Red Olive Restaurant - Woodhaven — Restaurant in Woodhaven

I am inclined to point my experience out to you all. As someone who has been a server since I was 17 years old and now 34 y.o. and a restaurant GM I know how these situations should be handled. Last night our power was out so my significant other swung by to get us dinner. They left out my entire meal. I get it that s* happens but man... I'm tired of this from nearly every restaurant I go to these days. Every. Single. Time. It's not rocket science really. Anyway, I called and said I just want a refund. I don't have power to nuke the already probably dried out and crusty food that's been sitting out. I have batched out many nights at similar restaurants... They CAN refund over the phone by punching the card numbers in manually. They kept putting the phone down and I could hear the young server talking to "Paul" (who handed my incomplete meal to my boyfriend and we assume is the owner) my boyfriend said screw it and just turned around to drive yet another 20 minutes back to get the food or a refund. His poor tuna melt sat yet another 30 mins on our counter now. Mine on the restaurants. No one greeted him or anything when he returned, just left the bag alone on the counter. He said he walked in and saw the server and owner/manager but they didn't say anything so he took the bag himself and left. Not an apology. Not a discount for future orders. Not a slice of pie for the trouble. Just poor customer service. Expect nothing better I guess.

Oh and the red sauce on the rice was SOSOSO salty I didn't even eat my meal. I tried, then put it in the fridge after like 4 bites thinking I'd change my mind tomorrow. Well today I grab it and take another bite.. nope still inedible. I pitched it in the garbage where it belonged all along. Wasted $15 on the meal plus gas both ways twice. red Olive gave zero iota's lol. Needless to say I'll never give them my business again. But going off their attitude in this situation I doubt they...

I am not going into all the details, however, tonights dinner was the worst dinner I have had in a long time. I ordered the baked cod / baked potato/ corn and vegetable soup ... the whole plate came out barely luke warm (potato) to room temperature (cod and corn) the soup was not much more than luke warm as well. The manager happened by the table and asked how everything was, I explained to him and he took my plate back to the kitchen ... a few minutes later it came back, the fish was warmer but not by much, the baked potato was still not hot and the corn was not hot (I like butter on my corn, when I put a pad of butter on it it took a long time to melt, to give you an idea) ... I like tartar sauce but when the plate came out of the kitchen the second time the tartar sauce that was on it when it went into the kitchen was not on the plate, so it took a bit before I got the waitresses attention to get more. I did eat the cod, it was not all that good, especially 2 degrees above room temperature, I could not eat the baked potato and the corn ... the manager did give us a $20 gift card to return to Red Olive for compensation ... but I doubt if that is going to happen ... we have eaten there on numerous occasions, the food has mostly been adequate to OK ... not bad enough to not return but not a "go to" place either ... tonight the food was awful ... my wife might return with friends to use the gift card, she said her food was ok (altho they brought out the completely wrong order the first time and had to take it back for the correct one, the waitress said she must not have heard the order correctly the first time, altho I heard it clearly sitting across the table from my wife) ... yep, my wife will probably return to use the $20 gift card, however, that last time will be my last time I go to the Red...

It's not the entrees that make a great restaurant experience, it's the small stuff. If you want a great restaurant look at how it handles the soups and vegetables.

My wife and I dined within one hour of closing on a Wednesday. Our waitress helped us through the extensive menu pointing out the foods she thought the restaurant did well. I chose the Monterey chicken and my wife got the stuffed chicken quesadillas.

When the waitress brought out our salads, she also brought out five small bowls of soup for us to sample. The salads were large and tasty. The dressing for the Greek salad was surprisingly good. The soups were amazing. My wife loved the lemon rice soup while I thought the lentil soup was the best I'd ever tasted.

My entree, Monterey chicken, proved to be two chicken breasts coated with cheese, onions and mushrooms. The chicken was tender and moist. The serving was so ample I took one of the breasts home. My wife who had filled up on soup and salad took most of her quesadillas home as well.

Here's the amazing part. The broccoli side was hot, buttery and crisp. It was not the limp place filler that it is at most restaurants, and even this close to closing, the baked potato was not over cooked.

I like this place, and...