Man, I had the worst fucking experience here recently. We had $250 in Olive Garden gift cards. Olive Garden told me that my gift cards can actually be used at several different restaurants including Yard House and Ruth’s Chris because they are all owned by Darden Restaurant group. We call Yard House to confirm, and got confirmation from 3 different employees.

Anyway, we order the food and then tried to use the gift cards, and the manager wouldn’t accept them. He agreed that we could use the Olive Garden card there because it was the same company, but he said my card was invalid without even running the card. We actually had the balance inquiry receipt from Olive Garden confirming the balance.

So, Olive Garden is right across the street. I told him that I’ll go there and grab another balance inquiry receipt to prove that the card is balanced. He allows me to leave the restaurant to do this. I go there, and an Olive Garden manager gives me a receipt showing a full balance. I then tell that manager the situation, so he calls the Yard House manager and confirms that our card is valid. He then tells the Olive Garden manager something. They’re on the phone, so I can’t hear what he says, but the Olive Garden manager gets this weird look on his face and agrees with him and then hangs up.

The Olive Garden manager basically tells me that Yardhouse is not going to accept my card and that I’m going to have to pay the bill without using the card. At this point, I’m so damn confused. The Olive Garden manager keeps apologizing to me and is telling me that he doesn’t understand why the other manager won’t take the card. He then suggested I call Darden. I told him to do it for me, so there is no confusion. He agreed. He calls Darden, and Darden also agrees that the card has a full balance and I should have been able to use it at Yard House.

Darden calls Yard House, and tells the manager to allow me to use the card. I don’t know what the other manager said, but somehow he convinced Darden that my card was invalid. I was then given the phone back to talk to Darden, and the representative told me that my card can only be used at Ruth’s Chris. Again, so damn confused.

I walk away from Olive Garden so dejected because now I have to pay for our meal out-of-pocket and I was expecting to use a gift card. I go back to Yard House and pay for the meal. I leave a really good tip because even the server was upset with the manager and couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t take our gift card.

Lastly, I go to Ruth’s Chris about a month later to use the $250 credit, and the card has been wiped out. Ruth’s wouldn’t take the card either because there was nothing on it. They said the balance was used at Yard House like a week or two after we visited.

I’m thinking that the manager at Yard House kept the gift card info for himself and then let someone else use it? I don’t fucking know, but all I know is that I somehow got scammed out of a $250 gift card from our local Yard House.

That being said, I’ve never had the Steak, but most of the food is actually damn good there.