Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Hot Springs

Let me start with the fact that the environment was lovely with amazing food, good music, and fine lighting... that being said, my most recent visit was very disappointing when it comes to our specific waitress.

Upon being sat down, we were placed by a very lovely family who was already displaying signs of displeasure in their dining experience.

It didn't take long before we saw why, as one of the younger members of the family accidentally knocked their glass off the table. We immediately asked if they were ok, as we heard broken glass and the very loud noise. She thankfully was fine, but no one in the restaurant seemed to notice, employee wise.

It took over 15 minutes of waiting before the waitress came back for them; they informed her of the glass. The waitress was not concerned for the family, and said "it's okay " and "whatever" loudly over the glass and didn't try to pick it up. The buser picked up the glass when she cleared the table.

We also had this waitress, Cat D, according to our receipt (she never properly greeted us or gave her name at any point.) She barely paid attention to her tables and often disappeared and had a more nervous waitress address her tables in her place.

We had to constantly stop her or even the timid other waitress to get every refill on our drinks, and more of our unlimited soup. My last soup never came as she dumped the chocolates and the bill on the table.

She actually forgot the spoon for one of our soups and I had to use another person's at our table. The silverware was dirty/stained and there was signs of tarnish from not being polished for keeping them in good condition. My friend did not get a straw for her tea, which is concerning during covid times.

We ordered alcohol. We are in our mid to late twenties and were prepared with our IDs... only to be shocked that we didn't get our IDs checked.

I took a picture of our table's pile of glasses and dishes, which we gathered for easier bussing. I was later informed by a very personable and kind waiter, Bobby, (who was helpful to us when our waitress decided we weren't worth her time anymore) that the restaurant had a tough night in the kitchens and there was a glass and plate shortage. We couldn't tell because our waitress seemed to think she was above taking any dish from our table until she saw us taking a picture.

She was quick to try to disrupt the picture by taking our used dining ware and hiding the evidence of her poor work.

We had to call the helpful waiter over, because our waitress was so eager to drop the check and abandon us that she didn't even ask if we wanted to go boxes.

He immediately got us to go boxes and asked how we were; he was very friendly and is the strongest redeaming experience tonight.

A different waiter we had tried to grab, came back to ask if we got helped. The Male staff members went above and beyond. I'm sadly left wondering why several female staff seemed rude and distant to us.

Regardless my friend, who paid the bill tipped the waitress 10% since she feels strongly about making sure service workers make a living wage.

I feel the need to point out that we were obviously LGBTQ+ and the other family who got poor service from the same waitress were black, so it is unclear if the mistreatment was due to our...

We were so disappointed with our experience here tonight. First off, our favorite things have been taken off the menu which was a little disappointing, but I know you have to change things up and so I reviewed the menu and chose to create my own with the new mushroom sauce, my husband ordered the cheese ravioli with meat sauce and our son ordered a fettuccini alfredo and specifically told the waitress he did not want chicken. We oredered drinks; coke, DP, and a raspberrny tea. We got a coke, DP and Raspberry lemonade ....... Had to have a diff waitress bring the correct drink. I ordered the zuppa tuscana, my husband ordered the chicken and gnocci and my son asked for salad. Our soups and salads came. My soup was watery to the point of no flavor. The chicken and gnocci had no gnocci in either bowl that my husband oeorder. It also had no flavor. My son had no complaint on the salad. Before our food arrived the waitress came back and filled my husbands drink, forgot mine. I had to ask her to get me a refill. She also came and asked if us if we would like all of our meals to come out together or wait for mine to be made. Of course, we said we would wait. 5 minutes later all the food was there. Not really sure why we were asked to wait if it was pretty much done? My son's fettuccini came with the chicken he didn't ask for and specifically said not to put on it and tasted more like heavy whipping cream with a hint of cheese in it. My husband's ravioli was so dry he could barely cut it. My pasta had barely any sauce or mushrooms in the "mushroom sauce". Also, it was tasteless. Absolutely tasteless. Even the chicken that I did ask for was tasteless. Not sure what happened in the last 6 months, but ew! Not one dish was removed from the table during the course of the meal. Thank goodness we didn't have our daughter with us or the wouldn't have been able to eat for the mess and lack of table space. As we were getting ready to go our waitress asked of we would like to go drinks. My son took her up on that and asked for a raspberry tea. She repeated his request and still brought a lemonade. We had been looking forward to this all day and left feeling hungry and ripped off. I will say that our waitress was a very sweet girl. Maybe she...

Olive Garden food has always been a love for us. It's been a place for many memories for many years.

However, moving to the Hot Springs area and visiting this location has been a bit of a different experience. We've gone twice now in the last 6 months.

A great majority of the staff at this location are very unfriendly. The environment as a whole is dreadful.

The only person that we see who seems happy, is always present, and willing to help is their busser. She is on her a-game and loves to smile. Last time, I gave her the waitress' tip since she helped us more & made our kids feel more welcome than the waitress did. This time, I did tip the waitress. She wasn't the best, but she did at least tended to us to the minimum.

While the food is pretty close to Olive Garden standards, I think they can take it up a notch to perfect it. Ordered the watermelon sangria, which was very delish, but having so much ice it quickly was watered down. Chicken Alfredo was perfect, ravioli were great, breadstick cooked just right, and vegetables all were quite fresh. Areas of improvement would include proper presentation & portion size. ie give enough salad dressing and the proper amount of salad toppings. (We received like a 1/4th if an onion on our salad for 2 people.) I know that OG has very detailed instructions to make things consistent amongst locations, so by not following those, people can tell.

Overall, the visit as a whole was OK. We really hoped the first time was just a bad example, but after the 2nd visit, I'm thinking not. Hope the management (who wasn't present either time) can get adjusted so the staff can get follow suit. Olive Garden should be packed and a highly sought out restaurant and this...