Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Fayetteville

Will NOT be going back to this location!!

My sweet & amazing boyfriend worked his butt off at work today from 6AM-6PM. On his way home from his work which is an hour away he decided to surprise me with a nice & relaxing date night so he texted me to get dressed up cuz he had a surprise for me. We decided to go to Olive Garden in hopes of a good dinner with good Italian food however we were clearly dead wrong. 1st of all about 30mins before we left I called ahead of time then was told to go on the website to put us on the wait list. However not even 3 minutes before we even got there I received a message saying we were removed from the waitlist so my bf went inside & was told I'd receive a text when our table was ready, okay cool no big deal it wasn't that long of a wait anyways it was enough time to find a parking spot then get a text to go inside. When we went inside I thought it'd be easy to just say my wait list name & be seated however the lady at the front desk when I said my name she said "Oh she's not here" to which then me & bf were like "Huh what? Wdym we're here to eat" and she looked the most confused I've ever seen someone who works at a restaurant like that. We were seated & 1st of all underneath my seat was silverware on the floor that never even was attempted to be picked up & 2nd of all it took our server 15 minutes to actually finally come ask us about what we wanted for our drinks I've never waited so long to be asked that especially in an Olive Garden of all places (keep in mind the section we were seated in in the restaurant was not busy at all and Ik how servers work you literally get assigned sections & tables within your section then take care of them accordingly & in a TIMELY manner). Then it took her 20 minutes to come out with my drink alone plus our Apetizer and breadsticks she brought my boyfriends drink out 1st instead of bringing everything out at the same time like she was supposed to. Thankfully my boyfriend was so kind & waited until I got my drink to even sip his. Then it took her about 20 more minutes to come back & actually see what we wanted to actually order off the menu. We were waiting about 30 minutes and our food NEVER came out. Idk if it was just the server if she was new or what but she swept the floor at our table with our drinks & breadsticks on the table (like bro I get cleaning a little bit before the end of your shift but don't sweep around people who already have stuff on their table it's very rude and come on dust, hair, dirt, etc literally flies up in the air & could land in their stuff that they're trying to enjoy. It literally seemed like this girl didn't know what she was doing at all cuz she tried getting me to move just so she could sweep) We were there for over an hour and never got our food so we just said f* it & left & just went to the cookout drivethru cuz that was absolutely ridiculous. Hell there was a woman that came in way after us and she had gotten her food way faster. We waited so long just for something to eat that when we got home I took about 3 bites of what I got from cookout & couldn't even finish it that's what erks me the most I couldn't even eat dinner at home with my boyfriend cuz my appetite was ruined from waiting so long. What was supposed to be a nice spontaneous date night was ruined because of this specific locations negligence. So yea no we will definitely NOT be going back there very poor service & undertrained servers not a good...

Disappointing lunch experience unfortunately. This used to be one of our favorite spots when I was a kid and we decided to come back for a quick Thursday lunch when we were out. We almost chose another restaurant and even ended up remarking during our lunch “service” that we probably should’ve gone there after all. Sat for 10 minutes with no acknowledgment from wait staff - totally understandable if they were packed, however I saw 4 different servers in our side of the restaurant and maybe 6-7 occupied tables. Our server did finally tell us, while stopping at another table, that she would be with us in a moment which is fine. When she came to our table, she offered to take our whole order. I ordered a strawberry limoncello margarita and the server carded me and we had a quick chat about it. Totally fine with being carded, but the issue is that I never got my drink until the end of the meal, after I had asked for the server to check on it and got a short “yes” in response. To the server’s credit, she did take the drink off but it was after a song and dance about how she rung it in correctly and it “didn’t print.” Despite the fact that we pulled our check on the table side tablet and it showed she rang it after our food… Wish that was the only issue to speak of, but unfortunately it doesn’t end there. Server takes our order and both of us order the soup or salad first. After taking our entree order she circles back with both of us to confirm if we want soup or salad… We’re both confused because we just ordered that and she appeared to be writing our soup/salad orders. We reiterate our orders and she goes to the kitchen. She then comes back to double check my order 5 minutes later. Our soup and salad shows up and my soup has no spoon, but she disappears before I can notice and ask for one. We also have no breadsticks. Or my margarita. No mention of needing to check on either. I flag a hostess, who kindly gets me a spoon. Entrees come and my grandmother’s grilled chicken is fried, and her “added broccoli” that we paid extra for is one piece of broccoli. Whatever, we’re trying not to complain but it’s getting comical at this point. We ask about breadsticks and are told “we’re waiting for some fresh out of the oven, you don’t want doughy breadsticks do you?” Not a comment I would normally expect a server to make but whatever. I ask for my margarita which is still missing and get just a “yes.” Okay. Margarita shows up - tastes like medicine. Good thing we’re not going to have to pay for it but still. Breadsticks finally show up during the last few bites of our meal (keep in mind we’ve seen several baskets on other servers’ trays as they walk by this whole time). When they show up, they’re clearly stale. Amusing. Then when we ask for the check, our server just points at the tablet on the table. I bring it to her attention that the drink is STILL on the check on the tablet. She says it shouldn’t be and I insist that it is. She disappears to take it off the check. Finally we get it resolved but we then have to wait 6-7 more minutes for her to bring the change because we were paying in cash so COULDN’T use the tablet to pay. Contemplated talking to the manager before we left but the atmosphere was very much “we don’t really care” across the whole restaurant. It’s a shame but no wonder that they’ve gone from packed during lunch time to relatively empty...

Get ready people, today was a Soap Opera. First thing that happened: I called in to place an order for two bowls of Toscana soup to go at 11:03. They said I could pick it up in 20 minutes. At 11:26, I get a text saying I can get it at 11:35. But, now I'm confused because right before the text was sent, I get a call from Fayetteville Olive Garden saying it won't be ready till 12:30. Wow. So I wait till 12:30. I get a call at 12:11 saying it is ready. Ok, no problem. Mild soap opera. But while the girl is on the phone I ask, could I pay to get two bread sticks to go with the two bowls of soups I bought. She say said "No, you can order the 6 or the 12 bread sticks." Problem: What am I supposed to do with 4 extra bread sticks when one bread stick is enough per bowl?! Why would I want to eat more than what my body can handle? And NOOOO, I will not save it for future eating when one bowl today and one bowl tomorrow will be enough food for lunchtime and I REFUSE to overstuff my gut on the bread sticks when one bread stick is enough per bowl, and no, I have enough food in the freezer to freeze them. Therefore, because this location refuses to sell just two measly bread sticks to accommodate an unwanted overstuffed gut, I will boycott this location. Plus the fact that I refused to purchase any bread sticks. Oh, the soap opera gets worse. Over the years I have purchased to go Toscana soup and always gotten the extra kale that I asked for. Never has there been a problem till today. Today, someone made the decision to NOT put the extra kale in the soup but rather put it in a to go container!! What?! Were the unspoken instructions supposed to have been to put everything in a pot at home and then dump the kale in it and cook it myself??!! Who is the stupid that decided THAT??!! The manager?! Is he NEW?! Does the new manager make new rules now about how that extra kale is to be handled?! Was it someone else that made that decision on their own because NO-ONE TRAINED THEM?! Then the many questions I have are 1. Why didn't the newbie ask what to do with the extra kale?! 2. Why wasn't the newbie cook trained with supervision?! Why is there no communication between newbies and the managers?! Are you letting the newbies train the newbies? Here's a goody, when the girl handed me my bag and I saw that there was that extra kale but in a separate bowl, uncooked raw, I asked her why they would do that, and her answer was " I don't know, they're supposed cook extra kale with the rest of the soup. I don't know why they would stick the extra kale separately in another bowl. And here is the picture to prove...