Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Santa Fe

Veterans Beware.

Wow. Let me just say this...

This is an abbreviated version of the whole incident: Out of all the places we could have gone for our Veterans Day "free" meal, we chose this Olive Garden here in Santa Fe. I did not know that I would be treated as if I were a burden. First, the server asked my wife if we would be needing the "Veteran's Special Menu," and after she replied in the positive, the server walked over to another server, whispered in her ear, then gave us a pitiful look and then laughed. Next, that same server - while taking my order, kept looking at me like I was trash. When our food came, the salad was wilted, old, and warm - as if it had been sitting out all day. When we asked for a fresh one, we received an eyeroll and an attitude as if we were putting them out. When the fresh one was brought to the table, there was barely enough to feed a small child and was lacking dressing (I'm 6'2" and 240 - I can eat!). When we asked for another salad because that one was not enough, the server walked by and slammed it on the table and walked off. A manger happened by to ask how things were, and when we explained the salad issues, but we were again met with slight and a sense that we were the inconvenience. Overall, the meal was pretty bad, and the service and treatment were unacceptable. In the end, the server didn't want to take my card to pay... he tried to make me use the little remote kiosk on the table - which was going to charge us for the "free" meal. I actually had to explain to him that he needed to take my card and go run it and bring me a receipt back. Of course, I received more attitude and dirty looks for that.

Here's a tip: If Olive Garden servers and staff have such bad attitude to Military Veterans and feel that providing free meals is a burden - perhaps Olive Garden should NOT offer such a thing for Veterans Day.

We have had bad meals at this Olive Garden in the past, but we keep trying to move forward and give this location the benefit of the doubt... but this is the straw that broke this Marine Veteran's back. I am confident we will never return... and this treatment has put me in a place where I will never partake in a "free" Veterans Day meal, anywhere, ever again. Funny thing is this is only the second time in my life I have received a free Veteran's Day meal, and both times were at this Olive Garden in Santa Fe. The first time was back in 2019.

I am not going to apologize for serving our Nation and sacrificing a large portion of my life. This treatment was despicable, heinous, and abhorrent. Educate your staff and put an end to this behavior. Or better yet - those disrespectful staff members should voluntarily join the Military, sacrifice their freedom and lives, then return home and receive this kind of treatment. We'll see how they...

A big part of going out to eat, is the experience, the milieu, the atmosphere, the staff and mostly...the way a customer is treated by that staff. The attutude of the wait staff can make or break a dining experience. I never tell anyone that Im a google reviewer, I just observe and appreciate the people that are there, creating the senario for a customer. The day we visited, was difficult for my husband and I, we were in Santa Fe to find out that my husband needed a pretty complicated surgery. We were tired, hungry and physically and emotionally spent. We really needed to be treated well. We needed a break. As we approached the Olive Garden, a couple of people pushed ahead of us, jarring my husband walking with his cane, in quite a bit of pain. It was insult to injury at that moment. A sweet little sprite of a girl in Olive Garden garb, who was delivering an order to a car, turned and saw us struggling up to the entrance, she briskly walked ahead of us, saying "Oh dear, let me get that door for you"!!! She smiled brightly, (she had a mask on, but we saw it in her eyes) she held the door well open while we walked in, she pointed out a place to sit if we needed that, and helped us sign in to the waiting list. In going out of her way to perform that small act of kindness, and actually looking into our faces with that bright look, that she renewed our faith in people. She showed that she was a caring and kind, hard working woman. Her name, was Hannah. We look forward to going to Olive Garden again, I want to take her a gift and some flowers, she was an important part of healing from the days traumas. I hope and pray that the world is kind to her. Olive Garden, I talked to a manager while we were there, I hope you realize what a gem you have in this girl. The only reason I didnt give you 5 stars was because our actuall waitress... (someone with black hair) missed us a few times by walking right by our table without talking to us untill I flagged down a girl to call our waitress. I thank you for giving us desert and attempting to make it right. Thank you very much. Be well, keep on doing what you do! The food was clean, served hot, tasted incredible and we were renewed and refreshed after our visit.♡♡♡♡ Once more, Thank you Hannah, may the kindness you showed us be returned to you a...

I used to really enjoy going with my family to Olive Garden. We go usually three times a week for lunch and dinner. We travel from out of town but A general manager Guillermo And his server, Jenny made the visit, awkward and miserable from the get-go from the very beginning of the meal, trying to force me when I asked for a side of sauce to order a boatload of it, instead of just ordering a ramekin full, which was small, which was all I needed I was willing to pay the same price I was arguing The price offer for it to be free I fully intend on paying for it. I always do, but he and she were trying to force me to get a boatload of it. An actual what they called a boatload, which is ridiculous because I didn’t eat that much for a few breakfast sticks to dunk my breadsticks in and She was pretty aggressive, and he kept referring to the Store as his he might be the general manager, but I thought he was the owner of the way he acted the way he kept referring how everything was his. It was just uncomfortable, awkward, and it just Ruined our dinner because it was a very small issue that they were pretty aggressive about this Jenny server was very aggressive about. I don’t know if she just didn’t want to be there or she was tired, but she was kind of aggressive and just Made a meal that we were looking forward to having just awkward, uncomfortable and completely un enjoyable. I really regretted I tripped to Olive Garden. Thanks to this. Manager named Guillermo and Jenny The server. Probably the one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in any restaurant and usually Olive Garden is like the best it used to be The staff seems to be on edge walking on eggshells stressed a little. I don’t know if the management is bad or if the environment is just stressful But it’s really sad because the service used to be very comfortable. Servers used to be in a good mood. The environment used to be great last night. It was so intense. It was awful. I didn’t enjoy my meal needed my family. So uncomfortable. Very disappointing...