Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in El Paso

I went to Olive Garden this past weekend with my mom and husband because my husband and I received some Darden gift cards for our anniversary. We live just outside of El Paso and there is currently no Olive Garden, although as we found out this past weekend that’s a good thing. We waited over 2 hours for our food! At first, I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to our waitress since she had been assisting a large party next to us. She was very friendly with them, assisted with boxing their food, and assisted them with paying with gift cards at the kiosk. However, when it came to us, she completely ignored us. After we had been waiting for our food for some time my mom told the hostess to charge us only for what we had eaten because we had been waiting and preferred to leave and within seconds, we were given our entrees by another waiter. When it came to asking for a box for our food and helping us pay with gift cards at the kiosk the waitress never even came back and worse of all didn’t even bother to apologize to us. We used the ‘Call Server’ feature on the kiosk, but she never came to help. The manager came and only said, “I was told you were waiting for something.” I told her we were waiting for a lot of things. I let her know we needed a box and had been attempting to pay using our gift cards at the kiosk but were having a hard time. She only said that she could ring it up herself. So, we gave her our gift cards to ring up and again she offered no apology. She came back to let us know that we still had a balance left over. As I attempted to pull out the cash from my wallet the manager and waitress lingered over us. That was the worst part! They thought that we had the audacity to skip the bill! This is why the NE does not have nice things! I would never bother to go there again! How dare they think we’d skip on the bill and even then, apologize for nothing! Don’t waste your time going here for the mediocre food and...

We visited this Olive Garden yesterday to celebrate my daughter finishing elementary school and I must say, I was shocked at how terrible of a dining experience my family and I had. We got to the restaurant, they had us wait (because we were a party of six) for the Dinner Service to arrive. But they were seating all of the other parties that were walking in the door. They finally sat us and only because they could see our displeased faces. They seat us and it took forever for someone to come and get our drink orders. They take our drink orders, that even took long to bring, and they did not bring my childrens drinks until much after. Then the server takes our food order, she brought out the appetizer, the salad, and a ton of bread sticks. Which was fine but we waited for our food, for more than an hour because for some odd and lame reason, "our food order was pushed back" behind everyone else. I would think for a large party like ours, you'd give great service and food in a timely manner for a good tip but that did not happen. We were asked on occasion, "Would you like some more salad and bread?"

We didn't want to get full on bread and salad. While we ate, then we find out, that the food my son ordered was suddenly out of stock. Which was ridiculous to even tell us 30-45 mins later, after the fact that we had ordered.

The manager came to speak to us and did not seem very pleasant. She kinda brushed it off and gave us a gift card for our next visit, for all the trouble, but we won't be back. I loved this location in the past but the service was beyond terrible and it was quite odd, that the guests that were just being seated, were eating already and we hadn't even had our meals after waiting an hour.

Terrible service, mediocre food, and beyond...

This visit was a bit of a weird one. We came as a family hoping to enjoy a meal together, but the way the food and drinks were brought out made that impossible. Everything came in oddly spaced stages, which really threw off the experience.

First, they brought out our kids’ meals — no drinks yet.

About 5 to 10 minutes later, my wife’s drink arrived — but not mine.

Another 5 to 10 minutes passed before we got the soup and salad — still no bread, and I still didn’t have my drink.

Another 10 minutes go by, and finally my drink and the bread show up — along with my wife’s entrée… but again, not mine.

After another 10-minute wait, my steak finally arrives — but it was overcooked. I’d asked for medium rare because I have bad teeth and need something easier to chew. They did take it back and bring me a new one, which I appreciated.

Other issues:

The broccoli was supposed to be seasoned — came plain.

The steak and mushrooms were very good.

The shrimp scampi was great.

The soup and salad were decent.

Our waitress seemed overwhelmed, and service coordination was way off.

At the end, my meal was double charged, and extra charges were added without explanation.

Now for the silver lining — Ruben, The Manager. He was professional, calm, friendly and quick to respond. As soon as I flagged him down, he came right over, listened, and fixed everything on the check without any pushback. Genuinely appreciated that.

If you visit, I hope your experience is smoother than ours. And if anything goes wrong, ask for Ruben — he’s the kind of manager that makes all the difference and the reason this isn't a...