Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Southaven

Olive Garden has always been one of my family's favorite restaurants. Unfortunately, a very negative experience in the Southaven, MS location almost prompted us to never patronage the brand again. In Oct 2024, my daughter and I very much looked forward to visiting the Southaven, MS location; as she was visiting from out of state. We were unpleasantly received as welcomed guests by the manager on duty, Samantha. When simply sitting at the table directly behind the one the greeter placed us(same section), we were met with total disrespect and hostility. Samantha instantaneously rushed over and rudely asked, "Who placed you here?" Stated, "This table is unserviceable!"You will not be served unless you go back to the table in front of you!" What a strange commentary and reaction given the table was "directly" behind the greeter's choice, same section, and "not reserved"? Moreover, the time was approximately 3:30pm on a Monday... Not a high traffic time!

I've worked in the service industry well over 40yrs, and am absolutely certain Samantha's outbursts, attitude and immeadiation indicates far more than a simple service failure....This was the most humiliating and embarrassing experience "I"/we've ever encountered at any restaurant or any place of business. Samantha made the atmoshere reminiscent to that of an 1860's America. We certainly didn't deserve this type of treatment... Even the Olive Garden server(Michael), was very perturbed and apologetic for all of the embarrassment caused. Additionally, guests seated at the adjacent table shared the same sentiment. A simple, "You're not welcome here" would've sufficed. The humiliation was far too much for us to bear... Hence, we decided to leave the restaurant, subsequently contacting Guest Services(Orlando, FL); which addressed this matter swiftly and professionally. Kudos to the Olive Garden corporation's dedication in providing excellent customer service to "all" of its...

Went in on a Wednesday for lunch at 12:42 with 2 other people. Our waitress was MIA for a solid 15 minutes after being seated. The hostess had to eventually take our drink order herself. The restaurant was swimming with waiters, but none ever stopped and checked on us. Waitress did not appear at our table until a few minutes after 1:00. She claimed that she "was not used to waiting on tables in this section," and she admitted to forgetting us! (Already not looking too good for her...) Throughout this visit, our waitress was difficult to find. I quickly noticed 2 other tables within a 15 foot radius that had the same waitress as we did. She neglected those tables, as well. She eventually took our order, and the girl that brought us our food was not even our waitress. She also asked and offered for anything else. She was also the one to bring us additional bread sticks. Our waitress never came back to the table to ask how things were, if we wanted more bread, more salad, or refills. When the time came to pay, I paid with a $100 and she took 5-10 minutes to bring me back my change. We had leftovers, and she thought running to the kitchen (the first time she picked up the pace our entire visit) to grab a handful of Andes chocolate mints and proceeded to toss them into our to-go bag would solve something...if our tab wasn't so large, she would not have received a tip because a waitress earns her tips off her work, but this girl failed to do her job - to wait on us. On our way out of the restaurant, we checked with the hostess and looked at the digital table chart on her podium. Our waitress only had a total of 3 tables. And they were all in the same section. Rarely did any of the tables ever see this waitress. Worst service I've ever received at this Olive Garden. Blame management for this. Inadequate and lack of training, clearly. Will definitely ensure that I am not seated in her section of the restaurant again, if I...

Ah where to begin.. we were given 2 $50 gift cards to Olive Garden for Xmas so we decided to go here and I wanted to use one of them. Things started well with only a 20 min wait for a table in a crowded restaurant. Then things started to turn. I ordered the Tuscan Red wine, they are out. I settled on the Chianti, they were out of this also. Server asked if I wanted Apothic Red, which isn’t bad but definitely not worth the price they want for a glass, $7 for what is a $10 bottle at any store. I settled on a Cabernet which was not bad. It begs the question though as to how an Italian chain runs out of Italian wine.. So we order and the salad and bread sticks arrived in short order. 40 minutes later half our food arrives, the kitchen is backed up we are told. Ok it happens. Then they screwed up my son’s ravioli order. 10 more minutes it finally arrives. Waitress returns a couple times while we are eating to check on us, great. Asks if we are thinking of dessert, we say maybe so. Last we see of her! They have the little machine you can pay with so we finally give up and use it to get out of there. One gift card in and I want to use a debit card for rest, machine chip reader doesn’t work. We try a few times and a different card. No dice. We hit the call server button, no one stops or comes to us after 10 more mins despite the red flashing light. Finally I just use the other gift card to get the hell out of there. I try to tear the receipt from the machine and the whole apparatus falls apart. Needless to say I am good and irritated by now. After all this I won’t be returning to this location and maybe my experience was just a one time thing but whoever manages this location needs to wake up or at least wake up...