Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Mentor

Update...although I was extremely upset about the start of this wait it ended well...

Been here since 5:30 its is now 7:15 and we still do not have a table..party of 6..was told intially 45 min... hostess is very nice and its busy...corrected herself and said maybe 1 hr 20 min....several large parties have come and gone..we keep being told we are next...again more parties came in and have been seated..I get some of these had reservations...but not every one of these had one..people have come in with parties of 5 and have eaten and gone....no apologies offered..nothing...im too stubborn to leave at this point we waited this long!! We have been here many times with a little wait but never passed over so many times...you cant keep taking reservations by phone and seat these people and have us continue to wait!!!!

So that was my original review..and I dont want to remove it because I want you understand how well this was handled...it was over just over 2 hours by the time we were seated..angry, hungry, and thirsty with a young crabby child at this point. However I asked our greeter to have the manager come over to the table..I explained politely what my issue was and wanted to make sure she knew it was nothing she nor our waitress did so I wanted to say something right off rip.. The manager came over, I explained without making a ridiculous scene or yelling, what I wrote above. He completely agreed they should not have accepted more reservations without 1st setting those of us that had been waiting so long..we should have been acknowledged throught the course of our very long wait...yes we could have went to the bar which was pretty full plus I had my 5 yr old and another minor so we were all thirsty and hungry! He addressed the problem immediately while we were there..but not yelling or having a fit..but discreetly without making a scene. He wanted the staff as a whole be able to perform better and be aware of issues like this so they can most definately correct it and or work out a better way. I wasnt looking for anything more than a hey im sorry we forgot about you, or didnt realize your 6 could have been seated instead of a smaller party of 5! Ya know..or hey yall have been so patient can we get you a water or something would have been great too. That's all ..he again understood and was very kind about the whole situation ...made us some fries for my little crabby guy and appetizers immediately ( we were HANGrY at this point ) and our service was outstanding from there on out. Really it usually is super good expierence here..but sometimes it just takes that one bad one to make me into a non returning customer. So in the end if this long review I just want to thank him for the way he handled the situation and addressed it asap so I didnt feel like it was just swept...

We went to the Mentor Olive Garden for lunch today (Thursday afternoon), and it was a disappointing experience. The restaurant was busy, but there was no wait to be seated. My husband and I both ordered from the lunch menu. He got the unlimited soup and salad, and I ordered salad and a sandwich so I would have expected lunch to go pretty smoothly, but it didn't. We received a very small portion of salad (barely enough for one small salad plate each), but were told that breadsticks were cooking and would be out later. We ate our small salads pretty quickly, but still had no breadsticks.

After a good 15 minutes or so we finally got 3 breadsticks, and then had to ask (and wait) for more salad. Once an undersized salad refill arrived we ate that and then sat around waiting for drink refills and my sandwich and my husband's soup. After another very long wait, the waitress came by and asked whether we had ever gotten our food. I found her question pretty odd since she had never brought the food, nor did we have a soup bowl or sandwich plate on the table. Did she think that someone had brought us our food and that we had eaten it and brought our bowl and plate back to the kitchen?? After yet another very long wait we received the soup and sandwich. This was about an hour after arriving at the restaurant. The waitress asked my husband if he wanted cheese on his soup, but then informed him that she would have to go back to the kitchen if he wanted it since she left the grater in the kitchen. We asked for more breadsticks, but the waitress seemingly forgot about them until she came back later and then mentioned she would be getting them (another wait). At that time, my husband asked for a second bowl of soup and a drink refill. We almost gave up on those as they were also taking forever.

The only saving grace was being able to pay our bill on the tabletop screen, because if we had to wait for our waitress to pick up the credit card and return with it, we would have been there even longer. Overall, our lunch took approximately an hour and a half.

This location needs to evaluate its operations and work on improving its speed and service. How can it possibly take about an hour to serve a simple sandwich and a...

My husband and I have been frequent customers for over a decade. We usually sit at the bar. On this particular day, construction was being done on the sidewalks outside, so for a change and to avoid the noise, we decided to be seated in the dining room. Bev is the worst server of all time!! She is impatient and rude! She was waiting on 3 other tables when we were seated. One table was 6 mentally challenged individuals with a caregiver. It was obvious that the other 2 were her "regulars." That was made very clear because every chance she got (which instead of acknowledging or greeting us) she chose to approach these 2 "regulars" to complain and make faces/comments about the handicapped table. Such a disappointment to see. The "to-go" hostess ended up taking our order and waiting on us because, apparently, Bev had time for things other than her job. It's understandable that businesses are struggling with short staffs but to see a seasoned professional being so pathetic and favor some, while disgracing others is disgusting!! Bev eventually asked if I wanted a refill on my drink, and I replied, "I'd hate to add to your workload. You already seem to have too much on your plate. Please get our server." Of course, she ran over to tell her people all about it. How ridiculous!! It's highly unfortunate that she is the way she is and presents herself in such a degrading manor. As we were leaving, she was given another table. They commented just as I am within 2 minutes of being seated. It's that obvious, Bev!! Stop trash-talking your customers. Sadly, my husband is a generous tipper. We asked our sever who would be getting our gratuity...she replied, "they'd split it." Bev deserved nothing but a demotion to a position in the back far-far away from the watching eye of paying patrons!!...