This Olive Garden customer said she has PTSD after seeing what was all up in her unlimited salad. She’ll likely never eat there again.
Olive Garden is an Italian-American restaurant chain that quickly gained popularity after opening and expanding in the 1980s and 90s. Its reasonable prices made it a beloved staple for families to celebrate major milestones like birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries.
Amongst the items that keep people coming back for more are the breadsticks, salad, chicken parm, and fettuccine alfredo.
But what happens when your favorite Olive Garden dish has something in it that you weren’t expecting? Would you go back?
What was in this Olive Garden customer’s salad?
In a viral video with more than 430,000 views, customer ASR (@yellowindian) called out her local Olive Garden for a disgusting and rude dining experience.
In the video and caption, ASR explains that she went out to eat with several family members as they celebrated a loved one’s birthday.
The first issue was that where they were seated smelled like sewage, and their server agreed. It’s no secret that it’s extremely unappetizing to eat in a place that smells bad.
Despite this, ASR and her family pushed through and had a good time in celebration mode. When the night was over they started packing up their leftovers, when suddenly something in the large salad bowl moved and then kept crawling around.
Disgustingly enough, it was a centipede.
ASR’s natural reaction was to scream, as many would when seeing a bug, especially if they’re afraid of it.
Instead of quickly addressing the issue and comping some or all of their meal, ASR said the manager was rude and unprofessional.
“Imagine the Shift Manager telling you not to make a SCENE and ‘Quiet down’ because we are HURTING HER EARS,” ASR said.
“It’s crazy because they are saying that the bugs are coming from the vendors that they are using . The lettuce is normally prepackaged and they just serve . But that’s still not an EXCUSE,” ASR added in a comment.
It’s more serious than you think
Accidentally eating a live centipede can be bad—really bad.
They can carry a parasite known as rat lungworm, which can fully mature in a rat but not in a human, CNN reported.
“So when it gets in a human, it can get lost, and it will go to the brain, and it’ll stay there,” Heather Stockdale Walden, an assistant professor in the department of infectious diseases and pathology at the University of Florida, told CNN.
The parasite can’t survive for long in the human body, so most infections will resolve on their own, but in rare cases, it can lead to something more serious like meningitis (inflammation around the brain and spinal cord) or even death.
It’s important to note that this is specific to raw centipedes. Sried or powdered centipedes are safe and often used in traditional Chinese medicine, the New York Times reported.
Commenters react
“You’re so nice for protecting your server even after all that, need more ppl like you,” a top comment read.
“I’m terrified of centipedes I fr would have screamed so loud,” a person said.
“I would absolutely NEVER recover,” another wrote.
@yellowindian Imagine eating @Olive Garden with your Family Celebrating a loved one’s Birthday. Imagine letting the Manager know that where you guys are sitting has a STRONG odor of Sewyer , Imagine the Manger being very RUDE , and Unprofessional, Imagine eating 3 Bowls of SALAD JUST TO FIND A FULL GROWN , LIVE CENTIPEDE IN YOUR SALAD right before ending the Night , Imagine the Shift Manager telling you not to make a SCENE and “Quiet down” because we are HURTING HER EARS 😒🥲 #fyp #olivegarden #salad #fypviralシ #checkyourfood #blackhistorymonth #disgusted #nevergoingback #leesummitmissouri #healthdepartment ♬ original sound – ASR
The Daily Dot reached out to ASR for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to Olive Garden via email.
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