Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Leyden Township

I try my best not to complain when it comes to the service industry. Why? Because I recognize that it's not easy dealing with people, food, etc. But.... I do believe that when you are spending your hard-earned money and you are patronizing a restaurant, on a regular basis, over the years there is a certain level of service that should be the norm. Today we celebrated my mom's 76th birthday at the Melrose park, IL. Location & unfortunately it was the worse experience & service I have ever had. Items forgotten, food not properly prepared & then when I asked for replacement I was told that I may have to pay for the replacement, smh. My steak was pure pink but I asked for it to be cooked well. Why would I be charged? Then the waitress, who clearly was a little clueless, asked if I wanted to give it back and for them to put it back on the grill. 1st, the steak was served to me already sliced and chopped. So she wanted me to pick the steak pieces out of my pasta that was already mixed together. 2nd, isn't that unsanitary and against food regulations? Of course I firmly told her no I want a new fresh steak or you can simply just take the meal off of my bill. She leaves and comes back about 5 minutes later with a bowl and asked me to put the medium rare pieces of meat in the bowl. I said wait I know you are not taking this back to put on the grill after I clearly asked for a fresh piece of steak; she said no they had already put me a new steak on the grill so I was unclear as to why she would ask me to remove the bad steak and put it in a bowl to give it to her I thought that was a little insulting. And I will add that when she did bring me out the replacement steak it was again already chopped up, had no seasoning & no taste. So my entire meal was a really a waste. Also, Honestly, I had no intentions of eating the bad steak because I can't eat medium rare meat that's why I asked for it to be cooked well done but I just think it was tacky & insulting for her to ask me to put the meat in a bowl for her to take it away. Anyway, from the wine that my mom never got after asking twice, the soups that 2 people in my party waited 30 minutes for, because she forgot and my sister originally asked for a frozen drink but the waitress said the restaurant did not make frozen drinks. So my sister politely went to the bar and ordered the drink that she knew the restaurant had because, again we patronize on a regular basis. After all of these hiccups and issues no manager ever came over to apologize, ask if everything was okay, nothing! Despite all the mishaps and bad service, I still left her a $40 tip. But... I don't know about anyone else but I work too hard for my money to patronize a place of business and not receive the proper treatment. I understand that things will not always be perfect and that's okay but it's how you respond and handle the imperfections. One, you don't tell the customer that they have to pay for a replacement steak that was not cooked the way they requested. I even placed a to-go order for my son who wasn't able to attend dinner with us. But I opted to place it online for fear of our waitress messing...

This was by far the worst Olive Garden, I have even been to. My server was short and curt (Javier B), there was a table that came in after my son and I with 4 people and he took their order first, then came to our table dropped off the menus and walked away. He never introduced himself, nor did he offer water, or beverages to us. Once we placed our order and my salad arrived, it was wilted and tasted horrible. I asked for a fresh salad, boy did that make him upset. He came back with a "fresh" one, a bowl with peppers and a few stems of lettuce. I wasn't going to let that bother me. Upon receiving my entree.. I ordered the tour of Italy. Chicken was great, the lasagna was cold in the middle. It was disgusting, I tried getting my servers attention on several occasions to get more bread. That eventually happened and again when we received them, they taste of poor quality the middle part was soggy. My 5 year son had to go to the bathroom, we were in the dividing wall between the bathroom and the restaurant. On our way to the bathroom, there was a server hiding there standing up stuffing his face with food, he was obviously hiding from someone since he freaked out and walked back in to the kitchen. When we asked for our check, the server told me I could check out with the devise on the table. The devise did not work, so I had to wait again for him to bring the check. Over all this place is a "0" it's dirty, it has a weird wet smell when you walk in the door. The service loiter around the host stand while people are trying to get seated. If they are going to do that at least greet or acknowledge the people when they are walking instead of continuing a conversation about a guest that didn't tip you well. I'm sure they didn't tip you because your service is sub par. Get it together! There are a ton of options for people to go to, service is key to success. We know that your food is not the best, but my son likes it for me it's about the service... I'm willing to eat crappy food once a month to make my 5 year old happy as long as the service is better...

READ REVIEW FOR RATING... called head of time to check if there was a wait and was told not at the moment. We arrive and were seated immediately, 7pm. This was a Thursday night 2/25/21, the restaurant was at half capacity.

Service: Server arrives at the table 10 minutes later. Takes our drink, dinner, take our order and comes back 10min later with the 2 soups, no bread sticks. After 10min I asked for another soup and the bread sticks, after 15min our appetizer and 2nd bowl of soup arrive with the bread sticks. So far 25min till the bread arrived which was suppose to get there with the 2 soup orders. Food arrive shorty after, but does it really take 35min to get your order ready on Thursday night. During this waiting period I saw 2 parties walk out over hearing that their orders took too long and still haven't arrived. Each server had 3-4 tables, how do I know? I had time to count while waiting for the food to arrive and wondering why it took that much time to get a soup refill that is already ready in the kitchen, pour and serve. Our server walked past our isle, table 6 times empty handed and came 1 time to ask how everything was, no drink refills were offered 2 glasses were at 1/5. Waited another 15min after we finishing eating before the take home order I ordered in the beginning finally arrived. I really don't pick on these small things but when simple things are forgotten or not done then I start to pay attention. 30min of dinning 1 hour wait time on the food... on a Thursday night, at 50% capacity, with each server having 3-4 tables. I'm wondering if this location, just opened back up its doors without being properly staffed with enough people with experience. Few good things, food came hot and cooked properly, the manager on duty was going around asking eveyone how...