Originally Posted by
ChinaShrek
This thread is a hoot. I am convinced that Olive Garden purposefully makes people wait longer to get seated than necessary. I say this because on several occasions (at various times of the day and week) they have made me wait 10-20 minutes before being seated, but when they take my party into the dining room it is practically empty and wait staff are standing about. I believe they think that by forcing the customer to wait, even for a few minutes, it helps to psychologically heighten their experience at the restaurant.
There's another chain down here called O'Charley's, which is basically a lunch place. Our local O'C does the same thing. I can look into the dining area and see lots of empty tables and they still make us wait a few minutes. Every time it happens I send a nasty email to corporate and every time they send me a $25 cert. Lot of free lunches...that I have to wait 5 minutes for.
