The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Ordering At Olive Garden

It's hard to resist the charms and pleasures of the Olive Garden. Both the site of countless special occasion dinners and purveyor of some of the most enduring comfort foods of all time, the Italian-inspired network of American restaurants serves a wide variety of pasta swimming in marinara, Alfredo, and cheese, along with more composed dishes, salad, soup, and some very famous breadsticks.

While Olive Garden is omnipresent and almost universally popular, it can be hard to justify a trip to the restaurant during a period of widespread inflation, or face a stringent and established menu. But Olive Garden is a comforting and welcoming place. After all, as the ads promise, when you're there, you're family. There exist myriad ways to enjoy the restaurant for less money, or to discover new things, and fine tune the food to one's particular wants and needs. Here are all the things you didn't know you could do at Olive Garden that you should be doing at Olive Garden.

While there are a lot of new restaurant loyalty programs out there, Olive Garden continues to operate one of the best in the food service industry. In exchange for one's personal data, like their name, email address, zip code, and birthday, used to track spending habits, build a customer profile, and help Olive Garden's parent company just know more about what its customers prefer, there are certain attractive benefits. The Olive Garden eClub includes the occasional email newsletter, which the restaurant uses to spread the word about new dishes, special promotions, and little-known discounts. But eClub members also get coupons to be used the next time they head to Olive Garden.

Enrollment in the eClub also entitles signees to free birthday treats. Members of the program who hit Olive Garden for their birthday meal receive a standard dessert item free of charge. That's worth around $10, and the selection includes treats like tiramisu, Black Tie Mousse cake, chocolate lasagna, and slices of cheesecake.

A lot of fast food mobile apps are worth using, but let's count the sit-down Olive Garden among that group. Available in both the Apple App Store for use on iPhones, and in Google Play for compatibility on affiliated devices, the Olive Garden App makes dining at the venerable casual Italian chain a lot easier. It eliminates many of the historical hassles that come with eating inside the restaurant and picking up food to take home.

It seems like no matter the time or day, there's inevitably a line or a crowd of people waiting to be seated at Olive Garden. Rather than sit or stand around holding a light-up buzzer, Olive Garden diners can use the restaurant's app to not only scope out the wait time, but to add their name to the list. That allows for speedier, more efficient check-in and seating upon arrival. The other main feature of the app is its ordering feature. Users can browse the menu, order, pay, and let the restaurant know you've arrived all within that one interface. Signing in with an Olive Garden account provides access to order history and bookmarking favorites, which allows for an even smoother ordering process the next time around.

One big way that Olive Garden differentiated itself from other Italian-American restaurant chains: the abundance. The first course of soup or salad, and bread, is theoretically unlimited at Olive Garden. That's a very attractive notion, considering that Olive Garden's famous breadsticks, simply white bread coated with a buttery and salty garlic spread, became iconic, and its salad — with lots of olives, peppers, and a creamy Italian dressing — is pretty good, too. If salad isn't one's thing, there's hot soup on offer, and Olive Garden sells four different varieties: Zuppa Toscana, Pasta E Fagioli, Minestrone, and Chicken Gnocchi.

The soup, salad, and breadsticks are only free with the purchase of an entrée. They can be acquired on their own — and one doesn't have to choose between soup or salad, they get both — as its own meal. It's among the less expensive dining options across the Olive Garden menu, and it's easy to make the most out of the cost, because the Never-Ending Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks don't stop coming until the customer says so. It's also a good way to check out those soups, because Olive Garden doesn't make diners stick to just one choice.

Among the least likely things to ever happen at the Olive Garden: a diner leaving hungry. Between the limitless bowls of salad and free buttery breadsticks, it's easy to get full before the main entrée arrives. But that's no problem at all, as Olive Garden dishes tend to keep well and reheat to a decent level of quality. It's a savvy ad cost-efficient move to save half or so of one's entrée — the following day's lunch or dinner is thus taken care of and paid for in full. Diners can ask for a box as soon their food arrives on the table, so that they can package it up and set it off to the side.

If those leftovers aren't quite enough food — or if the hot, plated meal is so tasty there's no way it's not getting consumed all at once — Olive Garden has a way for diners to plan for the future. The chain sells a line of $6 Take Home Entrées. When a diner buys a full meal at regular price (either in the restaurant or as part of a to-go order), for that nominal, additional fee, they can get a cold, boxed up portion of one of Olive Garden's most popular, basic dishes: fettuccine Alfredo, five cheese ziti al forno, or spaghetti with meat sauce. The next day, lunch or dinner is ready after a few pushes of some microwave buttons.

At Olive Garden, the no-limit soup or salad and breadsticks come free with every full dinner purchased, or at least the chain embeds the cost in the entrée price. All-you-can-eat for one small fee is undeniably popular and part of how Olive Garden came to dominate the chain restaurant landscape. In 1995, the Italian eatery struck on the idea of extending the concept to the main course, unveiling the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl. Offered every few years or so, and always for a limited period of time, the program allows diners to feast on as many composed pasta dishes that they care to handle, all at a rock-bottom price. In 2022, for example, the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl cost $13.99 per person (with a surcharge for protein add-ons) and included the also unlimited salad (or soup) and breadsticks.

While the price can't be beat, it's also a way to sample Olive Garden options that one way not have ever had the opportunity to try before. In a previous iteration, the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl allowed diners to choose a new combination each time, picking from angel hair pasta, rigatoni, spaghetti, or fettuccine, along with causes including marinara, five-cheese marinara, tomato meat sauce, Alfredo, and mushroom. When Olive Garden rolls out this promotion, head to the local outlet to try out this expansive deal.

Daytime at the Olive Garden is a completely different landscape than the Olive Garden at dinner. While the food tastes completely the same, the different hours allow for diners to enjoy it for a bit less money.

During weekdays, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., Olive Garden opens up its lunch menu, a series of 10 of its most popular dishes and at significant savings versus what the same foods would cost just a little later in the day. Granted, the portions are a bit smaller. This is lunch, after all — people have to go back to work and run errands and can't be overwhelmed with a full Olive Garden meal — but these are the same versions of chicken parmigiana, lasagna, and spaghetti and meatballs that made the chain so famous, and they all come with bread and soup or salad. That early block is also the only time of day when Olive Garden sells its Soup, Salad and Breadsticks Lunch, with no limits on any of those three items.

As far as national sit-down, dine-in, full-service restaurants chains go, Olive Garden undeniably sits on the costlier end of the spectrum. While salad and bread are included in the price of an entree, a dish made up primarily of inexpensive pasta, tomato-based sauce, and industrially produced and packed ingredients can run into the $20 range, more if meats like steak, chicken, or seafood are included. This makes the prospect of family dining at Olive Garden quite expensive or even untenable. Fortunately, if one wants or needs Olive Garden when feeding a group of four to six people, there's a way to seriously cut down on the price — and that's by buying a hot dinner in mass quantities.

There's a whole section of the Olive Garden menu devoted to Family-Style Meals. If everyone in the party is comfortable eating the same thing, a large metal tray of an entree, or a family bundle, is the way to enjoy Olive Garden on the cheap. More than a dozen pan dinners are available, including spaghetti with meat sauce, chicken parmigiana, fettuccine Alfredo, and shrimp scampi. Each serves as many as six people, and at a low per unit cost. The Lasagna Classico in bulk, with a large salad and a dozen breadsticks included, runs about $67. That works out to about $11 a person, versus a $20 price tag for the entrée with sides included on the standard menu.

Italian salad dressing is the most popular salad dressing in many states, and the one used as the de facto topping chain-wide in Olive Garden can hold its own with the best bottled ones. The restaurant's simple salad of romaine lettuce, croutons, parmesan cheese shreds, olives, peppers and tomatoes really comes together with the addition of Olive Garden Signature Italian dressing, a spicy, creamy, and velvety oil-and-vinegar-based concoction. Fortunately, the Olive Garden salad can be replicated at home, at any time, with some basic produce and deli items and that Italian dressing. It's sold in supermarkets across the country, as well as at any Olive Garden branch itself on a future visit.

Whether enjoyed outside of the home or in, a good Italian meal is only as strong as its sauces, and individual Olive Garden locations allow customers to take home some of its signature foundational blends. Large sides of Alfredo, marinara, five-cheese marinara, and meat sauce can all be ordered at the table for dipping or to take to go to use on privately created meals. However, if one needs just a little, they can ask a server for a ramekin of any of those sauces. Ordering it after your food arrives decreases the chances that the small charge will be added to the bill.

Olive Garden's portions are famously huge, and they're priced accordingly. If one doesn't see themselves eating a gigantic portion of spaghetti, fettuccine, ravioli, rotini with the appropriate sauce, either all at once or spread out across a couple of days, then look no further than the Olive Garden kids meals section of the menu. A surprisingly robust collection of Italian and American favorites, this is where to find pizza, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, and moderate and reasonably sized amounts of noodles and sauces. It's also heavily customizable, as one of three different pasta styles (spaghetti, shells, fettuccine) can be matched with meat sauce, marinara sauce, five cheese marinara sauce, or Alfredo. While the kids meals don't include soup or salad, they do come standard with two breadsticks, a side (grapes, broccoli, french fries, or even a smaller helping of spaghetti in a light tomato sauce), and a small soft drink or milk.

For a minor additional charge, proteins like grilled chicken, meatballs, and sautéed shrimp can be added to a kids entrée. That helps it feel more like a substantial meal, for adults — who can order from the 12-and-under menu via the app, for to-go orders. Nobody at Olive Garden will or would know that the meal is intended for a grown-up, and it all winds up costing about half as much as full-size entrée.

Olive Garden is one of the handful of national restaurants where vegetarians won't struggle to find something that fits into their strictly regulated diet. Many of the Italian restaurants' appetizers and entrees are naturally, casually free of meat — noodles slathered in a tomato-based sauce, a fully dressed salad, vegetable soup, and breadsticks aren't made with the flesh of any animal, so they're safe to consume.

However, dining out at the Olive Garden gets a bit trickier for vegan diners. One step beyond vegetarianism, vegans will not or cannot consume anything made with animal products, which excludes dairy products from the list of approved foods. While some choices at the restaurant are made without anything derived from an animal, simple tweaks can be made to vegetarian meals to make them far more vegan appropriate. For example, when choosing soup for the appetizer course, order the all-veggie minestrone but request that it be served without the additional cheese. Similarly, the salad can be easily made without the buttered croutons and cheese, and Olive Garden offers vegan-safe alternate dressings.

The Olive Garden experience continues to delight us, and one big part of that is the seasonal, forgotten, and limited-time menu offerings. Every so often, the chain will trigger a surge of visits with a new entrée, appetizer, or dessert. People try it, people love it, and then, for whatever reason, it joins the list of discontinued Olive Garden menu items we'll never eat again. Well, maybe not under their given name or off of a printed menu — lots of those long-gone menu items may still be possible to procure. If there's a seasonal or forgotten menu item that they still have the ingredients for, one of the more veteran cooks can probably make it for you. Additionally, Olive Garden has an extensive cocktail selection, requiring the restaurants to stock a variety of syrups and flavoring agents. Those can be used to make a nonalcoholic Italian soda, which isn't currently on the menu but which an Olive Garden bartender can probably make, if a customer asks nicely.

Not even including off-menu tricks, the Olive Garden menu is largely customizable. Many pasta dishes can be prepared without the ones pictured on the menu, or made with a different sauce. Diners can even ask the kitchen to mix two soups together in one bowl.

One cost-savvy way to enjoy Olive Garden is to consider the method of payment. Olive Garden accepts cash, checks, and the major credit cards, of course, but it also issues gift cards. Because it's a part of Darden Restaurants, a consortium that oversees multiple brands, gift cards meant for use at those eateries work as legal tender at the Olive Garden, too. If there's a gift card intended for LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, or Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, among others, burning a hole in the wallet or purse, it's perfectly fine to use it up at Olive Garden. Similarly, Olive Garden gift cards may be used at all those other restaurants.

While using a gift card feels like getting something for free, they do cost money at some point, of course. Some places, particularly bulk and warehouse chains, may offer gift cards at a discount, meaning they cost less than their face value. Costco sometimes offers Darden-affiliated gift cards at such cut-rate prices, while also selling ones for use at any restaurant.