Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Manhattan Beach

I really wish I could wholeheartedly give this place a five star rating, because the food was super delicious and absolutely worth five stars. However, our experience with the waiter we had was not that great.

In my opinion, the waiter we had wasn’t service-minded and didn’t actually put the customers service needs or wants first, which they usually do. At first, before we had ordered anything, he came to check in on us multiple times and asked if we had decided what we wanted to order. Time after time, we said we hadn’t and asked if we could have five minutes since one of us came later than everyone else - and therefore hadn’t had the chance to look at the menu or chat with us. He said “of course” and walked off, but came back almost immediately. This made us, of course, stressed since he never let us properly and calmly read the menu. We hadn’t even been there for too long either. We sat at our table for maybe six minutes, counted from the time we sat at the table to when we ordered, and under those minutes he asked if we “had decided yet” 4-5 times.

After we had order our food and drinks, we waited for a few short minutes. I would say the food came pretty quickly, maybe 20-25 minutes from the moment we ordered and since we had a few appetizers those minutes passed by pretty quickly. Something that wasn’t really good though, was the fact that we got our drinks after our appetizers so we had to eat it “dry”. Even though it’s not something extremely important, it wasn’t really that great to eat without drinking anything.

An important note for the following situation is that I don’t drink, but it happened to my group and therefore affected me/my experience. Three of my friends ordered a glass of wine each to their meal. When our waiter came back and poured them a glass of wine, he asked us to buy an entire wine bottle instead because it would be “better economically for the company”. My friends said that they didn’t want to buy a bottle, because they intended on only having one glass. Suddenly he (the waiter) appeared a little upset and wasn’t as friendly, didn’t smile anymore etc. I just think it’s weird and sort of unprofessional that he even said that we should buy a bottle, only because it would be better for them - the company, Olive Garden. On top of that, I think it’s weird that his smile dropped when they didn’t want the entire bottle and that he didn’t give us a smile after that. It could have been a coincidence, but I think it was a weird timing.

The food, however, was super good. My group shared the breadsticks and Meatballs Parmigiana for our appetizer. I chose the Chicken Alfredo as my entrée and it really delicious. I wish the kitchen gets the recognition they deserve!

To summarize… I would definitely give the food a 5/5 star rating. The service, however, is what’s pulling the overall rating down. Our waiter would have gotten 2/5 stars, but the other waiters/waitresses I was in contact with (they delivered some of our orders, greeted us, showed us our table etc..) was super nice and thereby elevated the service experience. So, the overall rating for this restaurant is...

Fail us from the moment we arrived, we got there just after lunch almost no one there or so I thought, we asked for a table and was given a 40 min wait on a Friday afternoon after my kids graduation. 3 adults and 2 infants was our party my kid that wanted to eat here made a last moment call to leave so opted to use the bathroom while they were there we got called so I got the table and They came out of the restroom at that point I decided that we were just going to eat here so we waited for a server that took more than 10 minutes to get there When she finally arrived she brought us water that we asked for and then asked if we needed more time we Did so she left came back about another 10 minutes later and we finally put our order in I ordered a soup with a salad or something like that all I know is I was supposed to get as much soup as I wanted My daughter ordered Alfredo chicken and I believe my wife also ordered the same thing she brought her a Coke my daughter got I believe was a Coke and I got a water During the wait time never got breadsticks they didn't show up until the salad showed up At that point they scarfed it down just like I did because I mean it's Olive Garden and everybody goes for the bread sticks We asked for another basket waited almost 15 minutes for it to arrive by that time everybody had eaten except for my wife my wife's food Never arrived to the table when I looked on that little computer thing that they put at your table I noticed that her food was Never actually put in to the system so they would have never known that she needed food mind you we haven't seen our server for over half an hour When she did show app I asked for more soup I asked for more bread my wife said forget about her food she wasn't gonna eat by herself so that was Strike 2 I guess strike 3 was all the waiting that we did in the end we were there probably 3 hours i got 2 soups we got 2 baskets of bread And we saw a server a total of 3 times we were not the only ones that had that issue there was an older couple behind me that had also not seen their server at all turns out her server was the same as hours andThe second time that we saw her was the last time they saw her because they paid their tab and left. When my wife went to the restroom before we left she saw that our server had a large table of over 10 people that she was waiting on and that's why we would never see her. It was the worst service I have ever received mind you that literally every time we go to Olive Garden we have problems with our server or our food the worst one yet was when they gave All the children in our party spoiled chocolate milk please note that did not happen at...

I went to Olive Garden after hearing that they have a Gluten-free menu for those with gluten sensitivity. I recently have discovered that I'm gluten sensitive, and have tried my best to adapt to this change. Olive Garden did not help and made me feel like I'm a second class customer.

First, it started with the server. He was a nice young gentlemen, but he only served us for our drinks and food. When I asked if Olive Garden had any Gluten-free options, he looked puzzled. He said he hasn't heard about Gluten-free in awhile, but said they do have an allergy menu. He proceeded to use the POS and showed me the allergy menu. Then he said he'll go find the Gluten-free menu, and left. He returned with the menu about five minutes later and left. 10 minutes later, he came back and my wife and I ordered. I ordered the Gluten-free grilled chicken parmesan from the Gluten-free menu he gave me. He never asked about any gluten sensitivity, or seemed to care to ask why I wanted the menu. Also, when the salad was ordered, he oblivious and didn't seem to know that croutons have gluten. About 20 minutes later after receiving our salad, our food arrives. I cut one small piece of the chicken, and realized that I was served regular spaghetti. By this point, the server had already clocked out and gone home, so we had no server. My wife and I flagged down another server. Once we showed him the plate, he promptly removed it and corrected the order in the kitchen. However, I had to wait another 20-30 minutes for my order, while my wife was eating her dinner. Around 15 minutes of waiting, we are greeted by the third server, who didn't realize she was supposed to serve our table. By that point, my wife finished eating, and I told the third server to set my meal to go. 5-10 minutes later, my plate arrives to go.

When I got home to eat, I found the pasta to be undercooked, and the chicken to be overcooked. The whole experience turned me off to Olive Garden. They don't train their employees well enough on sensitivities and allergies, and they do not seem to care enough to make sure it is logged so all staff serving a specific table knows.

I used to frequent Olive Garden, but now my wife and I will not go back. It's the 21st century, and all they have is one type of gluten free pasta. I went to another Italian restaurant, Eatalian, that serves all dry pastas Gluten-free if requested. That to me is going above and beyond and making a gluten sensitive customer feel welcomed. Until Olive Garden can modernize, and offer a better service, they have lost my wife and I, and any other Gluten-free customers they refuse to...