An Olive Garden customer posted a viral video sharing how she orders a refill on her entree just to take it to-go.
Malina (@mamamalinaaaa) has reached over 4 million views and 184,000 likes on her video by Tuesday. She captioned her video saying, “I can’t be the only one.”
In her 11-second TikTok clip, Malina is sitting at a table in an Olive Garden and records herself eating chicken and gnocchi soup.
She added an on-screen caption that reads: “POV you’re at Olive Garden pretending to eat your chicken and gnocchi soup even though you’re stuffed so the server doesn’t think you solely ordered a refill just to take it to-go.”
Olive Garden offers a Never-Ending Soup or Salad and Breadsticks. As stated on its website, “Every entrée comes with our never-ending first course of soup or salad and breadsticks, which is always on us.”
Malina ordered her free refill of chicken and gnocchi soup having in mind that she wouldn’t eat it and would then take it home for another meal.
@mamamalinaaaa I cant be the only one 😅😅 #olivegarden ♬ original sound – Malina
Viewers in the comment section tell Malina she shouldn’t be embarrassed by this as most customers try the same thing. “As a former Olive Garden employee, I didn’t care if you wanted that soup to go, get your soup, girl!” one commenter said.
Malina responded, “Girl at my OG they literally will not bring it to you to go.. they will say they gotta bring the bowl and then the to go box.”
One viewer admitted that her favorite thing about Olive Garden is that “they literally ask if I want a fresh salad to go.” Malina responded to this comment, saying, “WHERE ARE YALL GETTING THESE BOUJEE OGs.”
“As a former OG server Corporate policy says we can’t bring “to go” soups or salads, it is a charge, but if it touches the table it’s yours to take,” another added.
In a Reddit post, an apparent Olive Garden worker claimed that the policy is that “once [the food] hits the table [customers] are allowed to bring it home.” The worker encouraged customers who do this to tip their servers accordingly, as the servers are the ones who go out of their way to fill up salad and soup bowls as well as bread baskets. And for those truly embarrassed servers will catch on, sneakily filling up their own containers is another less-ethical tactic Olive Garden customers use to take their Olive Garden food home without having to ask a server.
The Daily Dot reached out to Malina and Olive Garden via email.
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