Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Lawton

2 years ago, this was 4 stars. After last night's experience, this should be a negative 10. First off, I fully understand the food industry's struggles in coming out of the covid pandemic as I am an essential worker and have had to deal with this mess on a similar yet completely different level. HOWEVER, if you hate your job and the public as much as our server appears to, for the love of all things Holy; find another job. Five of us planned to go out for some much needed time away from work and 2 of us had birthdays this week. We decided on Olive Garden because it's always been a great place to go and the food has always been really good. I called ahead for seating and our table was ready as soon as I arrived. I went in to wait for the others and ordered tea with no ice. It came with ice; no big deal really. He did bring out 2 more teas without and I thought at that point the service was going to be as it always had been. I was horribly mistaken. The rest of our group arrived a few minutes apart. We ordered appetizers, the ones that came after ordered their drinks and that's when things went downhill, FAST. Multiple servers were wandering the restaurant with food, not knowing where it was actually supposed to go, and there were, at bare minimum, four instances of them attempting to give us food that belonged to other diners. The drinks for our table showed up and the last of our party ordered a water with lemon. Approximately 20 minutes later, the salad and breadsticks came with no plates. At this point, the attitude from the server became crystal clear as when I asked for plates, I was dismissed with one finger as he turned away from me to walk away. Umm, No. No, Sir, you did not. He came back cradling two plates of appetizers, one of which was wrong, but I asked that he leave it and put it on my ticket. I was ignored as he walked away with it. He came back and again, I asked for plates. He threw out an excuse that there was an issue in the kitchen, yet others in our group noticed other tables were getting their orders, with plates. After more food and drinks that we didn't order showed up and were pointed in another direction, he came back with the bowl of Alfredo I had been waiting on, and pretty much threw it in my direction, and continued to slam items down on our table. He brought plates, handing them to everyone and placing mine at the other end of the table. My friend's lemon water was never delivered. At close to an hour in, our main entries had still not been taken and at that point, I was DONE after being livid at the attitude and tone this guy was throwing at not just me, but all of us. I asked for a manager and demanded we get a new server. While waiting for a new server, I decided my experience was over. The new server came and looked confused. It was explained what had happened and I told him to take back the Alfredo and comp it as I was not ordering a single thing from this establishment after basically being dismissed as someone would an annoying child and having items basically thrown in my direction. The manager came back and I told her as much also. She wound up comping the appetizers and drinks, at which point we left and went to Texas Roadhouse. As a parting gift, though not the most mature thing I've done in life, I flipped our initial server the one finger salute about 2 ft from his face and exited. Considering the depth of my anger at that point, that was the calmest thing I could muster. I will NEVER in my lifetime enter this establishment again and, considering I've spent hundreds of dollars over the years there, it's just pathetic what the place has turned into. My advice; JUST DON'T GO. Slow service is acceptable, however, rude, condescending, dismissive, hateful, and annoyed...

(Changed from 2 to 4 star. Edit below)

Let me start off with saying the food was great as always. Absolutely no issues there.

The service was probably the worst I have ever had at Olive Garden.

My waiter approached me after I was seated for a short while and I gave my entire order: drink, soup, alfredo boat and entree. Instead of writing it down or just remembering it (I was there by myself) he picks up the little mobile kiosk and enters my order there. He leaves and immediately returns with breadsticks, my alfredo and soup. I thank him and he wanders off to continue working.

I look at my food and decide to wait and see how long it takes for him to bring me my drink. After about 5 minutes, I decide I'm really thirsty and just wave him down and ask him. He has completely forgotten about it and apologizes multiple times and brings it out immediately.

About 10 minutes after this, I'm done with my soup and breadsticks and not once did he check on me while I was eating to see if everything was okay. (He didn't do this during my entree either) My glass was empty and after sitting a while I just start doing the work I had brought with me to pass the time. A different employee comes out and asks me about my order and I correct him on what I wanted and he leaves. I didn't check the time when I arrived but it took more than 35 (maybe upwards of 45) minutes from me ordering to receive my entree. This is not an extreme amount of time, but it was between lunch and dinner and the restaurant was not very busy.

Again, he doesn't check on me until I am done eating at which point all I want is a box and a refill of my empty glass to go. I get no check. No mints. He tells me I am welcome to pay using the kiosk and I don't see him again after I get my box.

Yes, I still left him a tip even though I feel I shouldn't have. I tip very well for good service. The amount I gave today was under $2.

I ordered: Peach Tea Alfredo Boat Zuppa Toscana Chicken Parmigiana (lunch sized)

Edit:

Olive Garden contacted me to give them another try and they bought me lunch. I took my sister with me (we split the bill)

I wish I could remember the waiters name. He was a younger guy and very full of enthusiasm. As soon as he noticed my sleeping nephew his volume went from 7/10 to about a 3. My experience with him was the complete opposite though not perfect. He was very new, but honest and if he didn't know the answer he found out and remembered to tell us when he came back around. He was very attentive and so sincere that we didn't even complain about one of our appetizers (the pasta nachos) being pretty sub par.

Our main meals were perfect, the waiter was attentive and you could tell he wanted us to have a good experience. My meal voucher was given AFTER we ate so no, he didn't put on a show for us, he just was that nice and for me that makes all the difference. We did lunch so it was quite a bit less for my half than was on the voucher. I left the balance as his tip and my sister tipped as well.

The order for this lunch was exactly the same as above for me, plus the pasta nachos that we shared. My sister had the...

After an unfavorable experience, I have not been back to olive garden in approximately 4 years but yesterday I decided to give it a go. Was not disappointed. The food was mediocre, the salad was weak and I requested extra tomatoes which resulted in 3 slices of tomatoes so I'm assuming if that counted as extra, the normal amount you now get is 1 1/2. The server was entertaining to the point I still gave him a tip. He asked if we needed anything else after taking our order and that's when I requested the extra tomatoes. My husband requested some butter for the bread . He didn't bring it . So we waited for our food. When he brought it he asked if we needed anything else and my husband again asked for butter. The waiter then remembered that we already asked for it. After a bite of a wait he brought it, a cup of melted butter. When we were almost ready to leave he came back by and I asked for a togo box . He left to go get it . He walked back by and had 2 boxes in his hand but went to the table behind us and gave them one box . Then he walked by 3 more times carrying the box but never stopped at our table. Since my husband was not ready I just sat there and watched to see how long it would take him. I finally flagged down another server and asked for a box. She took 5 steps away from us grabbed a box from behind a podium and handed me the box . My husband and I looked at each other and laughed and laughed. When he did return to collect the dishes he again asked if we needed anything, I said I did need a togo box and he jumped and apologized and started to go get one but I stopped him and pointed to the box on the table. I'm not going to name him or the location because I don't want him in trouble but I can say my expectations were met and this time, I...