I've always enjoyed Italian food and have dined at the Olive Garden for many years, enjoying the good food and family oriented atmosphere...until now. About a month ago, my family and I went to the Olive Garden at Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights, MI. It was on a Thursday around 5PM. It was during dinner time, but the restaurant wasn't fully packed, like it usually is on a weekend or Friday night. We went to put our name on the wait list, for a family of 4 and a baby. I looked down on the list and it looked like there was 3 other families ahead of us. When the host-boy arrived and I told him how many people was in our party, I was shocked to what happened next. He stated he could not accommodate our party because we had a baby (who only 6 months old). My husband and I asked the question: since when does a family-oriented restaurant refuse service to a family with a baby? My baby wasn't occupying that much room. The host boy was so confident that was the restaurant policy, he refused to call the restaurant manager out for us to talk to. My husband and I were absolutely livid with their policy. Olive Garden certainly has to re-evaluate their policy and retrain their staff on what a family restaurant really means! I'm sure there are better Italian restaurants out there that welcome families including innocent sweet little babies! The Olive Garden just lost the business of regular customers like us!
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