Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Muncie

Absolutely the WORST experience of my entire life at the Muncie, IN Olive Garden. We came to celebrate my 4yr old daughters birthday because this is where she wanted to eat. It took over 15min after having been sat and FINALLY pressing the call server button for someone to stop at our table. 2 other severs had been walking past helping all the other tables. Hostes had even come by when she seated 2 other white ladies after we had been sitting for over 12min with NO ONE stopping. After our waters(3) and lemonade (2) order was taken by someone who specifically said they were not our server, we waited another 5 minutes before our eventual server shows up with those drinks(only 4straws not 5) and some breadsticks. Server begins to ask about appetizers, and we have to stop since we have been sitting and waiting for over 25min by this point, we KNOW what we want to order: 1 kids chicken fingers and grapes, 1 kids Alfredo fettuccine and grapes, 1 soup and salad with zupa Toscana, 2 never ending pasta bowls, 1 with chicken fritta and then salads. It takes another 15min to get the bowl of lettuce (literally like 1 drop of dressing, not dressed AT ALL) and a bowl of Kale with some sausage chunks and potato peels(like the VERY bottom leftovers of the soup pot) and the last straw. Server dissappear again for over 15min. My mom says she needs to go to the restroom, instead(unbeknownst to me)finds the server to 'see' where her section is, since it's NOT near us or within eye sight. Then talks to the hostesses about how we have been treated. Now, the main server in our section stops to ask if we need anything since he now realizes we've been neglected. The only thing we want is the manager. Now, our actual server shows back up with another salad and soup and more breadsticks, and to start apologizing. I just tell her we need the manager. One of the hostesses now comes up to apologize, and let us know the manager is on the phone, but will be by soon. Our server finally comes back with both kids meals since she saw them 'in the window'. It's only been over an hour since we were seated. Manager comes over to apologize, talk about a hostess mix-up, and being short staffed. I begin to explain how that only explains/excuses SOME of what has transpired. It doesn't explain how ALL of the white people and tables have been sat AFTER us and ALL gotten ALL of their food, but we are STILL waiting. How does it take more than 15 min to make an UNDRESSED salad??? My mom finally comes back and begins to highlight the same things and I HAD to step outside. There was ONLY 1 THING that set our table apart from the rest: my wife, daughter, and niece are the only people of color in this area. Other tables had kids, but were all white. Of course they said it wasn't that, blah, blah, blah, but I had to leave before I broke something out of ANGER. I teach an ethnic studies class as well as US History and THIS kind of behavior/system/excuses have gone on for...

Before u look into the depth of this review, it is worth noting that I absolutely love olive garden (as a franchise) and their food. I gave THIS muncie Olive Garden what to me is a very GENEROUS RATING, and that Is only because of the management's handling of the situation. Now to the meat of the reason/s for the low review... This rating is based mostly on the most recent visit , however these issues have been predominant over the last couple of years that I have came to this location to eat Olive Garden.

FOOD: My party of 4 adults and 2 children had a variety of all that Olive Garden has to offer. My salmon was good despite being burnt; the soup was delicious, the salad was good, the pasta was average at best; kids' pizza was good yet stingy with toppings. Eggplant was ok. Other Olive Garden locations' Food is much better.

And i should mention.. how does a pasta-themed restaurant run out of ketchup and hot sauce???

The atmosphere was quiet and ok, but the vibe from the employees was dark. They sat us next to a booth that has a hole in the roof that is crumbling (not even cleaned up) and leaking with a bucket under it.

Service was terrible. The waitress had stated she's been there for 2 years and apparently she needs retrained in customer service. I had asked for some items to come out with my meal, and I had asked for some crushed red pepper flakes for my soup. None of those items were delivered to me, despite several reminders even after the food was delivered. The waitress was unattentive, somewhat polite, seemingly preoccupied, and anything but helpful for us to enjoy our meal. We had went without refills for several minutes on more than one occasion.

Also, we only had two breadsticks each for the entire visit of over an hour. The first round tasted like they rolled the breadstick in a pile of salt. The second round was good but took over a half hour to get and then we never even seen any come out with our food.

In summary I think I have said enough. Basically, if you love Olive Garden it is worth the drive to travel to Anderson where I believe they have the best Olive Garden in comparison to others in the area. However, this one in Muncie is the worst I have ever been to and has been that way for years.

Also note, their men's restroom had feces on every toilet. When I was leaving I had to use the bathroom and I promptly chose to wait.

I wish I had thought to take some pictures to include in this review but I hope that I helped to paint the...

We are from out of state, last night March 14th, my family took my grandmother out for her birthday. It was a last minute thing and very close to closing time. There was 7 in our party. We had to wait a few minutes for a table and we was perfectly fine with that because it was late, we had alot of people, and they was busy! So, a young man seated us and said our waiter would be right with us. My family likes to cut up and laugh about any and every thing. As we are waiting on the waiter my son said something funny, we all laugh and in walks the waiter laughing! I guess he overheard. He takes our drink orders an leaves. When he comes back, my 11 year old daughter is taking a selfie 🤦, this waiter bends down and says, "make sure you get my good side" I'm cracking up!! So he takes a selfie with my daughter an states " that's a really good pic of me". We are all laughing. He takes our food order and cuts up with us. Brings our food and again cuts up with us. This man acted like we have known each other for years!!! At the end of our dinner he asks if anyone wants desert. Of course they did we had 4 children lol! During our whole dinner we did not have to ask for anything! He made sure drinks stayed filled, bread sticks were brought out, extra napkins when the lil one made a mess! I wish I could remember his name because he is the greatest!!! He made our visit extremely wonderful!!! I also wish I could post the "selfie" on...