Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Panama City Beach

This place is dirty. We came in and 4 of our 5 menus had so much dried food, splatters of things, and felt sticky so we had to ask for new ones. Our waitress brought us 5 more menus and only 3 of them were usable for the same reason. We were brought out breadsticks and, after 2 had been eaten, I grabbed on but noticed 75% through that a small flying bug was living its best life on the last 25% of my breadstick. I was disgusted! Our waitress was prompt in removing the breadsticks and let us know that she would get management for us. About 5-10 minutes later, she came to check on us and asked if management had come by but they hadn't. She said that she asked the manager to come speak to us and said she would find him again. I asked if we could get fresh breadsticks and she said she didn't think we would want more because she wouldn't if she had gotten a bug on one. She was right, I no longer wanted any, but the rest of my party did. When she came back for drink refills, the manager was hanging around the table, almost seeming intimidated by coming to speak with us. The waitress turned around to leave, saw the manager, and asked if he had a chance to speak with us yet. He addressed our table along with our waitress letting us know that he had discounted our entire meal. We wound up receiving 25% off our check which was very nice. I do wish the manager had come to speak with us promptly, though. When he let us know about the discount, he seemed nonchalant about the bug stating that, "sometimes they just fly around and we can't do anything but we will make sure that we're more careful with the rest of your food." This ordeal made the rest of the meal rather disordered. My chicken and gnocchi soup came out and had no gnocchi in it. My son, who was celebrating his 9th birthday today with Olive Garden as his chosen restaurant for his birthday dinner, gets chicken Alfredo with the chicken on the side because sometimes he doesn't want chicken or might not want it on the noodles. When his plate arrived, the chicken was on top of the noodles. They added cheese to his meal but it all went on the chicken, which he decided he didn't want to eat, so I had to take it, and all the cheese, off. Luckily, the woman that brought out his food got him a small cup with more grated cheese. We did not get our replacement breadsticks until we were almost finished with our meals. Finally, the smallest grievance, I ordered an appetizer as my meal and, even though the waitress correctly put it in to come out with the entrees, the kitchen sent it out as an appetizer anyway. So I either had to wait and eat my food cold or eat while the rest of my party had no food. My stuffed zitti fritta (appetizer as my meal) also had 4 bits of other fried foods mixed in so I know the oil hadn't been changed and the kitchen was not taking care to serve properly made food. For the good, our waitress was really sweet and seemed frazzled by our constant problems. She did what she could to advocate for us and apologized many times. Her service was really good during our visit. She helped us order a free dessert for my son since it was his birthday and made sure our checks were right. I really appreciate her despite how crazy the dinner went. Ultimately, I don't trust the kitchen to be safely preparing food. I don't trust the manager to properly run the store. And I don't trust the front of house to clean menus before handing them to the next guests. The only beacon of light was our waitress that has to rely on tips for the possibility of a livable wage.

The fact that this was a birthday dinner and we are local to the area means we will likely not be eating at this olive garden again. I hope the one in town hasn't gotten this bad...

My wife and I ate a late supper at this Olive Garden for my birthday while on vacation (sorry, no birthday specials). The decor was better than I've come to expect for most Olive Gardens, and the restaurant was clean.

For food my wife had the whole wheat linguine with alfredo and I had fettuccine alfredo. The alfredo sauce was mostly water, and was very distasteful. It was literally so watery that the sauce would not even stay on the fettuccine when I went to eat it. I sometimes get alfredo dipping sauce for the breadsticks, so I thought I would try improving their unusually bland (at this location) flavor by soaking them in my watery sauce, but they ended up just tasting like watery soggy breadsticks. The salad turned out to be the only decent part of the meal.

For service, we were promptly seated and our drink orders taken. However, when the breadsticks came out there were only two in the basket. After promptly eating them, it took nearly 5 minutes before a different waiter came by, and we asked if she could bring more, but they never came. In the meantime, our drinks ran dry. Another 5 minutes at least went by before our waiter came and we asked her for more breadsticks. Another 5 minutes later before the bread came out and our drinks were refilled. I'm not sure why the service was so slow -- aside from a big family table there were hardly any customers at the time.

I probably would not eat at this location again if I could help it, but there's almost nowhere else for Italian in the area unless you're looking for pizza. Hopefully any future experiences will be more positive than...

My friends and their family were at Olive Garden yesterday when their tween daughter went to the restroom, (which she should be able to safely do!) A man was using the women's restroom. When the father went to the manager to complain she (the manager) told him that it was "legal " in Florida for a male to use any restroom in their restaurant. I don't know if the manager is ignorant or a liar... But under Florida state law ... No, it is NOT legal. It is in fact arrestable. I am appalled that the manager was not at all concerned with an adolescent young girl's safety and right to female only private spaces. "Florida's "Safety in Private Spaces Act" (HB 1521, also known as CS/HB 1521) requires public facilities, including schools, airports, and government buildings, to have restrooms and changing facilities designated for the exclusive use of individuals based on their sex assigned at birth. This law makes it a criminal offense to use a bathroom or changing facility that does not align with one's sex assigned at birth, and to refuse to leave when asked to do so. "

Again, I don't know if your manager is ignorant or a liar. But someone in a management position should be aware of any law that affects the business they are employed by and manage. And if she was just a liar that's even worse to protect a grown man over a little girl.

New low for panama City Beach...