I have not been in an Olive Garden in a few years. We have a number of "GOOD" restaurants in our area.
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wow. I have never had anything like that happen in my life... and for it to happen so many times is beyond crazy.
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Darden Restaurants are all the Same, Poor food, long waits, and pushy staff, I have been in the business for over 15 years at a Family owned Rest. and I'm hear to tell you chains are all the same. Prefab food for the Friday night crowed support your local family owned business.
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Olive Garden is involved in a Class Action Lawsuit with their employees over improper wages. The Florence, AL store is on the 'Rescue' list according to a former manager from Birmingham. This means that they will employ every means possible to regroup the place or close it. I haven't eaten in our local location since last year and have no plans to return.

Corporate has been contacted. Interesting to see what their response is. Probably more :-)
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Probably would have had a lot more luck complaining/documenting at the time of the incident?
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What did the restaurant manager say after you showed him the items in Case #1? :-)
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She was apologetic but acted like always that it was something that regretfully happened and not a big deal. The torn pieces of napkins in the gnocci soup was the final straw in the Florence location. I guess now I realize that it seems all locations seem to have the same careless behavior.
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The problem with Olive Garden and restaurants like it is cheap food, low paid cooks...they never care. It's a safe bet that buying nice food at the store and cooking it yourself is the way to go. Or eat out occasionally at a nice steak house. I've pretty much given up out food. I use to do it all the time but frankly I've been so unimpressed with everywhere I've gone to in the past 6-12 months.

Went to a Lenny's sub shop maybe a week ago and I swear there was probably 4-6oz's of meat in the subs, my cat could have ate 2 of them.
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In my case Outback does not kick ass. I've pretty much had cmitch's luck at Outback. The last time we went, we hardly ever saw our waiter and when they cooked my wife's Medium Rare prime rib to Well Done and proceeded to tell us they were all out of prime rib I decided I was never going back. I have never, in my life, had bad luck at Olive Garden (though I havent been in a while) and I've been there many more times than Outback. Just my experience, your mileage may vary.
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They are all the same, just a different sales pitch. Eat local, kill the chains!
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That the one in Cool Springs? I've been there as well, actually last month...holy disappointment Batman! Worst Outback ever. They are definitely shoddy at best.
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I love Outback. Nothing but good experiences in Chicagoland, Louisville, Indiana and more.
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Our Outback sucks. Eaten there twice and will never go again. We've cut way back on going out anyway and now that we have a generation of ingrate clods fixing food for the public, I doubt I'll eat at any of them anymore. Around here, the bad employees just make their rounds hopping from one joint to another until they have frigged up every restaurant in town. Home owned, home operated establishments are definitely the way to go.
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Or learn to cook.

Glad I don't live in Alabama. :-)
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Those who KNOW how to cook, stay at home to cook. Those who can't, work for pre-package chain joints. We have some great places we still go to around here that are home owned and operated.
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Olive Garden to an Italian (me) sucks. I make my own homemade pasta. Best Italian restaurant for me is my kitchen. Clayton, you should really talk with a regional manager (or higher) about this. Eating out is expensive enough without having to deal with this bullsh!t. Sorry it happened to you.
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Doesn't surprise me - the chains seem to have most of their food pre-made in a factory (pre-washed lettuce, pre-cooked pasta, pre-boiled eggs, etc) so the debris could have come from anywhere.

One time at a large chain synonymous with a pepper, I had a salad and when I was about 3/4 done, I saw what appeared to be a large piece of wilted lettuce. Upon closer inspection, it was a large tropical dragonfly.

The manager explained that all of their veggies are "pre-washed" somewhere else and these things happen. She did comp the meal, but it was a little too late...
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I can cook, and I still hit the Outback occassionally. :-)
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For some odd reason I recall having much better experiences with Outbacks up north. There were a few really good ones in Michigan, not so much since I got down here though. Terrible food quality, clearly they get their food from somewhere else. It's nowhere near as good. The cooks suck at preparing it too so that doesn't help.
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There's a strip club locally that has a lunch buffet. Never been, but the food has to be good, right? I know the cook has to wash his hands, it's code. :-)
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