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| - My roommate, little sister and I arrived at the Olive Garden, 1261 W Southern Ave, Mesa, AZ 85202 location, on 4/10 at 7:35pm and were seated around 7:40pm. As we sat for 15min waiting for our waiter to even acknowledge us, we heard the long table in the middle of the room with maybe 4 adults and 4-5 children start to complain about how long they had been waiting. There were scattered drinks and breadsticks along the table to they had SOME service already. As they sat there we heard their complaints get louder and louder accompanied by a few slammed fists on the table. When the waiter arrived with their soup and salad, one of the women at the table said they didn't even want it anymore because they had ordered 20min ago and they were "over it". They then demanded to speak to a manager. Less than 60 seconds later, a blonde manager comes to the table to address the situation. She is then pulled aside by a different lady sitting at the table wearing a very fitting pink "Birthday Diva" sash. The manager and the Birthday Diva talked tucked in a corner for around 10-15 min (mind you, at this point we have only just put in our appetizer and drink order and it had yet to come). When the manager and Birthday Diva arrived back at the table, the manager declared how bad she felt about the whole situation and that she would be comping the entire table's meal. At this time the table continued to complain about anything and everything they could think of as a swarm of waiters came to clear the dirty plates and dishes from their table to make them "more comfortable". As this is happening, we hear the guests at the table continue to add things to the bill, have the food that was finally brought out boxed up to go, AND ON TOP OF THAT the staff came out and sang happy birthday! I felt terrible for the waiters and the expressions on their faces made it obvious they were feeling sorry for themselves as well. It's about 8PM now and we have barely been served our appetizer with drinks following another 10min after and our salad/soup/breadsticks and dipping sauce an additional 10 min after that. During the next 15min before our food comes out, we see the middle table ordering around their crew of staff like puppet masters, getting even MORE stuff added and comped off the bill, and interrupting another birthday song sang at a table adjacent from them (who had been waiting EVEN LONGER with no complaints). The drama with the Birthday Diva completely consumed the room and every other table was exchanging looks with each other like "is this really happening" as we all sat with empty glasses with melted ice and puddles of condensation watching the middle table get completely catered to all while being embarrassingly rude. The final straw for me, and the reason I took the time out of my day to write this, was when the blonde manager came out and handed a gift card to every single person at that table. I understand if I was one of the people at the table how happy and compensated I would feel at that point, but as a fellow guest sharing the same space having my service delayed, interrupted, inconsistent and neglected BECAUSE of them, made us feel like chopped liver! We could not believe what was happening and just wanted to get our to-go boxes and leave. We weren't expecting our meals to be comped, but the manager never even approached our table to apologize for the evening's events or anything. The waiter tried to pretend it wasn't happening, but he was extremely stressed and frazzled the entire time because he was the original waiter for the middle table, which resulted in him being short with us and unintentionally rude. Some acknowledgement of our extreme patience is all we wanted. I could tell blonde manager was super sweet and genuinely felt bad (whatever sob story the Birthday Diva told her must have been a tear jerker) because she was bending over backwards to make the guests happy. However, in result of how it was handled everything that the middle table was complaining about ended up happening to us and EVERY OTHER TABLE IN THE ZONE. In conclusion we paid our $90 bill, but the events of that night remained with us throughout the entirety of our evening even after leaving the restaurant because we could not believe how things went down.
In conclusion, I'm not writing this with attached demands in order to keep me returning to the establishment- that's not how I roll. I wanted to let it be known that the staff last night had a text book simulation on what to do when one table wants to control the whole place, and they failed miserably. We left feeling like we should have taken our money elsewhere, and knowing that's the last thing you want your guests to experience, I wanted to let you know why. You can contact me with any additional questions, but for now it's safe to say we will not be coming back
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