8 Frequent Customer Complaints About Olive Garden

Olive Garden is arguably the perfect chain when you're looking for an Italian-ish meal that you don't have to cook yourself; it's an ideal place where basically everyone in your family can find something to eat (even if it's not exactly what they want), and that delivers a sit-down dining experience. It has locations across the country, where you can find pasta, a variety of other entrees, and all the extras you could ever want, from appetizers to various cocktails and even desserts. And considering that the restaurant chain has been around since 1982, it seems that it's been a pretty successful venture.

Still, though, customers have plenty of complaints about what this restaurant has to offer, and we can't exactly blame them. Although the chain does some things well, there are plenty of other areas where it doesn't deliver the level of quality customers are looking for. As inflation hits restaurants and they start charging more for their food, customers are specifically looking for quality and value. And unfortunately, it doesn't seem like they're always getting it at Olive Garden. Let's take a closer look at these frequent customer complaints about the popular Italian-ish chain restaurant.

One of the biggest complaints customers have about Olive Garden is the poor food quality. That may not be that big of a deal if customers are at a fast food joint — after all, you're not exactly expecting anything gourmet from McDonald's. But when you're paying sit-down restaurant prices, you want a decent sit-down restaurant quality. For a lot of Olive Garden diners, that's not happening for them at the chain. One Redditor said that even though the chain's food is consistent, it's not very high-quality. Another said that they could make a higher-quality meal at home while paying just a fraction of the price they'd pay at the restaurant. Still another wrote that the food is commercialized and that the chain is focused on volume over quality.

Some say that this questionable level of quality is because shareholders are trying to make as much money as possible, cutting costs by prioritizing profits over food quality. Others claim that this is happening everywhere, not just at Olive Garden. Whatever the cause of that lack of quality, though, it ultimately makes the dining experience at Olive Garden disappointing for a lot of guests.

There's no doubt about it: Chain restaurants are taking over the restaurant industry. But in a lot of cases, diners aren't particularly pleased with chain restaurants, considering that both food and service might be significantly worse than what you'd find at a good independent restaurant. Olive Garden is no exception. A Redditor complained that one of the reasons they dislike Olive Garden is because it's a larger chain that ostensibly pushes independent restaurants out of business. If there weren't an Olive Garden in a particular location, for instance, a mom-and-pop sort of place could snag that space instead.

Another Redditor said that this is why they dislike chains in general. They've found that smaller restaurants tend to have fresher food, while other Olive Garden customers claim that the food tastes microwaved. The good news? Even though chain restaurants may dominate some parts of the market, there are plenty of smaller Italian restaurants around the country that are still going strong. Take a closer look at the best Italian restaurants in every state if you'd prefer going to a more local spot instead of your nearest Olive Garden.

If there's one dish that Olive Garden is known for, it has to be its breadsticks. Breadsticks may be treated as an afterthought at a lot of restaurants, but not at Olive Garden — those buttery, garlicky pieces of bread they put in the middle of your table in a basket are arguably the best part of the whole meal. But in October of 2023, the chain started working with a new breadstick supplier to provide customers with a sesame-free product, as some diners may have sesame allergies. However, the restaurant claims that, apart from the inclusion of sesame, the recipe for the breadsticks didn't actually change in the process of changing suppliers.

But it doesn't seem like customers are buying that claim. Someone who claims to be an Olive Garden employee said that customers made a lot of complaints about the new breadsticks and that they were misshapen and tasted different than they once had. Another Redditor said that the breadsticks didn't have enough garlic salt or margarine on them (which is essentially the whole appeal of this appetizer anyway). And still another said that the new breadsticks were "hotdog bun quality." Some customers have even said that they're outraged at the chain. While we certainly appreciate a more allergen-friendly menu item, it shouldn't come at the cost of quality and flavor, especially for arguably the most iconic item on the entire Olive Garden menu.

One of the most common complaints we see about Olive Garden is that people think it's too expensive for what you get. It's not just that the prices are high for a chain restaurant, but also that the quality you're getting here just doesn't match. Nobody wants to pay premium prices for a meal that's, frankly, pretty mediocre. A few years ago, someone on Reddit complained that it costs $40 per person to dine at Olive Garden if you're going all in with a glass of wine, entree, dessert, and tips. In return, they said, they didn't even get good service, and the overall ambiance of the restaurant was "soul sucking." And that's before prices reached the point they're at now.

Others complain about having to spend almost $20 to eat pasta that doesn't even come with meat, and still another Redditor wrote that they thought they could get more bang for their buck at a steakhouse and that they were ultimately disappointed with their meal. Similar complaints have been lodged against the chain's chicken Alfredo specifically — one customer thinks it costs a lot more than it's worth. When you consider how easy it is to make an incredible baked pasta at home for way less than you'd pay at Olive Garden, these all seem like valid critiques.

Now, we're not sticklers for "authenticity." After all, it's an idea that's pretty hard to nail down anyway, because foods and specific dishes change all the time for countless reasons. And most of us aren't going to Olive Garden expecting to get the same kind of meal as they'd get at a nonna's house in the heart of the Tuscan countryside — it's pretty well-known that Olive Garden's menu is more inspired by Italian-American dishes than it is by classic Italian cuisine. That being said, Olive Garden customers feel like the menu is Americanized, and not in a good way.

For one Redditor, the idea that it's presented like "foreign" food but is designed to appeal to the most basic American palate is one of the reasons to dislike the restaurant. This commenter doesn't say that the food is necessarily bad, just that it's "ultra-generic," which is probably not what any restaurant wants its customers to say about its food. Another poster questions the Olive Garden's authenticity  compared to other Italian restaurants in the United States. Respondents say that this food is decidedly not Italian. Again, Italian-American food can be excellent, but that doesn't mean that Olive Garden is doing those dishes particularly well, either.

Diners across the internet have posed a question: Is Olive Garden fancy? The thing is, not everyone will have the same answer. If you grew up going to the chain only on special occasions, then Olive Garden might very much feel fancy to you. However, if your standard of dining is based on upscale, independent restaurants in a big city, then Olive Garden probably doesn't feel fancy at all. Insisting the correct opinion is one way or the other is classism, folks — we think you should just go out to eat where you want to eat, whether you're choosing it for the food or the vibes alone.

But for Olive Garden diners who might be more used to a different type of restaurant experience, the chain can feel lowbrow or cheap. To one Redditor, this is only annoying because they feel that the restaurant tries to position itself as more upscale than it really is.

Sure, pasta isn't the only kind of dish that Olive Garden sells. However, it's definitely one of the main staples on the chain's menu, so you'd expect the restaurant to do this category of dish well at the very least. But unfortunately, for some Olive Garden customers, the pasta is flat because it doesn't have the al dente firmness they're looking for. One review says you should expect softer pasta from Olive Garden, while another commented on a post about Olive Garden that Americans don't seem to understand al dente pasta. Additionally, a Redditor who claims to have worked at Olive Garden says that sometimes, cooks can make the pasta too mushy simply because they leave it in the water too long.

For anyone who prefers that distinct, al dente bite, overcooked pasta can be a total buzzkill. But apparently, the chain actually does this on purpose because some diners actually prefer it that way, so it's not really an across-the-board complaint.

One Redditor, who has ostensibly worked as a server at Olive Garden, took to the platform to write about some of the chain's cocktails. Their conclusion? A lot of Olive Garden's cocktails are sweet — perhaps cloying. They said that one of the margaritas on the menu tasted like corn syrup, and shared that the blue cocktail is too sugary. Another Redditor commented on a photo of an Olive Garden old fashioned and said that they could understand how the beverage could be appealing to those who prefer quite a sweet drink, but that they didn't consider it a genuine old fashioned.

When we did our own taste test and ranking of Olive Garden's cocktails, we also found that basically all of the cocktails on the menu are quite sweet. Of course, there are a few options that don't pack quite as much sugar as the rest, but for the most part, this chain's cocktails are sugar bombs. The Daily Meal also found many of Olive Garden's drinks quite sweet, as has Chowhound. If you love sweet cocktails, then Olive Garden might just be the place to be. But for a lot of drinkers, that much sweetness in a cocktail is cloying and unpleasant.

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