7 Best Secret Menu Items at Olive Garden
Olive Garden's menu is huge—from the appetizers to entrees, soups, salads, breadsticks to desserts and the extensive make-your-own options, there's something for everyone. The portions are so generous you're easily taking home leftovers, and the lunch specials are frequently lauded for offering amazing value for money. Diehard Olive Garden fans are so familiar with the top dishes, they've figured out ways to make them even better. Here are 7 secret menu items at Olive Garden that will change the way you order forever.
Unlimited Soup and Salad
If you can't choose between a side soup or salad with your entree, guess what—you can get both at a lower price than if you bought them separately. "So at lunch there's an option for guests to do an entree like lunch chicken parm and choose salad as their side and add soup for $3.99 and the soup/salad are unlimited! Just let them know you'd like both. A lot of people don't know that's an option," one helpful Redditor shared.
Sweet Breadsticks
If you want to turn your breadsticks into dessert, here's what to do. "Hi, I am a ToGo Specialist at Olive Garden and I have a breadstick lifehack for Togo," one employee shared. "Order breadsticks with butter/salt on the side and ask for a side cup of raspberry or chocolate sauce. Dipping the breadsticks in the sauce seriously tastes so good! Another thing my coworker did was cut them open and put the chocolate mints inside! After working here I got sick of the salty/butter taste and this is a great sweet alternative!"
Swap Grilled Chicken With Fritta
Olive Garden's Chicken Tortellini Alfredo is topped with sliced grilled chicken—but you can sub it out for something even better. "Chicken Tortellini Alfredo but sub Chicken Fritta instead of grilled chicken," one customer said. "Chicken Fritta is so good!" another agreed. "Have you tried a fritta on the 5-cheese? Bomb!!!" a third raved.
Extra Pasta
If you don't like the vegetables served at Olive Garden, sub it for pasta. "Chicken Margherita and sub out the broccoli for any type of pasta," one customer recommended. "I always get angel hair with scampi sauce," another agreed. "I've seen people get angel hair with pesto!" one Redditor said.
Bellini Lemonade
Olive Garden's Raspberry Lemonade and the Bellini Peach-Raspberry Iced Tea are huge hits with customers—but they're even better mixed together. "If you mix raspberry lemonade and Peach Bellini tea it's amazing (used to work at OG and would drink it every day😂)," one Redditor shared. "I DID TOO OMG! Add mango syrup," another added.
Vegetarian Subs
One vegetarian Redditor shared their go-to menu hack. "I get the eggplant parm and sub marsala sauce on the spaghetti noodles. Get the salad over the soup and ask for extra dressing on the side, dip your breadsticks in that. It sounds weird, but I highly recommend it."
A1 In Pasta e Fagioli
Many guests recommend adding A1 sauce to the Pasta e Fagioli, which is a soup containing White and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta in a savory broth. "I'm crazy but adding some A1 to it (just a little bit) is sooooo good," one Redditor said. "Omg I add A1 to fagioli!!" another excited customer responded. Another highly-recommended hack is adding a touch of balsamic vinegar to the Chicken & Gnocchi soup.
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