Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

The food was just barely up to normal Olive Garden standards, but like some other reviewers I found the atmosphere and service below par. There seems to be a lack of leadership on the staff. The servers hung together chatting. My favorite — bringing the bottle of wine I ordered and sliding it across the table like sliding a beer down a bar. Not impressed.

I came here on my way through town. Upon entering I was asked if I would like my order to go. When I informed them I would be dining for one the all looked shocked like I have broken a major social norm. The server was pleasant enough. I do suggest if it is slow and you wish to order an appetizer wait to order your food when it has arrived at your table. I literally received my appetizer, soup and meal all at once. Talk about trying to rush a person out of the restaurant. By the way did I mention they are slow??? By the time I got to my main course it was freezing. I ordered the shrimp ravioli and the sauce was so salty I had to scrape it off. The chicken Marsala ravioli was alright not some thing I would order a second time. The spaghetti with meat sauce was superb aside from being cold. I will not be returning to this Olive Garden. Big fetch to say they have a southern hospitality!!!

Friendly staff, good service, average Olive Garden bill of fare. Nothing much to add except this is one of the noisiest restaurants I have ever visited. We could not carry on a conversation while we ate our meal. I suppose there is not much management can do about this, just wanted future patrons to be warned.

I can’t believe I’m giving Olive Garden 5 stars. We came in on a very busy Saturday night. Our waiter James, was AWESOME! He admitted that he was new, but we couldn’t tell. He kept our drinks filled, and the salad and breadsticks coming throughout the entire meal. The food we received was delicious and came out quickly. I ordered the Steak Gorgonzola alfredo and the steak was cooked perfectly. My friend ordered the stuffed chicken which he said we very good. Overall a great experience!

The only reason I come here is to use up a gift card or two that I have acquired over the holidays. The soups are good here, but every entrée I’ve tried like the meatball chicken with meat sauce comes up so short. They never put enough sauce on the spaghetti and the meatballs were bland even after applying a packet of shredded cheese or two. So I should just stick with soup and breadsticks from now on when using my precious gift cards.

Very displeased with our experience at this location. When arriving to the restaurant the hostess (not sure of her name, but she had red hair) did not take our name and continued to seat guests out of order. Once seated at our table, not a single server acknowledged our table for at least 10 mins. They did however, great other tables that had been seated after us. Since we felt so unwelcome do we decided to leave. So disheartening as I am always a beloved Olive Garden customer. Never again will I go to this location.

One of the many stops we made on our long Christmas road trip, we were staying at the Holiday Inn down the road and this establishment was on their list of suggestions.
Our waiter was a super nice guy, wish I could remember his name to give him credit but I’m awful with names. He had mistakenly brought my wife out a beer, but since thats not what she ordered he gave it to me for free, awesome. Food was great and prompt, always had refills for our salad and breadsticks (which is a must at Olive Garden). Great place for dinner and they did a wonderful job, specially since it was New Years Eve.

This is the second time my son and I have gotten sick eating at this restaurant. The first time we assumed it was a fluke and decided to give them another try. What a mistake. We specifically told them we had a gluten allergy and ordered from the gluten free menu options. Half way through eating we each discovered wheat noodles in our gluten free pasta. They had cooked our gluten free noodles in the water they had cooked the wheat noodles in. They offered us a gift card which I declined because I will not set foot in the restaurant a third time. They claim they had procedures in place to cook things separately but obviously they didn’t follow those procedures. I would worry about whether they follow other food safety guidelines as well.

This is hit or miss. They always have tables open but still make you wait. The food was just ok for the prices you should get more entrees instead of salad and bread Stix. They just aren’t like they used too.

Service was good, but food could’ve been better. Prices could have also been explained more.

I just moved here from Ga and the olive garden in Gainesville is amazing. I was feeling kind of home sick so my fiancé took me out to eat at what used to be my favorite restaurant. The gnocchi soup is my favorite soup ever but I received it ten minutes after I got my food because my server just rang it all in at once. The pasta only takes a couple minutes so he should know to hold the food. I asked him drink prices and he told me something different then what was rang in. I probably should’ve talked to a manager I was just so disappointed I knew I wouldn’t be coming back to this olive garden again. They might need to be a little pickier about who they staff.

Food is good but service needs some help. We sa
t down to dirty glasses that had been used by the people who were seated before us and then would not give us a kids menu. What’s going on here? Then some server tried to bring us food that was not ours that happened a few times. Are these servers not trained right? It smells kinda funny in here not fresh at all unless food is in front of you then the smell is better. Waiting 20 mins to get a table you want some kind of good service. Let me add we have had to send back one of the dinners 3 times even the manager could not get it right so it’s crazy asked for more soup never got it UGH!!!

It was late in the afternoon and time for something warm. Decided on Olive Garden. 20 minute wait for table and with freezing temperatures outside, 35 degrees, it was time for a glass of wine. Headed to the bar. Everyone at the bar was eating, so the one and only bar tender was busy. Wine did the trick and table was ready. Love the new menu. Try the chicken breast Toscano. So light and loved the bed of fresh baby spinach leaves.
Never rushed and always polite.

The service is non existent. Worthless. I have had two bad experiences here in 6 months. All due to a lack of service. I will be contacting the mgr again, as well as corporate again.

I tend to get on kicks and lately my favorite is to eat lunch at the Olive Garden on Two Notch Road in Columbia, SC.
I have visited this location for lunch 9 times in the last twelve days (see, I really mean I get on kicks). Each day I have sat at the bar around lunchtime and ordered the Spaghetti with both Meatballs and Sausage (half and half). I have really enjoyed the food a lot. It has been almost addictive!
I hope they always keep the «all you can eat» salad, because that is one of the big reasons my wife and I come here together.
Since I have eaten in the bar each visit I and my wife have had the chance to do a good assessment of the bar staff. Two folks, either Terri or Morgan, are typically working as bartender. I can’t say enough how impressed I am with how they conduct their business. Both of them «hustle», making sure that my drink is always refilled, and checking to see if I need more salad, etc. This is VERY important to me, and plays a huge role in my recurring visits.
Consistency is very important to us. I have found that the food, service and cleanliness /​organization of the bar area consistently excels. (I cannot speak to the normal restaurant area, as I haven’t used it)
I love being able to walk in and hear Frank Sinatra and pianos playing on the audio system/​.
I attribute my good experiences to both staff, training and management. I have already spoken of Terri and Morgan in the bar area. Today I asked to speak to a manager, and was introduced to Joel. Later, I was introduced to Kelly, one of the staff trainers. I expressed to both Joel and Kelly what my experience had been over the many visits I made to the location in the last two weeks, and they appreciated the feedback.
I might add that Joel, Terri and Kelly all expressed great satisfaction with working for this company (I cannot speak of Morgan, as he and I have not discussed this).
The reason I asked to speak with a manager today was to relay both my experience over the last two weeks, and why I was here at 4pm in the afternoon. I had decided to call it a day and have a drink. I stopped into O’Charley’s restaurant, which is about ½ mile away from the Olive Garden. I walked into that restaurant and sat at the bar. I had noticed as I walked in that the bar area seemed to be in disarray (chairs in odd positions). I ordered a drink. Then I noticed that the bar area and the seat tops were not very clean. This immediately made a bad impression on me, and I cancelled my order and went to Olive Garden.
Essentially, I chose Olive Garden because I felt I would receive good service in a comfortable environment. And I was correct, because I am sitting here quite satisfied as I type this.
One other observation I wanted to make… I have noticed over the last two weeks that a lot of trainees seem to have been hired. I know this because I have observed the trainees being instructed as food is served in the bar area. I also noticed that the trainers seems to be very patient and careful not to cause undue impact on the customer while training is in progress.
That’s about it right now. I have also sent these same comments to
, because I have been so happy about my recent experiences.

The food wasn’t great the salad had very little dressing on it. It will be a long time before I visit them again.

Food quality was good. With wait times a little above normal. food when received was hot however there was a wrong entrée brought out. this however was promptly corrected. However small requests had to be reminded a couple times to have addressed.

Ugh! Now I know why the deal is called «Endless Soup and Salad»… my stomach hurt for 12 hours after eating at the Olive Garden.
OK, OK… it’s a chain and I’m kicking myself for coming back after MANY years. Frankly, it’s a well-​decorated Golden Corral… there’s little to no privacy for small tables and the restaurant clicks in a factory-​efficient manner. Employees seem more interested in moving than serving.
Yikes. I forgot about the food… the Lasagna Primavera with Grilled Chicken looked completely appetizing and healthy but it ended up as a bland clump of tasty, red-​colored pasta with a sprinkle of veggies… YUCK!!!

I know its a national chain restaurant and not ‘real’ Italian food, but I’m still a fan of Olive Garden… especially this particular one. The food/​menu items are the same at each location, so I won’t comment on those. However, the servers at this Olive Garden are definitely better than those at other Olive Gardens I’ve been to. They’re friendly and efficient without hovering too much. They give honest feedback about new menu items instead of trying to push them on us and have no problem with any special requests we may have.
One thing that cemented our preference for this location was the treatment we received on Veteran’s Day. It was incredibly busy with a long wait (which we decided to stick around for), and it was obvious that some of the other patrons were just there for a free meal and they were moody/​rude. You’d think this would rub off on the servers, but they all maintained their composure and were just over the top friendly and enthusiastic. They seemed genuinely pleased with being able to provide such a service to the Veterans instead of burdened by the large turn out. They went above and beyond by giving my son some maraschino cherries and orange wedges while we waited, and I noticed some of the hostesses offering breadsticks to those waiting too.

I’ll admit, I’m not a big fan of chain restaurants, and don’t usually jump at the chance to eat at Olive Garden. However this past weekend when my parents and aunt were in town, we chose Olive Garden for lunch because it’s one of four restaurants that my mom will eat at, so off we went.
What a pleasant surprise!
First off, the service was great. We were quoted about a 10 minute wait but they got a table ready for us in about 2. Our server was very busy but she was super friendly and took care of us really well.
The food, this is was what surprised me the most and left me smiling, was above average. We started off with an appetizer of hot artichoke spinach dip. Aside from my mom (I have to point out, she’s a VERY selective eater!) all of us loved it. My aunt asked for hot sauce and said it tasted even better with a drizzle of hot sauce over it. For our entrees, knowing the portion sizes are quite large at OG, we ordered an eggplant parmigiana and portobello ravioli and asked for two extra plates b/​c we were planning to split the dishes. They went a step further and offered to split the dishes for us and brought us four evenly plated dishes. Cool! When we got our portobello ravioli, it was a tad on the cold side so we asked if we could get it heated up. Instead of throwing it in the microwave, they made us entirely new dishes and brought us fresh steaming plates. They also checked in on us later and apologized for the cold dish (great customer service!). I really liked the portobello mushroom and my parents were happy with their eggplant parmigiana. I felt like splitting the dishes was very smart because what they brought out was just the right amount, otherwise there was no way we would have finished our food, serving size would have been WAAAY too large! My aunt wanted dessert after the meal, she’d been set on getting tiramisu since we got there, and she convinced my parents to get some with her, so they all shared two slices and seemed really satisfied with the taste. I was full so decided against it, but I definitely want to go back for coffee and dessert and try their dolcini (little desserts). You can select any three for the pocket friendly price of $ 6.50 or just get one for a steal of $ 2.35. They offer chocolate mousse w/​dark chocolate cookie crust, strawberry & white chocolate cream cake, limoncello mousse w/​vanilla cookie crust, dark chocolate cake w/​chocolate mousse & caramel cream, and lastly amaretto tiramisu w/​almond as choices. Yum!!!
Oh, and if you go for lunch on a Sunday like we did, best time is to get there after 1:00. I think the 12:00 — 1:00 slot is the busiest with all the church goers so the wait is usually longer. By 1:00 it’s calmed down and seats become more quickly available.