Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Indianapolis

This was truly a terrible dining experience. It’s sad and pathetic enough having to eat out alone. But the host took me name…then sat a couple other parties who arrived after me. The host forgot my name, even though I was the only party of 1 waiting. He sat me under a spotlight in the bar section. The busboy came and got my water order, said the bartender was busy. Then I heard a manager maybe (?) and the bartender talking about me. Seemed they didn’t understand why she got sat again. The same manager maybe (?) took my wine order and I said I needed a few minutes to look over the menu.

Then over half an hour passed by.

A dude who sat himself at the bar was helped before me so that’s a recurring theme. Someone came to take my order after I’d been sitting for 35 minutes, right before I was just going to get up and leave. She didn’t apologize for the wait. Then she forgot my order, like WHAT I ordered and had to come back. This was Saturday night mind you, but I was at the tail end of the dinner rush. It seemed like she’d expected the manager to take my order…I was confused. Couldn’t someone check the POS and see I hadn’t ordered? The entire time, all the surrounding tables were not bussed, leaving me to stare at dirty dishes. Including in a much cozier booth that would’ve made for nicer dining. Literally I was at one of two tables under a light you could do surgery under. And if someone had just bussed that table in about 20 seconds…alas…From sitting down to finishing my meal, I was alone and it took over an hour. Over. An. Hour. This was not a slammed OG.

Then when I asked for a to go box, she got one and then nobody ever came back. Nobody told me how to pay. Maybe I should’ve just left without paying. They didn’t want me there anyway. I’m just not sure why this place is open. So the receipt didn’t print either, after I used the table kiosk since nobody said otherwise….

The dude at the bar? He got ridiculously great service. I was an inconvenience.

I wanted to get dessert to go. Opted for gas station candy instead because I’ll be damned if they got another penny from me.

On my way out, two hosts working. Dude who forgot me? Sitting down scrolling on his phone. Neither said goodbye, so I said goodbye to them instead and shouted “I’ll have a great night, thank you!”

Not only this one, but no OG will ever get my money again. I’ve rarely felt less welcome, which was exacerbated by the fact I was dining alone. Was I supposed to ask for a manager? I never saw one unless you count the manager who never took my order. Could the hosts not stop scrolling TikTok for one minute to bus a table? From start to finish, it was crystal clear that this OG suffers from a seriously lacking culture of professionalism, courtesy, and guest service.

Oh—and if she WAS the manager? Learn how to discipline your staff, hold them accountable, or accept the consequences of the standards you deem acceptable.

My last meal on this trip to Indianapolis would’ve been better served...

This deserves one star but I’m putting three stars only because the manager was friendly. Our waiter was rude and honestly did a terrible job. We did not catch his name but he was pale with long dark hair tied back in a loose ponytail. We are not difficult people and it takes a lot to tick us off because we understand that you are busy and we are not your only table but this was ridiculous. He would drop refills/salad/food off at the table and almost literally run away before asking if we needed anything or giving us a chance to ask (we aren’t complicated so he wasn’t running around on our account). Because of this it took forever to even get everything we needed, especially since he didn’t listen well at all and kept missing things/getting them wrong even after he repeated them back. Once we finally had everything I told him that I’d be placing a to-go order at his convenience on a separate check and he vaguely acknowledged me and seemed to forget (which is fine) so I reminded him with the check and he read the one order back to me. When he brought it, it had no salad (not that he asked about that or soup) or breadsticks with it. Again, he ran off before I could even get a word out, so now we are trying to be patient and wait for him to return. After 30 minutes we asked for a manager just to get us the salad and breadsticks and she was very friendly. The last straw was arriving home and giving the recipient of the to-go order their food and seeing that there is absolutely no meat in it. I understand that this could have been a mix up in the kitchen but based off of the rest of the night I would assume he ran away from our table and put the order in wrong despite having read it back to me. We gave him a decent review on the Ziosk and a decent tip. Hindsight is 20/20 because I’m pissed and he should look for a new calling—guest...

Manager may like to read towards the the end of this review.... Food was amazing,as always. The server seemed to be a little rushed and even tho order was only $40.00 she was tipped 20 because my mother and I are also servers and we know it can be rough at times and my mom was trying to help lift her spirits some. She just said thanks and walked away... Uh.... That was a 50% tip. We would have been extremely happy over that. Lol at least followed it up with a thanks so much. I hope you have a great night please come again... Something... She was a young girl and I guess wasn't quite in need as most.. I just feel most servers are underappreciated and underpaid and when customers notice this and you try to help out it would be great if they showed a little bit of appreciation.. play struggle to make it to my mother and I even split a plate and my son got a kid's meal.. so it's not like we are well off or anything.. It was a special occasion.. Most people ik tip 10-18% at highest. unless they r regular customers.. Also in the ladies room there was not just 1 but 2 order slips from a waitress... That seems a bit shady if u ask me .. 😕 Also the table had left over food stuck to the table🤦 Not very sanitary.. I guess we will be driving the 30 minutes away to go to the one in Greenwood...