Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in San Antonio

To the manager working evening of 7/15/24 . When a customer calls and bypasses speaking to anybody else and specifically requests to speak to you and admits knowledge of your standard rules on reservations, but is humbly transparent by providing personal sentimental details on the reason why this future date and time is especially needed for our family and is kindly inquiring on the possibility of you making an exception to accommodate a reservation for a small party of 10 family members who really needed your help in making this important event possible and as if our story wasn't disappointing enough, to receive a cold robotic response by repeating your standard "rules " on reservations in the manner you chose to communicate with was not only classless but it also demonstrates your inability to humanize with others during a very human life event. After I pointed out to you repeatedly that I am aware of your rules, which was why I decided to speak directly to you, it was as if I was listening to an automated message on repeat because you just could not grasp. Yes, I hung up out of frustration that you wouldn't answer a yes or no question. In no way do I feel entitled to accommodations, and I'm NOT upset that my son won't be able to have his annual olive garden dinner like he's had these past 15 years(As I mentioned to you being that he is on the spectrum, going to Olive Garden is one of his ritualistic traditions.) I'm NOT upset with you that his father will be missing as part of this tradition since he passed recently and never missed a b-day at olive garden and this b-day will be the first one without him. I'm NOT upset with you that my son's social life is severely affected because of Autism so doing one thing he enjoys even if it's Olive Garden, it makes me happy to see him happy and I'm NOT mad at you for not understanding that I don't have a big family and that it's just me and my kids and grand babies, so special events mean so much for us to get to be together. BUT what I am upset with is that you, along with so many others in this world, don't know how to show or speak kindness to another human being when the opportunity arises unless it benefits you. Your display of disinterest , dismissal, and disregard for others are what frustrates me. You couldn't even PRETEND to try and act as though you would at least make an effort to make it possible, and someone in your role should know and be better than this. So, it looks like our annual tradition has come to an end, but that's okay that's life. I hope you get this message and that it somehow makes an impact on how you will decide to treat people moving forward...

I love olive garden but today was not that day. I could tell it was going to be a bad experience from the start I should have asked for someone else. I had two people for my table. A trainer and a trainee not giving any names because it was their first day. I first received a sassy attitude when asking if I need anything or want anything instead of my usual service questions. Lol I was asked questions I never head before like if I’m allergic to anything… I thought to myself why would the server ask that now all of a sudden after all these years.. did something change in the food? So I proceeded to tell my order and my partners. The server didn’t get nothing I said. I repeated the 2 orders 4 times. I believe the server was nervous the trainer was behind listening to what the server was saying and doing and couldn’t understand what food I wanted. The 2 plates were the same food but one without parsley. I wasn’t asked on anything for my salad. They didn’t have to-go salads, or to go cup lids. When I asked for a refill while my cup was more then half full because I felt my server wouldn’t come back until a while and the server took my cup and straw…. Then gave me another cup no straw and left. I didn’t say nothing. So when the food came out of course my order was wrong. I even pointed to show the server which one I wanted. So as I wait another 5-10mins as my partner already got full and stoped eating and I sat there. My food finally came. By that time I was already just wanting to take everything to go.. Anytime my server would ask questions they’d walk away before I could even answer… again all while the server had sassy attitude…the trainer had to keep apologizing and the server also apologized. But as I’m packing up my food and the trainer was fixing my order price because I had a coupon a young waitress came up to me and my partner asking if we can pack up and leave because she needed to close and clean her station…..I never once was asked to leave I Olive Garden because they wanted to clean..so as I’m walking out I see a big table of people still enjoying themselves done eating just having nice wine and I’m sure they didn’t ask the older folks who had more people to leave..I was supposed to come back for my birthday in 2...

Updated 9/2/2025

So endless pasta is back again. Me and four of my friends went in on Friday. I ordered the mushroom sauce with rigatoni pasta and I opted in for the endless protein topping as well. The server asked me if I would prefer grilled chicken or the crispy chicken I said grilled and later when I ask for a refill of the same pasta and sauce she said that the grilled chicken was not an option and that I would have to pay $5 for that and an additional $5 for the other toppings moving forward. I told her that that was unacceptable as you're the one that offered the grilled chicken she said well I didn't know and I said well you're the employee so I shouldn't have to pay for your mistake. She then sent out a manager who when approached me stated you had a question? And I said no I don't I made a statement and I explained the situation to her. She agreed that I wouldn't be charged for the grilled chicken but I would have to pay the $5 of charge for the unlimited toppings which I had already agreed to do. Aside from this scenario they don't check on your table enough for you to get any type of refills on your pastas. I don't know if they overseeded our server or she just wasn't attentive to our table but I don't think we'll be going back very soon. At least not to this location.

Since the never ending pasta has been the promotion item I've went on three separate occasions. Two out of three times the rigatoni pasta was over cooked. The chicken fritters as well. The mushrooms sauce is delicious my only critic is it lacks mushrooms needs more perhaps chop them vs slices. Now let's talk about the service, which has been excellent each time. I would say Rafi has been the best server yet. He is really good at his job! also Id like to say that the general manager runs a tight ship,...