One of the Olive Garden’s most popular menu items is the chain’s unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks. For a fixed price, the menu item allows one diner access to eat as many single server salad, soup, and breadstick orders as they would like. The latter item is arguably the chain’s most popular dish, and Mashed reported that in 2014, it was calculated some 600-700 million breadsticks were doled out to hungry diners in a single year.
Because this unlimited option is such a widely consumed meal at the chain, there are a number of copycat recipes floating around online that instruct folks how to make their own Olive Garden salad at home, which is something a former employee of the chain says that they prefer to do, as they were always instructed to skimp out on salad toppings during their time working there.
A TikToker by the name of Allison (@athomewithallieugc) shared her own recipe of the salad that she prefers to the offering in the restaurant as she gets to use her own ingredient variations and load it up with as many portions of olives, tomatoes, onions, pepperoncini peppers, or anything else she wants to put on it as she likes.
Her clip received over 11,000 likes on the platform, with many users thanking her for sharing the recipe in the comments section. There were some, however, who didn’t seem to agree that the chain was ever really “stingy” when it came to loading up their salads with accouterments.
@athomewithallieugc Olive Garden Salad at Home! #olivegarden #salad #recipe #dinner #takeoutathome ♬ Ruas da Italia – Regininha de Iguaba
“When I worked at Olive Garden there were rules we had to follow when we made their famous salad. My kids fondly called the Olive Garden the breadstick store. We were instructed to be pretty stingy when it came to the toppings of their salads. When we made them. When I make it at home I pile on the toppings and the most delicious homemade dressing. It feels like the breadstick store is right in my own kitchen when I make this it’s so good.”
In the comments section of the video, Allison shared the salad recipe she demonstrates making in the video:
Dressing
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c good mayo
3 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
1/2 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
One user remarked that their experience ordering salads at Olive Garden restaurants differed greatly from Allison’s, writing “Wait.. stingy? Damn they’d be 2 whole onions and a jar of olives in mine.” However, the TikToker responded by saying that at the franchise she worked at, the amount of ingredients loaded onto customers’ salads were closely monitored: “No seriously! We got in trouble if we put too much on the salads!”
But there were other comments from customers who appeared to confirm Allison’s employment experience: “I can never understand why we only get 1 or 2 tomato slices” and another person who said that they too worked at an Olive Garden were told to police the amount of toppings they put on salads: “We had to count how the amount of each topping”
Someone else spoke to the chain’s popular unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks meal, stating that they received diminishing returns upon requests of additional salad portions: “The first one is loaded up after that they get stingy.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Allison and the Olive Garden via email for further information.
