This simple Olive Garden hack could get you two meals for the price of one. You just have to be a bit shameless about it.
While Olive Garden may not be authentic Italian food, the Italian-American chain is beloved, especially by people dining on a budget.
This group of young adults learned a way to get the most bang for their buck at the pasta chain and shared proof of the hack with viewers.
Would you try this to squeeze two meals out of what’s just supposed to be one?
Easy Olive Garden meal hack
In a trending video with more than 360,000 views, content creator Owen (@owenna72) headed to Olive Garden to try out a hack that drag queen Delta Work spoke about on her podcast.
While the video documents Owen’s experience, Delta’s original audio storytime plays in the background.
“I wonder when Olive Garden is going to catch on to the fact that when I order my meal, I’m never gonna eat the meal,” Delta said.
Instead, she’s going to take advantage of the unlimited breadsticks and salad (or soup) and get full from that.
In Owen’s video, each person at the table has a bowl of soup (with lots of grated cheese on top), and they share the famous salad and basket of breadsticks.
“I am just going to keep having them replenish the unlimited salad and breadsticks until I’m completely satiated,” Delta said.
And once her entree came out, she’d kindly ask for extra bread for the table and a to-go box for the untouched food. In this case, Owen got fettuccine alfredo.
It seems the hack worked since Owen and his friends walked out smiling with a meal for home in hand.
Delta said she does this to “maximize” her Olive Garden experience. You can watch her original video here.
Other food-maximizing hacks
While some servers get annoyed by people’s hacks, this one shared his favorites, including:
- Ordering off of the kid’s menu and adding protein on the side to essentially get a full meal for cheaper
- Make sure at least one person gets unlimited salad so the whole table benefits
- Asking for a salad refill toward the end of your meal so you have enough to take home
- Instead of ordering a side of dipping sauce for your breadsticks, ask for a “ramekin of Alfredo”
@owenna72 completely satiated @delta work @Olive Garden ♬ original sound – Very Delta
Workers aren’t down with it
“And this is why I no longer work at Olive Garden,” the top comment read.
“Worked there a long time. Great memories, but I immediately made more money when I went to a slightly nicer restaurant,” a person shared.
“I do this at Mexican restaurants. fill up on chips salsa and bean dip. and take most of the meal hope for high snack,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Owen for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to Olive Garden via email.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
