Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Waite Park

Visited Sunday night 6/30. Called ahead for 6 to sit outside, said they had seating for 6 but needed to do it online so I did. When we arrived, there were 3 hosts and they were trying to get us sat outside. A server came in and said there were tables but not enough servers. My husband waited at the bar for 5 minutes and finally asked if there was a bartender & they said she was stocking. The manager came up and helped the hosts seat us. They brought us outside and said we needed to sit at 2 separate tables because they're too heavy to move. Not a big deal, my 2 kids sat at one and the adults at another. We ordered our drinks, my mom and I ordered Raspberry lemonade. She came back 10 minutes later and said they were out of lemonade. I ordered a beer and said my kids would take milk. We ordered apps at the same time as drinks. Our apps came and we we're almost done and I still didn't have a beverage, neither did my kids. While we were finishing another server arrived with our food. Not our soups and salads but our main meal. We explained we hadn't received those and she said she could put our food under the warmer. Umm no thanks. We asked for a manager to come out. She was apologetic & offered us a discount. Our meals were ok. My ziti was clearly already under the warmer for a while and needed a lot more sauce. Our soup/salad/bread finally arrived but she left them on the tray sitting by our table because we had no room! There were tables that needed to be cleared while we were there. I asked why they don't have bussers anymore and she said the servers are to clear there own tables besides the glasses. I've noticed that many restaurants don't use bussers anymore and I assume it's because minimum wage keeps increasing. When I was a server and a manager I felt the bussers played a huge role. I think it would help to have the hosts help bus instead of 3 of them just waiting around for tables to open up. Besides discounting our meals they also brought us some donuts after we were finished so that was a nice surprise. We still left 20% for our server because we could tell it had been a bad night for her and having been in that position myself I know it sucks! It just didn't feel like this restaurant took much pride in the place. The patio and out front needed to be swept, the bathrooms needed to be cleaned and overall just more teamwork and organization. I appreciate that they tried to make it right and stayed kind the entire time and I'm hoping this was just an off night for them. I usually try to dine at locally owned establishments because I feel like they take more pride in their quality of food and service. When I'm paying anywhere from $16-20 a plate I expect it to be a...

I went in with my girlfriend yesterday, we got a pasta and a medium rare steak. We both had a Zuppa soup, and my girlfriend's soup was half kale and mine was half potato. We had to scoop the excess of both into each others bowl.

The steak was very dry, and worse than well done. I would have been fine with medium, or even medium well, but the hockey puck I got was not close. It honestly looked like a Banquet salisbury steak, but even those taste better. Our server Caitlyn, was the worst server I have ever had at a restaurant. The first interaction we had was her throwing the menus down on the table and asking us what we wanted to drink. We gave our drink order, and she walked away without saying anything. We didn't get breadsticks brought to the table, and our server was nowhere in sight to try and get some. The other server in our area (I can't remember his name but he was lovely), came by a couple times and we had to ask him for breadsticks. He brought some over and apologized. When our waitress came by with our food, she set the plates down on the table and just walked away. We were done eating our food (I didn't finish the steak) and needed a to-go box for the pasta, so we were waiting for our waitress to come by again. She came back in around 25 minutes and we eventually got our to-go boxes. We didn't want to click the "call server" button because we were afraid it would make her more upset. She was audibly more friendly to the other tables, like the one right next to us. I have never stiffed a server before, and I hated doing it but after the experience I had I wasn't even comfortable paying what I paid for the meal. We don't know why she was acting the way she was towards us because we were very quiet and polite, we didn't ask for anything extra. We didn't even want to ask for a refill on our drinks.

To end this on a note of positivity, the restaurant was beautiful and all of the other employees were very polite and helpful. But the ambiance of a restaurant doesn't mean much when the...

The owner and general manager are very snobby and rude. I'm going to share my personal experience I had with them. I have always been a olive garden lover up until I applied to work there. I showed up for two interviews that had to be done. Then I was told I had orientation. I was so excited and hopeful for the position and putting in my own time to arrive to both interviews and orientation. I get there dressed up and excited and then the general manager was very quick to be rude to me for no reason and then asked well did you bring you're social security card. I said no and apologized and then she immediately told me to leave. I apologized again to the head boss and arranged to come back tomorrow. I showed up the next day scrambling for my social security card and was there. Then she said sorry but you are not fit to work here. I just want to say this. This isn't a pity party poor me review. But a suggestion to just be kind to people who try and get shut down in the rudest way making that person feel defeated. That person was me who just wanted to provide for herself and her daughter and be sociable and just get a chance. The two day's I went to apply I noticed two homeless men on the opposite side of the street asking for money. Let that sink in. I put my time and effort into getting a job and left feeling discouraged and defeated. The general manager could have easily said you know what it's okay you didn't bring you're social security card the day I showed up for orientation and say come back with it tomorrow. After that I realized I would never want to work for people like that who lack...