The Ridiculous Reason Restaurants Make You Wait Even Though Tables Are Available

Italian restaurant chain Olive Garden is fighting back against a wave of criticism from a brutal 294-page investor presentation that dropped last week.

Long wait times and "false waits" were one of many criticisms featured in the presentation.

During a recent trip to an Olive Garden restaurant in New York City, our party of four waited 20 minutes for a table at lunchtime on a Monday. The restaurant was at least half empty when we were there:

Some restaurants use "false waits" - telling customers that their table isn't ready when it actually is, or exaggerating the wait time for a table - to encourage customers to buy drinks at the bar and make the restaurant seem busier than it is.

In our case, we were quoted a wait time of five to 10 minutes, but we actually waited about 20 minutes for a table. There were other parties waiting in the lobby as well.

All-in-all, our lunch visit to Olive Garden took about an hour and 20 minutes, which is a long time for a work lunch. If Olive Garden hopes to attract businesspeople for lunch, having long wait times could hurt their business.

Olive Garden sent us this statement in response to our questions about wait times and description of our lunch experience on Monday:

I'm sorry to hear about your experience today. That's certainly not typical of the guest experience we aim to provide and it's not consistent with our actions underway. ... Since we began our focus on this issue over the past year, our false waits are now at historic lows and guest complaints regarding false waits are the lowest they have ever been.

Olive Garden issued a response to the massive investor takedown on Monday, defending itself against some of the criticisms.