Jessa M.
Yelp
My husband and I decided to venture out on a Wednesday night for dinner. We were looking specifically for outdoor dining at an establishment that served steaks. We chose Oliver's as we had eaten here before at lunch, ordering some of the best sandwiches we have had in Macon.
Unfortunately, their dining service is probably the worst of any restaurant we have been to in our year of living in town.
Our waitress was dispassionate, disengaged, and contradicted herself many times. Oliver's made it very apparent they do not train their waitstaff. She also made a very uncomfortable and off-color remark regarding the fact I was breastfeeding my daughter, saying she was "getting the good stuff".
When we sat down to order, my husband asked specifically if there was prime rib, she said no, but all of the cuts were done in-house. That they got the meat and butchered it there "to perfection".
My husband ordered the ribeye, I ordered the shrimp scampi linguini, and we ordered an appetizer of bruschetta. We also ordered tomato bisque for our daughter who was with us, and this was the only item that arrived in a timely manner. Unfortunately, it was very underseasoned.
We sat waiting for 20 minutes for our appetizer. I called our server as she was walking away from another table and asked how long we would continue to wait for it. Our server tells us, "Oh, a bunch of tickets wasnt printed. Our machine is messed up". I would have appreciated if she told us she had instead forgotten as she had too many outdoor tables to attend to, rather than make up a lie she said without any conviction.
The appetizer finally comes 15 minutes after my asking, but it also came with the two entrees. This is not the correct order that food should be served. First soup, then app, then entrees.
My husband's ribeye was lean. Ribeye is intended to be a fatty cut of meat, we know this as our oldest son is a professional butcher. My husband informs our waitress it is a very lean cut, too lean as it lacked any marbling, and she ARGUES with him reiterating multiple times that ribeyes are "supposed to be lean". My husband told her they absolutely weren't. Then she tells us that, "they come that way". My husband asked her, "I thought you said you cut every steak in the house?" She ended up walking off in response to this.
My husband also made substitutions to his sides when we initially ordered and one was wrong. We then had to wait for the correct side to come.
As far as the scampi, it tasted like it was seasoned with purely pasta water. There were no remnants of crab meat as advertised, there was no garlic, and had there been a lemon slice, it may have improved the dish, but there wasn't one on the plate. This dish completely missed the mark and was exceptionally bland.
The bruschetta, which came at the same time as the appetizer, was cold, too hard to chew, lacked tomatoes (which is meant to be the heart of the dish), and the flavoring tasted like cheap maple syrup.
After only a few bites of our food we were ready to leave but had to wait far too long for the bill to come to the table.
We did not finish any of our plates. Instead, when diners at the table next to us saw our food and overheard the conversation between my husband and the waitress who argued with him, they left.
We vocalized many times that we were unhappy with the service and the food. The waitress offered my husband $10 off of his steak but this should have been an instance where she looked to a higher team member to help de-escalate the situation, but instead, we paid the bill and left extremely disappointed and dissatisfied.
We absolutely WILL not be coming here again. This experience told us that this is a restaurant that can only handle serving brunch and lunch. Oliver's was completely inept at serving dinner and I have already told my entire department at work just how horrible the service was. A truly, truly terrible dinner experience; from the service to the food, just absolutely terrible.
