Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Meridian Charter Township

Edited to add on 6/12/23; the restaurants customer relations team reached out to us very quickly and seemed to really care that we had a bad experience. The person I talked to, got more information and in my opinion definitely extended an olive branch to try and make things right. We might have had a bad experience but the fact they care about their customers time and money means something to me and we will be giving this location another shot. Hopefully it was just an off day for them. It’s nice to see consumers caring about their customers now a days. Everything is hard for customers and consumers alike but they wanted to make this right and did. Props to them.

I don’t write reviews much nor complain about restaurants because I’m a server myself but this was the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. We got sat at 1:05, it took 10 minutes for our server to even greet us, 15 for drinks, and then by 25 minutes we were finally putting in our food order, at this point it’s 1:30, I had to ask for breadsticks and the salad to be brought out. He brought the salad and said breadsticks were being made; it would be about 5-10 minutes, okay that’s fine. 10 minutes go by, he brings out the kids food (which is fine with me) and still no breadsticks. At 1:55 our food comes out and I again ask about the breadsticks, he again said 5-10 minutes. Finally 10 minutes later the breadsticks are brought out and are warm at best. Food was okay but our server disappeared numerous times for over 15 minutes at a time. It wasn’t busy, it was more steady than anything. We waited over 10 minutes for drink refills multiple times, waited for a high chair for about 15 minutes, among other things we had to ask for. When it came time to pay though, he was quick with the bill, boxes and a bag. He was friendly but to be honest just didn’t seem to be paying attention half the time. We had to ask other servers and even a manager for a high chair. We love Olive Garden but won’t be back to this one. I’d rather drive to the...

This Olive Garden has usually been our favorite place to eat, but this last visit kind of left a mark. We came in way before the dinner rush. So lots of open tables. They show us to our seats and put us right into the back corner of the restaurant. Not a huge deal, whatever. As we sit down the whole table is extremely wobbly and for some reason there's still a receipt on the table. You push down on one side and the whole table goes down at least a couple inches. But no big deal, that happens, so I show the waiter the situation and ask if we get moved over to the table next to us... He had to leave the room and find the manager 😆. The manger comes out with the waiter and says they'll send someone to fix it.

Nobody ever came to fix the table. Finally I just decided to see if there was something I could do to fix it. Found a little adjuster and moved it about an inch. That's fixed now. We get our order. Waiter doesn't check to see if the table is fixed. Never asked us for more water or salad. Silverware was dirty. Never asked how everything was or how was the food. We were also surprised how bland the stuffed mushrooms were. Those are usually pretty good.

But it gets better!... When we start to check out, the waiter asks if I'll be paying card or cash. I give him my card wondering why he's not just letting us use the functioning kiosk... Then he grabs the kiosk and what seems like purposely swipes the card too fast. He's surprised it's not working and walks away with my card now. That just seemed odd to us.

Oh and $3.50 for a dish of marinara dipping sauce!? If I knew it was going to cost that much I would have said no but the waiter didn't mention it would cost extra.

This place has always had solid service and friendly staff in the past and I'm hoping this is...

5 years ago, when I lived in Michigan, I happened to visit one of your esteemed establishments in the small town of Okemos. Although this occurred a while back, I remember it like it was yesterday; the mouthwatering food, good atmosphere, and excellent service, all of which prompted me to contact you and acknowledge this great experience I had at your establishment.

I visited your establishment on 5015 Marsh Rd, Okemos along with my family. As we sat down in our comfortable booths, we were greeted by friendly waiters who were in a good mood and seemed genuinely interested in serving us. Ordering some pasta, breadsticks, and other mouthwatering options from your menu, we began to talk and wait for our food to arrive. During our roughly 5-minute wait for the food, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful, eye-appealing setting in your establishment. The architecture with shades of green and white accompanied by the brown wood combined to make a warm interior that was amply lit by glass lights with unique geometric shapes. Even the temperature inside was perfect and warmed us up from the cold weather outside. All of these beautiful additions surrounding us gave a great atmosphere combined to stimulate our appetites, and when our food arrived, we were delighted. Biting into the succulent pasta, my appetite was satiated, and I felt the food was some of the best I’ve had from a restaurant. Additionally, the friendly waiters conversed with us and provided us with some of Olive Garden’s signature after-dinner mints once we were done with our meals, which added to my great pleasure in visiting the Olive Garden. Overall, I loved my experience at your establishment and will definitely visit when I travel...