft beer, but they didn't have it, so he ordered a Heineken instead. I drank water since I was driving. Took another 10 minutes to get the beer, then another 5 minutes to get the water.

Then, we ordered. No appetizer because they had nothing he liked. Ordered Build your own Pasta Rigatoni, meat sauce and meat balls for him and Shrimp Fettuccine for me, and we both got the Endless salad. Once we ordered, it again took another 10 minutes to get the salad, but NO Breadsticks! She asked if we wanted cheese on the salad, we said yes. When she was putting the cheese on the salad, she seemed put off by doing so. We ate our salads, which were good. Breadsticks came well after we ate our salad. Food came. She asked if we were done with the salad plates. It's called Endless Salad for a reason. Can't eat it without a plate.

The presentation was good, but nothing impressive, as you can see in the photos. Same experience with the cheese again. We ate our dinner Without Breadsticks, which was disappointing. When the food came we ordered more salad. Took another 10 minutes or more to get the second salad bowl.

No dessert due to how Miriam acted about it. I realize the small computer that is on the table is there for the customer's convenience, but it is Not there to take the place of the server! She saw that we were looking at the desserts. She was snippy with her words when she said, "you can order your dessert from there if you want anything" and walked away without giving us the chance to order anything from her!!! So NOT the way to handle that situation!!

So, needless to say, it was a very disappointing evening. The Olive Garden experience we had 4 years ago at the very same restaurant was so, so different from this recent experience. Makes me sad to know that a nice evening out has gone away in...

I’ve been told that that diners of Olive Garden are regarded as “family” when entering the stony confines of this Tuscan retreat. The moment I was welcomed in by Carmela at check-in, I could feel the warm embrace I haven’t felt since the first time my ex wife came back to me after her fling with her handsome tennis instructor.

As we were seated at our table, the padded chairs and crisp tones of the wood enclosure evoked what I can only imagine to be an exact replica of what young Chef Figaro must have experienced as a child in cooking with grandma in the old country.

Our server was knowledgeable, kind, sweet, and responsive to our many questions about the menu. She even helped my son, Grant, locate the video game on our personal LCD screen television device, which he played for tens of minutes and eventually earned the high score on Brick Breaker III, a game that he and his little friends have been wanting to play for months.

Our included breadsticks and soups were a generous and unexpected addition to our dining experience. Perhaps most impressive was the amount of cheese I was able to add- freshly grated at our table side - to an already delicious minestrone.

The portions were big enough to satisfy my three boys - a rarity in this day and age of pasta-heavy, mid-priced, family-friendly places of business that feature bottomless helpings of breadsticks and soups or salads (depending upon your order choice. There are additional sauces that can be acquired for a reasonable additional fee). Might I add, their freshly squeezed lemonade can wet even the driest of whistles and warm the souls of us folks without heat in our 2002 Dodge Caravans (it’s not the heat that will kill you, it’s the humidity).

All in all, it was a top to bottom fine dining experience that left me wondering…when’s the next...

It was SO loud here. There should NOT be SO many people in a restaurant that people sweat at their tables inside, no where near a window, and have to wait 28 minutes before finally leaving without even putting in a drink order, because you don’t have enough employees to cater to your customers.

A little advice for this restaurant, servers should not have more than 4 tables at a time. 5 if a complimentary appetizer is offered. Like breadsticks, or chips & salsa.

DO NOT seat customers if you don’t have the employees to care for those customers. The server we had, had NINE tables. One person taking care of 9 tables. 5 of those tables had 4 or more people.

It’s no wonder we sat there with closed menus sweating our butts off for almost a half hour. A human being cannot take care of that many tables at once.

This is a negative review on the MANAGEMENT. The poor staff were trying their best, but are only human for fudge’s sake.

When you have packed your servers to the max do NOT give them more tables. The physical seating may be there, but after what we witnessed it’s obvious you do not have the staff to maintain the physical seating available at this restaurant.

Good night of living— it sounded like we were in an elementary school cafeteria, and felt like we were sitting in a sauna.

Fix the A/C. Don’t over-seat your employees, and if people have to wait at the front because you don’t have enough employees so be it. It looks much worse on you as a restaurant to have customers sit at a table for a half hour without being acknowledged by staff, than to have them wait at the entrance and tell them “hey if you want a good dining experience here you are going to have to wait this long...