Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Springfield Township

Had the best dining out experience in long time!

Last night my 86 year old mother wanted to take me out to eat for my 50th birthday and we went to this Olive Garden. That place was packed! But despite that, they had a table for us and was able to accommodate my elderly mother with her walker! So major kudos to the greeters! Sorry I didn't get their names!

Then after been seated, we had about 5 minutes to look over the menus. We were then greeted by our server, Julian who was awesome. This young man was super polite, professional, very personable, knowledgeable with the menu. After taking or drink and food orders, which I figure we would be waiting a while, each was brought out in a speedy manner as if there was hardly anyone there and we were the only ones. I went to check my phone and minutes later here came Julian with the salad and bread sticks which were fresh and very tasty! No long after that, here came our main dishes which were also piping hot, looked great, and very tasty as well!

Despite Julian had other tables to attend, he was right there at the right time to check on us! he was super quick with refilling drinks, clearing empty plates from the table and more. I mean for the time he made you feel like the elite and he was your butler per say.

Then came time for dessert and after help us to decide, he came back with it. It was sooo good! My elder mother wanted to try another and again Julian was on it! When he quickly returned with it, he stated he talked to his manager and it was on the house! What wait? What did you say? How awesome!!! Because ir was my 50th birthday and they wanted to do something nice for a senior, it was on the House!

We were Julian's last table and he was kind enough to chat while helping to box up leftovers to take home. This young man is in college and will be going to Europe next fall to study for a semester in biology. He has a great plan and well thought out! We are very proud of him as today so many young people are so into video games, being lazy, and not having a plan for life. Julian does. Kudos to his parents for raising such a wonderful and respectful young man!

To all of the Olive Garden staff. Thank you for such an awesome experience on a Friday night during peak hours! Olive Garden, you have a major asset in your staff from your manager, the greeters, the cooks and servers, especially, Julian! In a time when most businesses are short staffed, supply chain issues, your staff made it like we were back to normal and the pandemic never occurred! We will definitely be back and will be asking for Julian to be our server!

I also want to give a special shout out to the manager and Julian for the special treatment of my 86 year old elder mother and making her smile as well as feeling like a queen! Also for extending kindness on my birthday! You made it amazing! It is tough right now with the economy, inflation, staff shortages, supply chain shortage and yet despite all of that, having an amazing team of people who want to work, are very personal, professional, assists seniors, and went out of your way to make my birthday dinner with my mother a very special one!

Thank you Olive Garden and thank you Julian! You are the best! Keep up that integrity, and service!...

My wife and I stopped for lunch while working. Had to wait 20 minutes to be seated while they had multiple tables fully open with no one there multiple other groups waiting to sit. Once we finally got seated, we waited and took drink orders, and then once he came back with them, he took food. We didn't see him again until the food came out. Keep in mind that we got soup and salad that showed up less than 5 minutes before the main pasta. Once he brought the pasta he was gone again 20 mins went by then 30 and still nothing at this point both drinks have been empty for about 20 mins and we have been sitting and talking waiting for boxes for about 10. The wait staff somehow couldn't clean tables but just stood around talking. At some point, someone asked my waiter if he was okay, to which he proceeded to yell in the middle of the bar that "No, he is not!" To which they then have a 10 minute conversation about how he is having a bad day and the whole time he's yelling it all. All in all, this was the worst time I have ever had at a restaurant ever, and I have had some crap restaurants. Photos of wait staff and managers just standing around talking. Keep in mind that most of them spent a while 10 plus minutes just hanging out there talking while people are at the doors waiting. The kid in white was actually working. I just wanted to point out that that kid was actually cool and trying to handle stuff. He was talking to the manager and asking her questions, then going to take care of them. My wife also asked the waiter questions about the sauce, and his answer was super basic. No real info, almost like he didn't know anything about them. She asked if any of the red sauces didn't have chunks, and his answer was yea the basic one. So she asked for the basic sauce and somehow turned into the cheese sauce, and when she asked to clarify that it didn't have chunks, he said no, it does for sure. So she asked again which sauce doesn't if any to which she got the same thing the basic one so follow up can I have the basic sauce then "yea I already told you I'll give you the cheese sauce"...

I would normally rate Olive Garden five stars but the experience this time was abysmal due to the young woman who was a bartender. It was the night that the power was out we were told we could sit in the bar (since the main floor system was out and they couldn’t tell us a wait time) so we sat in the bar area, we were told it was open bar( anytime I’ve been told to sit anywhere in the bar, that included the tables in there- every single time) the person working that night was a blonde, very skinny bartender. She rudely came up to us and said “who told you to sit here” I said we were told we could sit anywhere,” no you can only sit at the bar.” She said very rudely and I said well you don’t have to be rude about it. She said “Well I’m not and she stomped off.” I sat at the bar with my spouse and then proceeded to whisper to her coworker that if she wasn’t on the clock that she would confront me not be as nice and be physical and they started laughing. I think it is disgusting that all Olive Garden will employee people who threatened to ensue physical contact towards their patrons, bare minimum her being rude off the start. If she had politely come over to us and asked us how we were doing and had informed us that the front staff were wrong telling us that we could sit anywhere in bar section and that she would be glad to help us at the bar then I would’ve had a different response, but she was very aggressive from the beginning And also commented on the fact that she would be physical towards me if she wasn’t on the clock. I myself work with a variety of people and I’ve never been as rude or as snarky or hinting at physical altercation even when power is out or other things happen to mess up my day. My customers deserve respect all the time. If I had been aggressive that would be one thing. But I wasn’t, I say where I was...