Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Santa Clarita

Worst experience ever! I travel all over for work & eat at different OGs at least 3 times a week. "Never ending pasta bowl" in every other Olive Garden in California & Nevada will allow you to order pasta, sauce & protein and then switch around on refills. This Olive Garden's management is extremely petty & stingy with refills. First, our waitress KC took my order for Angel Hair with meat sauce. She asked me, "Would you like a protein?" I said, "Sure. Chicken." She asked me, "Crispy or Grilled?" I said grilled. She offered it. There was no mention of extra cost, no refills, or no substitutions. She offered it. I accepted it. Then it came out. 2 strips 2.5" and 1 strip 1.5" long. That's all. I figured, it's skimpy, but it's unlimited so no worry. The sauce barely covered the pasta, so I asked for a refill of just sauce and chicken. She said sure, but then came back saying the management said no refills. WTH! I asked why. She said because it was a special order, management will not refill it and they charged me $5.29 for the chicken. Well, this was definitely not told to me upon ordering; in fact, it was KJs suggestion. So KJ went back to management, returning saying the manager will "as a courtesy" swap it for the sausage the is part of the neverending deal. I was fine with that. They brought out a single sausage and a small bowl of pasta again with little sauce (I only asked for protein & sauce). So I went with it. Again left with angel hair & no sauce & no more sausage, I again asked for sauce & sausage. KJ said, "Oh. As I explained, it was only a 1 time courtesy." Are you kidding me? She charged me $15.99 for never ending & $5.29 for the 2.5 pieces of chicken and told me they would just swap it for the sausage. Now she said they won't refill the sausage. Every single other Olive Garden and any other restaurant I have been, if the server makes the mistake, the mistake is fixed and everything is fine. But here, they make this huge commotion about management doing me the favor and doing a 1 time only swap, when in reality the sausage is cheaper than the chicken. I wasn't even going to argue the $5.29 vs the $4 for sausage, but now they refuse to even do that. Then they continue to lecture me on how in order to swap proteins on reorders, that management would have to basically comp the original order and redo a new order. What the heck is this new policy that apparently only your Olive Garden has?

Others in my party asked for refills, and one was told that you must finish the existing bowl completely before ordering another. All other Olive Gardens (Los Angeles, Whittier & Las Vegas just this week) had no problems putting in refill orders mixing and changing proteins free of lectures, contingencies, and special favors from management.

KJ did her best to be attentive to drink refills and going back and forth to argue for us to management. For this, although I was not happy with the ordering error, I still gave her a $20 cash tip.

This Olive Garden is stingy, petty & trying to skimp on their own promotions. In the end, they have lost out on a great customer who if all this would not have occurred who have not only ordered desserts, but also several take home meals as well. This would have also translated into almost $42 in tips as all my previous servers in other IGs have received. I posted this terrible review and have told all my coworkers & all my customers and their employees for whom I consult to NEVER go to this location as they have extremely POOR MANAGEMENT! Not once did the manager come over and talk to us to explain or resolve this issue despite the over 5 times that KJ had to go talk to them.

Management may have made money on this single sale, but will lose out on so much more once my reviews hit all social platforms and...

I hadn't been to an Olive Garden in probably 20 years before this experience. I have a vague recollection after that time of thinking "This is the Denny's of Italian Food." It's serviceable, not bad...just about good, but pretty much in the "okay" camp.

We were seated immediately on a Saturday evening in the back of the cavernous dining area which was filled with happy diners.

Our server was very eager and didn't give us much time to glance at the menu before asking about drinks etc. He seemed fairly knowledgeable about the wine and what would pair well with what we might eat. That's impressive, despite not really having time to digest the menu and what drinks they actually had.

They were out of the house red blend I selected so ended up with the Robert Mondavi Cabernet which was smooth an easy to drink, and did pair well with the spaghetti marinara I ordered.

Breadsticks came quickly and they were solid albeit a bit oily to the touch. Good flavor...had one and brought the rest home to our kid. (It was date night...don't think we were starving him...)

The family style salad they brought was basic and will done...croutons on the side out of preference for my gluten-free wife. We've seen this basic italian style salad served with some other ingredients such as lives and chickpeas to up it a notch or so. This was lettuce and onions...maybe one black olive...not overdressed and a good complement to the meal.

The spaghetti was just very slightly cooked longer than I wold have wanted. (That ever-treasured al-dente in pasta...) Not too over done. The marinara sauce was basic and good, could have used more of it.

My wife felt the same about the gluten free pasta she got (also with just marinara.) It worked, but slightly overcooked, and not particularly special. It's nice that they had it, though some restaurants to a better job with house-made gluten free pasta in terms of flavor and texture.

We like the chocolate mints they brought at the end a lot.

I'm not sure it'll be another 20 years before I go again to an Olive Garden. This experience was okay, serviceable...if a group chose this place, I wouldn't complain though there are nicer Italian...

A few coworkers and I decided to grab dinner at Olive Garden after a long day at work, hoping for a relaxing meal together. Unfortunately, our experience was far from pleasant. The service we received was disappointing, and we all agreed that we would never return to this location.

To begin with, the food was not up to the restaurant's usual standards; it tasted stale, and the breadsticks were hard as bricks, lacking the warm, fresh quality we expected. Our server, Michelle, seemed to have an attitude right from the start. When we were asked if we wanted cheese on our salads, we all enthusiastically said yes, but instead of taking the time to ask each of us how much we wanted, she rushed through the process, making it feel like an afterthought.

As we waited for our meals, the delays became frustrating. We spent a lengthy 20 to 30 minutes waiting for our drinks to be refilled, which only added to our growing irritation. Unsurprisingly, we felt that this kind of service did not warrant a generous tip, especially since we had been treated like an inconvenience rather than valued customers.

When we finally decided to leave, it felt as though the servers were watching us closely, their expressions suggesting we were being judged. To our shock, as we stepped outside, an individual who appeared to be a manager followed us and confronted us about our tip. Instead of acknowledging our dissatisfaction, they gave us attitude and questioned our decision. We were taken aback—Is this really how you treat your customers? Chasing them down over a bad tip is not what we expected from a reputable establishment like Olive Garden. This experience has certainly left a negative impression on us, and we will be seeking out other dining options...