Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Knoxville

I was part of a large group that went here as part of a birthday party (I believe it was 13 people). We had to wait 20 minutes despite calling ahead, but all things considered, that's not terrible.

The food was great, and our server did well during the meal. Our issues started when we tried to pay. There appeared to be an issue with the electronic tablets at the table. Our orders were all mixed up. After about 10 minutes of people trying to match their orders and pay, we notified the waitress that quite a few of our orders were mixed up or split across multiple checks. That part was handled by someone at the other end of the table, so I can't say exactly what was going on but about 20 minutes later we were really no further along in getting the issue resolved.

I finally got the waitress' attention after seeing that my order was split between 3 separate checks which also had parts of other peoples' orders. About 10 minutes after that, a guy I assume to be the manager came out, basically threw the waitress under the bus despite this appearing to be a tech issue, and then began more or less explaining to the young women at the other end of the table why they paid for their orders wrong. As the only guy at the table, it felt really patronizing towards the rest of my party.

At this point we were almost 45 minutes into just trying to pay. One of the people at the table was now running late for work. I asked the manager if they could leave considering they were one of the few people who paid and didn't have issues on their check. He did allow her to leave without questions but it still kind of brought down the energy and good moods a bit that it took us over an hour to pay and leave. There was also no attempt to discount anyone's meals or offer a coupon or anything to that effect, which feels like an obvious concession that would have probably gotten us to do more business with them if a coupon was offered rather than a discount.

The food was good, and on a different day I think the service would have been beyond adequate, but I'm writing a review on the experience I received, not the experience I think I'd have received on a different day.

I will probably go back every once in a while if I'm invited by a smaller party of maybe 2 or 3, but I think I would tell friends to avoid doing big parties here after...

In the past 2 years we have gone to this location 2 times. both at night during not too busy hours and both times had a bad experience. We went during all you can eat pasta bowl last time and the only true bad experience was how we were being rushed out constantly after only 1 refill. This time was that except on top of it was just horrible food and service.

Let's start at the beginning. My husband and i get there, we are excited, only a 5-10 minute wait, we wait 10 minutes, the lobby area is filling up with 5-10 minute waits. There are at least 5 tables now waiting with us. Then a manager comes up wondering what is wrong as "there are tables for days back there." as he put it. We get taken back

and seated, then we get our drinks and wait 10 minutes for our server to take our order, and then another 10 for our salad and soup... never to get bread until soup and salad comes. it took 25 minutes after the soup and salad come to get our never ending pasta bowels. and then 10-15 minutes for the refills. We over hear and watch the server next to us tell another table it takes 5-7 minutes for a refill.... they get 3 refills were seated after us and left before us we asked for refills the moment we get food and after I order 1 refill (JUST GOT MY FIRST PLATE MIND YOU) and get offered a box immediatly, here we go, getting rushed out again, it is not our fault we've been here an hour trust me, we didn't want to be. So on top of this our table never got bussed we never got offered more bread. Had to practically beg for it. the noodles were so over cooked water was leaving puddles in my sauce and made my chicken soggy, and you can clearly see separation of water and soup in my soup. my husband's sausage was so over cooked the casing was busted and his grilled chicken was obviously heated in the microwave. It was a horrible experience... in the beginning I was foaming at the mouth for dessert but was so tired of being there even if she had offered it i would have...

This is A Great Establishment that delivers Superb Italian cuisine!!!! First and foremost let me start by saying this, we always dress up when we go out to eat and today we got caught out in basically our pajamas ( sweat suits to be technical lol ) and was honestly a little embarrassed of going out to eat looking like we just came from the gym after a work out but my mother and I got a craving for something other than fast food while we was out running errands this evening and decided to brave up and go out to eat regardless of how we look because let’s face it. Our money spends the same rather we are wearing nice clothes or bumming around K-town in sweatpants !! Actually thought we would be treated differently for being “ underdressed” but that was not the case. THANK YOU OLIVE GARDEN FOR KEEPING IT Professional for us regardless of looks. You made a home run expression an even better dining experience. This is A Great Establishment that delivers Superb Italian cuisine!!!! Every one and every detail was on exact point. From the kitchen in the very back of this Olive Garden to the host that greeted us at the front door. When we walked in and gave our name to the host. We was told it would be a 15 minute wait and within 7 minutes our party was sitting at a table. We had JOSH for our waiter and Josh is the bomb!!! He never missed a beat, has a memory of an elephant, never forgot one single thing that we asked him for, was very funny, had me and my mom laughing and truly gave us a wonderful dining experience! You gotta ask for Josh ESPECIALLY If you have a special someone’s birthday you are wanting to celebrate because we heard him “Actually Singing” happy birthday to another table’s birthday star and was very impressed with the vocals he possesses!!! America’s Got Talent better watch out!! Josh went above and beyond all expectations of EXCELLENT SERVICE AND WE Can’t wait to come back for some birthday jams...