Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in San Antonio

Tall girl with glasses made experience really unpleasant. Went with a group of 5 and I think it’s pretty obvious that we’d want more than one breadstick each for the entire night. I even made the extra comment at the beginning asking if breadsticks cost extra (of course I know they’re free!) and when she informed me they were free we showed our excitement, any other waiter/waitress would know this is a clear indicator that WE WANT THE BREADSTICKS!! However this waitress believed good service involved not being attentive at all. She brought us a single basket of breadsticks (of course only 5 were in there) after making us wait a good 10 minutes, then proceeded to ignore when our drinks were empty leaving it up to us to inform her that we wanted more of whatever we were drinking. I’m used to servers at least memorizing a couple of the drinks we ordered and being sure to bring us new ones if ours are empty or watered down or something. Or even just ASKING if we would like more. It’s free refills after all. Anyways, after getting our meals we asked her for more breadsticks and after around 20+ mins, we had to click the call server to ask if she could bring us more breadsticks (again) and she actually told us that she’d just put in a fresh batch for us that would only take around 5 min. Once again she didn’t come back and we had all pretty much finished our meals. Our group was continuously questioning where this girl was with our promised fresh breadsticks! Jokingly I said they probably burnt them. I think either we clicked call server again or she finally came by and to our complete surprise I had called it !! (unless she was just lying) but she claims to have burnt the batch of breadsticks that she so happened to put in for us!! Hilariously unbelievable!! Following that news she said that it had just reached closing time so the kitchen WASNT MAKING ANY MORE BREADSTICKS😂 When we tried paying on the tablet, it wouldn’t accept chip cards but she couldn’t bother helping us for like 15 minutes even though we were trying to get her attention and tell her it wasn’t working. She would much rather be cleaning than helping get her last table (pretty much the only table still there at that point) out of the restaurant. Of course when she finally came she made us try our chip cards again because I guess she felt like if we did it in front of her it would suddenly work (it didn’t) so we ended up just paying cash and she said to me “do you need the change, it’s only like three dollars” and I most DEFINITELY wanted my change. I don’t tip a lot in general, too many servers handle service as if they’re guaranteed a tip always despite bad or uncomfortable service. No way was I tipping this lady. Not that it was the worst experience ever, but too many little things happened that just made us leave irritated and upset that we chose to eat here. Sure enough she comes back with two dollars and says that she “couldn’t make the 97 cents.” At that point as much as I wanted to lose my mind and make her get her manager or something, we had been waiting to pay and leave WAY too long and I just wanted to get out of there as quick as possible at that point. So I let her keep it, but promised myself I’d leave a review about her. To our disappointment we also didn’t receive any chocolate mints that you always get when you pay. Can’t say we were surprised at that point though. Hoping either she sees this and takes the time to figure out how to be a good hostess or one of her higher ups will see this, know who I’m talking about, and...

I wanted to let you know how disappointed I was with the lack of service I received on Mother's day. I had preordered my meals to be ready at 5pm and when I arrived, at approx 4:45, I gave my name and was told where to park. Yes there were a lot of people waiting but nothing was mentioned as to how long the wait was. My server came to my vehicle, took my name and left. He came back about 15 min later asking me to sign the receipt and said he would have my order as soon as possible. While waiting I saw many customers walking up to the employees to complain about things. I was seeing some customers who came after me getting their orders and leaving. After waiting an hour I went to talk to a manager. I explained my concerns, she took my name to go see what the status of my order was. She came back and said it would most likely be another hour wait. I asked why since I place an order 5 hours prior and other people who arrived after I did were getting their orders. Her excuse was "we have young people working and they're doing the best they can". That was a poor excuse. She said I can wait or cancel my order, no apologies no trying to make things right. I've worked food service for many years and her handling of the situation was very unprofessional. I understand we're going through a difficult situation in this world right now but this management team was very unprepared and their attitude of "wait or cancel" to put it bluntly, sucked. I have always enjoyed the food and service from Olive Garden but this time has left a very poor taste in my mouth.

Thank...

I called today at 11AM to order ahead for dining for a group of 17 for a work birthday party. When I called, the hostess, Cara, told me that they do not do that. I told her that we have done that in the past several times and she said again that they don't do that (basically calling me a liar) and that she would speak with the manager. I was put on hold for 10 minutes, so I hung up and called back. I told her again what I was calling for and she gave me attitude (which was unwarranted) stating that the manager was with another guest. I was more than happy to wait on the line had she gotten back on the phone to let me know that the manager was with another guest. I then proceeded to wait another 10 minutes. The manager (I wish I remembered her name!) was so kind (made up for the rude hostess) and let me know that they could take our order ahead of time, but had a full house and that we would most likely have to wait for a table when we arrived. We only had an hour for lunch, so I decided to order to-go. I arrived at the time my order should have been ready and it wasn't ready. I was completely ok with that and the to-go assistant (she immediately offered a free dessert or breadsticks) and manager came out to my vehicle to let me know about the delay. They even made up for it with some free breadsticks and a gift card. I truly wish I could remember the managers name, but whoever was working on 4/16/21 at 12PM was amazing and so was the to-go assistant. Y'all are lucky to have both of them and they are what is keeping me from giving less...