Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Surprise

Edit since this incident the Gm has reached to me and all though has made me feel better and offed me another chance to visit a Darden group restaurant. He handled the situation as best he could and I appreciate in the end the was just an avoidable embarrassing visit. Hopefully the next will be better. Review of Olive Garden: Disappointing and infuriating Experience During Graduation Week*

I recently dined at Olive Garden during graduation week, anticipating a celebratory meal with my family. Unfortunately, the experience fell far short of our expectations.

Firstly, the wait time was unusually long. While I understand the restaurant was busy, it was frustrating to wait much longer than usual for a table. When we were finally seated, we eagerly awaited Olive Garden’s famed breadsticks. However, each basket of breadsticks we received was hard and unappetizing. We went through four baskets, hoping for the soft, warm breadsticks we were accustomed to, but each time we were disappointed. Later, the manager informed us that the breadstick oven was not working correctly. While I appreciate the honesty, it was a letdown for everyone at the table who had been looking forward to them.

When our main courses arrived, I ordered the chicken parmesan. Sadly, my spaghetti was severely overcooked, and the chicken was so overdone that it was impossible to cut through. This was extremely disappointing, especially during a meal meant to celebrate my daughter’s graduation.

Adding to our dissatisfaction, we brought a graduation cake to mark the occasion, but the restaurant did not provide us with plates for it. This oversight further marred our experience.

The manager did come out and was very kind, removing the chicken parmesan from our bill and later checking on us again, which I appreciated. However, the overall experience left much to be desired. I believe Olive Garden missed the mark this time. Given the special occasion, a little more sympathy and better service would have gone a long way in making our visit more enjoyable.

To add insult to injury, as we were leaving the restaurant, another waitress came out and stuck my receipt in my wife's face without saying anything before walking away. This threw me off completely. After discussing it with my wife, we concluded that the waitress must have thought I was flirting with her by leaving my phone number on the receipt. This was a serious misunderstanding, as I was there with my wife, two children, my grandmother, my grand aunt, my aunt, and my cousin. I had written my phone number on the receipt because I thought that was how they tracked the rewards program. This incident was extremely embarrassing, and I am appalled and insulted that a waitress would engage in such behavior with a guest.

I was so upset that I went back in and spoke with the manager, who did comp my bill. However, I do not think I will ever be able to return to this restaurant due to the shame brought upon me by the waitress.

I hope Olive Garden takes this feedback to heart and improves their service and food quality, especially during busy times like graduation week. So disappointed and the breadsticks were hard. I shouldn't be at home fuming about this 3...

I've always said that there should be people that are hired to come in as an everyday customer and analyze how the operations look as a customer to help improve customer experience.

Things I noticed: Walking in nobody greeted me, they thought talking to eachother about what they are going to do outside of work was a bigger priority. Had to walk around host to ask ToGo counter if I was at the right place to order since nobody at the front helped me. After ordering to go, down the hall where the digital register was at, a waitress dropped a paper straw and a napkin. The 15-20 mins I was waiting, they did not pick it up. Customers were walking over them, waitresses were standing on them or walking on by. Because of the fallen straw and napkin, I thought to look around and saw trash was all around the trash can at the ToGo area, maybe the trash can was too full? There was a mixup on the food order, so I had to wait a little extra (not a huge deal, and the waitresses were nice). Alot of other waitresses that were leaving the dining area to go around the ToGo area were standing around either gossiping or continuing to talk about what they were going to do after work, some were cussing (again, not a big deal to an adult).

I like the food, and I would say the ToGo waitresses were nice, but this was the first time going to an Olive Garden near our new house, and based on that experience I would say I'm not going back. And I kinda get the feeling, many others have experienced similar things here as well so perhaps their sales numbers are down partly for...

I love the food an had the best service from our server. Her name was Autumn. She helped us figure out the tablet thing at the table. My mother was with us tonight and did not like her food, Autumn was great as she took it back and brought her something that she wanted. She showed interest in what my young child was talking about and interacted with her and the rest of my children. She was very friendly, attentive and we will surely be asking for her again.

However that being said when my mother sent her food back Autumn did inform us that the manager will be over to speak with us to see if he can get her anything else. The manager, Jim, did come over and at first he was pretty nice but when my mother started to tell him why she did not like the food he rolled his eyes at her. An he informed us that it would be taken off our bill an that he would be back to see if she was satisfied with her reorder. He never came back but he went to numerous other tables around us. Not very good. When we left I asked to speak with him and had to wait 20 min for him to come to the front. When he did arrive I told him how much we liked and appreciated Autumn and her service and he acted like he was shocked to hear that he had a great server and a real asset to the company with her. Just to let the rest of the company know I think you would be a fool to loose Autumn. But should like about either loosing the manager Jim or retrain him as a manager as in my personal opinion he is...