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Here’s the Trending team’s main character of the week.
It’s the Olive Garden customer who called out the restaurant chain for replacing its standing breadsticks with hot dog buns.
If you’re a tried-and-true Olive Garden fan as I am (my friends and I simply call the casual dining chain “OG” in group messages) then this news might’ve been equally as devastating.
But did the restaurant actually tinker with its famous breadsticks?
In a recent TikTok video, Rachel (@rachelresells) said she noticed the breadsticks sitting at her table strongly resembled hot dog buns. That led her to ask viewers whether customers were always given buns versus bread.
“Are Olive Garden breadsticks just warmed up hot dog buns????” she asked in the text overlay of her clip, which had amassed more than 1.5 million views.
Are they?
How you answer this question might depend on whether you think bread and buns are interchangeable. But the short answer is no.
According to one copycat recipe, making the breadsticks at home only takes a few hours. While they’re just as long as hot dog buns, they’re not cut in half the same way they are.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped some social media users from comparing the breadsticks to hot dog buns.
In a 2020 post to a food-related subreddit, one Redditor admitted to cutting Olive Garden’s breadsticks in half and squeezing a hot dog between them. In essence, this turned the Olive Garden breadstick into a hot dog bun, but they’re really two separate things. (At least they are according to this self-proclaimed Olive Garden expert.)
There might be a benefit to cutting your Olive Garden breadstick in half, length-wise, and squeezing a hot dog inside, though: The chain’s buttery-flavored bread is sure to taste better than store-bought hot dog buns.
What was up with the content creator’s breadsticks?
Indeed, Rachel’s breadsticks looked … average at best. But that’s probably because she visited a not-so-good chain. I, at least, won’t blame each Olive Garden franchise for this supposed screw-up.
In the comments section of her video, other viewers agreed that her breadsticks looked suspect.
“Your Olive Garden is BROKEEEE,” a person wrote.
“Idk where you are but my olive garden breadsticks do NOT look like that,” another commenter echoed.
Since this doesn’t seem to be a universal experience, Olive Garden fans should take solace in the fact that their beloved breadsticks are here to stay. If there is something to worry about, it’s how many breadsticks you receive at any given visit.
As the Daily Dot’s Stacy Fernandez reported, in 2014, investors tried to get the restaurant to scale back on how many breadsticks it offered customers. Thankfully, if you order correctly, they’re unlimited.
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