Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Wichita

This is probably my favorite restaurant (location too, the east locations always have terrible service). I believe his name is Gavin, and he is always a FANTASTIC SERVER!!!! There are a few others that are always good too. However lately I’ve had some really poor servers and service. Been times when the soup is brought on chilled plates, breadsticks are rock solid, received the wrong drinks, they couldn’t load the coupon I had and they said would work with what I was ordering, Stuff happens. However tonight I was going with a friend who seldom goes out. I had just ordered the chicken gnochie soup (no salad just soup!!!) and Fried mozzarella with a Dr Pepper which I later switched to tea. The first bowl of soup I received was cold. I flagged down the waiter and asked for a different bowl. A few minutes later I got a bowl of barley luke warm soup. When the server checked in (about 10 minutes after the second bowl of soup) I informed her and asked if I could get another bowl of soup and if she would make sure it was hot. She brought it over along with our ticket (even though prior to the meal I told her they would be separate and informed what items went on which ticket, she brought one.) and I asked her to separate it which she did on the table kiosk right then. She then left and didn’t come back. We finished our food and then put the money on the side of the table. We waited 15 minutes for her to come get the money. Meaning it had been about 30 since she stopped at our table. I finally flagged down somebody else and asked her to get our server. Several minutes later the lady I flagged down was walking by and looked surprised that we were still here and asked if the server came by. We said no. Several minutes later the server came by to tell us she’d be with us in a few minutes. The other lady came by and looked SHOCKED we were still there and she went a got our server for us right then. When she arrived I asked for two to go iced teas (it’s a long car drive) and my friend wanted a to go drink and a box. She said yes of course and ran of to go get them. 5 minutes later she returned with the drinks and the boxes. And a new ticket for me. She added both the iced teas on to my ticket. Meaning I now have three drinks on there. I had to flag her back to the table and tell her I had never been charged per a drink before. She argued with me and left in a huff. The manager came by and said he took the teas off. I thanked him but I was still pretty frazzled on waiting for our server so much. We still waited another 5 minutes for her to bring back my friends change. At that point I was so stressed I didn’t even try to get her to fix the fact she charged me for a salad too!!! I just ordered soup!!!!!!!! I put the money on the table and left, she got a tip from both of us, which she really didn’t deserve. We didn’t get any chocolate mints. It was a really upsetting trip. By far my worst Olive Garden experience yet.

Three stars for...

My son and I were seated right away, it was pretty busy in there, but we got a booth very quickly. Our server came to the table within just a few minutes, he seemed personable. I know that servers are supposed to try to upsell, and that is completely fine. But when I told him I didn't want an appetizer, but would like salad and bread instead, he literally rolled his eyes at me and walked away. I was going to ask him some questions about the menu, but he grabbed the wine glasses and just kept going. I believe he was trying to be funny, but several times he interrupted mine and my son's conversation. He asked how things were more times than I really felt necessary. When he came back to the table to ask us if we wanted desert, he had Sweat Beads all over his head, I was just waiting for one of them to drip off, lol. We both declined and once again got what I can only describe as a disappointed look on his face. He was very friendly, but tried a little too hard. I'm sure he's a fun person to be around, but I don't like being pressured into buying things I don't want. My son had shrimp Alfredo, which was delicious. However I felt at $17 it was pretty overpriced for some pasta and shrimp. He loved it though, and that's all that mattered. I had the lasagna fritta and it was amazing! Crispy on the outside and creamy ricotta cheese on the inside, with just the perfect amount of marinara. For some reason there was a little bit more salad dressing on the salads this visit and it burned my mouth. I love their salads! Overall a pretty pleasant experience that I had...

We dined here for my birthday in January. We don't dine out often as its pricey to eat out and tip accordingly. (We always plan to tip 25% of the bill) When we do,we go somewhere we really like .. olive garden and outback are our favorite places. Our food was not the greatest this time around. We had a recook on a steak well done that was ordered medium and food wasn't very hot and seemed maybe not as fresh. Still edible and good quality though not how we ordered. We were and always are full on soup breadsticks and salad anyway by this time so usually take our meals home. Great lunch the next day. But I'd like to say our service was just outstanding otherwise. We know these issues are generally kitchen issues and not the servers fault.(In which we've worked food service so we understand and generally don't complain either way). I'm kicking myself because I can't remember our servers name. She grabbed a couple girls there and sang happy birthday to me, which is a great feeling knowing they took the time to sing to me AND make me a desert with my name in chocolate .. spelled right and I have an oddly spelled name .. and it was free! I'm just so pleased with our night there I made time to write about it 2 months later lol. I waited tables 20 years and I could tell this girl was there to make everything special ❤️ Young, pretty Hispanic girl I believe, well she made my night and our dining experience. And her buddies. We hope she's there our next...