Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

It had been forever since I’d been to Olive Garden, so this was a nice blast of nostalgia.
We were seated right away, which was a nice plus. The hostess was really nice, and so was our waiter, but unfortunately he was also super scattered. He would wander off while we were talking to him, and he kept forgetting things. We had to ask repeatedly for breadsticks, to-​go containers, and refills. He was really apologetic and friendly though, which counts for something.
I made a lunch duo out of the crispy risotto bites and a bowl of the chicken and gnocchi soup. Both of these tasted great. The bites were smaller than I anticipated, though. The soup was good, and if I hadn’t been out with other people who would have judged me, I would have taken them up on the endless refills. It was creamy with good flavor, and a nice amount of saltiness. The risotto bites were crispy as promised, well cooked on the inside, and nice and creamy. I wasn’t disappointed. My girlfriend built her own pasta with alfredo sauce and shrimps, and she was happy with it as well. It was cooked well and had good flavor to it. My mother in law got endless salad, so she was happy with that and her breadsticks, but she did have to ask for those like 3 times.
We also got dessert. I got the cheesecake which was good, but nothing special. My mother in law got tuxedo mousse cake and liked it, but thought it was too rich so she didn’t finish it. My girlfriend got a trio of dolcini; strawberry and white chocolate, amaretto tiramisu, and limoncello mousse. She thought the limoncello was too tart, but really liked the other two. We disagreed on a favorite here– I preferred the lemon and she preferred tiramisu.
Overall, we were pleased by the food but rather annoyed by the service. This is an okay place to go, but we shouldn’t have to ask for things repeatedly because the waiter keeps forgetting them.

Terrible service, made our order wrong and food was cold. No apology for the horrendous experience. Management is a flake. Will drive to another location if we’d decide to want Olive Garden ever again after this.

Unlike most people who only give a 1 or 2 star review, my trips to Olive Garden were remarkable. The parking is acceptable and the waiting wasn’t too bad. The food is incredible especially their delightful breadsticks. The staff is very friendly and very friendly. I am always satisfied with their service and their wide selection of Italian food. In conclusion I highly recommend this place for anyone who loves great food at convenient prices.

It’s hard to write this review. I came in solo and decided to sit at the bar to order and eat. No joke. 10 minutes later I actually finally saw the bar tender for the first time. She was obviously over worked and needed help. This is not her fault, but the fault of management for not scheduling two bar tenders on a Friday night. Of all the nights to have a solo bar tender, the weekend is not it. She was having to help with take out orders, bagging and prepping as well as making drinks for the entire restaurant. One would think that the big money maker for a restaurant (alcohol) would warrant an extra bar tender so that people not only get their drinks quickly, but then order (and pay for) more drinks.
At one point, one of the kitchen staff came out to question an order that had apparently already been picked up. There was quite a bit of confusion and the kitchen staff started to raise her voice to where the entire bar could hear.
I feel really bad for the bar staff here, as they are apparently very under appreciated and under valued. Something that is no doubt hitting the bottom line of this location hard.

We stopped over at Olive Garden after running some errands around town and it happened to be the only «non-​fast food» stop in the area. I wasn’t very hungry so I decided to split an entrée. Once I told the waiter our order, including the split entrée, it seemed like their attitude changed. By the way, we ordered the stuffed chicken marsala and it was delicious! When the waiter brought over the salad he put the ONE salad plate down on the table with a smirk on his face. I then asked him why there was only one plate when there were two people. He told me that we must pay for the second plate. I have no issue paying the additional $ 3.99 extra plate fee, but I felt as though that should have been mentioned when I placed the split order, not when the food was brought to the table. I requested the extra plate and waiting 5 – 10 minutes for the waiter to bring the plate. By this time my meal was ruined. How RUDE was that waiter? No matter how he treated us the rest of the meal I just could not get over how he treated the situation. I understand that he felt that since our meal total would not be as high as it would have with two entrees his tip would be smaller. I can tell you that his tip was SIGNIFICANTLY reduced due to the extra plate situation. I normally tip well and include an extra tip for good service and keeping a split entrée in mind. We left Olive Garden over an hour ago and I still cannot get over how RUDE the waiter was. NOT going back to Olive Garden for a VERY long time, or ever for that matter.

Came here on a Sunday afternoon when it wasn’t too busy and ended up sitting for 15 mins with nobody taking our order or anything. We ended up just walking out. Don’t bother wasting your time here.

My family and I went here for the second time, thinking we’d give it another shot. This time, we were asked to wait because they were understaffed. Once we were seated, we waited… and waited… and waited. The manager even came by, played with the blinds, and just walked away without so much as a glance. After 20 minutes went by and no one had come to ask if we’d like something to drink, we walked out.
Darden obviously isn’t in the business of good service OR making money. If they were, there’d be some standards.

What a dump… The girlfriend and I were hungry and in the mood for something marginally fulfilling and resemblant of Italian, so we made the mistake of stopping here. It’s not a good thing when you go into a dining experience expecting mediocrity and come out with pure disappointment. Everything from the décor to the reheated pasta screams depressing. Somebody should just go ahead and pull the plug on this place.

Typical «fast food italian», which is exactly what you should expect if you are going here. I like it because the $ 6.99 unlimited soup/​salad/​breadsticks is a great lunch option in the area. I sit at the bar for prompt service, and can stuff my face while still making it back to the office in time. You know the neighborhood, you know the people, you know what you’re walking into — so enjoy the zuppa.

It’s olive garden, what do you expect? Food tastes like every other olive garden out there. So i can really only weigh in on the service. The service was slow. That’s about it. Just plain slow.

Usually when I go here I have no issue at all, but this weekend it I did not have a good experience. Firstly, the waitress did not have good customer service skills and was not personable. She didn’t start off by telling us her name but by saying do you guys want to try our wine… Never mentioning what type of wine we could try. Her attitude was horrible. I am big on excellent customer service and I did not receive that from this establishment this weekend. However the food was really good, hence the two stars for the review.

Called ahead about 30 minutes as it was a Friday night and we had a group of 12 to seat — -no problem said the maitre d. And we had a private area with great seating ready when we arrived. Main server was great, very attentive, and other servers pitched in with water refills, dishes clearing, etc… seamlessly. Waiter got all the orders right for the first time in about 5 times we have had this group dinner there. I still do not understand why a server will not write down each persons orders – there is no shame in using paper and pencil to make sure to get it right — but they still seem to insist on relying on their memories, despite the bigger group and some special order modifications. Glad they got it right this time. Food was good as is pretty much expected with a chain like this.

I can’t really give them a bad review.
I ate at the bar… This is the first Olive Garden which I have been in where the bar area was not full of screaming kids.
The bartender was all about customer service.
She made sure my drink was always full and brought out my food promptly.
Thanks.

It was my first time at olive garden and I was pleasantly surprised at the whole experience. The place was super busy but we were seated pretty quickly. Food quality 5 stars; Taste 4 stars; Services 5 stars (extremely happy with it); Dining atmosphere 4 stars; Price/​Value 5 stars;
Food quality _​The food is fresh, hot and good quality. The portion is big with lots of meats. With unlimited bread-​sticks and salad/​soups, you get a good balance of nutrition.
Taste _​I would have given 5 stars if the food is less salty. Even the bread-​stick is on a salty side. I didn’t know which soup to order and the waitress was kind enough to bring all kinds of soup they have for sample. I like every soup they have but my favourite was Chicken Florentine. Everything tastes yummy and flavourful but salty (duh). The complimentary wine was a great fruity wine and we ended up ordering a bottle (about $ 28). In terms of authenticity, I can’t give an opinion.
Service _​It was superb. The lady who catered to us was very polite, attentive and made sure we were satisfied. As mentioned above, I got to try soup samples and she kept asking if we need anything _​soup, salad, bread-​stick or drink. I noticed a lot of people are not happy with the service but I guess we met a great individual. We gave her a generous tips for her excellent service.
Dining Atmosphere _​Even though the place was packed, we had a great time. This is a chain restaurant but due to the waitress who only tended to us, it didn’t feel like we were in a chain restaurant. I agree with a fellow Unilocaler in that you should go there at strange hours if you want privacy. The restaurant has a typical olive garden décor and the bathrooms are clean.
Overall, I am happy with the experience. What can I say more? I will keep coming back.

I love olive garden chains. Extremely flavorful Italian food for a cheap price? come on. Their all you can eat soup, salad and break-​sticks? YUM. oh, and in my opinion they make a great Bloody Mary and it looked super fancy.
The experience could be bad if your expecting privacy, a romantic setting, or some peace and quiet because after all, this is a franchise. ‘When your here, Your family’ … aka everyones loud and there’s obnoxious children most likely. —To avoid this, go around strange hours.

This experience was interesting. The second we walked through the door of our local ‘inner city’ Olive Garden we noticed that spelling is not criteria when applying for a job here as multiple words were spelled wrong on the specials board (see additional pictures). We were seated and met our very sweet waiter. Just as he introduced himself, a 1 year old boy runs by with a steak knife and fork in hand, followed close behind by his mother. This would be the same little boy that would grace us with his screaming and crying the entire meal. All of our meals were quite tasty, although my daughter felt her freshly shredded cheese could have been more evenly disbursed atop her pasta and I felt my mashed potatoes were crusted over from sitting in a pan all day waiting to be served. Our waiter continued to check on me and how well the meat on my plate was cooked. I was truly disappointed to find that Olive Garden recently got rid of their military discount… Way to go patriotism! As we were waiting for our waiter to process my card, we were able to be entertained by the woman at the next table, dressed from head to toe in her Coogi gear, playing Angry Birds at full volume on her phone… Classy! I’m going to steer clear of this hood-​rich restaurant in the future.

This is a place I have watched go downhill for years now. I am surprised it is still in business (which I’m sure is just a matter of time). We always have to wait to be seated no matter what time of day it is. They simply do not have enough staff since the dining room is half empty!

I’ve been to this location twice. Both times I had very bad service. The second time — after waiting to be seated, it took 15 minutes before anyone even came over to get our drink order. Then, when we asked for the check at the end of our dinner, it took over 10 minutes to get it. Because of this, and for the first time ever, we did not leave a tip. I’ll go to the Olive Garden, because I like the food, but not in Brown Deer.

I went there this past weekend, first of all we had to wait for 15mins to get seated even though there were barely packed. When it was time to order we wanted the unlimited pasta bowl, when I was ordering I asked the waiter what can kind pasta would recommend for the sauce I choose he had no clue. The pasta I choose in the end didn’t work, my second serving I ordered fettuccine with alfredo spinach sauce. I ve had better-won’t be going back.

Now I remember why I avoid the chain restaurants that I so commonly visited as a kid (ahem, Old Country Buffet, anyone?)…it’s because they lack any character and class, and Olive Garden is no exception. The chairs are on rollers here, for goodness sakes — I guess to make it easier on the older crowd and the people who need a little help pushing themselves back from the table after stuffing their faces with pasta. But I digress…
Our waitress, although peppy, clearly lacked any true waiting skills: she couldn’t balance a drink tray and asked to clear the salt and pepper from our table when she served the bill — in order to ‘close up’ (I forgot people don’t eat after 6 pm outside of the cities).
I’ve also heard they are pushy on getting you to order wine, which was actually ok by me, but I could see how others would be turned off by it. Being the moron that I am (I’d like to blame it on the prescription drugs I was taking), I stupidly asked the clearly underage waitress which Pinot Noir she’d recommend. First, it’s the Olive Garden — the wine’s most likely sub-​stellar, so it doesn’t matter what I pick. Second, it’s the Olive Garden… oh wait, I already said that.
As with all chain restaurants, the food is consistently dependable, from the free breadsticks to their classic salad to any pasta dish you pick. It’s a sure bet that you’ll probably end up eating too much here, but that’s a classic American practice, right? After all, when you’re here, you’re family. And mama thinks you look hungry.