Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Lakeland

Sadly to say, we have tried this Olive Garden location several times. I will say about 5 times in the last 6 months and today was our last time! I've never seen a restaurant with servers so discriminating as I've seen in this location! Today I walked in with my husband and once I asked for a table (not a booth) due to a medical condition I have, they got a bit upset and put us on the back of the restaurant which was fine. I walked away to wash my hands and it took 20 minutes for our waitress to acknowledge we were sitting on the table. She walked passed us 7 times to ensure all the other customers were good and even engaged in non relevant conversations with them for over 2 minutes and never turned to look at us. Once 20 minutes went by, I told my husband we were going to give them another 5 minutes and if no one attended to us, we were just gonna walk away. She walked passed again to deliver a drink and intended to walk away but once she realized my look, she stopped and asked if we were ready to order. We placed our order for drinks n food, she brought salad, bread and the drinks, but didn't bring the sauce for the breadsticks we ordered. Once I asked how long it will take, she said it was 4.99 with free refills. That was not the question and neither was the money! Then we got the sauce and someone else delivered the food. My husband was half way done with his plate when she came to apologize for our food taking long not realizing the food was already served to us by someone else. Needless to say, she walked by passed us over 9 times not even asking if he needed another drink or if everything was okay like she did to all the other white customers that were there! This is not a race issue, I have 8 daughters which 6 of them we adopted and they are white, so racism is never a topic at home, but is sad to see how some people can be so ignorant to treat people on an obvious type of way based on their skin color or nationality so needless to say, I will never spend another dime on this specific location! At the end of this upsetting situation, she did get a tip, simply because I know how hard waitresses work and how little they get paid, so my bad experience with her was not a reason to cut her off her tip! Eventhou she clearly didn't deserve it. She didn't even gave us her name or asked if we needed any deserts...we were still eating when she came to our table and set up the tablet with out bill and walked away! Such a bad experience!!! But...

We have been to this Olive Garden location several times. The food has always been good and the service has ranged from great to acceptable. Never bad...until this time.

We arrived and they were not busy. We were greeted and seated right away. That was the highlight of the visit. We sat at our table for a full 15 minutes without a single server stopping, although a number of them walked by. After we had been sitting there about 10 minutes the busboy stopped and apologize for the wait and asked if he could bring us something to drink.

Finally we reached the point of having had enough (and honestly the only reason we waiting that long was because I had a gift card). As we were about to get us the manager came over and apologized for the wait and said she'd be helping us. We were not interested, because at that point I was no longer interested in eating there. The manager offered to get us another server, which was ironic because we hadn't had a server at all up to that time.

It is absolutely ludicrous to sit at a table as long as we did, to be seen by as many servers as we were and not a single one stopping. I did hear one comment to someone else that "It's not my table". That's ok. It's not going to be anyone's table now because we won't be back. There is no excuse for the lack of service which we experienced.

I can accept questionable food as long as the service is good. But bad service is a deal-breaker. My one-star rating for food is only because I couldn't choose no stars, because we had no food.

Sorry, Olive Garden. Whomever was supposed to be our server has cost you two fairly...

5 Stars – Best Service We’ve Had in a Long Time!

I just want to give a huge shoutout to Chelsea, our waitress at the Olive Garden in North Lakeland. From the second we sat down, she greeted us with a big smile and a friendly attitude that instantly made us feel welcome. But what really stood out was how she introduced herself not just by name, but with real energy like she actually wanted to take care of us. That’s rare.

I asked about a few newer menu items, and she took her time explaining everything without rushing or sounding annoyed. She didn’t just name ingredients she gave honest opinions, broke things down so I understood, and made it fun to hear about food I’d never tried before.

What really impressed me was that not once did I have to look around or ask my wife, “Where’s our waitress?”because Chelsea stayed on top of everything without being overbearing. Our drinks were always full, she timed everything perfectly, and she checked in just enough to make sure we had what we needed. That kind of service you do not see every day.

She even noticed when my wife dropped her napkin and came over quietly with a fresh one without being asked. She was super aware of everything around her.

Chelsea is a big reason I’ll be coming back to this location. She’s not just doing her job she’s adding value to the whole Olive Garden experience. If every restaurant had a Chelsea, eating out would be a whole lot better.

Give that woman a raise....