“Soup suicide”? Ten sauces? Spiked fountain drinks?!
Olive Garden isn’t just about endless breadsticks.
If the sauce that comes on the dish you want doesn't fit your diet or isn't to your liking,
you can always ask for a different sauce instead.
Olive Garden has five main sauces on its menu: alfredo, marinara, five cheese marinara,
meat sauce, and creamy mushroom sauce – and swapping them out allows you to create some
culinary masterpieces. Chicken fettuccine marinara or eggplant alfredo anyone?
“Holy ravioli!”
When browsing the online menu, take notice of which sauces are available on each entree.
For example, Chicken marsala comes with a mushroom and marsala wine sauce. Additionally,
you'll find garlic herb butter on the herb-grilled salmon and garlic sauce on the shrimp scampi.
The grilled chicken Margherita offers up even more possibilities with its basil
pesto and lemon garlic sauce. The total number of available sauces isn’t five now, it’s ten!
As revealed on TikTok, many people don't realize that you can order sauces with your breadsticks,
too. So, why not ask for a basil pesto dipping sauce instead of
marinara or alfredo? The menu is constantly evolving so be on the
lookout to see if there are any new sauces to try on your next visit.
Whether you're a vegetable lover, a vegetable hater, or have special dietary needs,
you can make the Olive Garden menu work for you. The first step is to find which Olive
Garden menu item you want. Then, it's time to deconstruct and reconstruct.
If you don't like what comes in a dish, ask for a substitution. For example,
if you order the shrimp scampi, it comes with asparagus and fresh tomatoes. If the idea of
having asparagus seems unappealing to you, switch out the asparagus for another vegetable you like.
There's no need to play Russian roulette with your vegetable options. Ask for the
exact vegetables you want to avoid needing to push unwanted veggies aside. We suggest looking at the
pictures in the online menu to see which veggies are available. Then, ask for exactly what you
want. Don't just look at the entrees, but look at the salad, soup, and appetizers for ideas as well.
As you browse through the menu, you'll likely see options like artichokes,
asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, fresh tomatoes, garlic, kale, mushrooms, olives,
red onions, spinach, squash, and zucchini. What's available in the kitchen depends
entirely on which items are on the menu, so check what's available every time you visit.
When your friends want to go out to Olive Garden and you're gluten sensitive,
it's easy to panic since pasta and bread contain gluten. Luckily,
Olive Garden has done an excellent job providing options for people who don't tolerate gluten well.
The restaurant has policies to prevent cross-contamination if
you tell your server you have gluten issues. Unfortunately,
preventing cross-contamination isn’t always guaranteed and Olive Garden also doesn't claim
to have "gluten-free" ingredients as defined by the Food and Drug Administration. So,
the restaurant may still be out of reach for those with the most severe gluten reactions.
The most obvious option for eating at Olive Garden when you're gluten
sensitive is to choose from the gluten-sensitive menu,
which includes non-pasta menu options like the herb-grilled salmon or sirloin and Zuppa Toscana.
If you love pasta and are worried you won't be able to dine on your favorite carb, don’t fret!
To open the menu a little more, substitute pasta in any dish with gluten-free rotini. The rotini,
as Olive Garden says, contains brown rice flour instead of wheat flour.
“Love you, pasta.”
And you can still eat the salad if you leave off the croutons. Luckily, Olive Garden's lip-smacking
salad dressing doesn't contain gluten. We also know brown rice flour pasta is an acquired taste;
so, if you'd prefer to avoid it, you can try swapping broccoli for the pasta.
Italian sodas aren't really Italian, but neither is Olive Garden. While they no
longer have Italian sodas on the regular menu, you can still order one from the Olive Garden secret
menu. They're an excellent option for a sweet, flavored beverage without caffeine or alcohol.
The surprising truth about Italian soda is that, despite its name,
it originated in the USA rather than Italy. The Torani flavored syrup company first introduced
Italian sodas in 1925 to promote its product. The founders of Torani immigrated from Italy
and used syrup recipes from Italy, so you'd be forgiven for thinking it's an Italian drink.
The recipe for Italian soda is simple, only requiring soda water and flavored
syrup over ice. So, it's easy to order this secret Olive Garden menu item. You can ask
for an Italian soda with any flavored syrups they use in their cappuccinos or mixed drinks.
For example, the peach bellini contains peach puree, and the strawberry bellini from the
cocktail menu contains strawberry puree. So, you can ask for a strawberry or peach Italian soda!
Most hungry college students know the trick of ordering soup, salad, and breadsticks for weekday
lunch for well under $10. According to a former employee, ordering anything else on the menu, even
just a soda, will keep the breadsticks flowing. Of course, they'll eventually cut off your supply.
However, if you really want to dine cheaply at Olive Garden without resorting to soup,
salad, and breadsticks, there are still a few things you can do. The biggest
Olive Garden hacks involve signing up for coupons or ordering family style.
You get enough unwanted emails already, but signing up for the Olive Garden eClub can net
you valuable coupons. You can also text "OGNEWS" to 29002 to sign up for cell phone texts. And,
if you sign up for the Olive Garden eClub, they will give you a free dessert on your birthday.
Luckily, asking them to sing you happy birthday is optional. If you're trying to feed your whole
family, buying a family-style meal to take home rather than individual portions saves a lot. For
example, a family-style lasagna bundle costs just under $60 and serves four to six people.
If you bought six individual servings of lasagna, you'd spend around $100. So,
buying it family-style to take home saves around 40%.
The Olive Garden hack that has taken TikTok by storm is ordering cheaper
takeout from the kid's menu. While the kid's menu is for kids under age 12,
you don't have to prove you're ordering for children when ordering takeout. This
hack admittingly makes a mockery of the honor system if you don't have kids.
“Well, if you ever want to get out of the house, I’ve been wanting to
check out this new Italian place downtown?”
“Oooh, do they have a kids’ menu?”
Yes, yes they do. Amazingly, you can get a kid's size entree for
just over $6. It includes a side and a drink, and you can add meat for around
$2 more. Olive Garden also offers an extra take-home entree for $6.
So, it's easy to order a feast for the whole family for a very reasonable price. Ordering off
the kid's menu is an excellent option for portion control, too since they’re smaller in size.
However, if you're worried that you won't have enough to eat,
some people combine the entrees from two kid meals. Customers who have tried this
strategy say they end up with more food than one adult entree. Plus,
it comes with complimentary drinks and sides that you don't get with the adult entree.
It's always nice to finish off a long day or week with a refreshing alcoholic drink. However,
there's no reason you have to be limited to just beer,
wine, or the handful of Italian-inspired cocktails on the Olive Garden drink menu.
A fun Olive Garden hack is asking your server to spike any beverage you order. Spiked strawberry
lemonade is already on the menu to lead the way. Olive garden's non-alcoholic beverage
choices include fountain drinks, lemonades, and flavored and non-flavored iced teas.
To determine your drink-spiking options, use the alcoholic base drinks from the
cocktail menu as your guide. Choose from tequila, triple sec, amaretto,
rum, blue curacao, vodka, or any other liquor you see on the menu.
The easiest pairing is your favorite non-alcoholic beverage
with your favorite available liquor. Of course, you can always apply the
Italian soda hack and then hack it again by spiking it with your favorite liquor.
It's always disappointing when your favorite menu item disappears. However,
according to a former employee, those menu items aren't really gone as long as the kitchen is still
stocked with the ingredients to make them. Chicken alfredo is a delectable indulgence,
full of cream, parmesan, and butter. However, adding spinach to make the Olive Garden chicken
fettuccine Florentine secret menu item can make a not-so-healthy dish healthier.
So – as long as you see other items on the menu that contain spinach,
like the spinach artichoke dip or other florentine dishes, you should be able to
order chicken alfredo Florentine from the secret menu. The simplest way to get this
Olive Garden secret menu item is to order chicken alfredo and ask to add spinach.
Ordering vegetarian at most restaurants is frustrating,
but not at Olive Garden. The Olive Garden vegetarian menu is already impressive,
and hacking it to get a filling vegetarian meal is easier than normal.
While Olive Garden provides specific vegetarian and vegan menu information – it's
still important to let your waiter know if you're a strict vegetarian or suffer
from a meat allergy like alpha-gal so that the chef can avoid cross-contamination.
While Olive Garden only lists four entrees as being vegetarian,
that doesn't mean those are the only vegetarian options if you know how to
hack the menu. All you have to do is look through the menu to find what looks good.
You can use Olive Garden's vegetarian menu guide to determine which sauces and pasta are
vegetarian-friendly. Then, ask to substitute "garden veggies" for the meat in the dish.
If you'd prefer more control over which vegetables you get, any vegetable that
you see on the menu in other dishes is up for grabs. Of course, cheese is always on
the menu so don't be shy about how much cheese you ask your server to grate over your dish.
Most mainstream chain restaurants don't have great vegan options, but a vegan hacking the
menu at Olive Garden will leave happy and full of Italian food goodness. Vegans don't
even have to forgo one of the biggest pleasures of Olive Garden: soup, salad, and breadsticks.
Ordering soup, salad, and breadsticks requires a little bit of modification as a vegan,
but it's still doable. The restaurant's minestrone soup is already vegan,
but be sure to tell the server that you're vegan so they don't grind cheese over the
top. Don’t wanna get in trouble with the vegan police now do we?
“Freeze! Vegan police!”
“Vegan police!”
“You’re under arrest for veganity violation.”
You'll also be thrilled to learn that the buttery garlic topping on the breadsticks is made from
vegetable-based margarine, so they're already vegan. When you order the salad, simply order
it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, omitting the croutons, cheese, and normal dressing.
The easiest vegan Olive Garden entree option is to create your own pasta or alter a dish
already on the menu to fit your dietary needs. Olive Garden eggless pastas include angel hair,
fettuccine, rigatoni, small shells, or spaghetti.
However, be sure to steer clear of the gluten-free rigatoni,
since it contains eggs. Choose marinara or tomato sauce and ask for "garden veggies" or
any combination of veggies you like that you see elsewhere on the menu.
If you've ever mixed every drink at a self-serve fountain drink center to make a quote, "suicide,"
you might be the type of person who would enjoy the Olive Garden secret menu soup item,
called the "soup suicide." While combining every soup on the Olive Garden menu sounds
somewhat questionable and doesn't look so great, former employees say it tastes pretty good.
The soup suicide combines all four soups: chicken and gnocchi,
pasta e fagioli, minestrone, and Zuppa Toscana.
So, in full, you end up with a made-fresh-daily soup that contains roasted chicken, gnocchi,
spinach, white beans, red beans, tomatoes, pasta, veggies, spicy Italian sausage, kale, tomatoes,
broth, and cream. When you look at the ingredient list, it really does sound like a decent soup.
You can ask your server for any combination of two to four soups, which provides 35 total
combination possibilities. You can combine only creamy soups, combine only brothy soups,
mix a brothy soup with a creamy soup, or just order combinations with ingredients that you like.
Another of the Olive Garden secret menu items and hacks you shouldn't ignore
involves its warm Italian doughnuts. The doughnuts come with a warm chocolate sauce,
but you can request other dipping sauces to make eating them even more fun.
If you're wondering what doughnuts are doing on an Italian dessert menu,
they're actually called "zeppole" in Italian. A baker from Naples first
popularized them as a March 19th St. Joseph's Day treat in the 19th century.
Traditional zeppoles have a cream, custard, or jelly filling to go with their sugary
and fruity topping however, Olive Garden's version isn't filled, it’s rather simple.
It has a simple sugary topping, and comes with a dipping sauce for flavor.
If you're not a fan of chocolate or just want a different dipping option,
looking at the rest of the Olive garden dessert menu can give you a good idea
of other dipping sauces you may be able to order.
The restaurant almost always has raspberry sauce available. And you can ask for strawberry sauce
if the dessert menu contains a dessert with strawberry sauce like a strawberry cream cake.
Keep in mind that some of the menu items are seasonal, so you may be able to find another type
of sauce occasionally. For example, there have been options available in the past like caramel
apple butter from the caramel apple butter latte and caramel sauce from the pumpkin cheesecake.