Address: | 741 Hogan Rd, Bangor, ME 04401, USA |
Phone: | +1 207-942-6209 |
Site: | olivegarden.com |
Rating: | 4.1 |
Working: | 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–11PM 11AM–11PM 11AM–10PM |
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Jackie Manning
Trust me I am using that 3rd star very loosely. I have been going to this Olive Garden for years, I have really noticed probably the last 2 years that the service has gone really down hill... I really contemplated writing this review considering I have been a server for almost 15 years. I started at 15 years old and have worked corporate, family owned businesses, fine dining, and my last job was in Bar Harbor. Anyways I consider myself to know a thing or two about serving. We went in yesterday and had a reservation for a party of 10 for my sisters and nephews birthday. Let me be very frank, we are all Italian like real Italian last name DeGiousafatto, we are kind of a needy table, but we have had plenty of good experiences at other restaurants and tip incredibly well if you are good at your job. And if not you still get %20. We walk into olive garden, they say it will be just a minute... My mom goes to ask a few minutes later because we had been waiting and she has to know whats going on and they had given our table away. So we wait. Finally we are seated. Our server Lydia comes over and says her and one other girl would be taking care of us. At first I feel bad because they have to split a 10 top which means split the tip. But I am also relieved because my family likes things a certain way. I have successfully waited on 15 of them by myself and it was no easy task. I order Alfredo with my drink because at this point it us 7:51 and our reservation was at 7. I work on a boat now and was starving from working out on the ocean all day. We are still waiting for my sister and son to join at this point. We finally put our food order in several minutes later. So I ask for Alfredo again, shes like oh you want a Alfredo too. I almost said yeah, I told you that a half hour ago and here I am still starving. Me and my sister dont like plain breadsticks so I stared at those on the table for about 40 minutes before I could have 1. Me and my sister ordered chicken Alfredo, add the steak medallions, and substitute tortellini for the upcharge. Which is a pretty pricey meal but we will pay whatever it cost for good food. My steak looked like a flattens pancake, I asked for medium it was extremely well. Funny thing neither of our servers asked how our steaks were. You always asked if a steak is cooked to someones liking. Let me just get to the point, the server rolled her eyes at my sister, we were scared to ask for half the stuff we wanted because of the attitudes, the servers would walk away from you while you are talking, that is so rude and it makes you feel like you are bugging them. I am assuming in corporate you cant have more then a 6 table section and you have to split anything over 8. They were not good servers at all. I know you get tables that are needy but that doesnt mean you ignore them or make them feel uncomfortable. I have had a few bad experiences the last 2 years but I had to write on this one, my sister and nephews birthday was ruined. I had to also go around and leave way more cash because everyone was so mad they were trying to leave less then I would of. We didnt even have my nephews cake or sing happy Birthday because it was such a horrible experience. If anything comes out of this, I just hope the servers learn not to make people feel uncomfortable even if they arent your dream table and to stop walking away from people while they are talking. If they had said is there anything else I can get for you folks, we would of let them know and they wouldnt of had to run 50 times. Me and my sister spend alot of money here in the winter time and we were talking about never going back, it was that bad.
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Tracey MacDonald
We eat out 3-4 nights a week so have many experiences to draw upon when rating our overall visit to Olive Garden. I was very much disappointed in food, service and presentation of the food. The most important component of eating out, in my opinion, is the wait staff. We had two at our table with the male being the primary server. He was snappy and curt which presented itself right off when taking our drink order. As I was waiting to order my meal with him, the other staff person came along asking if she could take my menu. I had not had a chance to order so hesitated and she said "have you ordered?". When I said no she said oh, okay, you can keep it. We started off with an appetizer, spinach dip. We had always liked their spinach dip. The menu indicated it was a new recipe. The spinach tasted like undrained canned spinach giving the entire dish a watered down taste. Then the meals started to arrive. One person ordered the steak requesting the steak be medium well. The first time it came out medium rare and the second time came out medium. We requested it not go back a third stating we did not want meat that had to be cooked three times. They insisted. I asked they please not bring back a steak that had to be recooked again. The steak returned and it was the same piece that had already been cooked twice. Two people ordered chicken alfredo. The chicken in each dish was cooked different. One dish was fine. The other dishs chicken had what appeared to be grilled crust on the outside of it. Fine, however the odd part is the charred grilled part was soggy. It wasnt crisp, just the exact opposite, wet and soggy. We had one child. All others adults. Six meals came out first and then we had to wait for the seventh meal. The meal we waited for was the childs meal, off the childrens menu so cook staff would have known it is for a child. Even the female server commented it not being there and should be out shortly. One of the simpler dishes, pasta with marinara sauce, had an appearance like someone had picked at it before bringing it to the table. Generally when I order this the sauce is poured over top of spaghetti. The one served last evening had one side of the dish stirred lacking presentation and me wondering who had taken a fork to my plate before arriving at the table. Now I can understand some challenges when a restaurant is busy however we went between lunch and dinner. The place was not busy at all. The steak meal was deducted from our bill so that was important to note. The entire experience was such a disappointment. I dont see us going back there in the near future.
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Lisa Rahon
This may sound dramatic, but for the second time Olive Garden has restored our faith in humanity. When we were evacuated from Katrina, an olive garden in waco tx realized we werent just glued to the tv coverage of the hurricane, we were looking for our neighborhood on the helicopter footage, and they were kind enough to comp our meals. This time in Bangor ME where we live now, we saw an elderly veteran on crutches trying to get up from the table and having a hard time. The waiter and my husband gave him hand. We overheard that "someone" paid for their meal. (I guess SJWs might get upset if OG paid for a veterans meal and not everyone elses, so they didnt want to say.) Then we looked at our bill and they removed my husbands meal too. Unlike almost all other chain giants like HD or Lowes where the management and staff do not care at all about their customers, OG is clearly hiring staff who are good people in the community. As usual the service is top notch as well as the food, very unusual these days. So please go to olive garden and support a company that appreciates the men and women who served our country, even though its not PC anymore to admire their sacrifices.