Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

I do not like having to give a 1 star. However despite food being its normal Olive Garden goodness the service was anything but good. To start with we had a fairly large party of 25 or so people and they seemed unprepared on how to handle that many people. Even though we had heard someone speaking of a much larger party that had just left (God knows how their service went). It was not busy at this point, however we were assigned only one server, who was very nice, to finally slowly and sporadically take drink orders. She was then given a helper who seemed befuddled from start to finish. The wait to then place appetizer orders the main course orders in addition to the waits to get the drinks, appetizers and meals took an inordinate amount of time (one of the people in our group did not get his meal until everyone was done eating!). Hoping we were done with the foolishness we were now ready to pay, this also took very long. I wish I could adequately explain our bewilderment at what we were seeing. At two seperte times we got 'managers' involved, only to watch them disappear in to the back somewhere effectively leaving the two confused servers to try and hash the bill situation out.(to be honest I have been out to many a restaurant with large groups and they at least usually have a good grasp on how to cash people out, howeve not here and not today. A realistic time from seating to out the door, depending on where you were on the paying your portion of the bill, was 4 hours! 4 hours! I am going to stop right there as I could go on, I would give 0 stars if not for the on par Olive Garden but 1 will do...

This is by far the best Olive Garden around. My girlfriend and I were driving around trying to find food that we would order that wasn’t fast food, (it’s been pretty hard to get a well cooked meal if you work late and don’t wanna cook during this whole virus pandemic).. so, we stumbled across Olive Garden in Fort Lauderdale. Mind you, we were off work, tired and hungry and cranky. We pulled into the parking lot, placed an order online. After a few minutes, I walked inside to pick it up. Only to realize that I mistakenly ordered for the next day. Apparently their kitchen was closing. The friendly women in the front explained that they are closing but she can get the manager to see if there’s anything we can do. (I didn’t even suggest it) The manager, who’s name I forget, was so friendly, blonde women. I explained the situation about how I ordered incorrectly. She said “not a problem, we can take care of you, and cashed me out, and had the Kitchen make my girlfriend and I both food. We got the buy one take one. The food was ready within a matter of just a few minutes. And at the end of it. The manager thanked me for our business and she really made what could have been a negative situation an amazing experience by all means. This is how customer service in the food industry should be. I really wish I remembered the managers name. Just know her and the whole staff were really friendly and helpful, which is really appreciated during this whole virus thing going on! Also, the food was amazing as usual. All the best and we will be back for...

We live in the middle of 2 Olive Garden locations, so the drive to either one is pretty much the same... one, has terrible service, but better food than the other.. We've had terrible service at this Olive Garden location, however, their food is better than the other location, so we just deal with it.. I mean, last month we had a waitress who couldn't handle having 2 tables (one table had 5 people, and we were the other - only 2 people!).. She was beyond terrible! I had to flag any staff member down, so we can order our drinks, after we were seated for about 20 minutes, without any service... then, ten minutes later, we had to ask their bus boy for that drink order... And 30 minutes after that we went to the hostess, and asked if she, or anyone in the restaurant can take our order, since we were there for almost an hour, with no acknowledgement...And finally, 10 minutes after that, our waitress came to take our order... It was a ridiculous experience! When I say terrible service, I don't include their host staff, which is pretty good, surprisingly. Well, yesterday we dined here again, and we found the waitress we want to take care of us Everytime we are there - Valerie!! She's nice and friendly, and most importantly, she is very attentive, and available for when we need her! We will now only done at this location is Valerie can be our waitress! The rest of their waiters and waitresses should have never been hired, or should have been trained properly, or should be given less tables, so they can spend a little more time on...