Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Little Rock

I never do this; I never complain, and, as someone who’s worked in food service for years, I never try to be a nuisance. However, my grandmother and I just had probably the worst dining experience of my life and so I felt the need to share in hopes that this is constructive and helps this place improve their guest experience because the experience we had was truly awful and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

My grandmother and I had just come from the eye doctor across the street and thought we would have a nice, casual lunch at Olive Garden. We decided to sit at the bar in hopes of getting good service given it was just the two of us.

First off, there was no bartender. There were dirty plates sitting next to us, which we gave no mind (maybe they’re really busy! Not the case. We were the only people at the bar). We decided to play the trivia game on their iPads while we waited for service. We played 3 whole games of trivia before someone came to us. I ordered a beer and a sweet tea for my grandma and went ahead and ordered us the lunch soup and salad. We played another THREE WHOLE GAMES before we were seen again.

I got my beer and had to remind the server of the sweet tea. We got our soups (mine was cold, which I disregarded because I don’t like to make a fuss) and just a salad bowl.

By this time, I’m pretty frustrated but again and giving them the benefit of the doubt. However, here we are, sitting with empty soup bowls, empty drinks, ready to eat our salad and — we don’t have any silverware. Who doesn’t give silverware as their FIRST THOUGHT? Finally I get the nerve to call the manager, to which I profusely apologize for even creating a scene (I’m pretty sure he was interviewing someone — it seems they need the help) and he gets us some silverware and drink refills. I switch soups for my next bowl since the last one was cold (I informed the server and she said we were not the only ones to complain about cold soup…. Yikes) and we enjoy the rest of our meal.

I never see the manager again. Nothing on our bill was comped. We received no real apologies for the lack of service, other than the waitress telling us that they just had a truck this morning that she was unloading and that’s why she was gone. I’m sorry but those bottles can wait while you have customers at your bar. Those bottles aren’t paying your tips.

It seems this place has a serious misunderstanding of priorities. Even when they mess up, the management isn’t capable of stepping up and dealing with the situation. I wouldn’t recommend eating here, working here, visiting here, anything. Whoever the owner is needs to seriously change the culture of this place. We tipped 20% and left and will never,...

After anticipating our visit for my birthday for over a month I had a horrible experience and will never go back. I will drive to Hot Springs the next time I want Olive Garden, we walk in and immediately smell dirty bathrooms and I assume what supposed to be cleaner, the smell was overwhelming. After being pretty much ignored for several minutes we rudely get acknowledged and asked if we are waiting on a table. While being seated I dusted out the seat hat their was still food in, and out waitress approached us she was over all nice but slow and we had to constantly ask for refills they were never offered. We got ready to order and I had my mind set on something just to find out several mintires after I ordered that they didn’t have anymore. She gave me back the menu and I looked for something else I decided to get the tour of Italy thing, when she finally came back to take my order I told her what I wanted and explained that my husband was going to just have the fried mozzarella Because he doesn’t eat pasta, she finally bring out the salad and before I ever received my food I was brought the ticket and asked to pay? That’s new and honestly rude. When I receive the ticket I see that we were charged extra for salad I asked about it since it’s supposed to come with my entre and the waitress tells me she would have it taken off, so several minutes later a very unprofessional manager approached me and basically tells me because I shared my salad with my husband that we would be charged extra and she wasn’t going to take it off. Which doesn’t make since to me if I just bought a 20$ entre for myself and my husband got something of his own to eat even if it wasn’t an entre I should be able to share my food if I want and it’s never happened to us at any other Olive Garden. It would be different if that’s all he ate but it wasn’t. I decided not to argue with her because after all this was my birthday dinner, and agreed so she would go away. When I finally get my tour of Italy (while I have an empty drink) the chicken tasted like straight oil, the Alfredo was dry, and the tiny portion of lasagna was nasty also. My trip was horrible and definitely not worth the drive. I will never return to the location on Rodney...

I went to Olive Garden today with my boyfriend and my 2 1/2 year old son. We weren’t wearing anything fancy and I think that may have given them the impression we were poor. Sweats, t-shirts, and flip flops. We walked in the restaurant and the wait wouldn’t have been long if the three of us had sat at the table for six, but we decided a booth because it’s always easier to contain the energy of a young child like that, right? They threw a fit about it and made us wait 15 minutes for a specific booth even though there were many booths available throughout the restaurant. We finally got sat and two other booths got sat in the same 4 booth section as us. Being sat first and not ordering anything but breadsticks as our appetizer, we expected to get ours with the others if not before because they ordered other appetizers. No, we received ours last. The table after us received their food rather quickly. The waitress and the couple proceeded to glare at us when my son spilt his drink that I cleaned up myself and didn’t bother the waitress with. Though I have no clue why it bothered them, the table and silverware were already dirty, if anything his drink cleaned the table. When we finally got our food after the table behind us left and the other table were halfway through their meal, it was small and cold, nothing like the pictures. We asked the waitress for the manager. She was reluctant and pressured us for the reasoning behind the request. Being a server myself, it is important that you make the manager aware immediately and other than asking, “is it anything I could help with?”, there should be no other questioning. The manager was friendly and spoke to us as equals and not beneath her. The waitress hovered the entire time and I refused to whisper about it. She should hear of her performance. The manager apologized for our wait, the way we were treated, she sympathized with us, spoke to my son as if he was also important, apologized for the dirty silverware and incorrect forks, helped package our food that we were no longer interested in eating. I’d say that the only good thing about the restaurant was the manager and she is the only reason I’m reviewing this as two stars...