Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Temple

I called in to get on the waiting list at 6:45 PM. They said I had a 30-minute wait. It was for my family of 7. I agreed and headed straight over there. We got there around 7:05 PM. We checked in and asked how much longer. One of the ladies at the counter said, "We're getting a table ready for you." So we all sat down and waited. I logged into the app, and it showed we were 3rd place in line. So we knew, or at least thought, it wouldn't be much longer of a wait. Unfortunately, we were so very wrong! Throughout the next hour and 22 minutes (and, no, I'm not exaggerating), we were skipped on the virtual line and told every single time we asked, "how much longer?", that, "They're getting your table ready." Why didn't we just leave u might ask? Well, against our better judgment, we actually believed they were getting our table ready! Lol By the time it was too late to drive somewhere else and risk them being busy as well, we realized we were stuck there. We had paid for movie tickets for an 8:50 PM showtime. We were hungry, and quite frankly, we wanted some Olive Garden! Lol The ladies at the front were very rude, stand offish, and seemed to do nothing to help the very busy and short staffed workers on the floor. It soon became clear and was confirmed by our waitress, they only had two waiters working that night. We witnessed other frustrated customers ask and some argue with the ladies at the front, and instead of staying calm and giving an answer/lie like they gave us, they were rude and even made fun of them as they walked away. It was very unprofessional. Everyone around them could hear the rude comments they made. We got sat at 8:27 PM. I told our waitress we were going to be extremely quick on ordering, eating, and paying because we had a movie to get to. She was such an angel. We didn't hold anything against her because she was very sweet the entire time. She apologized for the wait. She took our order very quickly as requested, and she helped us get outta there quickly so we could make it in time for the movie. We unfortunately missed the previews but luckily made it about 5 minutes into the movie. Anyway, we ate very quickly and ended up boxing everything up and finished eating at home after the movie. We are a family of pretty quick eaters anyway, but the path to getting our food to our table this time was THE LONGEST! Waitress gets 5 stars all the way, which is why I rated service 5 stars ONLY for her!! She was...

Ok, this is going to be a long one.

It's been YEARS since I gave Olive Garden a chance. The ones in California were a complete letdown and it's been almost a decade since, so I was skeptical moving back.

First: the first time we came to this location it was as a guest and the items we chose were the Stuffed Chicken Marsala and the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo. I will say I should've read the item descriptions a bit more because I did not like the oil served with the Steak and I HATED the stuffing with the Chicken Marsala. The items were delivered hot and still delicious. Our waiter was quick and very descriptive with all responses to our questions on the menu. I would say a perfect 9/10 experience.

Now, the real test was if they could improve if not replicate the same visit we had but a week later. Now we came back a week later and wanted to see if anything would change for better or worse.

We were seated in the busier side of the restaurant this time. Lots of people walking around and definitely louder but still good to where my wife and I could talk to each other. We ordered the same items but without the oil on the steak and no stuffing with the chicken! Both items tasted FAR SUPERIOR with the items changed. I understand these two items are a symbol for the restaurant but personally, the Steak Gorgonzola medium quality was divine. I wish the chain would do without the oil they put on it. I asked for just extra Alfredo sauce with the pasta and it was the right call. Our waitress this time did a great job too, always quick service and friendly conversation at times. We felt welcomed similar to the first time.

As someone that doesn't believe big chains put in service for most customers as a small mom&pop restaurant does, this location definitely made a fan out of my wife and I. We will definitely be back for the fresh food and service again!

First time:...

I know I've sent in a review before for this particular Olive Garden. I did receive a response and I'm assuming it was from an Olive Garden representative claiming that my review was fake, now I can't find my review!? But that's absolutely not the case. My fiance & I who is based near this particular Olive Garden with the army had decided that's where we wanted to eat. Before decided to go here I have went ahead and checked the app because it has wait times status availability. It said zero wait time so we got there within less than 5 minutes from checking the app we literally waited over 25 minutes just to get a table! Since the waited so long we definitely knew what appetizer we wanted to order I went ahead and ordered the soup and he ordered a salad. Our waitress was a slender girl with glasses and under the shoulder dark hair. 10mins later after ordering at the table she came back and we were expecting to get at least our appetizers but big surprise no she came back to take our orders for a second time after waiting 10 minutes and we'd already initially placed our order! Not sure why this happened I literally saw her write down the order so I'm just assuming that she lost it. After that I'll literally got my entree before he received his salad. I hit the button on the kiosk to call for our server to talk to her about our unpleasant experience. We waited 10 minutes and nothing, so we decided to go in and pay for everything because we were so frustrated assuming she wouldn't come back to the table. Once we paid she was back at the table. We asked her for boxes and a bag. She came back with one box for both of us (No Andy's mints which I'm assuming from all the other Olive gardens I've been to is accustomed) No bag was ever brought back after we requested it along with several other boxes to go! So...