Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in New Braunfels

This place has never been a real go-to, but now, it’s going to be a while before I forget the terrible service I had and even attempt to go back. It would be a one star, but I’ve previously had pretty good experiences here. So: We get there, and once seated, we instantly have to move. Why? Because there are ants ALL over the table. Ants. First strike. We get seated at the other end of the restaurant, get a new server, everything is going good, right? Wrong. I think we were there for about two hours, and we saw our server a total of four times? Listen, it was busy, they were low on staff. I get it. But even if you’re just running by to give an update, it’s still better than avoiding your table because you don’t have anything for them. People have drinks. What if they need a refill? Something simple. We waited 30 minutes - THIRTY. MINUTES - for a salad. I waited another 20 for a drink, which my waiter knew about and still didn’t bother to double check to make sure I had it. There was then an excuse about how she thought that because everyone else had one, the other wait staff would come by to take care of it. You’re the one getting the tip, girl. Do YOUR job. One thing, okay I get it, two, you need to do better. Strike two. It was a family dinner, and one person got their food, finished it, before anyone else’s came out. We finally saw our waiter for the third time, where she looked so confused why only one person had their food. So she goes and gets the other food.. and forgets my child’s food and then looks confused again about why it looks short. Because it is. Hello. Strike three. The kicker, my sister wanted to come here for her birthday because she missed “Italian” food. The food was lackluster. You’re out.

Now the food being terrible wasn’t the fault of a server. They don’t do everything at the restaurant, and I get that, it was just one thing on top of another. She wasn’t in charge of how good it was, how fast the food came out, anything like that. But she was in charge of the customer experience. Just a little check in now and again. That’s really not too much to ask. I’ve worked in this industry before, and I know it can be done, and given what kind of restaurant it’s supposed to be, I don’t think my standards are too high. If I wanted to be ignored and wait without any consideration, I’d sit at home and watch my oven preheat. I wanted to do something nice for my sisters birthday, and that really just brought the night down. Another little complaint that doesn’t have much standing but something that still rubbed me the wrong way…. If you see two kids at the table, don’t sit there and talk to and coo over one and then act like the other doesn’t exist. As a mom, it pisses me off because then my two year old gets his feelings hurt and I’m the one who has to handle those big emotions and explain to him that he didn’t do anything wrong to get ignored. I don’t mind doing it, but I mind that it became necessary to...

Yesterday was our Son's Birthday and he wanted Olive Garden. So we went to Olive Garden in New Braunfels after a day playing at a local bounce place. So, two six year olds, a ten year old and two adults walk into OG at 615pm. We wait maybe ten minutes and they call us to be seated and I'm thinking this is great! So we are seated at table 304 and with three children who are hungry after an afternoon of playing hard. 45 mins goes by and we flag down an employee and explain that we have been seated for 45 minutes and have yet to see a server, no drinks not even a hello. I explain that we have three children and they are pretty hungry, she says she will check and leaves. Now it has been almost an hour and so I get up and walk to the kiosk where several employees were standing and I ask for the manager and then begin to air my grievances. Having said what I felt needed to be said as politely as possible, I return to the table with the intention of leaving. The manager walks up then and asks us to giver her a chance to make it right. I want to be absoluitely clear.... If our six year old son didn't look at me and say please, we would not have stayed. So we stayed and as the manager was talking to us a server from across the restaurant comes over and very politely takes our entire order. (I wish I had gotten her name but I didn't.) The manager and this server then proceed to tag team the table and made my son's night with his brownie lasagna and a candle. This review would have 1 star if it wasn't for the manager and server whom went out of her way to make sure we got our food and drinks even though she was taking care of a section far away. The manager comped the deserts and gave us a gift card. The waitress got a fifty dollar tip for her service.

As a Post Script, I would like to add that the devices at the tables are pretty useless. You can only order featured items, kids menu items and a selection of 5 drinks other than alcohol. Why isn't the full menu...

It seems you can’t go wrong eating at Olive Garden. What do I mean? I mean it seems every time I eat there they make all things right. I don’t know why but almost every time I eat there with my daughter something goes wrong. But not to worry at Olive Garden because as soon as we tell the waiter they fix it or get a manager to come to your table to ask about it. This visit was no different. Something went wrong, the manager came, the manager fixed it to my satisfaction. We really do enjoy the food here and that is why we keep coming back! So, we usually order Fried calamari as an appetizer, with red sauce. It was fresh and hot and of course delicious. Then we ordered a couple of the lunch specials at a great price I might add. I got one of the soups and my daughter got the salad. We enjoyed both while she waited for her lasagna and I for my spaghetti with meat sauce. It was late in the day around 2 o’clock I guess. I will have to say we did wait only about five minutes, and we’re seated. It was actually busy this late in the day on a weekday. Just shows that we are not the only one who likes the food at Olive Garden. We were thinking about a chocolate dessert, but we’re already full, so did not order one. We even got a box to take home a little bit of lasagna and spaghetti for my leftover lunch I will have tomorrow. The waitress was really good, friendly, attentive. We didn’t have to ask for water refills or extra breadsticks because she made sure we were taken care of. The manager came back to the table to check on us, and we told her everything was wonderful and thanked her for helping. We highly recommend Olive Garden in New Braunfels, and for that matter any Olive Garden we have been to across the country has had great food and...