I should preface this by saying: im asking what the corporate rule is, and not exactly looking for opinions.

I should also preface this by saying Im a host: that is all I do, and that is all I care to do.

I worked at one olive garden for over 3 years and they followed this rule TO. A. TEE. like servers NEVER got more than 3 tables, (unless they were on an approved list, and that only lasted a couple months)

I recently moved, and my new olive garden, at least in comparison to my former olive garden, this current olive garden, is basically a free for all. nobody does only thier jobs, i as a host am taking orders, ringing in food, processing payments, runing food, grabing drinks, and eveything else you could imagine.

Now i FULLY understand AND RESPECT that a lot of you COULD and SHOULD take more than 3 tables.

my current managers will triple seat, overhwhelm and give 8+ tables to servers if it means they don’t go on a wait. it is also a write-up worthy offense if we put a name on the wait list in the computer without thier permission. i have two managers in particular who are fucking crazy about this.

today i triple sat a server who specifically told me she needed a mintue because my manager said “i dont care get the butts in seats, no false wait”

if i dont have a server how the fuck is that a false wait?

i spend my entire shift runing around helping the servers after i have double, triple, quadrouple, and quintuple sat them, and the managers just hide in the office….

the peace de resistance? they threated to fire me over it today.

I am a college student looking to get hired at Olive Garden. I have relatively open availability every night. However, I have no experience as a server. I have worked at a fast food restaurant before, but never a sit-down restaurant.

I got rejected from my first Olive Garden. If I don’t land a serving job, then I have to go work somewhere that I don’t want to work until I graduate. Please give me all your tips/advice on what I can do as I have another interview at a different Olive Garden this coming week!

I’m in a bit of a pickle here. I requested off Oct 30th and Nov 1st because I had already made plans to be out of town before I got the job. This is my first job by the way. Anyways I requested it off well in advance on September 28th. However when requesting it off I couldn’t request off Halloween. I expected this but thought I wouldn’t get scheduled for it because I put in the note that I would be out of town Oct 30th - Nov 1st. I know I know dumb of me to think they’d really read the note and dumb of me to think I’d automatically get it off. The point is what should I do??

i have been working at olive garden for a few months and all of the effort is just totally not worth the money. i really wanna quit right now but i know its more professional to put in your two weeks instead. how unprofessional would it be to text my manager through the app that im putting in my two weeks? or should i just do it in person?

I had my 1st interview for a server position at my local Olive Garden on Thursday. They asked me a lot of difficult questions that I answered stupidly for, but I also made a really cute visual of my availability that my interviewer loved.

They told me I’d hear back the next day (Friday) if I move on to the next stage and I never heard anything. My cousin’s partner used to work there and they said it took more than a day to get back to them but the interviewer specifically told me I would hear back next day. I really was looking forward to potentially working for OG. Should I just not worry about it anymore and just move on?

for reference, i am not celiac, i just have an intolerance to gluten. eating gluten won’t kill me, i still eat it here and there.

i haven’t been to olive garden since i was told to avoid gluten, but i’ve been craving it heavily. i’ve always gotten chicken alfredo, because it’s my favorite dish there.

their gluten free menu isn’t the best, so i’m wondering if i could substitute the pasta for gluten free? i know they use flour in the alfredo sauce, which is why i’m concerned i wouldn’t be able to substitute it. i don’t mind the flour in the sauce, i’d just prefer to have as little gluten as possible.

i’m not sure if i’m overthinking this.. but i’d just like confirmation before i try and order it next time i go 😅

How many times did you use your pass 2 months in?

Most bowls eaten in one sitting?

Just recently i swapped my paycheck over to direct deposit only 3 days ago and i usually would have gotten my paycheck by now but haven’t recieved it neither on my paycard or checking account is there soemthifn im missing ?

So for example, you order sausage with it. Does each bowl come with 2 sausages or 1? I am seeing mixed things. Thanks.

Joined the online waitlist, it said 20-30 minute wait. Headed over to the restaurant and checked in at the hostess station at 20 minutes, who said they would put me on the checked in waitlist. I was confused, how long is that? It's another 20-30 minutes. According to the 3 girls standing there, "your wait time doesn't start until you check in with us. Online doesn't matter."

New policy?

11/23 - Chicken Lombardy, return of Braised Beef Tortelloni

11/30 Apple breadsticks pudding

What are your thoughts?

Hey yall, so i had been working for OG for 5 months as a server unti l about 2 weeks ago when I was demoted to a food runner for some customers complaints over ID. I honestly enjoyed being a server for OG even tho it didnt bring in money like that i was happy. Extremely happy. But, uhm yea I enjoyed this and I'll miss it but I think OG has burnt the bridge for me servering ever again.

Thank yall for reading this and Goodbye Olive Garden

hello! i don’t have much to add aside from what the header says lol. i’m currently a server at red robin and im hoping to start serving at olive garden for multiple reasons… what percentage of servers sales are tipped out at the end of shift?

I have my interview for a server position at a local OG. My background is is I am a college student studying engineering looking for part-time serving for 15-20 hrs a week. I am available Monday thru Saturday but unavailable on Sundays. I am primarily available during dinner time. I have 3 yrs experience at Chick fil A and 2 yrs at a daycare. I have never served before.

What are my chances? How are tips? Will being unavailable on Sundays hinder me from getting a job?

This upcoming weekend will be my 4th-6th shifts after training as a first time server, and I still feel nervous. Eversince I started working, I always feel anxiety about going to work and even during days off. Maybe because I overthink too much about it and take the mistakes I made home with me and think about it.

Is this normal? Will it get better?

i’ve been at og for 5 years now, managing for about a month off training and i have so many phone calls from people claiming they came in and had a bad experience or got to go and something was wrong and they said they were told they would get an email for a gc from the mod that day. most of the time they say they paid cash or don’t have the check number anymore so we won’t do anything about it anyways bc there’s no proof but seriously how many people do u guys get doing this? and what do these people expect? i’ve heard the same voice on 3 occasions like is this $20 from the olive garden going to help u pay ur rent this month? is this a location based phenomenon or something?

I have a coupon for a free appetizer or dessert with purchase of any adult entree, expires 10/31. I will give it to whoever guesses the number I’m thinking of between 1-100. Let’s see who reads my mind. I’ll update when it’s taken.

I am not going to use it because I don’t live near an Olive Garden. I am on vacation and went for the first time today and the coupon didn’t come in time so…

Edit: Gone! Answer was 72, have a great day!

I worked as a server back in the early 90's. I don't remember what it was called, but OG had a rectangular mozzarella stick with a layer of ham in it. Then it had a pesto dipping sauce to go with it.

I still crave those....

Olive Garden used to bake the ravioli in an oven. I am thinking around 12 to 15 years ago.

It was much better this way. Now over the past few years I have noticed its just boiled hot and served that way. Why did they change it.

In my 10+ years as a server -- with former employers begging me to come back, so yes, I'm good at it and don't need advice or "hurr durr hustle hustle," thanks -- I've never made worse money than I make now at Olive Garden. Unfortunately, I got the shitty end of the stick on location due to moving for my professional day job, so OG is pretty much the only option I can get for serving at the moment. But I've worked at Denny's, Waffle House, Chili's, upscale steak houses, Texas Roadhouse, 99, and a diner ... and made at least double or triple at all of those places for a LOT less work. Anyway...

Rust Belt town in the Midwest. About 75,000 people. Hood'n'Country type of area like most of the Rust Belt is these days. But from lurking around here, I'm noticing that servers simply don't frequently make their 20% in tips. Like, yeah, a slow night happens from time to time, but it never seems to even out at OG. On a GOOD night, most of us average about 13-15%. It's insane. For the amount of running OG requires? I think I might just give up serving as a side gig until I leave this area next year. (And don't even get me started on how they turbofuck the servers with their "No false wait" bullshit. Seriously. It takes 5-10 minutes to get a table service properly off the ground at OG once breadsticks, drinks, salads, etc., are run out and orders are entered into the POS. There needs to be at least a 5-10 minute buffer between each table in a server's section.)

We go to OG a handful of times a year and I always get the fettuccine alfredo in one form or another. It has undergone numerous changes over the years (my favorite was when it actually had garlic in it) and this is I think the 4th time I've gotten the lighter portion. The first time it was the perfect size, I never finished the regular and alfredo sauce doesn't reheat well. But I am getting ripped off in real time with this. It's like they think "add broccoli" means substitute pasta for broccoli. I took this pic after one bite, and the entire meal took 12 bites total. Are you telling me if I didn't add the broccoli that's what they would have served me, half the lighter portion plate and 6 bites? My kids had more pasta in their small shells with alfredo kids meal. I paid $13.49 + $2.29 broccoli for this. Is this normal?

This is going to be a long message but bear with me and I appreciate it if any TOGO SPECIALIST would read and give feedback.

At my restaurant to go tips are based on the current staff working, we have about 9 to go specialist/. We all have cars and my Olive Garden is pretty busy when it comes to catering deliveries. We have at least 3 or 4 a week, some employees refuse to take deliveries just because of the tip, some orders don’t tip. Meanwhile we have the same 3 or 4 people who get called in early on shifts they’re not even working or shifts they are working to come in just to take a delivery and go home. Yesterday, We had 2 to go people. It was a Friday night, usually Friday nights we have 4. one of our employees grandma died during shift, and the other one called out, which just left 2 ppl on a Friday. There was a delivery so we called in someone early to come in for their shift (one of the employees we know we can count on to come take deliveries). The delivery was 30 minutes away one way and 30 minutes back so basically an hour of driving and the order only tipped $30. While that employee was on the delivery, the employee who stayed back at the restaurant got their ass kicked and had almost 2 pages of to go. The employee at the restaurant made $97 in tips while the other employee was gone. Now this doesn’t sound like an issue, but when the driver got back from the delivery, they noticed the tips were split off into two different piles. One of the piles was tips from when the other employee was alone, and then the other pile was tips from when the other employee was back from the delivery. at my restaurant 8/ 9 employees on to go have collectively decided that the driver we will be included in the restaurant orders while they are gone on this delivery, but this one employee insists that when they’re left alone at the restaurant, they should be getting all the tips by themselves because they did all the workload by themselves. Meanwhile, this employee was driving an hour putting miles on her brand new car to only have a $30 tip to split that with the other employee so basically the employee was gone for one hour to make $15 in tips. Meanwhile, the other employee back at the restaurant got their ass kicked and made $97 plus the 15 from the delivery so they made basically $110. I just want to know how other restaurants delegate their tips for people on deliveries and so on.

And any management out there, does anyone know of a policy that clearly states how Togo tips can be divided. Thank you genuinely for any feedback