Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Houston

Very bad service, the African American waitress was not friendly at all, she definitely did not have any customer service skill, was rude, she got our order wrong. I ordered chicken parmigiana with chicken & gnocchi soup with breadsticks. When my order came out it was chicken scampi with chicken soup with no gnocchi and upon telling her this isn't what I ordered, she just picked it up without any apology or anything that would indicate it was a mistake. But I didn't want to waste food so I've asked her to put the food back on the table. So she drops the food and leaves. Never heard back from her until I had to call her to bring my breadsticks which came out towards the end of my meal. Now let's talk about the actual food, the wrong order wasn't even cooked properly, the veggies on the plate was supposed to be sautéed but nothing was even remotely sautéed, every bite was so crunchy that it felt like the veggies just came fresh out of the refrigerator. The manager was just hanging around talking to other coworkers but never bothered to even check on the customers to see how's everything going. I understand that mistakes happen when you are busy and short staffed but there was barely any customer at 1:20pm on a Thursday. So having this many mess ups and to top that off the food being poorly prepared, isn't any excuse for a restaurant. During this pandemic everywhere is already slow, restaurants are not getting as many business, even during slow season and time if they can't get it right then definitely they will lose more business. I can't even imagine what will happen during busy time. Very disappointing. Even an elderly couple behind us started complaining because they been seated for 10 mins but no one came to even take their drink order yet. So I'm not the only one had a bad ex the same day and time. I would suggest the management to pay close attention to their customers and re-train their waiters to have a better...

So shout out to Veronica the manager and Stephen our server who was new by the way, they really did try to go above and beyond but the kitchen dropped the ball til it popped. I swear. The bread sticks were stale but we could live without the extra carbs. The cheese sticks were warm. The shrimp, bell pepper appetizer we requested to be well done were so light and under, sent back and came back very over done, and minutes before the entrees came out... which we didn't want to happen. Let's talk our dinner plates... sea food alfredo, tour of Italy, sub parm for spaghetti, daughter had spaghetti and meatballs, other daughter, alfredo, our noodles, except my youngest who got small pasta noodles, and other daughter, were crispy with some noodles, over cooked, it just seemed pre made and had been sitting out, then there was like zero sauce, so we tell Stephen, he comes back with sauces but the manager comes and she physically touches the noodles because she knew we'd need new plates just on appearance, she was shocked. She offered of course the new plates but my girls are already finishing up, at this point, we give them the extra sauces because theirs were lacking and by the time our food comes, that sauce would of gotten cold.... and she comes back with fresh food, by the time, we are already ready to go.. my moms still needs more sauce unfortunately, so once again, Stephen goes to get more... I'll admit, they sang happy birthday, and at our request, obliged at the request of a discount for everything that had gone wrong. We did stress how great Stephen was, considering he was new... but wow. This is why I can't do Olive Garden anymore. Our bill would of been 109, but due to all the errors, it was 75. It should never come to that. We go there to spend the money we probably shouldn't but have. Thank you all for still making my daughter feel special. Cooks, get it...

RECOMMEND: YES

This place was great. My wife and I ate here during lunch time. It wasn't crowded but had at least half the tables filled. The food we both had the $8.99 Unlimited Soup, Salad, & Breadsticks.

"The" Salad - Their classic salad was great. The Italian dressing they use (standard at all Olive Garden's) was perfect. They didn't add too much or too little like other ones I've been to. They forgot to add croutons to the 1st salad bowl they brought out and my wife had to ask for some. The 2nd salad bowl had croutons. Croutons or not, I love this salad.

Garlic Breadsticks - The 1st time we were brought breadsticks, there was 4 and they were hot and soft with LOTS of garlic on them (love it). The 2nd time they brought breadsticks they brought only 2 (this is the second reason why the service score is only 4 stars). The 3rd time they brought us 5

Unlimited Alfredo Dipping Sauce - The 1st bowl (its small, but unlimited so its okay) tasted okay, nothing bad to say...BUT...the 2nd and 3rd bowl was O.U.T.S.T.A.N.D.I.N.G! It was a shock to my tastebuds at first. You could really taste the garlic and parmesan cheese in it. I didn't want to stop dipping my breadsticks in it.

Zuppa Toscana (Soup) - Was hot (temperature) and the 1st bowl was a little watery. The flavor was toned down by them adding too much water to the pot (reason for 4 star Food) Probably to stretch it. The 2nd bowl was better. I really love the kale in it (I never eat kale other than in soup). This is my go-to soup here. I want to buy whatever sausage they use in this soup. I really like it. The potatoes slices in the soup were soft and had soaked up the liquid (like it should).

OVERALL - This was a great experience for my wife and I. The food overall was great and we will definitely be returning soon to try out those Italian Doughnut things with the raspberry and chocolate...