Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Tysons

Dec 2021 Delicious food, good service. It's been several years since I went to an Olive Garden, but the food quality seems the same. Definitely less crowded than I remember. The tables have been spaced out more, but they take care to seat every other table. Most, but not all, of the staff wear masks. Looks like they still offer coloring papers for kids. The menu is much smaller, though they have added a never-ending soup and salad option, which is considered a meal in itself. Be aware that not all of their drink options may be available.

The most interesting change is the addition of a (heavy) mobile tablet to each table. The tablet has an appetizer, shortened drink, dessert, and kids menu. They have limited games available on the tablet too. Note that the tablet is used to order appetizers, which is what our server did for us. The tablet is also used to pay with card, and it has a slot in the back where you can insert your chip card. It also allows tap paying in the front. For the tip, it offers a sliding scale on screen so you can choose the percentage or amount of tip you want to leave. And finally, you can print out the receipt from the front of the tablet. Truly fascinating.

Service was pretty good, though a bit slower at the end. Our server seemed a bit awkward/new, but was very friendly, knowledgeable, and accommodating. She was quick to offer us more portions of bread, salad, and refillable drinks without being asked. She also quickly removed empty plates for us.

One of us ordered coffee, and I was interested to see they gave us a small pot of coffee, bowl of sugar, and tiny pitcher of cream. And mug of course. Sadly forgot to take a picture. It would have been more sophisticated if the set came on a tray, but this is not that type of restaurant. 😜

All of the food was very good. I was a bit so-so in realizing that practically all of their appetizers are fried, but they were all very delicious. The Spinach-Artichoke Dip was very good. Maybe a little too salty, but plenty of spinach. The breadsticks still come already salted and oiled.

Note the entrees come with soup or salad (it doesn't say this on the menu, but it's true). The server still offers additional cheese with the salad and entrees. Both the Chicken Marsala and the Chicken Parmigiana were tender and moist. All the pastas perfectly cooked and the sauces delicious. I think the portion sizes have decreased a little, but that's sort of expected.

All in all, good food and good service....

Last week, I was at Olive Garden in the Tyson area.

I was stressed out looking for a job. I just needed to unwind. I came in for dinner. The atmosphere was very clean and quiet as I arrived before the other guests.

I ordered the special never ending bowl special. Spaghetti with meatballs. Yes, I was hungry. I ordered a House Pinot Noir along with a glass of water. The glass of wine arrived. Wow! The glass was perfectly polished. You only see that in 4-5 stars restaurants. I was happy. I used to work at Sweetwater Tavern. I know how it is...

My first course was a house salad and house ranch dressing. The salad was excellent as I drank the whole glass of wine with my first course.

When my main course came out, I ordered a second glass of wine of the same. She brought out the bottle to pour into my glass. I was fine with this. Why replace a glass that is perfectly polished? Nothing wrong with this strategy. The main course was an excellent pairing with the wine. I finished that glass of wine with the second course.

I was close to being full. I wanted to see what the "never ending bowl" was like. With that, I ordered another glass of wine and Alfredo penne pasta with chicken. This course was excellent as well. The Alfredo course was served in a very small bowl. I wasn't whining about the portion. The fact that the presentation was in a small bowl bothered me. I felt cheap as other guests were arriving for dinner at nearby tables. Here I was eating the Alfredo Pasta from a small cereal bowl. The waitress is not at fault for this. This is bad marketing on the Olive Garden part. I know the ad says it was a bowl. Just use a larger bowl next time, please. Let me feel like a 👑 King, while dining at Olive Garden.

I left the restaurant very happy and satisfied. I deducted one star on Service for that small bowl on which the Alfredo was served.

I was very happy with my dinner. Why I was critical of the service. The generous tips was nothing to be frown...

I ordered from the app for date night. The order charge left my account but I never got a confirmation. I tried explaining this to multiple people and asked them what I can do. I understood the money didn't go to thier store but I asked for someone else to assist me because "Anila" (sp?) wasn't understanding me and she was continually talked over me. This is when I started to panic because I now have $65 dollars missing from my account, I hate confrontation and felt like she was talking to me like I was stuipid, and I had no idea who I could talk to. I explained that we don't all have $65 dollars to lose and I needed to talk to someone above her, A regional, or anyone; Just someone who can look deeper into why their company took my money, not their individual store. I just wanted help on who to go to for the error in the server, network, or etc. She STILL chose to speak over me and told me I need to calm down. This pushed me over the edge because I was asking for help. I never said a derogatory thing to her or put her down, I just kept asking for help. However, I can only be spoken over and interrupted so many times before I get upset so I did threaten to put it on tiktok. That was dumb, but all I wanted was someone who could connect me to an IT person or tech person as surely a multimillion dollar company should have something like that. At the end of the day, this review is enough. All I ask is you retrain your "management" to behave in a way that makes sense. You don't talk down to someone who's crying because they lost their money and don't know how to get it back. I get that people are rude to them, but how about you don't pre-emptively talk down to someone who wasn't being rude but was asking for HELP; not...