Olive Garden Italian Restaurant

I enjoy Olive Garden, for starters. I am admittedly not a food snob, I have no idea how to discern which restaurants are "corporate" in their manner of serving up food en masse versus restaurants where each plate is lovingly crafted by a skilled chef. All I know is the spaghetti and meatballs at Olive Garden delight my taste buds. So there's that.

The Olive Garden in Bend has never disappointed me or my family. The restaurant itself is always clean, the food is always good, and the staff are always at least competent and friendly. It has at times been too chilly for me, but that's a personal preference and I can hardly call it a fault of a restaurant if the staff and majority of the patrons like it colder than I do. (And the hostess at the desk at the lunch hour on March 8 seemed like she would rather be anywhere else but we only had to tolerate her through the seating process.)

I'm writing today because on Friday, March 8th, our experience brought me to tears of joy. Granted, it was grounded in the fact that we were at OG to celebrate my mother's 75th birthday, so joy was already on the menu. But what really pushed the experience to new heights was the service. Our server was "Erik A." and he is what I wish every server at every restaurant could be. His demeanor was gentlemanly, his volume was politely soft, his delivery was sincere and unscripted, he was attentive without going to the two extremes of neglectful or overbearing, and he masterfully dealt with my subtle cues aimed at surprising my Mom for her birthday with one of their desserts. He was Spot-On and had it been within my budget, I'd have tipped him enough to take a week off (again, we were all feeling the joy already so that would have been emotionally-motivated overkill but I would have done it for a server of his caliber).

If you go to OG in Bend, ask for Erik. And if he's not on the clock, I'm certain you'll still get good service from the rest of the staff.

Another big vote for PAIGE! She was so friendly and attentive. She made our visit so much more enjoyable. Food was good but service was outstanding.

PAIGE!!! She is the very best server we have ever had! Never had a meal at Olive Garden be SO enjoyable. We came in late and she was just the sweetest. If you get lucky enough to be seated in her section count your blessings!
Oh the food was good too!
P.S.
don't ever let her leave- give her a raise. We will be back strictly for her!

I'd like to start off with what's good about this particular Olive Garden. The staff is friendly and the food is pretty good.

My first experience here was months ago.. it was perfect. The service was great, the staff were friendly, the food was great, my order was correct, and the drinks were good.

My last experience here was very recent. It was just a little different and weird to say the least... we had a different server... just weird vibes. Really no other way to explain it right off the bat.

Fast forward to a delicious appetizer then we go to order our food. The server had us wait just a moment because another table was asking to see the manager in regards to their check.

We then receive our food. One of our plates was the incorrect dish. It was the recommended dish, not the one we asked for as if our server were just smiling and nodding rather than listening. No big deal, we don't complain as long as it still tastes good, and it did so we left it alone.
I had chicken in my meal and the chicken seemed like it was steamed... it was soft and mushy in its consistency. Kind of gross, but I was starving so I ate it with no complaint. My girlfriend and I agreed all was weird up to this point, but we were hungry, ate it, and just asked for to-go boxes and the check.

So, we get to paying on this kiosk and holy cow, for 2 non-alcoholic teas, 2 $22 meals, and an $11 appetizer, it was suggesting an $18 tip as 20%. Why was it doing this you might ask? Our server put the order in for us... except before he put our order in for us he placed an order for 2 beers and some sauce add on then canceled it off the tab to zero it out, but it did raise all of the tip suggestions at the end... makes you wonder why the other table had issues with the same server and their check as well, doesn't it? Seems like quite the scam artist they have working for them.

Read all the details on your checks future customers!
I work hard for my money just like other people... I don't need other working people trying to steal it from me. I still tipped him $12 because he is working and he served us, but to avoid the awkwardness of seeing this guy again, we will not be going back to this particular Olive Garden.

Went to dinner. Group of seven. Food was predictably quite good. Service was very good. Friendly and fast. Nice place.

Our return to Olive Garden was much different from our previous visit, over a year ago. We were seated immediately and our waiter introduced himself after a few minutes. Bread sticks were warm when delivered to our table; but, were rubbery as if they had been warmed in a microwave. Chicken and gnocchi soup was very good with gnocchi from heaven. My wife found her Shrimp Scampi tasteless. I tried some of it and agreed with her. The sauce was thin, almost to the point of being watery, and lacking even a hint of garlic. My Shrimp Alfredo was delicious with perfectly prepared shrimp. I would order it again; but, highly unlikely to ever order Shrimp Scampi. Microwaved bread sticks are unacceptable. We will probably go back to Olive Garden; but, we will continue trying other restaurants in the greater Bend area.

Incredible food and amazing service!! We are celebrating our anniversary, decided to do a date night at home! Ordered Togo, and asked if the best way we could recreate there amazing Green Apple sangria!! The amazing staff gave us a run down and even sold us the syrup so we could make it at home!! They made our day!! Hovana is an incredible manager, so kind and gratuitous!!

Great experience at Olive Garden!
We were promptly seated and greeted by our delightful server, Brianna. She was very helpful and attentive to the needs of our table, all while displaying a genuinely pleasant and cheerful demeanor. She's amazing! "Thank you, Brianna!"
The food was served hot and in a timely manner. Everything was flavorful, well portioned, and delicious.
We'll definitely be back!

Call in service got us right in. Waitress came quickly and got our order quickly. Food was good so were the soup and beverage. Little noisy in there, kinda quiet speaking. Still a great place to go.

If I could give no stars, I would! We walk in, ask to sit in bar but little miss control says no because all seating is part of rotation. Asked her to explain what is meant by that as it makes no sense, and she just repeated it! Then she says the wait is 15 minutes but there were multiple empty tables. We are taken back to a table but asked if we could sit in a booth. He looked at us with a straight face and said there are no booths available. We pointed at 5 different empty booths and he said again, there are no booths available! We sat for a bit at our table and they set some people at a booth! We felt like we were in elementary school! We decided not to give them our money and we left and will never come back!