Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia

Things have definitely changed here, so if you haven't been in a while and are thinking of returning..read this first:

I came here with a friend who was celebrating her birthday. We arrived on a Thursday around 4:30pm. When we walked it, it was practically a ghost town. One side of the restaurant wasn't even being utilized. We asked for a booth and we're told we had to wait until someone cleaned a table off and asked to have a seat; keep in mind we could clearly see several empty booths from the podium. However, we sat and waited as others came in and were seated. About 10 minutes went by and a different attendant approached the podium, so we asked him about the seating and why there was a wait. He immediately seated us and guess what, it was in a row of atleast 5 empty booths. Once again, not a packed house by any measure. However, after being seated it was a good 15 minutes before our waitress came and took our order. After about 10 minutes, the waitress brought out my drink but stated she would be back with my friend's drink. After another 5 minutes or so, she returned with her drink. After another wait of atleast 10 minutes, we finally received the salad, breadsticks and our appetizer but guess what, NO parmesan grater!! She said she had to find one and would be back, I also asked her to bring 2 waters back. We waited a good 7,8 minutes before she returned with the grater because I was already half way thru my plate of salad. We asked for more breadsticks as well. which she stated she would bring out with the waters and she came with both about 5 minutes later. About 20 minutes after that, we finally received our food. I ordered the 'endless pasta bowl' which should be renamed the 'dwindling pasta bowl!' Apparently what they do is bring you a large bowl first in an attempt to fill you up or deter you from ordering more because my second bowl was significantly smaller and quite disappointing.. But it was a good 25 minutes before she even came back to the table to take my second order! While we were waiting, I had even pressed the call button on the device they put on the edge of the table which started flashing red. Guess what, she walked right past it, smh. When I flagged her down, she appeared to not even be sure why it was flashing and then I explained to her what I had done. I also explained it was my friend's birthday and asked what they do for birthdays, she stated she could get the manager to "comp" a dessert and they could sing Happy Birthday if she'd like that and my friend said yes and ordered the cheesecake. More time passed and they did eventually return with the dessert and sang for my friend, which she did really enjoy. All in all, the food was good but the wait time and service were downright terrible. On the final check, the dessert was not "comp'd" so I called over the manager. I explained to him we had been there nearly 3 hours, at this point it was almost 7pm and about the service. He said he would como the dessert (which the waitress already said he was going to do and credit $2.99). Absurd! I certainly did not plan to be there that long and I would've complained alot sooner but I didn't want to make a fuss on my friend's birthday. At the end of the day, if you have plenty of time to waste, eat in..but Carry Out is your best option and the 'endless pasta bowl' is a complete sham, stick with the...

Our server brought our appetizer out on the same tray as dirty dishes from another table. The plates he gave us with the appetizer were dirty and from another table. We asked a worker who didn't seem to speak English well for the manager. She tried to get another waitress to come to our table and that waitress refused to come to us. We had to wait for the server who gave us dirty plates come back. When we did speak to the manager, she said that food should not be on the same serving tray as dirty dishes. She told us that she would remove the appetizer from the bill and get new wait staff to take our order.

The next waitress we got wasn't much better. She wanted to know what happened with the other waiter and asked a few different times during her service. I didn't feel comfortable discussing it with her. When my cousin was on her phone, the waitress brought the salad and bread. My cousin was clearly busy and minding her own business but the waitress felt it was appropriate to hit my her shoulder with the menu and tell her the food had arrived. My cousin saw that but was doing something. The waitress had no business doing that.

While all of this was going on, wait staff seated two groups of guests after us that smelled heavily of marijuana. The problem was instead of seating them away from people already seated, they seated both groups right beside us. We had to deal with the strong odor the whole time while we ate.

When our food arrived it looked nothing like what was shown in the menu. My pasta was over cooked. Our plates were also dirty around the bottom. When my son and cousin asked for another plate since their meal was "endless", the serving they got was less than half the size of the first plate. I still paid and left an $11 dollar tip. It seemed like it was the end of the night and they just didn't care about their...

A lady friend and I decided to grab dinner Saturday night, 1/30/21. It was the night before the snow fall. From the very moment we entered the establishment, we were treated exceptionally. Our waiter, Kendra, provided great customer service, made us laugh, engaged in conversation and was knowledgeable about all the items on the menu. It was my friend's first time eating at an Olive Garden. Most in part was due to a mild garlic allergy she has. We expressed this concern to Kendra. Kendra suspected that most of the items contained garlic and took it a step further by verifying that with her manager, Scott. Shortly after, Scott came and greeted us and confirmed that most of the items contained garlic. Going above and beyond, he then offered the same item my friend was interested in with a little "tweak" on the way the sauce would be made that would satisfy the no garlic concern. He then prepared her food HIMSELF with this sauce substitute! His rendition of Chicken Alfredo satisfied the allergy concern and tasted immaculate! Kendra and Scott checked in with us to make sure she was satisfied with the food we ordered and ensured we were comfortable. This was all close to closing time for the establishment! The chicken parm and chicken alfredo we ordered was excellent. Kendra made sure our leftovers were packaged correctly and our salad would be fresh the next day we ate it. In today's climate with Covid, negativity and craziness, I do believe we should magnify a person's positivity and customer service when they have done more than exceptional. If there is such thing as a "one time bonus" I do believe Kendra and Scott are deserving of this based on them going above and beyond in their job roles. We had a great and enjoyable dinner thanks to them. Please forward this message. We will be back to dine again at this...