Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Spring Hill

I'm not normally a big poster about negative experiences because I just dont like to complain all that much. But I feel like this experience is post worthy. My husband, 3 children and I went to Olive Garden last night, (August 3rd) and it was a train wreck. The only redeeming quality was that everyone was so nice. But being nice doesnt always make up for constant issues and slow service. (Again, regardless of slow service and subpar food, the staff were always nice.) But the food. First off, I have a 19 month old, an 8 year old and a 14 year old, and anyone who is a parent knows that once your kids are done eating. You are done. Whether you are ready to be or not. So, it took about 15-20 minutes to get to put our order in because everyone was so busy. Then it took another 20 minutes to get the food. In the meantime they brought out my husbands soup almost right away, and he just let it sit there because we don't eat until everyone has their food. Which is what we told our server when we ordered. Salad and breadsticks first, then soup when we all got ours. Anyways, it wasn't the end of the world for him, but the worst was yet to come. My son's food came out, and it was a HOT plate that they put right in front of him. We had to move it before he could touch it. ALL of our plates were way too hot. The baby could have burned himself so badly. Then when ours came out, ugh. Ours.. We will go down the line Mine. I got the five cheese ziti al forno with extra cheese sauce stuff and added breaded chicken. When it came out, the top was slightly too cooked, and under the top layer, most of the noodles were sauce-less. And flavorless. But I figured, no worries, add salt and pepper, and ask for more sauce. But then I was told that if i get more sauce then I would have to be charged because it's like getting a boat dish. Ummm. Ok. So I said nevermind and tried to just eat it as is. But I couldn't. It was just too plain. (And just to be clear, this is one of my favorite dishes, and I have NEVER had this issue before.) So I called over a manager and just asked for something different and told him why. Then he said, oh you don't have to pay for extra sauce, if it's a dish that comes with sauce, you don't ever have to pay extra. !!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?? So then some retraining or something needs to happen because I have been told the opposite. Also, the chicken was too thin, like it had been hammered out. And the breading was just coming right off. But it's ok I suppose. Like the rest of the top of the dish, it was overcooked. But he was nice and got me a switch. I chose the eggplant parmesan. Apparently not much better of a choice. The eggplant was overcooked, and the breading was too fried. It was insanely difficult to get the food cut and into my mouth. The spaghetti was flavorless and the sauce was like a tablespoon. It was insane. But I figured I had already complained enough, so I dealt with it. But my kids were already just about done. Which meant I was too. However, they tried to make it better, so I was going to try to just eat the food. Then I spilled my drink on it. So I was done. Then there is my daughter. She ordered spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs. It was more meat than sauce, and no flavor. My daughter never ate hers. (It kinda tasted like canned meat 🤢) Then there is the 14 year old. She got the seafood alfredo. She ate half, but then couldn't eat anymore either. She got so sick to her stomach. She said it was rubbery. And that the food just had a weird texture. Then I had them sing happy birthday to her, her name is Destiny, which i told to my server, and 2 other people that asked.. one of which was asking tight at my table!!! It was supposed to be a surprise. Luckily she is a teenager and therefore barely paid any attention. But still. So she wanted tiramisu for her desert. When they came out, it was one guy, who we had never spoken to before. And he called her Desiree. Which was not cool. Especially since I had told at LEAST 3 people. And then the damn desert was frozen on top and soggy on...

This is slowly becoming my favorite restaurant in the area.

UPDATE: I am very disappointed in our experience this time. Sunday September 23, 2018. What started out a wonderful evening got tremendously worse when we walked in the door of Olive Garden. It was busy, but that's no excuse for the service we received. The waiter was obviously in an extreme hurry. We already knew what we came for, the buy a meal bring one home. It comes with a soup or salad. To make this short, we both ordered the the Seafood Alfredo and Lasagna to go. Wife ordered a soup, some kind chicken and dumplings, I ordered a salad. Here's where it gets ugly. The waiter failed to bring any bread, (she likes to dip bread in soup)offer cheese. We had to make him do his job, and that sucks. My wife is handicapped, meaning she broke her back and is getting therapy to try and walk again, meanwhile our waiter is making things worse. He takes my salad when I was still eating it, who does that? There's more. I told him I was still eating it and he continues to put dirty dishes in the salad bowl, yeah,! So he says I'll bring you another one. Then here comes our dinner. Oh finally he brought bread and ask did y'all want cheese with that? We both said yes! He then says, I'll be back while letting out a big sigh, as if we were causing a problem. The last straw for my wife and I was when he took my Alfredo without asking me if I was Done. That was a very inconsiderate move. He did apologize but it didn't seem sincere since he was still rushing through everything. He came back gave us our crappy Lasagna and my to go salad. Which was nothing like the salad he took without asking. What happened to the original salad? Why was I not allowed to finish my meal? He came back and said are you sure I can't get you a desert for your troubles? We said no. If he had really wanted to make it up to us, he would have brought me a replacement meal. I mean There was still shrimp in There and a ton of noodles. This guy needs s different profession. This experience caused us to never want to eat There again. The food was good as always, but I didn't get to finish it? Again who does that? Thanks. Update: we came back to give it another try. Food was excellent! I got the chicken parmesan. I was actually able to finish this time. The waiter was very 6and the whole experience was...

We dined around 1:30 pm missing the lunch rush. We received a nice greeting from the host and we're immediately seated. It took over six minutes to see our server, but when she finally came to the table she took our drink and appetizer order. She seemed a little put out that she had to wait on us, but she masked her feelings fairly well; though her unwillingness to smile confirmed she really didn't feel like waiting on us. She didn't crack a smile until AFTER our main entree's came out. This isn't the way to establish a good atmosphere for dining out; especially when your customer happens to be a restaurant manager out with his wife.

Our appetizers were good, but we weren't even half way through with our appetizers when the main entree's came out. I didn't want my appetizer to get cold so I let the entree sit for 5-6 minutes. I ordered Ravioli with meat sauce so that entree should have held it's heat under all that cheese for several minutes, but when I took my first bite it wasn't hot. It was barely warm. We deduced she probably ordered the appetizers and the main entree's at the same time and left the entree's in the expediting window for a few minutes before serving them because both entree's should have come out pipping hot.

We ordered Teramisu for dessert, but the server failed to let the item sit for a few minutes before bringing it to the table. When we got to the middle of the dessert there were pieces of ice in it which takes away from the flavor. Teramisu should be served slightly cool, not frozen.

Could the experience been better? Yes. We're convinced we could have had a better experience with a different server. Secondly, a table visit from a manager would have been greatly appreciated, but we never saw a manager on the floor the hour we're there for lunch. We've had better experiences than this at Olive Garden, but we've also has worse. Just one time, we'd really like for them to get it right from...