Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Patton Township

We had a very sad visit on Sunday evening the 22nd. My kids normally beg to go to Olive Garden because they are pasta fanatics but I do not always take them. I gave in this time and after my work shift we went to visit Olive Garden. It started out nice, the parking lot was not jammed full and there was not a wait at the front desk. We got right in and got a small booth for the 4 of us. Our waitress was very nice and attentive. I overheard the booth behind us having issues with food taking so long, and the waitress apologizing because the kitchen was backed up. I found this to be odd because the restaurant was not very busy.

Then it was our turn to sit and wait for our pasta. Without an exact timer, I would estimate that we waited a minimum of 45 minutes for simple past dishes. She also apologized to us several times for the kitchen being backed up. I joked with her saying that I would hate to see it if they were actually busy or had a wait list to be seated. This was a very long time of sitting there.

We heard several different conversations between wait staff there, and they were just as upset as the restaurant customers. It sounds like the store priorities have shifted to the To-Go Catering orders. There were some large catering orders needing filled and the in-store customers were having to wait very extended times for their food orders. It sounded like this has been happening more and more. The servers were taking the brunt of complaints because of the wait but they could not do much to speed anything up. Priorities in a restaurant should be with the in-store customers. At a minimum, customers should be alerted that there may be a delay or even given a percentage off the bill. We remained courteous to our waitress and told her she did well, but the store itself would be losing some of our business.

This really should be addressed.

UPDATE: I felt like I should update this to reflect that I was contacted by email from Olive Garden and offered a return visit. I never actually spoke to a live person. We did make a return visit a few days ago and it went a little better. Even though there was a 25 minute wait to get seated, we still got our food faster than the September visit that was plagued with...

Once seated for 7, which took a 15 minute wait. The server initially arrived after another 15 minutes. He started by advertising a happy state patrics day, this not only confused the table but made us question the ability of this server to hold a serious interaction with adults. At this time we were ready to order both drinks and lunch. Upon a mostly successful dictation of our order, the server returned to the kitchen. Another 20 minutes tick by... the server returns with an order question or two and blames the wait on the kitchen which has been turning out very delicious looking dishes to our surrounding tables. He then descends back to the kitchen. 10 minutes later, another server comes with our drinks .... yes drinks have finally arrived. The meals arrive another 10 minutes later, they are crusted as though they have been sitting for the past 30 minutes. He then notices that he is short 1 meal and he has not brought salad or bread sticks. I suppose that after retrieving that last meal, salad, and breadsticks his job was done. At this point, the manager who we have observed clueless wandering the floor stops by. He asks how things are and if there is anything we need. I replied that plates were needed unless we are expected to eat from the salad bowl. I do believe he got the point and retrieved some salad plated. Summary Server was one or more of the following: untrained, uncaring, overworked, unsupervised, or unsuited. Manager did not effectively run his restaurant or ensure his personnel are following procedures and training. Kitchen turned out tasty dishes that required timely delivery to the floor.

For a party of 7 at lunch, $145. I seriously believe this olive garden in state college, pa was the worst experience I have had. It was embarrassing for me and should be for them too. In hindsight, both the food and service of olive garden as a whole has degraded. This experience has etched that in stone. For the price they charge, I may get better food, service, and experience in a timely manner at nearly any other establishment. 1 star is reflected to reinforce the importance of service in this...

We were very disappointed last night. We used the olive garden app to check the wait time which said 15 minutes. We waited until we were in the car to enter our name on the 15 minute wait list, arrived less than 15 minutes later and were told that it would be 25-30 minutes for a table. The hostess told us the app is not accurate, it only bumps you up by one table at best unless you put your name on an hour in advance and then it might bump you up 2 or 3 spots. I felt like this was a "bait and switch". We would have chosen a different restaurant had we had an accurate knowledge of wait time, but didn't want to spoil the evening with our guests. When seated, our waitress yelled very harshly at our seater saying "That table isn't wiped off.". While this was an error, it should not have been handled in that manner. The girl seating us was embarrassed and did follow up by wiping off the water rings, etc while we were seated. We waited over 10 minutes to be greeted and asked for our drink order. We were very hungry. It was after 8 pm on a very long day. We ordered appetizers and our meal at the same time, and my son asked several times for bread sticks, we asked for salad. It took over 10 minutes for the breadsticks drinks and salad to arrive. It was delivered with the appetizers. 2 minutes later our meal arrived. It was disappointing to wait over an hour for a table and breadsticks and then have all the food arrive at ones. That same server waited on us all night in a completely different voice, not deep as before, but very high pitched and overly sweet but did not feel genuine. When we finished, we used the restroom. The ladies room had two dirty commodes. I chose the only clean commode, but no toilet paper, got tp from one of the other commodes to line the seat, washed my hands and there was no paper to dry them. I had to ask the hostess staff for napkins to dry my hands. The bathroom was not clean either. This place needs some...