Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Oxford

Our waitress, Stephanie, was incredible. She was kind and patient with my mother-in-law, which was extremely important as this was our first outing together (with just the 2 of us) since my mother-in-law has endured 3 major surgeries since October. Stephanie did not rush us, never made us feel uncomfortable, and was kind and caring throughout all of her interactions with my mother-in-law and myself. Of note, we were at Stephanie's table for well over 1.5 hours. We generously compensated her, but waitresses don't know if people will or not until the end of the meal, so a major thank you to Stephanie!!

The food was delicious, and we even added a sizeable carry out order as well. People, such as Stephanie (as well as the delicious meals we had), are the keys to having booming, successful businesses in today's economy. We would like to send a special thank you to Stephanie for making this day a joy for my mother-in-law. 🩷 Stephanie did everything in her power to make things wonderful, and she did an exemplary job.

As for Olive Garden, I do have a major request. It is very difficult for elderly people, people with disabilities (remember these can be seen, such as amputees, or unseen, such as fibromyalgia, which makes it virtually impossible to lift heavy,adaptive equipment) then have to park a considerable distance from the front entrance, especially after the physical exertion of dealing with adaptive equipment. It would make much more sense for handicapped ♿️ people, if Olive Garden would make all the parking spots in front of the restaurant entrance handicapped ♿️ parking and move call in/to go order parking to the side of the building or into the larger part of the parking lot. While I understand it would be more steps for your associates handling to-go orders (lets face it, you have Miss Linda handling to-go and if anyone can make changes work on the to-go side of Olive Garden, it is Miss Linda). She is the most AMAZING EMPLOYEE Olive Garden has on staff!!!! Miss Linda ALWAYS goes above and beyond and is so caring in all she does. Every time I have the blessing of interacting with her, I leave feeling my spirit has been lifted just to spend a few minutes interacting with her. That is how amazing this lady is, and I hope Olive Garden is aware of what a rare gem Miss Linda is, especially in today's age. 🩷

On 05/03/23, when we visited the Oxford location, all the handicapped parking was full. I had to pull up to the front door, get all of my mother-in-law's adaptive equipment out of the back of my SUV (she has a lot), then help my mother-in-law out of the car and assist her to walk, then sit on a bench outside the restaurant (thankfully, it was empty). I did all this with my SUV still running, my purse in the front, and my back to my SUV (which in hindsight wasn't smart as anyone could have walked up, gotten in and driven off without me even seeing because I was so focused on making sure my mother-in-law didn't fall and that she was okay sitting down on that low, hard iron bench). But as I said, this was our first outing since her 3 major surgeries, and we are still trying to figure all this out. I then left her sitting there alone on the bench (again, questionable safety) and had to drive all the way around the back of the building to find a parking space. It would be a much better utilization of parking spaces for your handicapped ♿️ customers and for those of us who have to manage lifting all the equipment from the back of SUVs, cars, etc. to be in the very front of the building. I have been an RN for 34 years, if I struggle, I know people with less experience dealing with aging, ill loved ones with equipment must struggle some as well. Add to this any poor weather conditions (extreme cold or rain), and it would be just dreadful to be in these circumstances. I feel sure that, as much as we wanted a sit-down, enjoyable meal, we would have settled for somewhere with a drive-through and taken lunch home to eat if faced with that same parking situation and unfortunate...

Tonight our family of four went to Olive Garden. It is a very rare and blessed event when we have a chance to go out and sit down for a dinner. This was the Olive Garden in Oxford Al on Saturday December 28 around 7:45PM. I'm normally one to praise and hate to complain about anything in the service industry, but tonight was just was awful. First, I want to talk about the positive. Awesome bread sticks. My wife's chicken Alfredo and my younger son's chicken fingers was good. Now the complete disaster: Appetizers never arrived but the server kept telling us they were on the way throughout our meal even after multiple times we told her we no longer wanted them since we were now eating our main course. I was very disappointed as I have always had very good calamari from Olive Garden; It took multiple requests to have the waitress bring us plates and she was very confused on our orders multiple times. Seriously she acted like she was high n stoned. At the end of our "meal" I had to take my older child outside for fresh air while my wife with younger son took care of the bill; as I passed some of the staff they were talking about the problems. Needless to say, I never saw a manager nor the waitress again. Waitress took my son's empty drink and never returned. We finally asked an off duty waitress to take care of the problem; we never had the rest of our drinks refilled. The soup (a classic pasta n bean soup) was cool and the beans in it was hard, appeared to be what was poured out of the bottom of the pot; My Tour of Italy was fair at best. First the waitress instead of walking around the table to place my entree in front of me; she reached over my child and dropped the plate on the table splattering tomato sauce on my arm and table. She did apologize. As for the food, the lasagna was good. The Alfredo sauce was excellent but the pasta noodles were clumpy and cool. The chicken Parmesan tastes like and had the soggy texture of a TV dinner. I had multiple bites that was so chewy that I spit the chicken out in my napkin; My oldest child speggeti was ok, but the waitress forgot his meatballs. After multiple request, the meatballs arrived; one was burned and they were floating in grease. My son threw up after eating them; Finally, the restaurant cleanliness seems ok until my older child and I visited the restroom. The toilets and counter tops were disgusting.

I hate to say this as my experience with Olive Garden has been very positive in the past, but tonight's overall experience was a...

When we learned Olive Garden was going to locate in our town, we were excited, for it meant we did not have to commute an hour or farther for one of our favorite restaurants. We have had many meals here over these several years and have celebrated various occassions here as well. When we find a restaurant that has great atmosphere, service, and food, we share our appreication with others and go there, not just to eat but, to dine, socialize, and enjoy an afternoon or evening in a warm, comfortable, fulfilling setting. Unfortunately, the last few times we have dined here, we have not been as pleased and even spaced out our visits by several months before returning in hopes it was just a one-time-not-so-great-experience. We returned this evening, and immediately, we remembered why we have frequented Olive Garden so much; however, a few things were not pleasing as the evening progressed. First of all, this will happen occasionally, but the silverware had food on it when it was removed from the napkin. Then, we never were asked by our waitress, who was exceptionally busy and only present at the beginning and ending of our meal, if everything was to our satisfaction or if we needed anything else. We stopped other waiters and waitresses who seemed to be liesurely walking about near our area, and they assisted kindly. Our waitress was friendly and did provide good service, but she was so busy in comparison to those who were not that we were having to ask for others to take care of refills, to go dishes, our check, which we requested twice, and so forth. The meal, itself, was of a much better caliber, but the side of spaghetti on one of our dishes was dry and cold; the sauce provided the warmth to the noodles that were also stuck together from either overcooking or sitting in cold water too long. Otherwise, the meal was great! Bringing our experience to an end, and upon leaving the establishment, we said "goodbye" and "have a good evening," but the three employees at the front desk continued their conversation and looked at us with no regard or response. We have no issue with our waitress because she was moving about non-stop, and others were waiting for their shift to end apparently. Hopefully, we can get a better experience at another location or just another...