I temporarily have a roommate, and last week, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. It didn't seem that busy, and we were placed by a mother with her three children.
Our waitress seems a little harried, but she's nice, greets us, asks for our drinks. We didn't get them for ten minutes, but that's okay, maybe she's a little rushed.
However, it just got worse from there. She took our order, and it took forever to get them. Okay, the kitchen's slammed.
However, our waitress never checked on us. We knew she was around, because she kept checking on the table next to us, but she never looked at us once. She brought a basket of bread and placed it on our table, but never looked at us, just kept her attention on the next table. She lingered, chatting with the mother, and ignored me when I tried to catch her attention. We were finished with our meal and waiting for her to come check on us so we could get the bill when a different server brought refills, and I asked for a manager.
The manager was awesome, he was completely apologetic and gave my friend and I gift cards. Especially when I explained that she spent so much time at the next table, but was apparently incapable of taking ten more steps to our own, and we were waiting to pay and go home. Everything got resolved in five minutes, which was nice.
So irritating. We went to the same Olive Garden tonight (thankfully, different server), but we were right next to her section, and she was doing it to another table. I almost felt like warning them. :-D