Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Madison

So first and foremost let me start off by saying this was one of the worst experiences I have ever had due to someone’s lack of paying actual attention to what is going on, first I ordered 2 lasagnas 2 salads 1 appetizer, 3 deserts, which this comes with bread sticks and salad dressing and desert toppings which none of the above where in my order except the strawberries which where poured all over the bottom of the bag, the salads where inedible due to the wilted lettuce and the lettuce stalks all throughout the bowls, full middle stalks at that, no dressing to even use with them luckily I had some in my fridge to use or it would have been bone dry which wouldn’t have mattered much anyways due to they where not edible, the appetizer toasted ravioli which was non existent as it was not in the bag neither where the bread sticks or the smell of the bread sticks, and the lasagna well I have never seen a flat lasagna it only had one layer of noodles and one layer of cheese and then the meat sauce, I have eaten at Olive Garden all my life and this by far is the most concerning meal I have ever been served. So I paid 100$ for two flat pieces of lasagna that was actually the only thing you could eat. And couldn’t even eat them cause they where cold and wet, I actually thought something would give on this order eventually but it kept getting worse as it went. I called to speak to the manager Jordan whom was very pleasant and very helpful but upon me calling back a second time to tell her everything I had found one of the guys whom answered the phone said oh she is not here I said how is she not there when I just spoke to her two mins ago and he said oh yeah yeah my bad your rite she is here let me get her. Some real customer service from that kid as he is the last one that should be answering anybody’s phone talking to anybody like that or even lying to them about something they already know about. Crazy crazy crazy, when all and all he needs to be checking the to go orders making sure peoples orders are being sent out correctly instead of pacifying customers when they know better. But the manager really went above and beyond and was very compassionate to what had happened. Yes I understand this is her job but at the end of the day it wasn’t her fault either. Pics are attached of all of the dinner mistakes well if I actually had the items to take pics of. Mostly...

This was an incredible experience! Not only do I have dietary restrictions and allergies but I'm also super picky and have had a health issue that cause me to lose all my teeth. Naturally that combination makes it difficult, at the best of times, to find things at restaurants that I would not have a dietary issue with and actually sound appealing at the same time! Olive Garden is somewhere I've loved going for a long time. But after getting sick many years ago I simply couldn't afford to very often anymore. So it's been quite a long time since I've had the treat of going there and honestly didn't have much of a clue of what half the things on the menu were anymore. I explained a couple of my concerns to my waitress. She was absolutely fantastic and I wish I knew her name! She took time to go ask questions about ingredients. I've noticed most wait staff in most restaurants don't know what all the ingredients are And probably most of the cooks don't either unless they actually make it from scratch. But they are in a better position in the back of the house usually to look up ingredients vs the people that serve the food. She never once gave me the impression that she was frustrated or impatient with me taking time to make decisions or asking a multitude of questions and when I asked for specific things not to be on the salad because unfortunately I can't eat anything with any spice even raw onions or peppers and so on. She was so accommodating and just friendly and personable on top of everything else! I wish I had the receipt because that could have had her name on it. I would so contact the restaurant and tell her boss that she needs a massive raise! A lot of people don't realize oftentimes employees that impress higher-ups at other companies will literally, while at work get offered a job elsewhere. These people you want to pay more because they might be stolen by another company that's going to pay them more.

And everything I ate was absolutely incredible top notch and makes me miss being able to afford to go to Olive Garden more than once a year! I tried something limited edition and it was a stuffed fettuccine alfredo. It was super delicious super delicious and I hope they put it on the regular menu. It seemed to me like a combination between fettuccine alfredo and ravioli and was...

What could have been a really awful experience was absolutely saved and turned around by the manager on duty on Saturday night (12/30/23), Austin, I believe his name is? We placed an order for curbside pick up. We had our food brought to car and drove home. We realized (once home) we received someone else’s order (our fault for not double checking before driving off). We called store and said we had wrong food and would be coming back for correct food. Once there, we called to say we were in parking lot. The manager, Austin personally came out to deliver our correct order and apologize. This is where many establishments would have left the situation. Austin, however, not only profusely apologized for the mix-up AND the inconvenience of having to drive all the way back, (another important thing other places have failed to acknowledge in similar situations), he gave us an additional $25 gift card (so that we could try them again and see that this was the exception, not the rule, in what we can expect with them) and then said he’d also like to give us some free desserts. He proceeded to list all of our choices and when we made our selection he went in and ordered 2 to be made fresh and then brought them back out to our car. What an absolutely amazing example of customer service! Never once did he try and shift the blame on us (i.e. “you should have checked bag before you drove off”), he didn’t ask for wrong order back (so that means they also made other customers food fresh for them)and couldn’t have been nicer! As someone who has an extensive background in customer service I fully admit I critique places more intensely than the average customer, which makes our experience with West Side Olive Garden that much more remarkable! Well done, Austin and team! Way to turn a bummer situation completely around! We will definitely,...