Italian Garden — Restaurant in Ocean Springs

First of all I hate writing critical reviews as I am a huge supporter of local family owned businesses. That being said I have to say what transpired at this location was the weirdest restaurant experiences Ive ever encountered. My reviews are accurate accounts of actual events and nothing is candy coated. Since Im always posting about Italian restaurants I visit when out of town and the lack of decent Italian restaurants on the Coast many friends suggested trying Italian garden. When we arrived almost the entire wait staff was congregating at the hostess station talking, weird but we were greeted and seated. Although there was a large party in the middle of the restaurant there were plenty of empty tables and seemed like a normal Friday night for any restaurant. When our waitress dropped our menus off and took our drink orders I had to repeat unsweet tea numerous times while she kept mentioning sweet, no biggie. When we placed our order she returned a few minutes later to only have us repeat the order, again no biggie. My salad arrived shortly after at which point our waitress realizes we were never givin utensils which was quickly rectified. I inquire about the garlic knots or Italian rolls which we were never offered and again that was quickly rectified however no plates were brought out for the rolls. Our entrees arrive quickly and hot. My partner and I order seperate samplers with hers served in a lasagna baking dish covered with marinara and cheese and difficult to distinguish between the different items. My sampler was served on a plate with everything covered with marinara and cheese but a little easier to distinguish between the samples however the lasagna was not recognizable and was a little discombobulated and resembled ravioli. That being said I must say that the marinara seemed fresh and made in house and or food had good flavor. Other than the above mentioned items we were happy with our meal however the server was so bad that my partner even made a remark about it being her first night. Not once during our meal were we checked on by either management or our server. Our bread box was never refilled and neither was my tea! When I return from the restroom my partner informs me that our waitress tried to drop off the check while I was out and was informed that I was in the restroom. At this point the waitress returns and basically just throws the receipt down like " whoop there it is!" not even requesting if we were finished or asking if we wanted coffee or dessert. Disappointing cause my partner was interested in ordering cannoli. Now coming from the service industry Im always extremely patient with servers and even sometimes suggesting how they can improve their service for better tips. I also normally tip extremely well but not only was this server inexperienced but rude and undeserving. I suggest that the Owners whom Ive contacted take a good hard look at management and training however this server needs to be a food runner or performing some other task in the restaurant instead of dealing with the public. Doesn't have what it takes and will end up costing you customers!

Normally when I receive service this bad it makes me mad but in this case it was almost comical. I ended up laughing about it all the way home! It was so off the wall I was expecting Alan Funt from Candid Camera to come out of the corner and say smile your on...

Have been here a few times with no issues, first one was today and I won't be returning again, ordered lasagna and what I received was like a lasagna soup, a few pieces of shredded lasagna noodles and and a ladle of marinara, when I brought this to our waitresses attention she apologized and said she understood and saw what I was talking about, she took it away, the same issue with my wife's meal , our kids meal was decent, the check arrived and to my surprise we were still charged for our meals when I brought this to our waitresses attention she apologized again and said her manager/owner said since it had been touched there was nothing they could do, I asked how was I to know without touching it, he immediately get angry with me and yells don't pay for nothing then , I offered to pay for our kids meals as they were eaten and ok , he yelled no its all free and stormed off , then came right back and started berating the waitress in front of us and other customers, then blamed her , we paid for the kids meal and tipped the waitress as he yelled at her to the point of tears , the food was always decent until this 1 time , but based on these actions my family and myself will never be back , I only hope the waitress, ( whom was amazing by the way) finds better employment soon , no one should be treated that way, by the way this isn't a karen post I come from the food service industry and am always polite and use discretion when having an issue as to NOT involve the entire restaurant, again we will NOT be back again for ok food and a...

I’ll cut right to the chase- we ordered the chicken parmesan and veal parmesan. These are usually safe bets but steer clear of these dishes here. The worst I’ve ever had. They are using frozen, pre-battered chicken breast and a pre-battered veal patty of some sort. I was mistakingly, served the veal and told it was chicken. It looked strange, but I took a bite and could not figure out what I was tasting, but everything about it was very offputting. Then the server walked up with a second dish for my friend and called that chicken Parmesan as well. She had ordered the veal and that’s when they figured out they had given me the veal by mistake. I was just about to send it back when they took the plate from me and passed it on to my friend who awkwardly accepted it. I had already cut into the “veal” patty and had taken a bite. This is so unacceptable! The servers were all very sweet, teenage girls, but totally clueless about restaurant service or the menu. We sat outside, which was nice because there was a breeze. Unfortunately, there is nothing redeeming about the Italian Garden in Ocean Springs. There is never an excuse to use a frozen, premade product like that and charge a premium price. I felt like I was eating a school cafeteria meal from the 1970s and that’s putting it nicely. Such a shame! We...