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Olive Garden Italian Restaurants Reviews
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    Olive Garden Italian Restaurants Reviews

    Updated February 19, 2019
    3,072 reviews

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    3.5
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Olive Garden Italian Restaurants CEO Gene Lee
    Gene Lee
    742 Ratings

    Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "No side work allows for more time to focus on tables as well as helping with other server's tables" (in 90 reviews)

    • "Nice benefits and flexible schedule" (in 258 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Unlimited Soup and Salad is the worst" (in 186 reviews)

    • "3 table sections make it more difficult to earn money, but it is a more demanding situation than most restaurants" (in 101 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. Helpful (1)

      "Make hard work fun"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Line Cook in Downingtown, PA
      Current Employee - Line Cook in Downingtown, PA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Amazing co workers
      Lots of hours
      Independent to work

      Cons

      Bad co workers
      Some times not enough hours
      Hard to move up, hit the wall at ~ 6 months

      Advice to Management

      Give more feedback than “good job guys”
      Adjust scheduling
      Let people know when your cutting hours

    2. "Working there is great."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Server/Waitress in Rosenberg, TX
      Former Employee - Server/Waitress in Rosenberg, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants part-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      I really enjoyed working at Olive Garden. The tips are great and the people are friendly!

      Cons

      Sometimes they can be long shifts.

      Advice to Management

      Stick with policy. Other than that everything was fine.

      3. Join the Olive Garden Italian Restaurants team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Loved working as a hostess. I was treated well."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Hostess in Easton, PA
      Current Employee - Hostess in Easton, PA

      I have been working at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants part-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Great free food. I got so close with my coworkers.

      Cons

      The chefs could be rude. And the customers as well.

    4. "Great Company to Work for!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Server in Turlock, CA
      Former Employee - Server in Turlock, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      flexible schedules, great place to start serving if no experience

      Cons

      3 table sections, unlimited refills on soup and salad

    5. Helpful (1)

      "Excellent Corporate Perks"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Server/Trainer in Warren, MI
      Current Employee - Server/Trainer in Warren, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      Make your own way by hard work and comment.

      Cons

      Rotation of employees. are quite high.

      Advice to Management

      Take care of the employees .

    6. "Experience as a server"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Server
      Former Employee - Server

      I worked at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants part-time

      Pros

      Flexible with school
      Lots of hours
      Team environment

      Cons

      Management is a little all over the place

    7. "Not that bad for a server job"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Server in Maple Grove, MN
      Current Employee - Server in Maple Grove, MN
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants part-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      - You make good money here compared to other entry level jobs
      - $1 soup salad and breadsticks are hard to beat!
      - The kitchen here (unlike most of the others I have worked with) is pretty calm when it gets busy. They'll never yell or get mad.
      - Many people here are fun to work with.
      - There are good managers here
      - picking up shifts is easy
      - when it's slow you make 14-15 an hour to really just stand around
      - barely any cleanup at the end of the night and there isn't many late nights

      Cons

      - Hours can be really weird some times. Ill work a double sometimes and be at the restaurant or close to it on my lunch break for 11 hours and only work 9 because I'll just have a really long lunch break. This usually only happens during the slow season.
      - The management (even though there CAN be good managers) can be interesting sometimes. They threaten to fire people way too often (sometimes they'll announce they are going to fire someone that day if a mistake is made) and then never really do it. Then they let people show up plastered for work without getting fired. It's confusing.
      - The surveys that the customers take are so hard to keep your numbers up on. Everything that is a 4/5 or lower is rounded down to a 0. The managers will get after people with low numbers . Its just frustrating
      - Lots of drama
      - with the whole soup salad breadsticks thing its really hard to keep up with tables and it leads to a very stressful work environment when it gets busy
      - You will get burnt out on serving. It is really a meaningless job. We do the same things over and over and over again and usually don't get much appreciation. BUT doing it for a short period of time to make some cash isn't that bad. it's just not something you can do for years and years and years.
      - there's no way to advance really

      Advice to Management

      - Stop threatening to fire people, it's not cool
      - Make it so managers don't have to swipe their card for SO MUCH. Its an unnecessary pain to have to find a manager to get a clearance for a gift card or something every 5 minutes.

    8. Helpful (1)

      "Good tips"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in El Paso, TX
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in El Paso, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants part-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Easy work, flexible schedule, good customers.

      Cons

      Sometimes management can be too demanding

    9. "Great Environment"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Certified Trainer
      Current Employee - Certified Trainer

      I have been working at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants part-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Flexible hours and great experience to lead small teams of servers.

      Cons

      none I could think of

    10. Helpful (1)

      "Fast Paced Good Management"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Server
      Former Employee - Server
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Olive Garden Italian Restaurants full-time

      Pros

      fast paced, great team, good management and growth opportunity for restaurant work

      Cons

      none really i was just done being in the restaurant business

      Advice to Management

      keep up the good work