Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

I know Olive Garden gets a bad rap but I like the eggplant parmigiana and the service here was excellent.

I know the rep Olive Garden gets but I like their Moscato, I like their changing specials, love the salad and breadsticks. Good service, four stars well earned.

I had a really bad experience here.

I went on a busy night and was with a large party. We were quoted a time of over an hour, which seemed reasonable. But as we sat and waited, the manager on duty (a rather loud and portly woman) had some friends come in - a six top. They were told that the wait should be an hour, but they would get them a table right away. And they were. Not that this is a HUGE deal, as we were given a table fairly quickly, but it lets you know the caliber of the manager.

So, we ordered and I was carb loading for a triathlon, so I got  .... wait for it ... spaghetti with meat sauce. Nothing fancy. When the food came out, only 9 of the 12 entrees came. The waitress left quickly, without asking if things were okay, and we figured she was getting the rest of the food.

WRONG.

Order was messed up. The waitress returned as the other 9 were finishing. We asked about our food and she went to retrieve 2 of the entrees, and forgot mine ... again. I finally got the food 45 minutes after everyone else. If it was REALLY good, that's one thing. But it's just *meh* corporate food.

The waitress apologized PROFUSELY and said that all the food was being comped, just not the alcohol. We were happy about that. But as the bill came, the food wasn't comped, but discounted by 10%. When asked, the waitress said that that was all the manager would do.

But why would they tell us one thing then do another?

So, the management seemed to have been horrible. Service? Forgetful or incompetent. Food? Meh.

So why bother? Should have gone to the fast food italian place. At least it would have been CHEAPER with bad service and meh food.