Buffalo H.
Yelp
So my brilliant brain thought it would be a swell idea to get supper at the Olive Garden. There were tornado warnings.. so surely all the hungry people on a rainy night would have the good sense to stay home. That being the case meant there wouldn't be any long wait lines. Aw yeah: introverts unite! So we went for it. We walked in and there was no line!
About 5 employees milled around glancing at us like we were broken statues being wheeled in. Finally someone took mercy on us and led us to a table near a crying baby & left without saying a word. We waited & wondered if things had become digitized since the 90s.
I say this because there was an electronic tablet on the table. After waiting a few minutes, we wondered if we had to order on that iPad - so we investigated. But there were no entree options so we decided to try an appetizer. We ordered spinach artichoke dip & clicked submit.
Finally after we became skeletons from waiting forever, a young man appeared & asked us if we wanted beverages. We placed our order - I wanted the Endless soup/salad. Minestrone soup, to be exact. I asked if the appetizer would come out first - and he assured us it would. He asked me if I wanted the soup the same time as my dining companion's entree. I said yes please.
So a minute later - EVERYTHING comes out including appetizer. Everything except my SOUP. I try the dip.. A goopy congealed dip - lumpy and dry & the flatbread crisps were tasteless and burnt. Ugh whatever.
The salad? He tried to leave without grating parmesan cheese but we called out loudly with our voices before he escaped. Yeah you better grate that cheese, young man. The croutons were STALE. Slightly soft and gross. Red onions were cut haphazardly, like 3 small 8-onion-legged octopi.
I waited around for my soup but I had a feeling it was forgotten. So we pushed the button on iPad for help. He finally arrived & grinned & said he'd be right back with it. Finally he dropped it off - his dirty bare finger touching my soup from the INSIDE RIM of the bowl. Gross! No plate beneath the shallow bowl like in the commercials. Guess the kitchen didn't want to wash an extra plate. Oh well - time to build my immunity - I'll eat this soup contaminated by the server's hands.
Bear in mind our table had a dim or missing bulb, it was kind of dark. But holy moly!!! I spoon up a chunk of... BEEF?! What!! Uh homie don't eat that and last I checked, Minestrone soup is vegetarian. I asked my dining companion to taste it to confirm - "Yes, that's beef," he said. We pushed the button on the iPad (the call button, we joked, as we felt we were in a hospital room from hell). Our server chuckled about the mixup of the Pasta e Fagioli/Minestrone soup. This was upsetting and we should have been comped.
Oh guess what else? The breadsticks were DRY and old AF. I took one bite and threw it across the table, back in the basket (Air Jordan!). I understand that it was low class of me to toss bread from whence it came from but it was NOT fresh & soft. It was inedible and stale and cold. They just didn't care or have pride in their service or food.
Anyway - it was time to go - our server never once asked me if I wanted more soup or salad (Endless soup and salad, my foot). He didn't even offer dessert. But I asked him for a takeout-container for the remainder of my salad. He came back with a new packed salad with a snap-on lid featuring an *empty* compartment for a small container of dressing and a package of croutons. However - no dressing or croutons were included. (Did he skip the training? Though that's basic common sense ). Ummm - I said I asked for an EMPTY container to shove in my leftover salad - he seemed confused and amused - but finally he agreed to get me an empty container. Good grief.
And when did they stop giving out Andes chocolate mints at the end? What the heck! That was going to my salvation, a little something to boost my sour mood. YET.. We didn't receive any mints. Trick or treat indeed - we got all the tricks played on us tonight. Honestly I think management sent the capable servers home because of the inclement weather. Or maybe it was a bad day. Or maybe it's downhill in general like my momma said when I told her what happened to us.
Either way... We truly had a terrible time. Incompetence and negligence abound. And the food was not fresh. It must have been left out from the lack of expected business. Olive Garden on Airport Blvd used to be THE place back in the 90s.. with savvy waiters. We tipped 20% despite the torture.
Oh and something else happened that made me bust out laughing because it capped off the night in consistent disappointment: the iPad from hell spit out a receipt & THERE WAS NO INK! We just left that slip of paper on the table.
We shan't return. "When you're here, you're family." Like hell we was. Maybe like scorned red-headed stepchildren, we're family. Goodnight, nightmare Tour of Italy.