Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Paducah

We were traveling. My children (teen/ young adult) had never been to Olive Garden. We love Zuppa Toscana (made at home), so we drove a little out of our way to have Italian food. We were expecting comfort food.

First, out of 6 sets of silverware, 5 knives and 2 forks were dirty (dried food, not just water spots). The waiter was friendly and brought our salad/ soup/ bread. Bread & salad were average, but the soup was quite good. With hungry teens, the small salad servings went fast. The waiter came back and said he'd get more bread and asked if we needed more salad, to which we responded affirmatively. He never brought either. Eventually, after a moderate wait, several other staff brought our entrees.

If you are expecting authentic Italian food, this is NOT the place to go. However the teens enjoyed their meals in spite of that. I had shrimp scampi and it was a soupy wine sauce with very short pieces of overcooked vermicelli floating in it and lots of tomatoes. I did not enjoy it as the wine was overpowering the other flavors. It was nothing like any shrimp scampi I've ever had, and I'm not unusually picky.

The waiter came back as we finished and asked how it was tasting, then observantly states, "I guess you are done". He then offered dessert, but not the "endless" salad.

The kids would have given 3 stars. They are very easy to please. I thought it was less than average service and the food was overpriced for the quality and quantity. However, it was not inedible. I wouldn't avoid the chain if they cleaned their dishes better, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it...

We were invited to eat here with some friends last night. Although I used to really like this restaurant and eat here frequently, we had noticed a decline in the quality and service over time and stopped going. This was our first visit in a few years.

If I had to describe this restaurant in one word, it would be "disgusting." From the moment we walked in until we left, there was an offensive smell like a dirty bathroom that permeated everything. The service was terrible, the food was edible but not great, and we had to repeatedly ask for breadsticks and refills. Our first basket of bread included 3 breadsticks for a table of four people.

When it came time to pay, I had to use the touchscreen device that sits on each table. It is grimy and covered in fingerprints, and the waitress stood over me to "guide" me through the payment process. She hovered while I entered a tip amount, and then asked me to take a survey with several questions about quality of service and food. Because she was watching, I felt pressured to tip more than she deserved, and I answered all of the survey questions with high marks even though I was very unhappy with the experience. All of this took at least 5 minutes, and then the other half of our table had to go through the same process to pay for their order.

It is no wonder that Olive Garden is struggling financially. They need to clean up their restaurants, hire better servers, get rid of the awful payment system that ties up the wait staff and the customer for several minutes, and realize that surveys taken under the watchful eye of a waiter will never...

Me and my wife are celebrating our 18th anniversary. Well what better place to go then olive garden. We love olive garden. Well not in paducah ky. Ordered shrimp scampi. Sat in window way to long came out very juicy and brown. Reordered and it came out bland and under done. I ordered stuffed chicken mar- something. It looked great (on the menu) it came out with all the stuffing melted out of it from sitting in the window too long. The mashed potatoes were crunchy and bland. We got one order of breadsticks with a promise of more that we never got. I recieved one beverage. Never asked if i wanted another. We sat there during our whole dinner with dirty plates on the table. Another server placed a dirty plate right by my face on a shelf and walked away. I ate my food before my wife had hers because mine would have gotten cold and then sat there and watched my wife eat hers. Overall i am very mad. But because i didnt want to ruin our anniversary i kept my cool. I will not be returning to this olive garden. I will not recommend it to anyone. Funny thing is they werent even busy. So i dont understand. The prices we paid for the food i was expecting alot more. All i kept doing was apologizing to my wife. Ty for that olive garden. On a positive note. The bus boy was on point. Never left a dirty table more then a...