Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Mobile

I don’t usually like to give bad reviews of places, considering most people only choose to leave a review when they have a bad experience. However, I feel like this needs to be noted since there was zero regard for it at the restaurant. We got to the restaurant at about 4:30 on a Sunday. The place was not very busy. We were the only ones in our section for about ten minutes. The waitress came and took our drink and appetizer order, and by that time two other couples had been sat in the section. The waitress came and took their appetizer and drink orders, then after about another 10-15 minutes came back with everyone’s drink and appetizer orders all on one tray. Even though our appetizers had been put in significantly earlier than the other tables had. At this point, we’ve received an appetizer that was left sitting, waiting to be picked up for however long it took to prepare two other appetizers that had been ordered well after ours. Naturally, it wasn’t hot. It wasn’t cold, but it obviously wasn’t fresh given the fact that it came out at the same time as others who ordered after us. When the waitress dropped all three tables’ apps and drinks off, she came and took our entree order. She then left, came back, and took the other two tables’ orders. Lo and behold, everyone’s soup/salad came out all at once. Even though ours was put in five-ten minutes before theirs. We got our soup, the waitress shredded some cheese into it, and it didn’t melt. It was cold. Well, the waitress disappeared. We could not find her after waiting another ten minutes or so, so we went to find a manager. After telling the manager about the fact that the waitress is letting our food sit and get cold while she waits for all of the orders in her section to be ready, we were met with “Oh you just need more soup?” Way to listen to your customer. Waitress returned while my girlfriend was speaking with the manager and proceeded to drop off refills for the entire section, plus greet another new table that had shown up while she was gone forever. When dropping off refills, she gave one of ours to another section, left it there while she rang in the new table’s order, then when she came back and realized her mistake, she just set it on our table with a “haha my bad”. We were brought new soup by the manager, who still had not communicated with the server at all, at which point we informed him of the very obvious issue of giving us a drink that sat on a random person’s table for an extended period of time. He was completely unfazed. We informed him that we wanted to cancel our entree, eat our soup, pay, and then leave. He called over to whoever, assumedly the kitchen manager, and told them to stop making our food, then told us he’d take it off our ticket. The waitress, still completely out of the loop, brought out our entrees anyway, and wouldn’t you know: it was at the same time as all three other tables, even though ours was put in way earlier. We did not eat the entrees because we were not going to pay for them. However, for the short period of time that they were on our table, you could clearly see that the noodles on the chicken scampi dish were dry. The meal, much like everything else we had received that day, had been sitting waiting on all of the other tables’ orders to be ready. The manager did in fact remove our entrees from the ticket, however he was obviously very disinterested in anything we had to say to him regarding the service. He clearly never once communicated to his server that there was an issue. I know that it really doesn’t matter for such a large chain to lose one customer, however I don’t plan on returning to this location again. It was an utter...

Update: despite my better judgment, I allowed myself to be talked into giving this location another shot. It was a huge mistake on my part. HUGE MISTAKE. Not only was the level of service somehow worse than 2 years ago, but the food was also equally repugnant. Who is managing this place?! It feels like a seance with, "Is the GM in the room?" I've worked F&B since I was 14 years-old, and I know that this is WRONG. How can you justify actual bugs crawling down the wall and on the table across from us (which in 45 mins should have been bussed at literally ANY point)? How is this even worse than 2 years ago? How was there chips of something that looked burnt in ice water? How was the salad completely wilted, and the iceberg bits in it were BROWN AND RED?! How was a soup sent out with a layer of water on top (the actual bowl and the saucer below were both saturated, too)? It's like the spaghetti from 2 years ago all over again! How was an entrée sent out without anything that was meant to be included, despite there being no menu modifications made at the time of ordering? How is this place still in business? It was an awful experience that included ACTUAL BUGS 2 years ago, and it was and awful experience that included ACTUAL BUGS 2 years later, and, the bugs are the least worst part of this whole experience, both times. That's not good. Also, if you're a vegetarian, you absolutely will not find any suggestions from the waitstaff, still, but particularly Tiffany, I think her name was. She'll treat you as rude s the waitress we had 2 years ago. Gracious, this location just SUCKS out loud,and doesn't care to change or be better. That's lazy and sad.

This was the worst experience ever. Rude staff, completely disgusting food, and dirty tables everywhere - including the one where we were seated. This was just an awful experience, and I'm really sorry that I suggested this place for late lunch (3 PM on a Sunday). I'm appalled by just how rude the waitress was! She acted like we were a huge inconvenience from the moment she walked up to the table. I ate exactly 2 bites of my food, and that was 2 bites too many! The spaghetti had a huge puddle of water in the bowl, and it was only supposed to be noodles and sauce without meat, like it wasn't drained; the other pasta we added chicken for $3.99, and when it came out, it had, and I'm not exaggerating this, 3 slivers of chicken the width of my pinky finger and about .5" long. I found the waitress to ask her about the chicken, and I had to ask if she would come out from behind the wine glass rack/fake plants she was behind bc I couldn't hear a word and it was extremely awkward. She told me first "they weigh the chicken" and then "it's a whole chicken breast they slice up." Was it a Cornish hen, or something, because McDonald's gives you more meat than that for $3.99?!? And the puddle of water with the spaghetti, good grief! Even the salad was a wreck! I didn't know it was possible to mess up a salad! Needless to say, we didn't need to-go boxes for the complete "meals," and I use that term loosely in this situation, we left. I've never taken up 20 minutes of my time to write a review like this, but I feel like someone should know just how disgusting and unpleasant the whole situation was. I really would leave negative stars, if it...

This is the first negative review I've written. Most inefficient restaurant I've ever stepped foot in (including 10+ years service industry experience). There was a surplus of employees but no evidence of any work being done- dirty carpets, spotty and unclean cutlery in the linens, trays and stands left unattended in main walkways...the list goes on. Our server was polite, but she was either first night on the job inexperienced or seriously needs to consider a different part time job. If she was new, management should have followed up to check on her progress. Our order was taken, repeated back to us correctly, and then fumbled somewhere along the way. Drinks, marinara (not extra, just what came with calamari), plates, and bread were all forgotten repeatedly. When our entrees arrived (after 40 minutes) my son's fettuccine had no shrimp. Our waitress insisted we hadn't ordered it. Fine, but she did repeat the order back correctly initially. My husband's seafood dish contained 2 mussels that did not open during cooking (huge red flag, health wise), and my plate was a joke. I ordered the sirloin/fettuccine dish med-rare and received a scalding plate containing dried out pasta with alfredo poured on top, a Luke-warm hockey puck of over cooked beef, and limp, cold Parmesan crusted zucchini. It may have started out right, but it died in the expo window long before it came to our table. First time I've ever sent a plate back to a kitchen, anywhere. Waitress blamed it on the kitchen staff. 20 minutes later another plate arrives -also over cooked, but edible, this time completely without the zucchini. Sauce was still poured on pasta, not tossed, so it was already starting to dry out. Zucchini never showed up, more excuses and lack of accountability from waitress. She seemed very concerned when we used the tablet at the table to pay the bill (she actually removed it from my husband's hands). We were not charged for one of the sodas that was forgotten- but we weren't looking to get freebies, either. We just wanted to receive what we ordered, period. I understand that everyone has bad days, but lack of accountability and team work/follow through at this particular Olive Garden lead me to believe this is typical. For reference, we were not there during a rush and our server only had three tables...these were not dire straits. We will not return, and I advise you to spend your money and...