18 Secrets Olive Garden Employees Want You To Know (2024)

Olive Garden is fast-casual dining, so it's not exactly surprising that some of their food is frozen before being sent out to you. In one Reddit AMA, a former employee wrote, "The food is mostly frozen. All of the desserts are." And in another Reddit AMA, a former server and bartender explained, "The meats are frozen, which shouldn't be a surprise since you can't expect fresh meats every day. It's just not possible."

Not everything is frozen though! One anonymous employee told PopSugar that the signature soups (like Pasta e fa*gioli, Chicken & Gnocchi, Zuppa Toscana, and Minestrone) are made each day, explaining they "are made by hand and from scratch every morning using fresh, whole ingredients such as kale, peppers, and squash." In a Quora thread, a server at Olive Garden said, "The soups, sauces, appetizers, and many of the meals are prepared by hand and are made fresh daily."

Have you ever wondered how Olive Garden makes their breadsticks so irresistible? Employees know the answer. One anonymous employee told Cosmopolitan that they use, "Butter and garlic salt. It's pretty simple. It's not just plain garlic salt that you buy at the store, though — it's just some type of garlic salt that they make." In a Reddit AMA, a former server added that another key is "heating them up just the right amount to make them soft and yummy."

If you don't know what to order, choose from a fan favorite. An anonymous employee told PopSugar that the Chicken Alfredo is their most popular menu item, and that the Shrimp Scampi is also a bestseller. They added, "Out of all the noodle options, Olive Garden guests prefer fettuccine noodles. As far as pasta toppings go, Olive Garden guests love the grilled chicken." And in a Reddit AMA, an Olive Garden host said that customers can't get enough of the Chicken Gnocchi soup, either.

There are a lot of rumors out there that Olive Garden microwaves most of the food they're serving you — basically, that nothing is fresh and everything is pre-packaged. A few employees debunked this myth. In a Reddit AMA, one former employee said "Microwaves are strictly for heating the dipping sauce and some of the warm desserts. Everything else is either pan fried, deep fried or grilled." And in another Reddit thread, a server said, "No one would accuse me of being an Olive Garden apologist, but we really didn't use microwaves a lot. For the most part it's only used to steam veggies or heat up a coffee or soup."

The breadsticks might be one of the most popular things Olive Garden serves, but they do have a policy on how many they give out to each table — and good luck trying to get them to break it. In a Reddit AMA, a former server and bartender said, "The company policy is to bring one breadstick for each person, plus one more 'for the table.' If you get more than that, your server just doesn't want to have to refill your basket so quickly. Frankly, I did the same thing."

If you're a huge fan of Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce, you'll definitely want to keep reading, because employees have shared how it's made. A former server and bartender spilled the secret in a Reddit AMA, saying, "Its garlic, butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese. Just make sure to simmer the cream, don't boil it or the cheese will curdle, and add the cheese a little bit at a time while stirring."

The pasta at Olive Garden isn't frozen or microwaved, but it is prepared in advance of service. In a Quora thread, one server explained the process: "The pasta is precooked in the morning and given an ice bath while it’s still al dente. It is then portioned into bags if it’s a specialty pasta or put into a large container if it’s something like spaghetti or fettuccine. When the dish is ordered, the cook puts the pasta into boiling water for a set time, strains it, and plates it with the measured ladle of sauce."

Some of Olive Garden's food might not be as fresh as you want it to be, but you probably don't have to worry about food safety. A former Olive Garden employee said in a Reddit AMA, "Food is checked intensely every hour and between the lunch and dinner shift. Temperatures are recorded and all ingredients are tasted individually without fear of cross-contamination as each sauce, veggie, cheese is sampled with fresh gloves and spoons (depending on what the food is). If you aren't a great cook, you have no business being at OG. Yes, all of the prep work takes the true CHEF out of the cook, but these boys can turn and burn. You would be amazed."

Customers might love the unlimited soup and salad option, but servers aren't quite as into it. One anonymous employee told Cosmopolitan, "It kind of annoys the servers, because then they have low tabs and you run for them and they just give us tips based off their tab. The unlimited soup and salad combo is $8 at lunch and $10 at dinner. So for lunch, that's an $8 meal so a 10 percent tip would be 80 cents. A lot of people feel that they should just tip 10 percent, but then we're constantly refilling so people don't understand that we're doing more work."

Anyone who cooks pasta knows that a popular method is to add salt to the water before throwing the pasta in there. Apparently, though, Olive Garden doesn't do this. Business Insider reported that they don't do this because executives believe that adding salt to the boiling water can "jeopardize warranties on pots." They feel that their sauces add enough flavor to the pasta without the added salt.

Want to take some of those breadsticks home with you? Servers aren't allowed to package up a basket of breadsticks, even with the unlimited deal, but there is a way to get some to-go. In a Reddit AMA, one server wrote, "Bread comes in a 6 or a 12 count for to-go. You're not allowed to have free ones TG, but you are allowed to take the ones on your table to go. If your server does give you free bread to go you should at least spare them an extra buck or two. If caught they're going to be yelled at, maybe even written up."

Don't bother trying to get away with sitting down, eating salad and breadsticks, and then not paying for them. The servers can tell when you're trying to do that. An employee told Cosmopolitan that people do try to come in and just get breadsticks, but servers aren't allowed to bring them out until an order has been placed. And in a Reddit AMA, another employee said that customers try to do it all the time—that's why the policy was put in place.

Olive Garden offers a Never-Ending Pasta Pass that gives you never-ending bowls of pasta for one price. But employees say it's not always worth it. One server told Reddit, "I guess its a good deal if you go to Olive Garden a lot, but if you live out of town and don't go there as often, you may have to take a pass on the pasta pass."

If you've ever heard a rumor that Olive Garden servers re-serve breadsticks that went to a table but weren't eaten, don't stress. A server told Reddit, "We always throw out uneaten bread. (Or servers eat it)." Another server added, "There are like BILLIONS of breadsticks in the back. Towers of them. You would be amazed on how many we threw out that weren't perfect. So re-using? Nope." Your breadsticks are safe!

Like many chain restaurants, Olive Garden has a lot of food left over at the end of the day. And they put it to good use. One former employee wrote on Reddit, "My store was pretty solid about maintaining waste so we didn't have a lot. But yes, we had a partnership with a company to donate unused food." Another added, "The owner of Olive Garden, Darden, and all of the other restaurants they own, have a system set up to donate unused food."

If one of your favorite dishes was taken off the regular menu, you may still have a chance of ordering it. A former employee said on Reddit, "You can order old dishes that Olive Garden once had if the ingredients are still in the kitchen. Most cooks at OG are paid handsomely and retain their positions for quite awhile. Those guys are machines."