Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Harrisonburg

I will preface this with saying that I am a former longtime employee of OG, and that may slightly skew my sense of what I expect in terms of service.

Throughout our time at the bar - there were 2 of us, and we ordered two Italian Margaritas - I heard the bartender complaining with other servers multiple times about the low tips they were making. After our experience, I understand why.

When we sat at the bar, it took around 7 minutes for us to be greeted. We told him we weren't sure about food, but we definitely wanted drinks. He proceeded to make our beverages with the measuring jigger but not pouring any of those equally - he even poured our two Amaretto shots to noticeably different levels.

He didn't check in with us anymore - not to see if we had decided on food or if everything was good to go. After my drink had been empty for 10 minutes, he asked if I wanted another. If he had asked earlier, I would have said yes. If he had been anywhere around and attentive to us, we would have ordered food.

There were a variety of other issues that I noticed happening - dirty drinks piling up at the server bar that were centimeters away from the new beverages being sent out.

The bar wasn't wiped down after the folks next to us left - despite the fact that there was still over an hour until closing time. They also didn't get a 2 minute check back after their food was delivered, nor were they asked if they wanted any salad or breadsticks after they were done with the initial round.

One server was complaining that her table hadn't given their card after she dropped their check off 30 minutes ago, and was sending other servers around to see if they had a card out yet instead of just checking back in with them to see if there was anything else that they needed or if they had changed their mind about dessert.

Management, this ultimately reflects on you. Teach your servers and bartenders about customer service. There is value in upselling. There is value in conversation. There is value in checking back in with your customers.

There is even value when you, management, walk past a bar of patrons and take time to check in with them. You didn't.

Perhaps if you lead by example, they...

My family of four traveled from Maryland to Virginia (Woodstock) for the extended Easter weekend to celebrate my nine-year-old's birthday. When we asked him where he wanted to eat, he enthusiastically responded "Olive Garden." A quick Google search told us that Harrisonburg had a location, so off we went. It was Friday night and when we arrived they were on a 30 minute wait. We agreed to put our names in and we were told that we would have to wait in our car or outside ( it was 30 some degrees last weekend!). I also asked if I could get a glass of wine while we waited and I was told (in a sort of schooled kind of way by a 20-something) that I was welcome to enjoy a beverage at a seated table- (thanks for the long response). When we walked out the door we noticed a couple sitting in the vestibule area between the main restaurant and the parking lot. My family and I started to sit down and another member of the congregating hostess team made a B-LINE for me and abruptly stated: "M'am, you can't sit there ... the only reason why they are there is because they don't have a car." I also noticed that the couple had their masks pulled below their noses and that was not at all addressed. I was humiliated, angry and definitely inconvenienced. The odd thing is that we left and went right up the street to the Longhorn Steak House and not only were we allowed to stay inside in the waiting area with other patrons, but we were allowed to get a drink from the bar and consume it while we waited. You all need to get it together... if this is policy for the state of Virginia, then you should have that posted and all of these procedures should be stated prior to someone putting their name on a list. By the way... the hostess stand had approximately 7 people standing closely together when we came in, so they are obviously not too concerned with social distancing. I'll be reaching out to...

This is the first Olive Garden I’ve been to in probably over 15 years. They’re still the same as 15 years ago, except with a “self checkout” machine at the end of your table.

My friends and I went here because this was the only restaurant open late at night when we were in the area. We were seated quickly and our waiter was very friendly.

If you’re in need of gluten free options, they do have a gluten free menu, just remember they’ll still serve you regular breadsticks even though they know you’re allergic/intolerant to gluten, which wasn’t a big deal for me. I just didn’t eat them. The GF menu is very limited, but I was happy they had one at the very least. Another thing to note is they don’t have prices listed for any menu, including the GF menu. It’s very strange. You have no idea what your bill will end up being at the end of your meal.

I knocked off 2 stars because the restaurant is freezing! It literally feels like an arctic windstorm in there because of how high they had the air conditioning running… even at 10pm and it was had only been a high of 75°F outside that day. It was incredibly uncomfortable and I couldn’t wait to leave as soon as I walked in the doors. I was glad I brought a sweater, but I really needed a winter coat, my sweater did absolutely nothing to protect me from the intense air conditioning blowing directly onto every table. My friends felt the same way, we couldn’t even talk at the table we were so cold.

Aside from that, the food was fine. Nothing exceptional. I usually don’t go to chain restaurants since I try to support local as much as possible, but it was as expected. I probably won’t return to another Olive Garden for...