Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in San Antonio

It was my birthday, and I hadn’t eaten all day in prep for what I had been looking forward to; gnocchi and asiago chicken. It’s the reason I go to Olive Garden. And I hadn’t eaten Olive Garden in like a decade because Paris doesn’t have them. I haven’t found an Italian restaurant in Italy or France that makes asiago tortellini, so it must be an American thing. I try to make the hack but it’s not the same. Gnocchi, breadsticks, and Asiago chicken had been living rent free in my mind for two weeks.

I went with my Mum, who had made us an hour late so when we got there, and she was taking her time browsing like she’d never been to an Olive Garden before, I said can we just get the apps out, you can continue to look at the menu, but at least i can have the soup, salad, and breadsticks while you decide. The waitress said she didn’t care for the bullying that was going on. Had it been meant in a funny way, I would have let it go, but it was said in a more ‘you’re offending me’ way. I get it, Millennials say overly familiar stuff too. I try to let Gen Z slide because they say later ones are the most antisocial generation, and maybe she was bullied in school and it’s her trauma response, but it was such a weird thing to say to people you met 3 mins ago. It was the first time one of those “why aren’t Gen Z socialized properly” articles had come to life for me. As the night progressed I found it funny that when she did come to table (which was rare) she refused to look at me. She would only look at my Mum. She must have known she crossed a line? A few days later and I still find it odd that someone would start an interaction with a customer by accusing then of bullying.

As for the restaurant. It felt like they tried to do something with the interior (like Carrabbas circa 2000), and while the arches were cute, this Olive Garden is the smallest one I’ve been to. There’s so many people in Helotes. On a weekend it’s probably a terribly long wait. On a Thursday...

My wife and two young sons visited this location on May 2, which was a Friday at around 7 PM. We have always enjoyed this location and have never had any issues with our service or our food. The host was great, sitting us a very timely manner with great interaction skills.We were sat at a half booth half table about mid restaurant. Must’ve been 10 to 15 minutes and not one single person had even acknowledged us. Once my one year-old became restless, we became frustrated. It seemed there were plenty of front of the house managers, but sadly, it seemed their focus was on talking to each other and not overseeing the operations Of the front of the house restaurant. I noticed our server nearby and he noticed us, but just continued to walk by as if we weren’t even sitting there. We got up and left mentioning to a manager as we walked out that nobody had said a word to us.I spent 20 years in the restaurant business as a Owner Operator of about 22 locations in 4 states .I always tip my server 100% of the bill. My honest opinion is that not everybody is built for customer service. Sure, you can hire a warm body in hopes they can actually make it to the customer in time scribble down an order, throw it in the system and hope for the best But in order to do that, you have to have a front of the house management staff thats Soul focus is making sure that every customer is taken care of and each server has a support system in case they fall behind. 90 second greet time is about service standard for any restaurant and if you cant get there ask somebody...

By far the WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! No server assigned to us, took a manager to come up to our table to take our order and drinks. Food was horrible, we asked for the salad dressing on the side and y’all instead proceeded to drench the salad in dressing. The soup was old and thick, not a pleasant taste. They remake the salad after asking for dressing on side and failed to bring us plates to eat on. You would think they would at least get breadsticks correct, nope. Not one offer for a breadstick refill neither. At this point we were doing their job just due to the fact we weren’t getting service. Remember these words kids and “adults”…. When working in a restaurant and being a waitress/ waiter….your tip amount starts the moment our butts sit down. The main dishes had been cold and you could tell they had been sitting at the window waiting to be brought out. This was a disaster from the start and instead of leaving we stuck it out just to see how worst it could get. Whelp good job cause yall didn’t disappoint us further. Paid and dipped and NOOOOO. Yall didn’t/ don’t deserve to get a tip, yall could just think yall “earned it”. Management it starts with yall, get your staff...