The Kid's Menu Trick That'll Land You An Olive Garden Meal For Under $10

As the old meme goes, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." More to the point, you can often conceal your age (as well as your species), so there's nothing to stop you from placing a restaurant pickup or delivery order off the kids' menu. Sure, at Olive Garden, the chain insists that this menu section is reserved for those 12 and under, so you'd need real chutzpah to get order one of these entrees in person if unaccompanied by an actual child. 

If you're ordering Olive Garden delivery, though, or even just swinging through the pickup line, how are they to know that the child in question isn't at home with a sitter, and you're only getting one entree because you're on a juice cleanse this week? Okay, so that may be too elaborate of a cover story, but it does cover all of the bases.

As to why you might want to resort to such a ruse, the answer is obvious: Kids' menu entrees, while they tend to be smaller and more limited in scope, are undoubtedly cheaper. At Olive Garden, some adult entrees run upwards of $20, while the ones on the children's menu all come in at around $6.99 – plus it also has one of the best chain restaurant kids' menus. What makes this an even better deal is that once you do add a kids' entree to your cart, you are then offered the option to add a take-home entree of either five-cheese ziti, spaghetti with meat sauce, or fettucine alfredo for just $6 more. That's two entrees, plus the side and drink that comes with the kids' meal, for around $13 — a rare bargain in today's dining climate.

Offsetting the discount price of your meal is the fact that yes, the kids' menu does have its limitations. For some reason, under-12s are generally presumed to have pretty pedestrian tastes, so you won't find shrimp scampi or Olive Garden's chicken parmigiana, once sold in foot-long portions because it was so popular. Instead, you get a choice of macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, cheese or pepperoni pizza, and eight different pasta entrees. Four of these — alfredo, meat sauce, tomato sauce, and five-cheese marinara — come with a choice of fettuccine, spaghetti, or small shells. The other entrees consist of cheese ravioli with tomato sauce, rotini with a choice of meat or tomato sauce, and tomato sauce-topped rotini with grilled chicken. Some pasta entrees also offer the option to upgrade with shrimp, chicken, or a meatball for a small upcharge.

While none of the kids' meals come with Olive Garden's famous soups or salads, you do get a choice of sides including broccoli, grapes, french fries, or spaghetti with tomato sauce. There are also soft drinks ranging from raspberry lemonade to sodas to milk, juice, and smoothies, although the latter (in a choice of peach or strawberry) cost extra. Still, even with a possible upcharge, you're looking at a much cheaper meal deal than you'd usually get from the Olive Garden experience. A teeny bit of subterfuge surrounding the age of the eater is a small price to pay for what could be one of our favorite meal deals to date.