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Review content:
Travelled to the Olive Garden on 281 at Bitters for a mid afternoon lunch then to run errands and head home which is a 45 minute drive. The afternoon started out great until we were seated at Olive Garden. The wait was not bad (10 minutes) but we were seated and it was over 15 minutes until we were greeted by our server. Im glad we had some good conversation going within our family. When she arrived she apologized for the wait and I figured it would pick up from there. We ordered EVERYTHING when she came by so that we could get on track. The only special request was that my wife's soup be brought out when the entrees are delivered to our table, she ordered only soup and salad, and two extra servings of salad dressing for the kids to dip breadsticks. I am detail oriented so I looked to make sure she was writing this down. She did. She left with the order and said she would be right back with the drinks, salad, and breadsticks. Well, it was another 10 minutes for the drinks and after another 10 minutes the salad and breadsticks did not show up, my wife coaxed me to find the manager to get things going. We couldn't find the waitress. Other tables she had around us were also irritated on the quality and speed of service. Our area must have been mixed with different staff because other waitstaff had their patrons taken care of with drinks, salad, breadsticks, refills etc even though they were seated after us. I found the manager and asked if he could light a fire and get things rolling. After I sat back down, salad and breadsticks came out, 1 extra salad dressing, and my wife's soup. All of the drinks were empty and she said she would be right back. When she showed back up about 5 minutes later, she noticed she forgot about the drinks, then asked if we would like our entrees brought out or would we like to enjoy our salad for a little while. I just about lost it and was thinking, ""maybe just leave it under the heat lamp for another 10-15 minutes while we enjoy our salad and wait on our breadsticks and refills""....... I politely asked her to go ahead and bring the entrees, refills and breadsticks. My wife chimed in and asked for more salad also. She then asked if I had coke. I replied, ""No, we all had un-sweet tea"".. Another waiter brought out the entrees AND the soup that my wife requested with the meal and then asked if we needed anything else. I told him tea, breadsticks and more salad. So Im thinking she wrote down the order regarding the soup but was so clustered she couldn't keep track of her patrons. She never brought the breadsticks and the refills were done once by the other waiter. Next time I saw her I asked for the check. She never asked if we needed to go boxes, drinks, to go dessert, etc. I paid the bill, left 10% gratuity (my wife told me to leave 0). Never saw the manager to check on us. I blame not only the waitress, but the manager for not stepping up. I do not expect a free meal, the food was good, but the service was horrible which made the experience at this Olive Garden location (281 @ Bitters) unacceptable. The manager NEVER came back to ask about food or service quality. The waitress was either new or was having issues. Management should have helped her out. There were other tables in the area that were on the same program as we were and were more vocal about it. It seemed they were not taken care of either. Maybe this is a one time incident but be aware. Managers need to step up.
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