Introduction
Olive Garden is a popular Italian-American restaurant chain that has been around for decades. While it may be a favorite for many, there are some secrets that Olive Garden doesn’t want you to know. From their hidden menu items to their sneaky pricing tactics, this article will reveal 8 secrets that Olive Garden doesn’t want you to know. So if you’re looking for a way to save money and get the most out of your Olive Garden experience, read on to find out what you need to know.
8 Secrets Olive Garden Doesn’t Want You to Know
Olive Garden is one of the most popular Italian-American restaurants in the United States. But there are some secrets that the restaurant chain doesn’t want you to know. Here are 8 of them.
1. The Breadsticks Aren’t Always Fresh
Olive Garden’s breadsticks are one of the restaurant’s most popular items. But they aren’t always fresh. The restaurant often reheats frozen breadsticks in the oven, which can lead to a less-than-ideal texture.
2. The Salad Is Not Always Fresh
Olive Garden’s salad is another popular item. But it isn’t always fresh. The restaurant often uses pre-made salad mixes, which can be less than ideal in terms of taste and texture.
3. The Pasta Is Not Always Fresh
Olive Garden’s pasta dishes are also popular. But they aren’t always made with fresh pasta. The restaurant often uses pre-made pasta, which can be less than ideal in terms of taste and texture.
4. The Sauces Are Not Always Fresh
Olive Garden’s sauces are also popular. But they aren’t always made with fresh ingredients. The restaurant often uses pre-made sauces, which can be less than ideal in terms of taste and texture.
5. The Ingredients Are Not Always Fresh
Olive Garden’s ingredients are also popular. But they aren’t always fresh. The restaurant often uses pre-made ingredients, which can be less than ideal in terms of taste and texture.
6. The Food Is Not Always Healthy
Olive Garden’s food is often thought of as being healthy. But it isn’t always the case. The restaurant often uses high-fat ingredients, which can be unhealthy.
7. The Prices Are Not Always Reasonable
Olive Garden’s prices are often thought of as being reasonable. But they aren’t always the case. The restaurant often charges more than other Italian-American restaurants for similar dishes.
8. The Service Is Not Always Good
Olive Garden’s service is often thought of as being good. But it isn’t always the case. The restaurant often has long wait times and unhelpful staff.
The Olive Garden is one of the most well-established casual dining restaurants in America, with about 880 locations.
Founded in late 1982, this year marks the 40th that the company has been welcoming diners to sit down and enjoy plentiful servings of pasta, salad, and, of course, the famed breadsticks.
But the chain has its share of detractors, as evidenced by even the quickest glance at comments on any mainstream social media platform. For example, one recent Tweet from a user named Lil Kimchi read: “Almost everything at Olive Garden gets microwaved.” Another, from a user called Sandy Joe Karpetz read: “It pains me that my very Last Meal in a restaurant before the pandemic was at an Olive Garden.”
On the other hand, plenty of people love the place. Enough that the chain generated $3.59 billion in 2021 despite occasional closures forced by COVID-19, though the sales were still below the $4.01 billion in 2020 and $4.29 billion from 2019, according to Statista.
Whether you love or hate it, there are a few things the restaurant would rather you didn’t know.
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Olive Garden’s President and COO Rick Cardenas recently hinted at the fact that the chain may never bring back its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, which netted a diner as much pasta as he or she could eat for just $10.99. The promotional deal had been offered time and time again, but its now two-year hiatus and Olive Garden’s continued growth during that period seems to have given the chain the confirmation that bottomless pasta can be retired without major backlash.
“We know [Never-Ending Pasta Bowl] was a negative impact over the years . . . And so we decided to reduce [our] dependency on [it] this year,” said Rick Cardenas, president and COO of Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden’s parent company. “As we look forward, we don’t know if we’ll bring and when we’ll bring Never-Ending Pasta Bowl back.”
The Olive Garden likes to tout the fact that it has a cooking school in Tuscany, Italy. But it doesn’t–not a real cooking school comparable to, say, the Culinary Institute of America or Le Cordon Bleu. According to Eater, what actually happens is that the company rents out a Tuscan hotel and restaurant for a period of time during its off-season and sends a handful of managers there to eat some Italian food and have a bit of interaction with local chefs.
Though a perennially popular Olive Garden menu item, the chain’s Chicken and Gnocchi soup is one to skip if you value your health. It’s packed with 1,290 milligrams of sodium, which is well over half the doctor-recommended maximum for an entire day. And it’s also rather high in saturated fat.
Yes, the breadsticks at the Olive Garden are never-ending, but you’ll have to be quite patient if you want to fill up on them. According to Reader’s Digest, waiters are obliged to bring just one breadstick per diner per basket delivered, with the only exception being one extra breadstick in the first basket.
In the eyes of most cooks, preparing pasta in salted boiling water is simply the way to do it, there’s no question in the matter. But according to Business Insider, Olive Garden employees are expressly prohibited from salting the water because it causes wear and tear on the pots, breaking them down too quickly and impacting the bottom line.
A former Olive Garden employee opened up about some of the chain’s kitchen practices in a Quora Q&A forum and revealed that the pasta is never cooked fresh. In fact, the chefs boil huge portions of pasta to an al dente finish every morning, then toss it into ice water baths. When a customer orders a dish, they place enough for the serving back into boiling water to rapidly finish the cooking.
Last year, a former employee of the chain revealed several behind-the-scenes secrets about Olive Garden on Tiktok. One of the things she mentioned is that Olive Garden uses microwaves to heat up pre-made items. “Yes, they do use a microwave,” the former server is said to have alleged about Olive Garden. “Your potatoes, your veggies, certain sauces, and some of your meats are just microwaved and put on your plate.”
The same employee said the chain’s chicken is less than top-notch. “All across the board, they changed their chicken about six years ago from good chicken to chicken that’s not so great,” Newsweek reported the former employee saying. “It’s not 100 percent chicken, and the chicken that comes on the never-ending pasta bowl is actually canned chicken. Or, canned mystery chicken.”
However, Olive Garden told Eat This, Not That! the claims about canned chicken aren’t true and that absolutely none of the chicken served at the restaurant comes from a can.
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Steven John