Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

Dined here on Sunday 3/9/25 and it was an absolute trainwreck. Arrived at 8 and did not leave until after 10pm. Seated promptly (only a 5 minute wait) Server greets us and takes our entire order but tells us the kitchen is backed up and she just got double sat so to be prepared for slower than usual food delivery. Okay, sounds like premature excuses but whatever. After taking our entire order, rather than going to put our order in with the kitchen that she just said was already backed up, she walks right over to the table that was sat after ours and takes their order as well. So she's gonna put in two tables orders at once to a backed up kitchen?? Okay. She returns with salad and bread but is missing our Alfredo sauce appetizer. She has the second tables mozzarella sicks mistaken as ours. Still no drinks. Bread is cold and stale. Salad needs extra dressing but waitress is nowhere to be found. 20 minutes pass and someone else finally brings us our beverages. By now I'm pretty annoyed. The other server in the same section is working circles around ours. Never once heard her tell her tables the kitchen was backed up and was delivering drinks and food with speed and ease. Food eventually comes and it's warm but not hot meaning it has been sitting. And wouldn't you know it, the second tables appetizer was added to our bill so that had to be corrected along with another item. The restaurant did seem busy so I am going to extend some grace to our server but I also think things were complicated by her taking two tables orders at the same time.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 2

Recommended dishes: Soup & Salad

We were sat near a very large party, so we had to wait a little while on our server. She was nice and friendly. Our food came pretty quickly and tasted great. The only downside is the higher prices because they charge $16 for a plate of Alfredo noodles with no meat. We eat here pretty often, but it would be nice to see lower prices on plain noodles. We've noticed overtime that the bread sticks aren't as good, they're lacking in flavor.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Seafood Alfredo, Fettuccine

The food was delicious and plentiful.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Meat Sauce, Chicken Parmesan, Soup & Salad, Fettuccine

The food was good. The service was even better!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Delicious!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Soup & Salad

Fantastic, we had great time.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Soup & Salad

Great Spaghetti and Salad and Bread Sticks.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chicken Scampi, Caesar Salad, Minestrone Soup, Soup & Salad, Marinara Sauce

The food was okay. Just felt like my chicken Alfredo pasta was sitting for a period of time before getting it. (I also added steamed broccoli which shouldn't be hard and dried out) Overall, my pasta wasn't even warm when I got it. I usually have nothing bad to say about an Olive Garden but this one...needs work. My husband would eat anything and said his was great though. He got some sort of tortellini. The bread was warm. The salad was okay except for the tomatoes, they tasted old. The Italian donuts were thankfully hot when we finally got them before leaving. Overall, I would go further out of my way to go to the Spartanburg location next time rather than the Hickory location.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 3

Love the all you can eat soup and salad.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great food and great dessert

I had the 4 cheese manicotti. Hardly any filling and the shells were dry and hard and stuck to the plate. Very bad choice. Looked nothing like the add on TV. or the picture on TV.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 5

I am a huge fan of Olive Garden, and one of my favorite things is the consistent quality of service and food at every location. Unfortunately, this location was a huge disappointment. We came in the evening expecting a small wait for a party of 2. Not one, not two, but three groups were sat before us as a group of two after coming in behind us. Additionally, our name was called then another party of two was called (Robyn) which got to the hostess first. We were then told “we accidentally called you” and had to remain waiting. Once we finally got sat, the overall aroma in the restaurant was horrible. It smelled quite unpleasant, almost like urine. Not the smell you want when eating. Once sat with waitress, Amy, the service quality deteriorated further. We were never asked if we wanted more salad, breadsticks, a box to go, or if we wanted desert. We figured out how to checkout on our own with the kiosk while waiting for our waitress to come back and offer a box. She tossed the chocolates on the table then observed we may need a box and departed. I do genuinely hope this review leads to improved service and quality that matches the rest of the Olive Garden fleet.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 5

Service: 1

UPDATE!!
Recent visit yealded better results! Worth going to again:-) gerything was good

Ordered steak fettuccine medium and the steak was rare. Cleanliness of the restaurant looked okay but for some reason the restaurant smells like garbage from the front door to your seat. Must be in the carpet or something but pretty strong. Overheard wait staff talking about wages and tips.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Great service!!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chicken Scampi, Seafood Alfredo

Place needs to be updated. Service was aweful. Food was ok. Didn't like Minestrone

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 2