Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Olympia

My wife and I visited last night (far from our first time) at 5:30 on a Saturday night. The parking lot was completely full, and many cars were circling looking for spots. We parked in the mall parking lot and walked maybe 100 yards to the restaurant (no worse than Walmart parking on any given day.)

Walking in, the waiting area was extremely full. We asked about the wait for 2 people, and we were told 25 minutes. I was impressed! Held against our first impressions, 25 minutes seemed quick! We asked if we could wait in the bar, and the hostess said that we could, and additionally if we could find 2 seats in the bar, we could eat there and cancel our 25 minutes wait.

Walking into the bar, there was a table for 2 waiting. Excellent!!! We sat quickly, and I informed the hostess we would dine in the bar and to please cancel our wait for a table. So far, this visit is almost perfect.

So why only 4 stars? Here's the hook... The bar had only 1 server to service about 7 or 8 parties. The server, whose name i did not catch because he did not offer and I did not ask, was hustling while looking relaxed. This is something I appreciate. You gotta ride that line. Never let 'em see you sweat! I can say that he was young, but he knew his job well. IF ONLY OUR DRINK ORDER HAD COME SOONER, I could not fault this restaurant and the staff with a 4 star review. We waited nearly 20 minutes for our water and a single margarita, while I witnessed the barkeep and 2 other servers both cleaning and conversing. Cleaning? Yes, I appreciate that, thank you! But shouldn't all drink orders be processed first? The conversing? I'm not sure that it wasn't related to their work, so I won't fault them except to say this: I was thirsty, turned and looked at the bar, and saw people who appeared to not be engaged in customer service activity. Fair? I think so.

After this, everything else was stellar. Drinks finally arrived, I asked the waiter to suggest an appetizer, and his pick was as excellent as hoped. The stuffed ziti fritta comes with both Alfredo and marinara to dip. Both were great!

The wife has the salmon, and I have the eggplant parmesan. The salad is, of course to die for! ANOTHER WAY TO HAVE EARNED 5 STARS... The salt and pepper grinders at the table were jammed pretty solid. I love cracked pepper on my salad. My wife needed some (but not a year's supply of) salt on her broccoli. Please replace them with working models.

Overall, the experience was definitely a win! This is the first time we dined in the bar, and I was terrified that we would receive sub-par service for the compromise. We really did not! I hope the staff remembers that the diner is watching, and customer service is their burden.

*As a footnote, a second server joined the floor part way through our meal, but we also sat and watched 5 employees receiving, building, and expediting phone orders in the bar area while we waited for even a glass of water. I almost went to 3 stars because of this, but phone customers don't know or care how busy you are inside. So... Solid 4 star experience!!! WE...

First time I came to Olive Garden in Renton I had a wonderful experience. Food was great and service was even better despite them being extremely busy. On Monday (1/20) we decided to come to this location after a long day and it looked much less busy so we got seated right away. We always share the entree here since the portion is huge. However when the server heard that we were sharing he looked visibly annoyed. He would still check on us once in a while but would walk by the table very quickly and didn’t stop to listen. I didn’t mind it too much since it looks like they were closing at around 8pm.

The part we did mind was when he tripped? and broke another table’s cocktail glass right above our table. The liquid was spilled on our table and I’m not sure if any glass was scattered around. He did not even apologized to us and proceeded to apologize to the table who did not receive their cocktail. He came to us and check if there was any glass, but did not even take a towel to wipe down the spilled drink. We spent the rest of the night with a wet table (see pic). He even then went on to apologize to the table next to ours to have spilled the drink so close to their proximity, and not once stopped to apologized to us. At this point we just found this ridiculous and just wanted to pay and go home. He proceeded to ask us if we wanted a refill of any soup and breadsticks, which I know isn’t allowed if we shared the entree, but thought this was part of the restaurant’s courtesy for the drink spilling. So I said sure why not, BUT then he starts going “Oh wait no, you guys shared the entree, that means you don’t get refills”.. I wasn’t going to ask in the first place until you offered, and him saying that just made us feel broke.

We both work in the food service industry and never once experienced such bad service, even when the restaurant was dead. I know you guys are closing but at least wipe down dirty tables when you make a mess, especially when guests are enjoying...

My husband and I ate dinner here last night and we had a horrible experience. I am a former Olive Garden employee and I definitely know what service is expected.

We arrived at a decent time of 8pm and right off the bat I know you're supposed to introduce yourself to the table and she was already asking us what we want to drink just as we had 40 seconds of sitting down. When she brought the drinks she slammed them on the table which we didn't appreciate. She was also slamming all of our plates on the table as well. I'm not sure if our waiter Teri is her name, was having a rough night but it seemed to me she was only having a rough night with us since she was having full on conversations with the table in front of us and laughing with them as well. We never once treated her poorly and I don't think it's fair we got treated the way she was treating us.

Like I said I worked at Olive Garden and I know how portions sizes are supposed to be served. We chose to do the never ending pasta and my first plate which should have been a big portion was only a portion of realistically 3 bites, and also my pasta was cold and noodles weren't cooked all the way. . My second bowl I decided to get was the Rigatoni with 5 cheese marinara and I was brought cold and uncooked rigatoni with marinara. I know the difference between marinara and 5 cheese marinara. I also ordered chicken gnocchi as my soup of choice and the two times I ordered it the gnocchi was literally freezing cold and the soup was way too chunky.

Managers, please do a better job at training your waiters the right way to offer the correct service that Olive Garden is suppose to give. I was nice enough to leave a tip which I shouldn't have but also please make sure your customers are getting what they ask for and what they're paying for. We will not be eating...