Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Sand Springs

Server Reece was super personable and friendly, but was seemingly very inexperienced.

We’ve been to this new location twice before and had one great and one very good experience. But tonight just did not hit the mark, by a long shot. Wonder if some of the young staff might need additional training or oversight. Manager never came by to ask about our experience or I would’ve shared these details face to face.

Lowlights:

Bar service was slow to put it kindly. Took 25 mins to get a glass of wine and an Italian margarita. The “system messed up” so the server came and asked us our orders again. And then the “bar was slow, pretty backed up” although it was a Wednesday night and the place was not busy at all. We arrived at about 8:50pm and didn’t get drinks til 9:15pm. Place closes at 10:00pm. This usually takes 10 mins, tops.

Server didn’t offer water along with our bar drinks (which most experienced servers know to do… perhaps also my fault for not asking for it), and when he finally did, it was slow arriving. After our bar drinks finally arrived, “oh did you guys still want waters?” Again, youthful inexperience. People who have alcohol often also want water. Not either/or.

Server was slow in taking our food order (I had to catch him walking by to ask to place our order after 15+ minutes.) I asked for chicken Parmesan with meat sauce. Came out with marinara. I usually ask for crushed red pepper, but I knew I’d be done eating before it arrived so I didn’t even bother to ask. That’s a bummer, and a strong indication of an issue with server responsiveness and timeliness.

Pasta e Fagioli soup serving size was seemingly a small / partial portion. Seemed like about 70-80% of what I’d normally get. Disappointing.

Breadsticks came out VERY brown and crunchy/dry on the ends (perhaps the fault of the kitchen, but an experienced server would not have served these - they weren’t exactly inedible but if I’m consuming salty, buttery, bready goodness I want it to be delicious and worth the calories). Asked for some replacements and the ones that came out were hot, fresh perfection, better than usual!

Used dishes, old rejected basket of burnt breadsticks, shot glass from margarita, and empty wine carafe were left on the edge table the entire time. Should have been cleared to give us more room for the food we were enjoying.

Someone was vacuuming with an audible vacuum in the adjacent front section, and then an adjacent back section. (Normally before close we see them using the manual sweeper vacs which are silent.) The noise was mildly bothersome, but the vacuum dust smell was very noticeable. This shouldn’t take place 45 minutes before close with people at tables very nearby. I don’t want vacuum dust anywhere near my food.

Asked for a to-go box - took longer than it should’ve. Seemed the server struggled to multitask with just two tables. He was seemingly more attentive to them (and they arrived after us), and they got drinks and were ordering food before we did. These are details people notice.

As for the highlights:

Again, Reece was super pleasant. I really enjoyed him, and I don’t think he was willfully negligent or lazy or purposely inattentive. I think he needs more training or oversight - seems to have a lot to learn about details that go into good service.

Our entrees, soup, salad all tasted delicious. Drinks were good too.

Bartender stopped by to ask how our drinks were. Had a very...

I was incredibly excited to have this location open in Sand Springs. It was a MUCH needed addition to the variety of food options in this area. While I have only eaten inside a couple of times (which went well), I have probably ordered curbside at least two dozen times since opening. I've waited so long to leave this review hoping they could smooth out the kinks of a new operation. But months later, the experience (mainly curbside) is sadly inconsistent. Having multiple children in the home we often order kids meals. In those meals you may get a lot of sauce, or barely any. You may get two pieces of broccoli or you may get six. The silverware you asked for?...50/50 chance. Same for straws. Diet Coke is frequently out of service and most recently replaced by something they say is diet coke, but sure doesn't taste like it. The inside atmosphere is beautiful. The taste of the food is great and the kids meal options keep us coming back. But man, the unenthused curbside folks and the inconsistent service is making it hard to stay a customer. It doesn't help when Chick fil a is across the street and knocks everything out of the park...every. single. time. I haven't given up yet...I hope this honest review helps bring...

I'm not really sure about the food didn't make it past the host stand I called headed to see what thw wait was she said it would only be a few mins I said okay awesome she put my name on the list we got there I walk in let her know that we was there she said your name wasn't on the list but she Remember talking to me I said okay well I got a text saying we was on the list she said I'm not sure but I have you on there now I said okay will it still be a few min she said yes we are getting tables clean then we will call you we waited 20 mins and people walking in after us was getting seated I got a text saying our table was ready after we waited 20 mins I walk up there to let them know i got a text saying that our text was ready which they was trying to call different name she then look at me and said not sure why you got a text but your not up yet . I understand that they are new but they really need to work on...