Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Norfolk

RUN Do not EAT HERE!!! OILY/GREASY/REUSING WINE GLASSES FROM OTHER TABLES/Management Terrible! I dined at your restaurant located @ 5920 E VA Beach Blvd, Norfolk, VA 23502-2402. I have eaten at your restaurants before but this was the worst experience EVER. Our 30 minute wait became over one hour because it seems on Saturday night the restaurant was understaffed? I personally saw 8 empty tables that we could have used to eat at but we waited an hour. I understand sometimes staffing is low but then you tell your customers or you call in more people but you do not ignore the situation and hope it will go away? The manager was there but never spoke to us before dinner, or during dinner, or even after dinner. He seemed to only speak to tables of 2 that had woman sitting there? I am only stating what I saw going on. He chose the simple tables over larger groups? I am not sure why. I do know he went through our section and only spoke to 2 tables that each had 2 young woman sitting there. I also witnessed him doing the same as I walked around the restaurant trying to ascertain what was taking so long. I saw him address 4 tables that night and they all had 2 women sitting there. He never spoke to one family that I witnessed. Next our drinks, I ordered a blue moon beer. It took almost 20 minutes to get it after we sat down and it was actually HOT. Not cool, HOT and it was given to me even when the waitress had to touch it to give it to me? I had to complain after i touched it. It took another 15 minutes to find out the keg cooler was not working and then it took another 10 minutes to get a glass of sweet tea in lieu of the beer. The manager never came by to say anything about the hot beer but he took it off the bill? Weird that he did not apologize right? He stood beside our table after the issues and never once spoke to us just the young women behind us. Again I am just stating exactly what I saw happen. Then we ordered soup and salad and ordered our main course as well. The soup and salad came after almost another 20 minutes with calamari and we started to eat them. We had just begun to eat when our main courses showed up? our table was full of plates and they served our main courses anyway? I ordered the shrimp and chicken pasta meal and it was oily and greasy and the chicken was not cooked completely (the breading was not crispy at all) it was simply warm not hot? The beer was hotter than the chicken. I asked for more salad and it took 30 minutes to get a refill on the salad. We were ready to leave this place after taking 2 hours and 45 minutes to eat one meal... This was the worst experience I have had in a long time anywhere. I had an upset stomach all night long because of all of the oily/greasy fluid on the food. The only redeeming quality was the bread. The people at the front did not speak to us at all after waiting an hour to sit down, the manager never came to tell us sorry for the wait? I could have taken my wife, my children and my grandchildren gone to McDonalds or Chucky Cheese and gotten much better service then this place. I think you should close the doors for a few days and teach your people and managers about customer service. Also, I watched a waitress come to the table beside us and grab 2 wine glasses off the table and that was from our table and reuse the glasses to serve some other table wine. She looked into the glasses and used the towel on her apron to wipe it out until it looked clean (not sanitized per health code) and she poured wine into the glasses for a customer? How is this place open for business with these blatant disregard for customers health and safety? Who trains these people in health codes? If that goes on in the sitting area what goes on in the kitchen where no one can see? You have a very serious issue here and I think you need to get a visit from the health department.

I WOULD GIVE LESS STARS BUT YOU...

Came here for dinner. The food was great but our waitress was very forgetful. I wouldn't mention it if we were only forgotten once or twice. But five times, I think it deserves a mention. First I ordered a glass of wine and appetizer through the tablet. I let her know so she could be looking for the order like she told me to. She told my wife there was no coke zero but it's on the menu and shortly after we hear the table over order it without any word from their waitress. The other waitress either did a diet coke swap without telling the people, or they had coke zero. Waitress said she forgot about us. The food was brought out by someone different. The wine didn't come. She said they were trying to find a bottle. She said our food was also ready but then the next time she came by she said only part of it was ready. We had already eaten all of the breadsticks and dip and stacked the plates to be taken by then. We asked for more when she came by. After waiting a while longer someone different brings our food out along with the breadsticks and dip... at this time I finally got my wine. Throughout the main course she never stopped by to ask for refills or anything else. I ordered dessert to-go and paid on the tablet. I let her know the next time we saw her; Every time having to flag her down. Throughout all of this she would walk past and let us know she had forgotten one thing or another, only rembering when I made eye contact with her. Its whatever. Someone else, a manager i believe, came by to ask if we needed to-go boxes. Next time we saw her she finally asked but we told her someone else had already asked and she said "of course they did" as if we should have just sat there waiting for her to forget about us some more. Then, I get the dessert and it's on a plate. I let her know it's supposed to be to-go and she feeds me some kind of bs about not being able to put food in to-go boxes so it has to be put on a plate. Um, if they can touch the food to put it on a plate, they can put it in a box. Plus they have a menu for ordering to-go. You're telling me when people order takeout, they have to scrape the plates into to-go boxes before they can get their order — NO. I didn't misunderstand her. That's what she was saying as the explanation for why it was on a plate instead of already in a box. My wife says I'm too much of a critic, I say she's too nice. Either way, the manager was more attentive to us than she was. He was even the one that refilled our drink at the end, between paying and dessert, because my son wanted some more before we left.

All that being said, the food was great and we did end up getting everything we needed. I have had worse service that I didn't feel deserved my business at all, at Marie Calendars in Chula Vista, CA. This was not THAT bad. More of an annoyance than anything. I DO recommend this Olive Garden.

Food: 5 Cheese Marinara Dip, Shrimp Scampi, Ziti al Forno, Chicken Alfredo, Pumpkin Cookie Butter Cheesecake

Drinks: Cabernet Robert Mondavi Private Selection, Diet...

It had been some time since dining at any Olive Garden and opted to eat here since I knew they'd have something I'd like. There was a new shrimp appetizer that tasted good but after that the downward spiral began.

I can't recall her name but the hostess assigned to us made the experience weird. The baby talk, asking me questions when I had a mouthful of food, not being sure about the drinks...etc. It just became annoying and I resolved that I'd just eat what I'd already ordered and leave.

Starting with the mango strawberry tea, it was not good. I asked her if it was sweetened and she assured me it was. I found out otherwise that it was actually very meh and needed some churching up. I requested some simple syrup from the bar and she just stood there and stared at me as if she were in her own world. Fast forward, the simple syrup didn't do much to help the drink and it just sat there because I didn't want to ask her to switch it out without it becoming a long conversation.

I've had many of the soups before and the Zuppa Toscana came out almost translucent in appearance with bland flavor. Instead of placing the bowl on the table, she handed it to me and it was just lukewarm at best. There was a spoon already in it and I would have liked to made sure it was clean first. I asked for a different bowl of another soup and it was no better than the first. Campbell's soup had more oomph that theirs.

The salad was just ok and it served its purpose. The breadsticks were just breadsticks and paired with the salad prevented me from leaving with an empty belly.

The cleanliness of the booth and restaurant were a turnoff. The overly whimsical & quirky hostess grated my nerves. The gaggle of inattentive young ladies at the entrance who are on their phones and gossiping about an assortment of sordid topics is enough that I'll just find somewhere else to take my business.

Such a decline from a restaurant that doesn't seem like it's interested in improving. Sorry Olive Garden, it's not you....it's me. I deserve to eat at a place that gives a damn....