I now recall why I haven’t been to Olive Garden for so long – the restaurant sucks. First of all, I checked their website prior to going, so I could decide what I wanted to order in advance (I’m very indecisive so this is always a good idea). For those of you not familiar with their site (and yes, I’m purposely not linking to it), they ask you to enter your zipcode and then provide you with a list of their closest locations. From there you can select a particular restaurant and get (supposedly) customized information, such as menus and prices. However, when we got to the restaurant it quickly became clear that someone hasn’t kept the site up to date.
The first thing I noticed was we were given a dinner menu (at 11:30 am). When I asked about it, I was informed that they only serve dinner on the weekends. Funny, this information is not posted anywhere on their site (that I could find). Secondly, when I couldn’t find the entree I wanted to order, I was told they don’t offer it and hadn’t for at least six months. When I explained to the waitress that their website was seriously inaccurate, instead of assuring me that she’d let management know, she informed me that she doesn’t even know how to use a computer. And I care, why? I felt like telling her that in that case she better plan on waitressing for a very long time (yes, I can be a bitch when people are stupid). So in addition to having a useless website, Olive Garden employs people who don’t know how to satisfy a customer.
Suffice to say, that’s the last time we’ll dine there. The food was nothing special (and should have been at those prices) and the waitress just aggravated the hell out of me. In addition, I realized that I am not a fan of Italian food to begin with (pizza being an exception).
It’s truly hard to believe that the Olive Garden is owned by the same corporation that owns Red Lobster, but I know where we’ll be spending the remainder of our gift cards.
On a side note – we went to Borders after lunch and I was shocked to find that the new Underworld CD was $4 more in the store than online. So I went home and ordered it, along with the new SpongeBob DVD that comes out on Tuesday, so I qualified for free shipping (and don’t have to pay taxes either). Unbelieveable.
All your talk about Red Lobster has me wanting to try it. I can’t recall if I’ve ever been. It’s that good, eh?