A TikToker named Rachel (@rachhhyl) is a lover of money-saving content and previously went viral sharing how Fogo de Chao customers can utilize a Costco gift card deal to get the most bang for their buck at the Rodizio restaurant.
Rachel’s back at it to assess the economics of Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl deal. In the clip, she delineates how many bowls someone needs to eat for the deal to be more economical than making pasta at home, but some folks who responded to her clip think that she’s leaving out key factors in her assessment.
@rachhhyl Time is money tho so i think jf you can scarf down at least 2-3 bowls, its worth it so you dont have to cook and clean after. Lmk your thoughts on the Never Ending pasta bowl at Olive Garden. #olivegarden #neverendingpastabowl #dealsandsteals #girlmath ♬ original sound – Rachel | The Daily Slay ✨
“This is how much pasta you need to eat in order to have a good return on your investment for the never-ending pasta bowls at Olive Garden, and honestly you guys, I’m still geeking at the math I just put together,” Rachel starts. “So I’m gonna compare the price and find the break-even point by buying my ingredients at a local grocery store and making it at home.”
Rachel explains that from her research, the pasta deal is $18.98 before tax and tip based on the starting price of $13.99 and the optional $4.99 charge for protein. She says she went to her local grocery store and bought the ingredients from an Olive Garden copycat recipe, which came out to $28.19.
The next part of her video shows her written cost breakdown of the price per bowl of her at-home pasta. “So we just spent $28.19 on our groceries, and I’m gonna assume that it’s four large dinner-size servings,” she says, “and that’s gonna come out to $7.05 per bowl if we were to make it at home.”
Rachel then compares the cost of making pasta at home, per bowl, to what it would cost on a night out of never-ending pasta at The Olive Garden.
“So then at Olive Garden, we know that it’s $13.99 all you can eat, plus $4.99 for the protein,” she says. “So then our total comes out to $18.98, and then I’m gonna add our local tax and a tip for a total of about $24.88 for the whole thing. But then you take the total at Olive Garden and then divide it by what it would cost to make it at home, and that comes out to 3.5, which we’re gonna round up, and it’s four bowls. Given the assumption that this grocery bill is amortizing to four different amounts, you would need to eat four bowls for it to make sense.”
So, if you spent the same amount on groceries to make pasta at home as Rachel did, you would need to eat four bowls of pasta at Olive Garden to “break even.” This may seem like a lot of pasta to scarf down, especially considering that folks have gone viral for stating that they tapped out of the unlimited pasta deal after having a single bowl.
Viewers who responded to the video seemed split down the middle as to whether or not the never-ending pasta bowl was worth it.
One person said that Rachel wasn’t factoring in the other costs associated with cooking at home. “Except it’s going to cost me time shopping, time cooking, and time cleaning,” they said.
Another seemed to agree that the luxury of having someone else prepare food for you, plus the salad and breadsticks that come with the pasta bowl, is a bonus that Rachel didn’t mention. “Dont forget the free salad n breadsticks plus the effort it takes to make it,” they responded.
This sentiment was echoed by someone else who penned, “There is also soup and salad. So 2 bowls makes it worth it. I usually do have 2 then order a 3rd eat a few bites then take home.”
However, others thought four bowls of pasta was an obscene amount of grub. “4 bowls at one time? that is food coma city for me,” one viewer remarked.
Someone else said that Rachel also wasn’t factoring in the diminishing returns that are often associated with purchasing unlimited pasta bowls at Olive Garden. “That would be 4 FULL SIZE bowls…but only your first bowl is full size, each successive bowl is about 1/2 the size of the first,” they wrote.
Another pointed out that Rachel failed to consider that the never-ending pasta promotion allows customers to mix and match pasta varieties rather than sticking to one option the whole meal. “And the bowls are w diff sauces and toppings too so yes its worth it,” they said.
The Daily Dot contacted Olive Garden via email and Rachel via TikTok comment for further information.
