Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Fairview Heights

So I’ll just take you from the top of our experience. When we first arrived we were immediately sat down. We were one of the only people in the restaurant and we were sat around the corner from the bar. We sat down and waited about 20 minuets until someone came over after realizing they had a table. From there we ordered an appetizer and drinks. The drinks came out after a little bit and the soup salad and bread sticks were great. My fiancés wine however had little pieces of cork in it. Unfortunately our appetizer never came out. When our food arrived I ordered the chicken Alfredo with fried chicken. They brought me grilled chicken tortellini Alfredo. They brought this out and did not bring my fiancés steak for another 20 minuets. When the steak did come out it was ordered medium and was definitely well done. When they came to the table they apologized about the wait (we did not say anything about temp of steak)and said that they took 25% off our check to make up for the inconvenience. We were pretty happy that they were making up for it but they also didn’t come around to the table except for dropping off the food. After finding the server to ask for the check I noticed that the appetizer we ordered was on the check. When I asked for this to be removed they took off the 25% discount and our bill actually went up. A few other things to note is that they turned away a party of 10 at about 9:15 (45 minuets before close) and I heard servers loudly arguing and using profanity with the manager about how they arnt taking a 10 top this late. Another thing was that when we were sat in our section our table was the ONLY table that didn’t have dishes on it from previous parties. They also turned the lights on around 9:30 (not a huge deal) but for sure changed the atmosphere. We arrived at around 8:30-8:35 and didn’t leave until right before close at 10 because service was so slow. 0/10 just a bad experience. Usually have to have 3 strikes for me to write a poor review but the soup and bread sticks was the only thing that was right about our expertise at Olive Garden. Please avoid this location and go to the Edwardsville location to get you...

This was by far one of the worst experiences I've had in a restaurant setting. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars is in the hopes that these poor servers and hosts don't get fired.... We had a party of 8, the 4 of us walked in and we let them know the rest were on the way. We were told "we can't seat you until half your party is here"..... We stated 4 of us were here, and they proceeded to say that they had a "wait time" and for us to take a seat. They sat other parties during our "wait time". As soon as the rest of our party arrived, we were sat immediately. Hm, not sure why they didn't just tell us that our whole party had to be there. During our "wait time" we heard who I believe to be the manager degrade and belittle each and every host and hostess right in the entrance of the restaurant. She proceeded to tell all of them that if they didn't upsell their bread stick boat dippers (or whatever) that they'd be written up and ultimately disciplined for it. She clearly didn't say this quietly nor politely, she was extremely rude and at the end of her "speech" she then told the employees that if she was coming off as rude that she only got 2 hours of sleep and tried to laugh it off (likely because she saw the disgust on my face).... On to the next... Sitting at the table and our server was amazing, she worked through our chaotic orders and kept up with everything so wonderfully, this is the only reason I'm giving them more than a 1 star... The food was average at best. We certainly won't be back to this location if it's under the same manager. No matter how much sleep or lack there of you have, you don't get to treat your employees like dirt. I hope you realize that your servers and hosts deserve better than that. And I hope that the hosts and servers know that they deserve better...

I was staying at a nearby hotel and just wanted a dessert to take back to my hotel. It was about 20-minutes before closing time so I walked up to the bar to place the To-Go order as no one was up front to greet me. The bartender proceeded to countdown her entire drawer while I was sitting there waiting to place my order. I get it, it was close to closing but other servers and the manager even came into the bar area and nobody else bothered to see if they could take my order.

Once the drawer countdown was complete, she finally placed my order for a tiramisu ($10.50 by the way) and handed me my receipts with no pen to sign before disappearing into the kitchen. I then had to listen to the manager and a server discuss how many guests they upsold that night to the tune of over $950 in extras added to that server's orders. I thought that this was in pretty poor taste considering a paying guest was sitting right there, able to hear the whole conversation. Once my tiramisu came to the bar I wasn't given any disposable silverware and was told by the bartender that I would have to ask for it at the To-Go station by the door. I then had to go interrupt another conversation between the three staff members chit-chatting at this counter so I could get a fork to take back to the hotel.

Needless to say, the staff here was less than welcoming and they have a poor understanding of what it means to be professional in front of the paying guests. On top of that, I couldn't believe that this tiny slice of tiramisu cost $10.50. Definitely...