Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

So I finally got around to coming back here after a year or so because the festivities of Father’s Day & I wanted it to celebrate it in a intimate dining spot with my husband. Normally, I’d go for the casual & bar scene but Olive Garden was an appropriate choice for this occasion. This particular trip was a whole lot better than the one I wrote about in my previous review. First & foremost, customer service. A business/​restaurant/​franchise of any kind cannot excel without the great people who work in it. I for one judge a place a lot by how I am treated as a customer & a person. My server today was Ryan. Wonderful guy, bright smile & friendly in every way, which automatically made the initial part of my experience great. Now over to the food. The food was just as amazing. I had the cheese raviolis. Can’t go wrong with anything stuffed with cheese & smothered in cheese. Can’t say that my lactose intolerant stomach agreed but my taste buds & I are on the same page. My husband had never been to an OG & I was very happy to know he liked his first trip here. I was so impressed with the service, I had the manager called over. Sean was his name & he was just as polite. It’s very hard to find people who put care into their work & even harder to find anyone who knows anything about good work ethics. I found that here tonight.

the food was alright! not sure if I would go back… the appetizers came out hot which I enjoyed but our main courses came out cold! how do I know the cheese that she added on to my dinner did not melt over… at all! too pricey!

So I’m writing this review because our experience was not only a bad one, but when I went to the company directly to handle it, they were willing to say they wild do something, but never did anything. My best friend and I came to this location about 3 weeks ago for a late lunch early dinner. Our server was amazing!!! He was so friendly and for the most part so on top of things!
We were offered a free sample of wine and he was quick to get our drink orders. When we ordered our food I requested a side of ranch with our breadsticks and he was happy to bring some out with them. When he came back with our soup (gnocchi) and breadsticks he forgot the ranch. Not a big deal at all! I simply asked for it again and he got it immediately. However, unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy my weird habit of dipping my breadsticks in my ranch because the breadsticks were almost inedible. They were hard from either being reheated too much or just overcooked. That sucked. We went on to eat our soup. We ordered the gnocchi and upon receiving it we noticed all of the chicken was pink. I’m such a worry wart when it comes to food poisoning so I wouldn’t even risk eating the chicken. So we didn’t have great experience with our appetizer portion of our meal but we were hopeful for our entrees. My friend got the ravioli sand I ordered the Alfredo fettuccini. When our entrees arrived, my friend was able to dive right into her meal. I however, had to order an extra side of sauce because my plate lacked sauce and it was very bland. I waited a good 5 minutes to receive my sauce. It was starting to get busier so I understood the wait. Once I got the extra sauce things were fine. We finished up, got our check and left. Later on I did go to the Olive Garden website and send in my feedback from this experience and I got a response back from their manager Angel who told me to call in. So I did and I spoke to another manager (male) but I can’t quite recall his name. He apologized for our experience and offered to mail me a gift card and said we would receive it that week. He had trouble hearing me so I assumed that when we never received the gift card it was because perhaps he put the incorrect address. I went to my email and responded to the email I received from Angel and let her know I never received the gift card and was waiting for a response. I never heard back. So I went back to their website and sent another email explaining the situation and I still have yet to hear back from them. I was very excited to receive the gift card and get second chance at enjoying my food and experience at Olive Garden but am now very disappointed at how they basically have written me off and won’t even such as respond to me. I love Olive Garden and was very hopeful to get this situation cleared up but it seems at this point I shouldn’t waste my time waiting to hear back. I wasn’t going to write a Unilocal review because I was hopeful that the restaurant managers were taking care of this but since they aren’t I figured I’d share my experience. I personally will probably not eat at Olive Garden again because I don’t want to deal with this again but if you go just know that the servers are great! I can’t remember our servers name anymore but he was so friendly and amazing! However, don’t be surprised if the food is less than great. And don’t expect to have bad experiences taken care of if you have one.

I love the wait staff the hostess and the food. Great place to eat and hang out with friends

Don’t get me wrong, service was alright… but the food is horrendous. I’m just here visiting my husband, and we made the mistake of coming here, now I know to stick to small businesses or chain restaurants that are higher rated.
The zuppa was too salty and wasn’t warm. Our entrees were quite pricey for only a little amount of food that tasted bad. I honestly think homemade alfredo or even the jarred kind would taste better than my husband’s shrimp alfredo ($ 14). Everything is so overrated here, enter at your own money-​wasting risk.

It has been a long while since I have eaten dinner at Olive Garden. So far the soup was pretty nonexistent, tha calamari seemed so tough and crunchy that there wasn’t much taste. I take that back it was like chewing on a rubber band! My food came out real quick, no time to enjoy the soup or appetizer or main entrée. The server was great though, she is the reason why I gave the 2 stars.
My experience could be because I came in at 9:10 and they close at 10pm.

My friend loves this place and it is not my favorite. Quite frankly I’d probably would not eat here if it was her idea to eat here anyway… I’ve had a one start draft saved for a while with several last visits being less than mediocre from service to food but today… The service was great, the food was great so great I asked the waitress if there was a recent change in management lol. Seafood lasagna is a must try and if you want more flavor request it made spicy or specify the spice you want added. A pleasant surprise from this location just when I was about to scratch it off the list of places to eat.

We were wanting to eat soup and salad. As soon as we arrived, we were immediately seated. Our waiter Todd S., took our order and was the best waiter we have had in a long time. Good job Todd and thanks for the great customer service. Aloha!

This place was never anything to brag about. Mediocre overall and has been for a long, long time. Seems management doesn’t care much about improving things.

It’s been awhile since my husband and I been back to Olive Garden. We just came in at the right time when its not that busy yet. We ordered a few appetizers (fried calamari, grilled chicken piadina, and the lasagna fritta). The fried calamari was okay, they must had changed the batter because it wasn’t as flaky, kinda dry and bland. The fritta was good, but I think it was overcooked. I didn’t taste the new appetizer that we ordered, which was the grilled chicken piadina, because i was saving room for my main course, plus the salad. Anyways, they added some purple cabbage in their salad this evening. I wasn’t too impressed with it, they should just stick to original ingredients.
Anyways, they have the buy one take one home for 12.99 deal. So I tried it, I ordered one of the new entrée they have which was the sausage stuffed giant rigatoni, and the spaghetti with meat sauce to take home. The sausage stuffed giant rigatoni was pretty good, lots of cheese and meat sauce. But of course my eyes are always bigger than stomach. I couldn’t eat half of it so I took most of the food home.
Our server was pretty good and attentive. Overall it was good. But it seems like the food taste better during lunch hour though.

I went there with two friends and two children for lunch. We were expecting to be in and out reasonable quick. The restaurant was only ¼−1/3 full and we had to wait 15 minutes to be seated. The first waitress never gave her name and took 10 minutes to bring out our drinks. She only had 1 other table at the time. We ordered two of the soup, salad, and breadstick lunch, a pot pie, and two kids meals. We could never find our waitress to order another round of salad or soup or breadsticks or even to refill our drinks. When we did find her, it took her almost 15 minutes to actually bring us soup and salad. How hard is it to bring us soup and/​or salad. I understand if you run out of prepped lettuce and need to make more, but the soup should just be ladle and go. No wait! We were clearly wrong.
I have to say that we brought it to the attention of the manager and he switched our waitress and the new one was great. She checked on us regularly and we had no problem after that, but we still were there over 2 hours! It would have been faster to drive to the Temple location, eat, and return to Killeen. I’d hate to see how long it takes when they are actually busy.

I went to Olive Garden Fri night and had the most awesome server. He had a lot of spunk and a great attitude. His name was Eric. He was great and makes me want to come back many more times!!!

This used to be my guilty pleasure, not only in Killeen, but really anywhere, and especially in NYC.
In Killeen, unfortunately, there have been some significant changes in bar staff (yes, I’m not only a service snob, I’m a barfly) which are not conducive to a quality experience.
As I look back, I see that in 2012 they had similar issues. in the interim there have been 2 bartenders, (Yan and… oops, her name slips my mind, perhaps Linda.) who are wonderful. Otherwise, newer bartenders not only do not know how to multi task a bar, but also just simply have no interest in serving their customers. To add insult to injury, one evening we were subjected to an early clean up routine which included the bartender putting the bucket of cleaner on the bar not 6 inches away from our food — I decided to skip dessert that night! To add insult to injury on a different occasion, even when the manager of the evening came into the area twice, I threw him some non-​verbals such as mean mug and crossed arms, he didn’t bother to come ask how things were. In that case we had ordered drinks and soup, and had been waiting over 15 minutes after stating, yes, we were ready to continue our order when the bartender asked, and he got distracted in conversation with coworkers, and even the manager, and didn’t come back to ask for our order!
I still love OG, just have been going to other locations to get my italian fix!
If you like Table Service, ask for Red, she’s AWESOME!

Todd waited on us and he was very polite and quick! There was no wait for a party of 2 ½.
They had a VERY clean high chair! A baby changing station in the bathroom. The salad was pretty yellow and very heavy on the dressing, unfortunately. the food was on the greasy side. Chicken parm was very dry! I’m giving 3 stars for service/​cleanliness. Won’t be returning anytime soon.

I did an online togo order, for my boss and myself. When i got there it was super busy. As i was waiting, the manager came up and made sure i was doing okay, and asked if i, or the gal next to me needed anything while we waited.
While i waited i witness the manager speak to multiple employees friendly, and respectfully, something you dont see often, He also got on his hands and knees to reach under a table to retrieve a childs toy. After waiting a few minutes, Charlotte, i got her name from my receipt, realized my ticket had be lost. She was extremely friendly, and figured things out quickly.
By far my best experience in any restaurant, and i wasn’t even dining in.

Came to have lunch… checked in for 2. Informed hostess we wanted to was our hands because she was going to sit us. Came out stood there as she sat 3 couples/families…couple walks in door she sits them… then I told her since you sat three people while we been sitting here I guess we’ll go somewhere else. She said ok. have a great day… HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE

Our waitress, Sammie, was so sweet and patient with our 3 year. She even took the time to hand write a quick note thanking us for coming in and inviting us back. We definitely plan to go back. The food was pretty good but to be honest, I go there for the salad and breadsticks. This was the first time I have ordered desert and to be honest, it was mostly because we were having such a good time due to the friendly atmosphere by the staff. Big time kudos for these sweet people.

Went here for the first time ever. I’m from Hawaii where there is no Olive Garden. I was pretty darn excited to try out this restaurant for the first time. Especially since I’ve been drooling over Olive Garden commercials throughout the years.
Sadly it was not as great as I expected. The restaurant was fairly empty but the wait time for our food was ridiculously long. We ordered a pizza and fries for my daughter and my husband and I got pastas. My daughters pizza (no fries) came out first then our pastas came out long after. Still with no fries. But the reason I’m writing this review is because I ordered the Citrus Chicken Sorrento. Idk what it was but it was the worst dish I’ve had in my life. It had a foul taste to it and the smell was a strong odor of dog food. I left the restaurant hungry because I couldn’t eat more than a bite of my entrée. I won’t be going back to Olive Garden. It was not what I expected at all. Sad.

I will get right to it. The lasagna and rigatoni duo were ordered. My plate arrived and I could not distinguish one entrée item from the other. The layers of lasagna were strewn all over and there was so much «meat sauce» covering the entire plate. I was very confused and the waitress was no help. She said the chef was aware and the next one was going to look better. I am glad they were thinking about the next guest. No offer was given to re make my dinner though.
There is service and there is hospitality. Go here if you want basic no frills service and «ok» food; not hospitality.

The food was good, the service was good. Our server offered us the wine samples just as I expected and it was a tasty moscato. The restaurant itself is a little smaller and dinger than I would have liked and nothing stood out to me like ‘Oh my gosh! Best Olive Garden ever!’ but I wasn’t disappointed in my experience.