Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Tampa

I visited Olive Garden this evening with my husband and 3 of our kids after spending the day at Busch Gardens together before traveling back home to Davenport. We had to wait over a half hour to be seated on a Monday night and the wait would have been fine if there hadn't been more empty tables than full. We were ready to order once being seated but the first question our server (Jamie) asked was if we needed seperate checks (that seemed a bit insulting, the only reason we could think of why she would make that insinuation was due to the fact that we have a mixed ethnicity family). We had to ask for breadsticks after about 10 minutes of sitting down. We asked for a refill on bread sticks and for the salad that we all ordered after a half hour and received a response full of attitude, "I'll get it as soon as I can get to it". The manager came and asked us shortly after that if our order was taken yet and I told her yes; about a half hour earlier but we are still waiting on our salad and a refill on breadsticks and I mentioned that I cannot eat gluten (I'm allergic) and that I was quite hungry waiting on the salad while the kids all had breadsticks. It still took another 10 minutes or so to get the breadstick refill and our salad (which was gone before our food came but we were never offered more nor did we have the chance to ask for more because our server was nowhere to be found). After sitting at our table for just over an hour, our food finally came out. Our youngest ordered a pepperoni pizza that came without pepperoni (the replacement came once we were done eating when we asked about the pepperoni right away), my husband and I both ordered steak and had to ask for steak knives so we could eat and I ordered the sirloin with fettuccine alfredo but asked for the gluten free pasta instead but received red sauce instead of alfredo (didn't say anything out that because I was 2 bites in and starving when I thought about the fact that it was the wrong sauce). At no point did our server mention or ask about the gluten-free dietary restriction I mentioned. She brought the salad with more croutons than I've ever seen in a salad and I can only hope that my pasta was actually gluten free but I guess I will find out in the morning if I break out in hives from eating here. Really wish this review could have been positive; this was the end to our last day spending time out as a family for...

We (party of 5) got on the wait list and went to the restroom. After using the restroom, we discovered that there was no soap in ANY of the dispensers. We told one of the girls at the hostess area, and she promised to take care of it right away... and then did nothing. We told another girl at the hostess area, and she also did nothing. We waited a while for someone to come fill the soap dispensers, and saw three employees (one of whom spent several minutes in a stall) leave the restroom and go straight back into the kitchen. Growing more concerned, we told someone in the bar area about the problem and the employees that we saw. She seemed concerned, and a couple more employees used the restroom, but none addressed the soap issue. We spotted a woman that was dressed differently and appeared to be a manager. We expressed our dissatisfaction and told her we were close to just leaving. She went into the restroom with an employee and came back out and said, "There is soap in the dispenser!" (the unspoken subtext being "you idiot")... I asked them to show me. They bent down and looked under the counter and said, "Look- you can see soap in there." I started pressing all of the soap dispensers, demonstrating that no soap was coming out. They conferred a bit, and the manager determined that the dispensers were not working (duh). They messed around with them for a while, but never got ANY of them working. By that time there was a parent with a toddler in one of the stalls and the toddler was attending to some business. They would not be able to wash their hands either. I gathered my party (that had just been seated) and we left. If you're a betting person, you can play the odds that the employees went back to the kitchen to wash their hands, but clearly none of them brought up the lack of soap or did anything to remedy it. It is 100% assured that any patrons that used that restroom did not wash their hands because they had no soap. This place needs a spot check by the health department. I will be emailing them next. Eat at...

What a disappointing experience.  Save yourself the frustration.  Our family of 9 had so much to celebrate.  One family member had just been newly ordained as a Pastor and another family member had a birthday.  At 1:30 in the afternoon, there were plenty of empty tables.  But the ladies that seat you - told us the wait would be 45 minutes.  They weren't apologetic about it - they made us feel as if we were an interruption into their day.  But we waited anyway.  Once seated, our water, tea, and soda order took forever. Delivery of those drinks seemed very confusing for the waiter.  Couldn't remember who ordered what.  Ordering of the food went quick - but waiting for that food to come out from the kitchen - well thank heavens for the bread sticks and the salad!  The entrees took a long time and once the drinks were gone and the salad & bread sticks were eaten, there were no refills.....you just had to wait until the food arrived to see that waiter ever again.  It was as if he was hiding in the back so as to not have to provide service.  And when those meals finally arrived, the same waiter that had taken the order, had no clue where to set down those plates.  We helped him, we coached him and we ended up passing around hot plates to get them to the right people.  We finally made our way thru the meal and got down to dessert.  One slice of lemon cream cake for the birthday person and a few desserts for others to share.  The waiters did at least sing happy birthday to the right individual, but that free birthday dessert that they talked about wasn't free.  We paid for that.  It has probably been 15 years since we've been to an Olive Garden.  Now we remember why.  There is no process in the dining room.  Not much better process in the kitchen I would imagine.  The business model is broken.  The staff hasn't been trained properly to give good customer service and make it a pleasurable dining experience.  It wasn't worth $160 for 9 people.  It'll be more than 15 years until...