Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Granville

My family and I had a nightmarish experience at Olive Garden in Morgantown, WV last night. The bread sticks seemed at least a day old. They were so hard we could hammer a nail in with them. We wanted to ask the server for fresh breadsticks but she never came back to check on us. She repeatedly checked on the customers at the table that was diagonal to us. Each time she was walking away from the other customers we tried to get her attentions to ask for fresh breadsticks but she never looked over at us. Then when she finally had our dinners in her hands, again she stopped at the table that was diagonal to us and had a 5-minute conversation with those customers who of course were not wearing masks. My husband said that those people are breathing coronavirus all over our food. When she finished her conversation with the other customers, she finally gave us our food. She gave us chicken strips with spaghetti. I told her that we did not order spaghetti, we ordered French fries instead of spaghetti. She said that it comes with spaghetti and that we have to take the spaghetti. She said that they also are giving us French fries. She said that she will scrape the spaghetti off of the chicken strips for us. I said, “No! you will not scrape the spaghetti off, you will make us new chicken strips.” I asked my son if he wants new chicken strips made or if he is okay with eating those chicken strips that were in the spaghetti. He said he would just eat those. I then told her that I have been wanting to ask her for new breadsticks but that she never came back to check on us. She said that they were short handed and that there are a lot of customers in there so she doesn’t have time to check on us. I told her, “but you were able to check on those customers a million times.” She took our salad bowl that was half full away and said, “it is closing time!” And she walked away. I said, “I am still eating that salad.” Much later another Olive Garden employee came over and asked how we are doing. I asked him if he is the manager. He said, “no, do you want to see the manager.” I said, “yes.” Then he went and got the manager for us. We discussed the situation with the manager. I told him that if they are shorthanded, if there are too many customers in there, and that if it is closing time then they should have stopped us when first came into the restaurant and should have told us that they are not able to provide us with service. I said that we would have went someplace else. I said, “don’t let us in and then treat us like this.” He said that he would take care of our meals for us. So, we did not have to pay for the food. He gave us a couple of boxes to put our leftovers in and a couple of free salads to go. He apologized and said that they would try to do better in the future. I told him that we love Olive Garden and would really like to come back. He said to ask for him next time we come in and that he will make sure that we have a good...

Food: • Salty food; but very ‘American’ food portions — which is approx. 2-3 meals per plate, so be sure to bring home your leftovers.

Authentic-ness? • I would describe it as “Italian-inspired” and not very similar to any of the Italian dishes I’ve sampled before in my travels, but admittedly I am not a chef myself and only have spent a few months in various locations around Italy. • I enjoyed then dishes I sampled, so the authentic-ness is doing something to make good breadsticks and soups. • I suppose one could ask for pineapple & pizza, that’s always a test for Italians.

Chain restaurants: • be forewarned if you like myself, never have been to many “fast-casual” restaurants, this is a chain restaurant— which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!

• Not white a ‘table cloth’ type place— if that helps anyone else; more of a plastic menu and kitsch decor.

• Prices: Meal + tip (~20- 30 USD)

• This chain location has very pleasant staff from the couple of times visited with friends and colleagues. Given its proximity within /to a college town, it is relatively student price friendly for a nicer spot to meet up...

This was the best experience I have ever had at an Olive Garden. No, that's not entirely true. This was the best experience i have ever had at a sit-down chain restaurant, period. We were meeting some friends we hadn't seen in a while. Cause, you know, they had a kid, and we got a dog (cause we can't have kids, but no big deal, for real, like, we're gonna foster) and schedules get crazy, like on Saturday I have to paint my cactus needles. Crazy, right? Anyway... so we met to eat, and we're like, why not Olive Garden? And while we're there, we decide to play Movie Fights. So like, we all make a choice about movies based on our opinion, and we had the waiter decide who wins. He was great. He played EVERY round with us. Then, no joke, this guy who was two tables away, on his way out, comes over and is like, "guys... my wife disagrees, but the saddest moment in Disney history is when Granny leaves Todd in the Forest in Fox...