Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I went to this location last night to pick up my To Go order. The people that greeted me were courteous and very polite and directed me to the right direction as it was my first time ordering a To Go order. That was the extent of the courteous nature that Olive Garden always provides. Standing at the To Go counter, I waited between 2 and 5 minutes in which 4 servers walked past me without even acknowledging my existence. Then, I looked over and the 3 people standing behind the bar were standing around of the registers and kept looking at me and giving me dirty looks. At this point, I was flabbergasted that the service could ever be this bad. Just when I was about to walk back up front to the nice people that greeted me, a man approached me and must have been one of the managers. He asked if I had been helped to which I replied no and that I was just there to pick up a To Go order. I wish I had remembered his name because he was very nice. Then, Maggie, the General Manager, helped me by calling the person that was usually at the pick up counter and letting them know I was there to pick up my order. After explaining what had happened, she apologized profusely and offered me a free dessert for the inconvenience. Fast forward 30 minutes when I get home. I had put in my special instructions that I have a severe mushroom allergy. I had ordered the Asiago Tortellini since they offer Mushroom Ravioli and Cheese Ravioli and I did not want to risk them mixing them up. I opened my container and low and behold, it was the wrong thing. They had given me the Mushroom Ravioli. I immediately called the restaurant and spoke with Maggie again and let her know what had happened since she was so kind at the restaurant when she was helping me. She started apologizing again to me and offered to remake my order and sent me an e gift card for the inconveniences. I told her I lived near Orange Park and did not want to drive across the bridge again. I asked if she could call the Orange Park store and have them remake the order for me and she said yes she would do that for me. Maggie is an amazing woman and an amazing manager. She definitely went above and beyond last night for me and I cannot thank her enough for her friendliness and impeccable...

3-25-25 update. We arrived around 2pm today. We were sat in the bar area. I typically don't care for this area as it seems folks can be forgotten. Well. I was absolutely incorrect! Mathew (one T) was our server. He was very attentive and made excellent recommendations. I felt very "needy " as I asked for my salad with stuff left out, my tea with lemon, and even asked for changes to my entre. What a character I was but Mat was on top of it and didnt seem phased at all. I even stopped him to ask him about a drink I saw on their rotating TV screen ad. He didn't fret...he described it and offered recommendations about it. Our lunch was spot on excellent and Mathew never needed reminding about drinks or salad refills. He was ON IT! Actually, sitting in the bar, I was impressed on how well they actually make it flow. Good communication with each other and Mathew seemed to bring food from about three different directions. He laughed and said "tricks of the trade " or something similar. I appreciate him for being so attentive and not put off by what I felt was a "needy customer" in me. I would definitely ask for Mathew personally to be our server again. Oh..the drink was a cappuccino and the added caramel was excellent! 👌 Thanks, Mathew!

We arrived at 11 am opening. They were prompt in opening the doors and greeted every customer as entering. Michael was our server today. He has been providing excellent service to his Olive Garden guests for six years! It did show. His table service was amazing and we watched another server with fewer tables who was having slightly more trouble. But, I am certain she will get there as well. Michael made some recommendations and our soup/salad and Tour of Italy hit the spot. No room left for dessert today but theirs is usually great. Everything was great today. We even found out about a secret. As Michael was grating an enormous amount of cheese on our salad, we mentioned about wishing we had a set up like that at home. Well...they actually sell the graters at Olive Garden and provide you with 2 blocks of cheese. Good to...

The server was horrible. Spent all of her time talking with other tables while we waited 20 minutes for refills of drinks. But the ultimate debacle was this- my husband always orders a soup with his entree, and I order the salad. The soup or salad is included in the order. Then I always order a side soup, which I always pay for, and which I did today. But this server, which has NEVER happened before in the 30 years we have been going to Olive Garden, asked how many people we wanted the salad for? We were puzzled and asked what she meant, and she said that if both people ate the salad, there would be a charge for 2 salads. We were confused, as we have never heard that before She said it was the way it was done. So, later, after waiting for drinks for 20 minutes, a man named Pete came by and asked how things were, and we told him about the drinks, which seemed to irritate him, and then asked him about the salads, which seemed to irritate him even more, and he replied that yes, whomever eats the salad needs to pay for it, and then abruptly walked away, while i was still speaking to him! FInally, she.brings the bill, and it had TWO soup charges on it. I asked her, and she said the same as previously, even though the supposed salad bowl for "2" was much less salad than we have gotten in the past for a regular bowl! I wanted to explain "hey we both had an entree, so we each should have had one soup or salad free, and i only should have paid for my extra bowl of soup" . But i gave up. So remember, all of u future Olive Garden patrons, if u order soup and your partner orders salad, don't eat ANY OF that leftover salad, because according to "Pete" and the server we had, you will have to pay for 2 salads! It does not cost the restaurant any extra money for 2 people to eat the salad, but I guess they would rather throw the leftover away in the trash! Unbelievable and not a sound...