Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Opelika

Urgent Concern Regarding Incorrect Order and False Confirmation – June 1st, 2025, 8:30PM, Auburn, AL Location

Dear Olive Garden Management,

I’m writing to report a situation that occurred at your Auburn, AL location on June 1st, 2025, regarding an Uber Eats order I picked up as a delivery driver. I received the order between 8:15–8:30 PM, and it was delivered to a customer who met me at the door. The order was supposed to include three beverages, including a sweet tea, but when I received the food from the staff, it only included two raspberry drinks in a drink carrier.

While I understand it’s my responsibility to verify items when possible, the Uber Eats app does not show an itemized breakdown, only a generic count of “food” or “beverage.” After delivery, the customer contacted the restaurant and was told by the manager that all three drinks were confirmed in the order. This statement was simply not true.

To clarify, A Black/African American male employee delivered the order to me at curbside, handing me two food bags and a drink carrier with only two drinks. There was no third drink, and I had no additional beverages in my car. I was driving a silver Volkswagen Passat, which should be visible on security footage during that 8:15–8:30 PM window. I even encouraged the customer to inspect my car once I gave her the order, to verify to her I did not take her drink or have it, because I value integrity and transparency in my work.

What concerns me the most is the dishonesty on the part of the manager. Rather than simply apologizing for the oversight and assuring the customer they will work on improving their order checking process, the manager chose to LIE, claiming all drinks were included. This type of unprofessionalism not only shifts blame unfairly onto the delivery driver but also damages trust with customers.

As an Uber Eats driver, I do my part to support restaurants and ensure customers receive their meals. With fewer drivers on the road during certain hours, Uber even offers incentives to encourage deliveries during peak times. In situations like this, where we’re doing our best to help keep your business running smoothly, we expect to be treated with fairness and respect.

With that being said, I do not wish to deliver for this Olive Garden location again. I no longer feel comfortable being associated with a restaurant where management responds to an honest mistake with dishonesty and deflection. I hope this situation is taken seriously and that steps are taken to reinforce professionalism, accountability, and integrity among staff.

I respectfully request that the store review the security footage to confirm that the employee delivered only two drinks to the silver Volkswagen Passat around 8:15–8:30 PM on June 1st. I trust that any owner or upper management team committed to excellence will understand how damaging it can be to allow this kind of behavior to go unaddressed.

Sincerely, A Concerned...

Upon arrival, our party of 5 adults and 3 children were told the wait time would be 25-30 minutes. After waiting 45 minutes we were taken to our table. Our server, Barclay, took upwards of 10 minutes to come to the table and this was after another server came and told us he would be tending to us shortly. When he came, we placed our drink orders and we had to request that he bring breadsticks so that the kids wouuld be distracted from the wait time and so they could eat something. At this point, the kids were getting restless and continued to ask when food would be served. No one had offered kids menus so we had to send one of the kids to the hostess stand to ask for 3 kids menus. Our server then brought our party of 8, three breadsticks. Another 10 minutes went by before he returned to place our entree order. It was approximately 15 more minutes before he returned with salad and one more basket of bread, containing 5 breadsticks. I then told him that it would be safe to assume he could continue to bring bread without asking us each time if we wanted any. 15 more minutes passed before we were served our entree, but because he couldn't bring all the plates out at one time, he brought 4 plates out, left them on the server tray at the end of the table without serving them, then returned to the kitchen. He then came back out with another server to serve all the dishes at the same time. By this time, several members of our party had run out of water and we had to ask him to refill our glasses. After the majority of the food had been eaten, I noticed something "foreign" on someones plate. I picked a green pepper out of a pasta dish and the produce sticker had not been removed prior to cutting. I then made our server aware of the situtation and although our server lacked "serving etiquette" he did take the pepper to management who then took that meal off the tab and even offered for each of us to get a dessert "on the house". Overall, the service was unacceptable. If it is a result of Barclay's inexperience, he should probably be back on training. Management did take the reigns and more or less redeemed the horrible dining experience. The prices are so ridiculous and not worth the total experience. I would definitely think twice before eating at...

Five stars for Haley J. ZERO for GM Jordan. My family and I went to Olive Garden in Opelika tonight for our daughter's birthday. There were 14 of us in the party. I called when the store opened and went ahead and was put on the waitlist and was asked to arrive 15 minutes early to notify them that we were there and that we wouldn't have to wait long. We waited and hour and fifteen minutes to be seated. Our waitress Haley J. was AMAZING. She apologized multiple times for our wait, was very accommodating and pleasant even though most of our party was hangry by that time. Haley had to share the table with a less experienced waitress and when it came time to pay, the orders were scrambled in the system. Haley asked Jordan Morris three times for assistance to get the checks sorted, he ignored her so I went to try to help. Haley thought she had it figured out so I walked away. She then came back to our table on the verge of tears saying that she was just going to cover our $300 check to which we disagreed and I went to help her again. As I was helping her, Jordan came up behind me, completely disregarded the fact that I was standing there and told Haley "let's just pass out the checks" THE CHECKS WERENT CORRECT AND HE WOULDN'T HELP FIX THEM!!! He nor any other manager that was on duty tonight deserves their position. To leave an employee hanging like that then act like she was the reason we were held up for 45 extra minutes was absolutely ridiculous. After everyone in my party paid and walked away, Haley was left in tears. I hope that she finds employment elsewhere and that he finds unemployment. I, nor any of my family will frequent an establishment that allows their managers to treat their employees this way and you should be ashamed. Not only did he not help her but he embarrassed her, ignored me (the customer) and walked away without asking wither of us if he could...