Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Laredo

I was there with my family on Father's Day and it was a disaster only for one reason. The waitress was amazing, the food was good, but before we even got to sit I had a bad experience with a very disrespectful, unprofessional, arrogant young lady at the entrance of the restaurant. I unfortunately can't remember her name but she had a nose ring and had a goth vibe coming from her make up, not that this bothers me because I don't judge in that way, I am just trying to describe her. It was a crazy evening because everyone was trying to get a table and we were a party of 8 and one of the other hostesses kept repeating the name of a family, party of 10. She did this for about 10 min and no one responded. After a bit I spoke to her and said, if they don't respond get the next large party and that would have been us. She was inexperienced and shy and she just said she couldn't because she would get in trouble. After a bit another hostess came up to the front and I asked her why they could not move on and give the table out? After all they had told me they don't reserve tables. Anyway the young lady turns and tells me what is the problem? I was surprised by her response.. I explained to her the situation and she said no sorry we can't move on, that is our policy. She was very sarcastic and very closed off, not really trying to give any explanation as to why that is a policy, why we had to continue to wait for this family. I once again tried to get an explanation and she kind of did a hand gesture, like get out of here ... Well that did trigger me and my voice went a tad higher, and again I asked for an explanation. That is when a manager got there and actually dismissed and told her to go away... The manager tried to explain to me their policy. She said they had to wait 6 to 8 minutes before they could go to the next party. I explained to her that it has been over 10 min and that this was ridiculous, they should move on and call the next group. She was very professional even though I knew she was wrong on the time that had already elapsed waiting for the missing family. I calmed down and simply asked her how much longer will you wait for the family, she said 2 minutes and those passes quick, they called our group and we ate but this was bad customer service by the hostess. The other part of my experience at Olive Garden was great! Our waitress was...

STAY AWAY!!!

If I could give zero stars, I would. We walked into Olive Garden expecting a decent dining experience — instead, we got absolutely nothing. We were seated, and that was it!

No waiter introduced themselves, no drinks, no starters, no service. We just sat there like we were invisible idiots.

After waiting far too long, we had to physically call another waiter just to get ours who never even showed up. At that point, we’d had enough and decided to leave. On the way out, we informed the manager about our experience, and his pathetic response was a half-assed, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

Like, really? That’s all you've got? No attempt to fix the situation or even a shred of genuine concern. As if that wasn’t pathetic enough, we stopped at the reception desk on our way out to let them know we were leaving because no one bothered to serve us. Their response? A casual, "Oh okay." Like they didn’t give a single damn. No apology, no concern, no effort. Just complete indifference.

This place is an absolute joke. I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. If you’re thinking of dining at Olive Garden — DONT!!! Spend your money somewhere that actually values its customers. Shameful, pathetic excuse for...

So this is a different Olive Garden for me here for Laredo. The food was excellent! Bryan, our server, was excellent. He accidentally made a small mistake but it was small one. He apologized and gave us a free dessert as compensation. Poor guy he is a great waiter. Either way for this occasion (and I am super proud of you OG) there is a create your own pasta. I asked for Spaghetti with Mushroom cream and as additional topping Crispy Chicken Fritta. Ordered the Sicilian Cheesecake to go. The mango strawberry tea is ok at least. The Pumpkin Cheesecake was good, I will admit. Couldn’t get to finish a small piece of it cuz I was full. Other than that the place is lovely as is the staff. Bryan made up for his mistake. ¡Ni modo, lo hizo su trabajo muy bien con atención! Here is for the others: I believe her name was Elizabeth that got us a private seating…that was very sweet of her. Miguel gave me my box that I asked for since I didn’t want my plate go to waste. And this other girl (sorry didn’t catch her name tag) gave me my strawberry sauce in a small cup. That was very nice. To the staff that helped us..thank you!! I’m pretty sure the rest work as hard too. All the following deserve their...