Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Hialeah

“Regret” best describes our decision to eat Mother’s Day dinner at the 49 St. Hialeah Olive Garden. THALIA- our awful server- is the reason why we feel this way. My friend from Hialeah recommended this place to both celebrate his Mother and my Sister-who is a Mommy of 3. My sister drove in from Coral Springs!! The ONLY good thing that happened that night was when we arrived shortly after 5:30; we were “immediately seated” because there was no waiting lines!!!! Thalia-our server, didn’t suggest any wine, mention any food appetizers or recommend any entrees. There was NEVER even a “Happy Mother’s Day” to the 2 women at our table! After my friends Mom requested to Thalia that she wanted “to share” her entree with her son-Thalia’s attitude visibly became bothered. Her ugly disposition carried out through the entire night. WE had to ask for more bread; WE had to repeatedly request for refills on drinks; WE had to seek her out to order dessert; and also for a “to go” box. Remember- we were seated “right away” because the restaurant was NOT packed busy! Unacceptable that Thalia never offered coffee, tea, or a sincere interest whatsoever with our table. My sister ordered the Endless Soup & Salad. Thalia did NOT offer my sister to try a different soup-let alone ask if she “enjoyed or liked” the first bowl!!! Beyond unbelievable! After we patiently waited- we had to ask Thalia for the check- since we did NOT order or even use the computer “tablet” on the table. We finally got the check and there was a “Games Play” charge “added” to our bill! Again- we had to reach out to Thalia and let her know! Without any apology for the error, she merely walked off to correct it. In fairness to the kitchen staff- ALL our entrees soups, salads and cheesecake were very freshly prepared and exceptionally good! We noticed that most all the servers-including Thalia-were wearing a Name Badge/Company Promotional Button that read: “We’re All Family Here”. Not once did we feel that sentiment of being treated like “FAMILY” from Thalia! Instead- we felt unwelcomed, unwanted and disrespected. Clearly, Thalia has no business wearing that Company slogan-nor entrusted with your valued patrons in the Hospitality/Service profession. I truly wanted to speak to the Manager but couldn’t stomach being in that restaurant for a minute longer!!! We could not wait to LEAVE! Our Family time would NOT be spent with some one who treated us more like her “enemies”! Respectfully-I recommend the management “to meet” with your staff PRIOR to daily shifts and remind them to bring their BEST service attitude and quality standard to loyal & new customers. This way your guests would NOT have to apologize to their families-like WE DID to ours-for a truly horrible experience!!! Always know this: we do have “other food” & restaurant options we can “choose” to go to- & enjoy time over a meal with friends & Family!! In the end-we were also extremely “sorry” that our Mother’s Day was unfortunately spent at your...

I went to have lunch and meet the manager. I sat at the bar for 5 minutes that was empty @ 2:45pm. Had to get up and just get a table, I asked to speak with manager (manager and three employees at entrance saw me sit at the bar). A male with a cook jacket was there at the entrance! I ask if the manger was in, and they replied yes, and pointed to him. The so called manager “Antonio” at the Hialeah East 49 street location zip 33014 was at the reception station, just standing around talking to 3 female employees of no work related urgencies. I told him I wanted to speak with him, (To Just introduce myself, I even wore my old Olive Garden employee T-shirt, and as one of the openers of this location in 2012) when I headed to be seated to the table, again I informed him that I wanted to speak with him, he said yes, I will be there. (Never came to y table until I finished with my lunch around 3:20 pm) He just walked around, and around, and after I was finishing with my meal then he came ask if everything was alright! At that point, I did not want to speak with him! Finally, I worked for Darden, for 10 years and wanted to introduce myself, but I was so frustrated with his ignorance that I just did not want to speak with him anyway! If I was manger there still, I would have fired him a long time ago, he is no manger, he should be an assistance cook maybe! I assisted the corporate trainers in the opening of two of the Darden Restaurants, in the preparation training in Hialeah. *Next comments have nothing to do with mangers UN-professionalism: The location was very slow end of lunch, with maybe 8 tables, Not server's fault, took a long time to get a wine glass from the bar by server and a small dinner salad! The Garlic rolls were dry and overheated, almost burned, the spaghetti sauce tasted as regular Publix can Crush Tomato, not even tasted as marinara seasoned sauce as I used to prepare it when we opened in 2012. The chicken of the chicken parmigiana was bland, no taste, not even a dash of Blk Pepper! All was Cold and chicken was dry from big batch frying and left from lunch rush, if any! AWFUL. I ask for glass of house red wine, and I was charged $9 for ½ of a small 6 ounce glass! AWFUL, JUST AWFUL, Better to eat a heat and serve parmigiana Frozen dinner and save the $20 lunch plus tip and the drive and wait to get service! The server Veronica was new hire and very nice, I gave her a $20 tip before I even had lunch, when she brought me the salad, I gave her $20 tip. Not glad to have visited a Restaurant that I was very proud of, and had been a part of the opening. George, 2012 Olive Garden Manger at the time fought to get me to transferred to this location Olive Garden, from next door, the Longhorn Steak House that I also assisted in the opening with the Corp Trainers! A Very...

If I could leave 0 stars for my review, I would.. I am extremely disappointed about The Olive Garden.. I have been going for years all over and this one, the one located in Hialeah’s 49th Street is THE WORST restaurant I have ever been to… but it only got like that recently, when it first opened it was ok, so I don’t know what’s happened if the management has changed, the quality of employees etc… overall the place is an absolute disgrace.. From the moment you go in, there’s attitude from the servers as if they are bothered they have another guest… the stench is unbearable not to mention the hygiene in the restrooms, urine and paper everywhere sticking on your shoes, empty soap dispensers and no paper towels…

Last time I went before yesterday there was a cockroach walking around on our table nobody took care of it so I had to grab it myself with a napkin… my whole family was there and we were all already eating.. it was absolutely disgusting… they offered a little discount to what should have been a free dinner since we were were about to vomit due to the disgustingness of the situation, those of us who were not done yet couldn’t even finish our food.. but months have passes since the incident and we decided to go back yesterday at our mom’s request because Olive Garden is her favorite restaurant and it was her 74th birthday… well they did it again..

Where do I start?? They took HOURS to bring our food and brought the children’s LAST, Food was burned, place was dirty- no, wait! disgusting… they took forever to bring everything- children were almost crying because they had been waiting for more than 1 hr and were very hungry it was so very late! Almost 10 Pm and we did not have our food, we arrived at 6:30 PM My brother told the waitress to take his food back and to not bring anything else because it was wait too late and it was totally burned There was no water or beverages for the children, silverware was dirty salad had no dressing, tour of Italy were absolutely ridiculous dry and some where huge the others were kids meal size! Coffee was cold!! I have absolutely no words, there’s absolutely nothing good about our trip to the OG yesterday- from the moment we sat down to the moment we left , absolutely terrible!! To conclude. We won’t be going to that establishment again, not worth it! They ruined my mom’s birthday… I do not recommend THIS...