Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Lufkin

Today I placed a to-go order for one. From the time my phone call was taken until the time I arrived & picked up my order I was greeted with nothing more than disrespect. The young lady, Shay, taking my telephone order appeared to be less than enthusiastic about doing so. When spoken to, she returned answers quite rudely & became somewhat perturbed with me for not being an expert on the menu, rather than making a friendly attempt to assist me from the beginning. She ensured I felt like my phone call and/or to-go order irritated her profusely. Upon my arrival to pick up my order I was told to wait & Katherine would be right with me. A short time later Katherine appeared, asked my name & rung up my order, also with an irritated & interrupted demeanor. She then stated my amount due & I handed her a gift card for payment. I was then handed several receipts & instructed to sign the top one & the others were mine, to which I obliged. She left the counter to retrieve my order, came back a few minutes later, bagged my food & I exited the premises. As I returned to my vehicle I became aware she did not return my gift card that still held a remaining balance of $5.53. I returned inside the restaurant to the front counter & advised the young lady there of my dilemma. She then summoned Katherine back to the front counter & explained to her the problem at hand. Katherine, again appearing irritated & interrupted, asked me "What card?" To which I replied "I paid you with a gift card, didn't get it back & it still has money on it." She then became silent & appeared disgruntled & simply reached somewhere under the register, retrieved a standard Olive Garden gift card, put an undisclosed amount on it & handed it to me. Obviously unaware she was replacing my missing gift card, due to her continued silence, I had to ASK her if this was a replacement & for the receipt in order to see the amount on the new card. Comprehensively unacceptable, rude & disrespectful behavior from those whose job it is to portray the exact opposite of what I was given today. Wonderful food, terrible...

Most horrible experience at Olive Garden we have ever had.

From the lazy and rude seating, with no child's menu & missing cutlery, where the host just dropped the menus on a table and walked away to the vanishing waiter it was extremely disappointing.

Server was almost 10 minutes to come over greet us and ask our drinks order, where we had to ask for the kids menu. He then asked if we were ready to order... just after we asked for the kids menu! Received our drinks rather quickly, and the salad bowl, but didn't see him again for 10 minutes. We then placed food order, while we ate the salad. Again the waiter vanished. Bread sticks (no requested sauce) were dropped off just prior to our meals However once our food arrived the empty salad bowl, empty breadsticks and nearly empty drinks were all ignored. No refills on anything.

We were all done eating the below par dinners well before he came by and ask how everything was. At least 20 min after he dropped the plates off. Our meals were all semi bland, semi warm and just looked like they was dropped on the plates without care or attention.

Went to pay the bill and had to request the server to remove the $3.99 charge for the marinara which we never received.

We were basically ignored the almost 2 hours we were in the restaurant, when the waiter would disappear all the time. Customers should be at least greeted quickly, and checked on often, at least within a few min of getting their meals.

Guessing that the staff are poorly trained and there is just lackluster management but would not recommend the Lufkin Olive Garden to anyone... which shows as it was not busy at all on a...

Olive Garden provides great soup, salad, and breadsticks. The waiters are friendly and efficient, and the restaurant is clean.

Update: My husband, four of our grandchildren, one of our daughters, and I ate at Olive Garden, in Lufkin, again tonight. It took 20 minutes for us to be seated, and there were several large parties waiting. A customer was smoking outside of the restaurant, directly in front of the door. Every time the door opened, a cloud of strong cigarette smoke blew into the restaurant where we were waiting for a table. It was offensive, especially since one of my grandsons had surgery to remove a tumor from his nose and sinuses last summer, and the smoke bothered him. The smoke almost made us choose another restaurant for dinner. The Confetti moscato was sweet and fizzy. The bread sticks and alfredo dip were plentiful, hot, fresh, and delicious. The salad was crispy, well-chilled and customized to order. The minestrone was hot and well-cooked. My husband enjoyed a Tour of Italy. Our daughter and I loved our chicken Parmigiano entrees. Our grandchildren enjoyed kid's meals of spaghetti with tomato sauce, shells with meat sauce, and fettuccine alfredo. The restaurant was clean, including the restrooms. Our waiter was polite and informative. The food was delicious. Recommended: Chicken Parmigiano, minestrone, tossed salad, breadsticks with alfredo dipping sauce, Tour of Italy, and...