Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Sterling Heights

-2 ...not even 1 star.

Attempted to have Olive Garden (Lakeside) for dinner. Worst experience I have had anywhere…anytime. They were NO WHERE near prepared for Mother's Day Carry Out.

This horrible ordeal started at 5:15pm when we attempted to call and order…no luck always busy. Never ordered anything online….but family wanted me to have Olive Garden(one of my favorites) for Mother’s day. Took 25 minutes to process order and pay on line (5:20-5:45pm). We picked a later time assuming they would be busy. Picked 6:40pm as the pick up time and arrived at 6:25pm. Found 2 lines of traffic wrapped around Lakeside.

No one from Olive Garden directing any traffic or giving instructions. Husband tried calling over 120 times in the FIRST hour we were in line. If we could have cancelled…we would….but couldn’t reach anyone. Guess they took it off the hook….didn’t want to hear from IRATE customers.

At 7:45pm, hubby walked (in the rain) to the door and asked status….they told him they were running about 1.5 hours late ( ok so assume we would see something at around 8:15pm—knew better, but accepted.. he suggested they communicate to the hundreds of people waiting).

At 8:30pm, finally pulled into the edge of the parking lot. 8:40pm pulled up to an Olive Garden employee who was assigning parking(pick up) spots. Finally pulled into a parking spot at 8:45pm. Watched other cars come and go that arrived long after us. 9:30pm got out to catch someone and ask status. Was told they were 3 HOURS behind. Our order finally got to our car at 9:45pm…. There were only 12-15 cars left in the parking lot…so those people must have ordered after me (5:45pm and before they closed 9:00pm). I can hardly believe that.

By the time we arrived at home (10:15pm), no longer hungry. Hubby made me eat salad which was less than desirable….(BIG - huge chunks of lettuce with A slice of tomato and an olive).

Over spent on food…that probably will get tossed…..Not worth the hassle.

What a sad...

We joined the wait list online tonight for our party of 4. We were sent a link to check in when we got there, so we did. We then got another text saying we were checked in, and would receive another text when our table was ready. This included a link to check the wait time/where we were at on the wait list. There were 2 parties ahead of us, no worries. The estimated wait time was “only a few minutes.” The parking lot was busy, so we assumed inside they were equally as busy. About 20 minutes after checking in, we still hadn’t gotten a text. Just as we were getting ready to go in we refreshed the link to check our place in line on this wait list. It then said we had been removed from the wait list and to speak with the host stand if we believe this was done in error. We went inside and explained how we were removed from the waitlist. The hostess told us, “Yeah. That was the one that was on there for 30 minutes before being removed.” I told her that it said we were supposed to get a text when our table was ready but never got said text. She then said no, that wasn’t true and after checking in stating we were there, we were supposed to go inside and speak to a hostess. So what’s the point of this “waitlist” then?

Needless to say, I am still giving them 5 stars. Why? Because our Waitress Sadie B was the best Waitress we have ever had, at any establishment. She was so kind immediately from the start. She went above and beyond our entire dinner. Sadie joked along with us when my Husband mentioned Olive Garden’s Alfredo sauce was our blood type. After this comment, she came back with 3 bowls full for us to dip our breadsticks in. When asking if we wanted cheese, she told us to let her know when to stop, or she can just never stop - our thoughts exactly! Keep it comin! Sadie made our dinner experience so much better than it started. We will ask to be seated in her section...

We always dine at this location. There services and staff are always amazong and beyond. This time we went with our two toddlers. We sat down and had our server come and my husband referred to the waiter “ yes brother” and he commented back with my name is Lee ! I told my husband it was his fault because we need to show respect proper way of addressing them if we dont know names. Such as Mr/Ms./Sir. Then as we got our soup and salad. They brought in the entrees. I told our waiter if we can have a refill on our salad/soup and he was just overwhelmed. I will get to it i have two tables to take care of and continued about his duties. And like I shouldn’t rush him. But the funny thing he didn’t even get us the water we had asked for. Secondly, our toddlers get to go cups with lids always and I hundred percent request half of cup fill. As he was complaining hes being overwhelmed with so many tables to take. I looked and i said to him we didnt even get our water ! Like you seriously over here telling me to not remind you or ask for a refill ! But yet you forgot the simplest thing our waters! And how we take it. However i went aside and asked to leave to pay to another waiter. Manager came didnt let us pay. The manager was very nice and friendly. I didnt want to go that way where they pay for my bill no intentions to do that but really bothered by his comments and how he said he has other tables. This is something you know how to take care of if you cant keep up it shouldn’t be something you consider to do. I always appreciate my waiters and there hard work but i never want to hear the words such as “ wait i have to take other tables before your refills “ know how you can serve your table. But then when the manager paid i had told her to give him $20 tip because i know how hard and stressful waitering is. And i hope he reads this and knows that...