Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Midland

Quite possibly the dirtiest restaurant I have ever been in. McDonalds is cleaner. Any McDonalds. My husband and I visited this location on 9/24. Olive Garden is his favorite restaurant. As we approached the restaurant I noticed the outside garbage cans were overflowing and someone had actually placed dirty diapers in the ashtray. There was trash and debris on the ground all around the outside of the restaurant. The inside had just as much dirt, debis and something sticky spilled on the floor right in front of the hostess station.

The wait time was not long, 15 minutes, and there were only 2 couples in front of us. I went to use the womens restroom and decided against it as every stall was in complete disarray and every toilet unflushed. The garbage can was overflowing in there as well.

We were seated at a table that was sticky on the edges and bottom and handed soiled, sticky menus. I am still not sure why the menus were so disgusting as there usually is not food on the table at the time of ordering. The carpet in the restaurant had visible debris like it had not been vacuumed in a while. I had my reservations with continuing to complete my visit at this store, except that it is my husband's favorite and our server was very polite and friendly. So we ordered.

The server did not know much about wine, but was quick to ask questions to make sure she was bringing me the correct wine. The salad plates were hot, resuting in warm, soggy salad. My silverware was dirty, covered with some kind of white debris like baked on cheese or alfredo. We had to ask for a clean set. The server was really embarrassed and grossed out as well.

When our appetizer was ready, our server was helping another table so an angry hispanic woman from the kitchen came out and literally dropped the appetizer plate on the table and walked away without a response to our thank you. The food was prepared correctly except for the baked ziti which had a wayward clump of 10 fettuccini noodles directly in the middle.

My husband excused himself from the table to use the restroom, but came back immediately stating we were done there and that most truck stop bathrooms were cleaner and there was no way we would be eating anything else at this restaurant. When the server asked if we wanted to go boxes he was not interested, even though he only ate half of his meal. We did not order dessert. My husband refused to fill out the survey at the table because the tabletop computer was greasy. Our server was tipped for her good service when we paid for the meal and we left as quickly as possible.

Ordinarily I ask for a manager when things go wrong at restaurants, however this time it would have just caused a scene because any manager worth a darn would be ashamed of the condition of this restaurant. If you cannot see how disgustingly filthy your specific restaurant is then you should not be in food service. I should not have to point out that nothing is right with your establishment except for a really...

Saturday my family and I decided to have lunch after Christmas shopping. I regret choosing Olive Garden and so did my family. After waiting about 30 minutes to be seated it was about 1:20pm. At first everything seemed like normal service. Our waitress took our drinks and appetizer order. It seemed to take longer than usual for her to return with drinks. But we let it slide. Then it seemed unusually long to wait for an appetizer. Famished by this time we scarfed down the fondue. Finally she came to take our order and I feel like we ordered easily prepared items. I just wanted soup and salad. My daughter only wanted kids mac n cheese of the kids menu and my husband ordered the tour of italy. The salad and bread came after the appetizer. Again it seemed like an unusual amount of time to wait for breadsticks and salad. We continued to wait. All the while I watched 5 tables be seated after us, order, receive appetizers, drinks, entrees and omg...even dessert! All the while, my family ia still waiting for their entrees when a table of three, same as us were seated, ate and left. I noticed that we also had a different server than everyone else. After asking for some assistance from another server they came back saying just two more minutes. It was longer than two minutes. Finally, we recieved the rest of our meal. No refills, no more bread, and they forgot my daughter's broccoli with her kids meal. My husband said he wanted breadsticks with his tour of italy but she never brought us anymore. My stomach was in knots when I looked at the time and it was 20 till 3pm! I couldn't finish my soup. My daughter was unhappy because she never got a refil and we all just wanted to leave. After the manager came to speak with us it was clear he wasn't interested in actually fixing the problem. He interupted me to say, "I told you we would take care of it." Meaning we didn't have to pay for our meal. So we were basically told to just leave because we didn't want to pay for food we never recieved. We will never go back and I hope others reconsider eating at a place who treats people so poorly and refuses to take any responsibility for mistakes. Merry Christmas...

Real time review

6:51 seated, currently 7:20. No server has approached us, greeted us. Drink and appetizer placed via electronic tablet on table.

7:25 Server appears, greets table just seated across from us. Server did not know who was seated first. Expressed her apology. Advised that appetizer and soft drink were placed via tablet. We added 2 alcoholic drinks as those cannot be ordered on the tablet. Menus were gathered and started to depart table without inquiring as to our food selections. Server was stopped by my inquiry to the party if they knew what they wanted. Order was placed, Server expressed additional apologies.

Unsure as to the issue causing delay, but this is life people. Sometimes it happens. Server is sweet and polite, so no anger on our behalf for the delays so far.

7:31 Soups and Salads arrive with Soda. Alcoholic beverages are still being constructed

7:35. Appetizer arrives

7:49

Main courses arrive, associate prompted the server for status of our alcoholic beverages. She stated she had to wait on the bartender for those. Server is at stage where she is learning what the dishes are. Simply looking at the plate she was unable to serve correctly each dish.

Notation here. Light conversation shows this to only be the servers 3rd day. This offers explanation for delays and confusion

7:53 Alcoholic drinks arrived, request for to go boxes made

8:02 Dessert ordered, Italian Donuts with Chocolate Sauce via electronic tablet

8:04 Bill paid for 104.29 via electronic tablet

8:10 Server reminded to bring to go boxes

8:14 to go boxes, dessert, and chocolates were delivered

8:20 to go box for dessert, to home salad and drink ordered

8:24 meal concluded and departure made

Side Notes:

The Spinach and Artichoke Dip is good, but the same dish at Walk Ons has more flavor and a larger bowl of the dip.

Chicken Gnocchi has wonderful flavor, however the only piece of Chicken in the bowl appears to be a piece of chicken skin. Other than that it was delicious.

The Tortellini was on par, tasted delicious

Peach Bellini was wonderful

Italian Donuts...