Ever wonder why people flock to Olive Garden just for an appetizer dish?
It's because the salads are just that good! From fresh ingredients and crunchy croutons to salt
and neverending cheese, there's several reasons why Olive Garden's salad is so irresistible.
Across the board, the most important component in a good salad has got to be the freshness of
the ingredients that go into it. The lettuce, greens, and produce have to be high quality,
especially since you're eating most of it raw. And part of what makes Olive Garden's salad so good
that its recipe has been replicated all over the internet, is that it is full of fresh ingredients.
"Everything you need - The pepperoncinis, the tomatoes, romaine,
olives, croutons and we'll just pour this in here."
"OK."
While Olive Garden workers have confessed that some menu items and ingredients are not fresh,
and instead come to the store frozen or prepared, this is not the case with the chain's signature
house salad. An Olive Garden line cook confirmed on Reddit that all the toppings for the salad
come to the restaurant fresh and are prepared in-house. And those fresh ingredients are kept
in tip-top shape, because Olive Garden is said to take food safety and quality
very seriously. Another Olive Garden employee on Reddit said that food is,
quote, "checked intensely every hour between the lunch and dinner shift."
They added that proper food temperatures and cross contamination protocols are in place.
Regardless of the veggie makeup when assembling a salad, the toppings you choose can make all the
difference, balancing out the flavors and adding a great textural element when done right. And when
it comes to Olive Garden's salad, those crispy, flavorful croutons on top make all the difference.
People love these croutons so much, Olive Garden even sells them at major grocery retailers,
making them from the same signature recipe used in the restaurants.
They are perfect for recreating Olive Garden's heavenly salad at home, or for just eating
straight out of the bag. No judgement here. When you think of a standard house salad at
most restaurants, it's not a very exciting image that comes to mind. You get your usual lettuce
and tomato, sometimes a cucumber here and there, or a few measly carrot shavings. Not so at Olive
Garden. Their house salad gets a bright and tangy kick, with the tiniest hint of spiciness, from
the addition of wrinkled, yellowish-green chili peppers known as pepperoncini. They add such a
great and much-needed balance to the flavor of the salad, helping make it the stand out that it is.
And according to some diners, Olive Garden's pepperoncini are a cut above the rest.
One Redditor lamented that they'd been searching for years, with no luck finding one that compared
to those that come with the Olive Garden salad. Though it's worth noting that one customer on
Amazon commented that the Victoria brand's Imported Greek Pepperoncini are the same
ones Olive Garden uses at its restaurants. Yes, fresh ingredients are important. And yes,
the toppings make a big difference. But let's be honest. A salad is really only as good as
its dressing. And that's a big part of what makes Olive Garden's salad so irresistible.
Olive Garden's Signature Italian Dressing has been a customer favorite for more than 35 years,
according to the company. A quick peek at the ingredients list shows that it's
also made with eggs and Romano cheese, which helps explain why it's so deliciously creamy.
Fans seriously love this salad dressing, and would all but slurp it with a straw if given the chance.
Long before it was even a thing for restaurants to sell branded products in stores, Olive Garden
customers were looking for ways to bring home the chain's beloved signature dressing. So the
company started selling bottles of it directly at the restaurant and now, you can buy Olive
Garden's Signature Italian Dressing at grocery stores, and on Amazon. And if you're trying to
keep the extra calories at a minimum, Olive Garden also sells a lighter version of their dressing.
If you've ever wondered why some dishes are just better from a restaurant, the answer is probably
salt – too much salt, to be specific. Research from the Center for Science in the Public Interest
found that nearly 85 percent of the dishes at 10 popular chain restaurants, including
Olive Garden, are made with more salt than the recommended daily amount for the average adult,
and nearly half of the dishes had two days' worth of salt.
The reason behind this overload is that salt enriches food flavors.
Restaurants are notorious for using an exorbitant amount of salt to make dishes more flavorful,
ensuring that customers feel like they are getting the most bang for their buck.
And Olive Garden's salad is no exception. According to the company,
just one serving of the signature house salad with dressing contains a whopping 770 mg of sodium,
or about a third of the entire daily intake recommended for an adult by the FDA. That could
certainly help explain why the salad tastes too good to be guilt-free — because it's not!
And if you reach for a breadstick while eating your salad, you'll be adding another
460 mg of sodium for each one before you even get to other starters or entrees,
which pack even more sodium per item than a serving of salad.
Serious question. Is there anything that isn't made 100 times better by dousing it in fresh
cheese? We think not. And this is just another reason why Olive Garden's salad is so delicious —
because you can top it with as much freshly grated parmesan cheese as your heart desires.
If you're bold enough to ask, your Olive Garden server just might bring out the block of parmesan
cheese with the grater and leave both on the table for you to add to your salad yourself.
Otherwise, they could also add as much for you as you want when you first get your salad. This is no
joke - if you don't tell them to stop, they will keep going until your salad looks like cheese with
lettuce thrown in. We say try it out for yourself. You've got nothing to lose but more cheese.
While Olive Garden's salad has plenty of yummy flavor and texture
all on its own, it's not exactly a satisfying meal in and of itself.
And it's probably not supposed to be. The salad is usually there to whet your appetite,
and hold you over in heaven while you wait for something like a mountain peak of pasta to arrive.
But that's not to say that you couldn't turn this delicious salad into a meal with a simple add-on.
If you order the salad as your entree at Olive Garden, you can customize it by ordering a side
of protein, like grilled chicken or shrimp, to add on top. Apparently, you can even go all out
and ask the restaurant to add something like chicken parmigiana to your salad.
This way, you'll be saving calories and will have more space in your stomach for the thing
you really came to Olive Garden for anyways, which was most likely the salad and breadsticks.
It's an unspoken truth – most things taste better when they are free. And while that's certainly not
the only reason that Olive Garden's salad is so delicious, it definitely doesn't hurt. At Olive
Garden, you can get free salad and breadsticks when you order any pasta or entree on the menu.
This has been the case since the restaurant opened in 1982, and it's all part of Olive Garden's aim
to embody "Italian Generosity". And despite the fact that this can be a major cost drain on the
restaurant, Olive Garden has no plans to take away one of the best parts about eating at the chain.
Whether served up free with your entree, or purchased on their own,
Olive Garden's salad is essentially unlimited,
and your server will bring as many salad bowl refills as your stomach can handle.
"It wouldn't be complete without all the salad and breadsticks you'd like!"
Now here's the thing. For the most part, diners at Olive Garden don't go
crazy ordering as many salad and breadstick refills as possible, just because they can.
But of course, some people do — and some have had to learn the hard way that there are,
in fact, a few limits to Olive Garden's generous deal for those who try and take extra advantage.
For example, some people come to Olive Garden and fill up on salad and breadstick refills,
and by the time their meal comes, they're too full to enjoy it, and so they just take their
entree to go. That's fine, but servers won't let you order a round of salad and breadstick
refills just to take to go, says an Olive Garden employee who spoke to Cosmopolitan.
At the end of the day, who knows if Olive Garden's salad would seem as magical if not
for its starchy sidekick. That's right, we're talking about those breadsticks.
Soft, fluffy, and shining with butter, the signature breadsticks are the ultimate
companion for Olive Garden's house salad in both flavor and texture.
The crisp, cold veggies, tart banana peppers and tangy dressing in the salad
balance perfectly with the warm, pillowy breadsticks, which are dusted with salt
and garlic. But it's more than just the taste. Over the last several decades,
this familiar combo has made its way into the hearts and stomachs of millions of Americans.
"Come back for the endless refills of salad and garlic breadsticks that make us special."
Olive Garden's unlimited salad and breadsticks is a big part of what people identify with the brand,
so it's a familiar and comforting feature at this point. Case in point: According to Olive Garden,
the salad has the highest loyalty rating of all the items on the menu.
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