I hadn't been to Olive Garden in years and was very excited to take my kids this past weekend as a treat for their great report cards. What a disappointment! I will start with the positive - we were seated within 5 min, despite the busy time for them. Our server was very kind. Now, the not-so-positive.... We were given a menu with a menu within. I wondered why 2, as it seemed the smaller menu had similar items, except for they were priced in half. Then I realized the smaller menu was their lunch menu and since it was 12:30 pm, I set the bigger (dinner) menu aside. It seemed like it took a really long time for our food to arrive, but again, they were pretty busy so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The problem is that it is hard not to fill up on salad and bread sticks. I found Iceberg lettuce to be a rather cheap choice. My meal was ok but nothing impressive. Such was the opinion of the other 3 people at the table. One of my daughters ordered chicken Alfredo (or so I thought) but got Alfredo noodles with no chicken. I thought perhaps she did not speak clearly enough when she ordered and since she had already filled up on breadsticks and salad, I decided to not say anything. The really sad part began after we got the bill. I usually don't pay attention to the details on my restaurant bills and I don't know what prompted me to do it this time. First thing I noticed was a charge of $2.50 for chicken with the kid's Alfredo noodles. I told our server that the meal actually did not have chicken. After apologizing, he said he will have his manager remove the extra charge as well as remove the 2 sundae charges for us as a courtesy. I thought that was very nice of him. A few minutes later, he came back embarrassed, to say that his manager removed the chicken charge but not the desserts. I did not find this to be a problem since my kids consumed the desserts anyway. After he brought the credit card slip to sign, I took a closer look at the bill and realized both adult meals were at twice the listed price. Then I remembered the 2 menus. On our way out, I asked the hostess what the difference between the two menus was and after she told me the smaller menu was for lunch, I asked what was needed to order lunch items next time. She replied: "We serve lunch until 4pm". Then I looked at the clock (close to 2 pm) and asked why we were charged dinner prices. Her reply was: "let me get my manager". More than 5 min later, when no one came, I asked her if I should continue to wait. She said: "let me check" and ran back inside. After a few more minutes the manager came. I shook his hand and introduced myself. His reply was: "Hi, how can I help you"? I had to ask him for his name. After he introduced himself, I shared with him my confusion about their "lunch and dinner menus/prices" and that since we had come in at noon, we thought we were getting the lunch option but were charged for dinner". He replied that on weekends, they "expect people to eat more"(?!?!?!), therefore, hand out dinner menus (not true!). He also stated that lunch can be ordered at any time of the day, "even at 10 pm" (which contradicted the waitress), but you had to specifically tell yours server you wanted the lunch item. Then, before I even had the chance to respond, he said: "Hold on, I'll be back". He ran in the back and after some time came back and handed me a gift card, saying: "Sorry about the confusion, this should help with your next visit". I thanked him and walked out where my boyfriend and kids who were getting pretty impatient, as they had been waiting for more than 10 min. Once we got in the car and I looked at the gift card, I just about screamed - a $5 gift card. I found that to be extremely insulting and pathetic and promised NEVER to go back there again! There are plenty of local businesses striving for service that is truly oriented towards serving quality real food and customer satisfaction.
How would this review be described in terms of sentiment?
negative