Olive Garden Disappoints

One could only hope that after a bad, bad cimematic experience that the dinner could save the evening. Not to be.

As a preface, the local Olive Garden has been a favorite feeding spot for me and family and even a few business meals over the years. In most cases the experience has been good. Last night was BAD.

Let's walk through the ordeal. First the parking was excellent with a spot very near the entrance door. Warm greeting by hostesses. No wait and a quick walk to non-smoking section. Planted right next to table with two large gals who had apparently arrived just before us. We might have just as well been seated at the same table. We walked right by a couple of more private booths but we must have looked like we wanted dining company. I ordinarily would have requested a nore private table but opted out this evening. We were seated and waitor was soon upon us. After a brief chat we ordered drinks and our meals. The salad showed up, what there was of it. Olive Garden serves their salads in a large bowl and the diners serve themselves from it. We must not have very looked hungry because our bowl wouldn't have fed a pigmy couple. Still no drinks. The breadsticks arrive. I love Olive Garden's breadsticks. I used to love Olive Garden's breadsticks. The four we got were cold, and had dried out on the ends. The drinks finally arrive. I had a direct view to the bar from my chair and there were no patrons in the bar so I am clueless why a Corona and red wine would take 15 minutes to serve. It got worse. No glass for the beer. Now this will seem very picky to most people but I like my beer in a glass, preferrably in a frosted glass even if the brew is already in a cold bottle. Not to be. BTW, I have rarely been in a resturant where they will serve the second beer in a new frosted glass even though the first one was frosted. Do the servers and proprietors think only the first serving needs all the frivilities. Apparently I looked like a college frat hack who will gladly take their swill directly from the keg spout this evening. In the meantime the waitor is back to inform my date that the meal she ordered couldn't have the chicken portion because they were out. How can a resturant be out of chicken on a Saturday evening at 9:00! She asked him to just add more beef. The meals eventually arrive and it turns out that the shish ca bobs she ordered were not shewered because they also ran out of shewers. WTF. Five minutes later her side vegetable arrived after she's well into her meal. I had the spagetti with sausage. The sausage was good, but the spagetti was already drying out on the edges of the plate. By this time I realize why we were seated next to Dawn and Donna. The other sections were already empty and the staff was cleaning them up. Apparently it is more important that the resturant be promptly readied for the next day than for today's diners to have a quiet spot to enjoy their dining.

I pay Jason and give him an overly generous tip for the service. Actually any tip would have been overly generous. Now one could put all the blame on Jason and he certainly deserves a good share. But the managemet owns most of it. They should not allow dried bread sticks. They should not tolerate depleted inventories. They own the quality of the full experience.

On a "I will definitely go back" to "I gotta barf" scale of 10 to 1 this experience was a 4. It will be awhile before you see me at the Olive Garden again. Oh, Jason get another job you suck at waiting.