Olive Garden fans seem to have a special place in their heart for the restaurant’s beloved alfredo sauce. But did you know you can effectively get full from ordering just a large thing of alfredo?
Recently, TikToker Hunter Alford (@hunterbutbald) went viral after responding to a fellow user on the platform, @cookiterica, who shows off a “hack” when it comes to ordering at Olive Garden. When planning a meal for two, she makes sure she orders a large portion of the chain’s Alfredo sauce… because it also comes with 8 breadsticks.
On top of that, she also purchases 3 meatballs, and a salad. The grand total comes out to $17.57, and Erica says it’s enough for two people to enjoy. However, Hunter says that Erica’s video doesn’t really contain a “hack” of any kind as all she did was share an order that she likes to place off of items that are on Olive Garden’s menu. He goes on to offer lesser-known hacks.
@hunterbutbald #stitch with @COOK IT ERICA 4 ACTUAL Olive Garden hacks #olivegarden #olivegardenhack ♬ original sound – Hunter Alford
For the DIY crowd, there are a number of TikTokers who’ve shared various “hacks” having to with the Italian-style-fare company’s cream-based pasta topping.
Like this user named Kenzie who purchases the sauce, but prepares her own pasta and chicken at home. She then uses the Alfredo sauce containers she buys from Olive Garden for a hybrid homemade/store bought chicken Alfredo pasta, that she also serves up with the breadsticks that come with the restaurant’s sauce.
@booyahkenz Olive Garden Hack save your time & money work smarter not harder 🤤 I keep seeing this all over my FYP but I’ve been doing this for months now bc @gab_112314 told me about it. #Fyp #OliveGarden #Alfredo #AlfredoSauce #Chicken #Pasta #Hack #SaveYourMoney #LazyHack #TiredMoms #MomsOfTikTok #Easy #Cheap #Yummy #Breadsticks #ChickenAlfredo #GetCrackin ♬ I Think I’m in Love – AWS
Kenzie attests that she did “the math” and that purchasing the sauce from Olive Garden was cheaper than making it at home, however, there were some TikTokers who said that the grocery stores she was purchasing the items from was upcharging her on the products needed to make her own sauce and that it’s almost always better and cost effective, to make the dish at home.
Which is exactly what TikToker @mamainthekitchen demonstrated in a viral clip that accumulated over 280,000 likes. In her video, she breaks down all of the ingredients and methodology in crafting a faithful “dupe” of Olive Garden’s fettucine alfredo pasta. One added benefit of making the dish at home is that the chef in question (i.e. you) can control the quality of ingredients you buy: If there’s a specific butter that you like, or brand of cream you prefer over another, or maybe you like you make your own fresh pasta instead of going with a dry brand; the world is a pasta colander and you’re in charge of straining it.
@mamainthekitchen Olive Garden’s Fettuccine Alfredo #alfredosauce #fettuccine #pasta #olivegaeden #copycat #easyrecipe #recipes #tiktokrecipes #foodtiktok #foodie #food ♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre
She says in the clip: “Olive Garden’s fettucine alfredo. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter and add one tablespoon of minced garlic.” She then stirs the garlic into the butter that’s melting in the pan. She continues, “Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour and mix until combined, add your milk (1.5 cups) and heavy cream (1.5 cups) and bring it to a simmer until it thickens. Add some salt and pepper (1/4 tablespoons each) and then slowly start adding in your fresh grated parmesan cheese (1 cup). Once it melts it’s gonna look like this…” the clip then shows her extricating a mixing spoon from the pot, showing off a thick, creamy texture.
At this point in the recipe, she begins tossing in her “cooked fettucine” which she mixes around. The dish is almost done at this point: the only thing left to do is to top “it off with some parsley and enjoy!”
There are several other TikTokers who’ve offered up their own variations on how to make their favorite Olive Garden Alfredo sauce dupes, but they’re more or less made in similar fashions and require butter, flour, milk, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese.
Back in Hunter’s viral PSA about the Olive Garden menu, he begins his clip by saying, “I was a server at Olive Garden for a year now what this lady’s showing is not a hack she’s just literally ordering dipping sauce. But I’m gonna show you what actual hacks there are.”
Hunter then begins to delineate the first specialty order folks can place when they’re dining out in a physical Olive Garden location: “Hack No. 1 only works if you’re eating there doesn’t work for to-go. But if you want that dipping sauce for your bread sticks but you don’t have to pay and order it, just ask your server for a ramekin of Alfredo. I mean if you have one of the hard ass ones they’re not gonna do it, but 99% of us will.”
He then provided another hack, that wasn’t alfredo sauce related, but instead helped folks get their hands on some of the restaurant’s mints they serve at the end of a meal. “Hack No. 2 you know those amazing mints that you get at the end like literally the best part of eating at Olive Garden? The rule of thumb is one per person. But if you ask for extra again, 99% of your servers we’re just there to make money for us we don’t care if the company makes money. I’ve given people 10, 20 of them if they ask me for it. Just be direct.”
Hunter then says that he saved the greatest hack for the end of his clip: “Finally best of all everyone knows that you can either have soup or salad with your meal unless you get soup and salad as a meal. So go with at least one other person you get a salad bowl with your soup and just take some of their salad.”
At the end of the clip he does reference a “kid’s meal pasta hack” but says “that everyone knows” it.
If you’re one of the uninitiated, the “kid’s meal pasta hack” he’s referring to is the fact that kid’s meal portions from the chain serve up generous amounts of grub for a steeply discounted price on the same wares the restaurant offers. Unlike Hunter’s other “hacks” for dining in at the restaurant that are predicated under the assumption that one is going to have a “chill” server who isn’t pedantic about giving out freebies, @kimmyc0le showed off all the grub she got for only $9: A tupperware packed with chicken alfredo, a drink, a tiramisu, a plastic container packed with spaghetti and red sauce, and a breadstick.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Olive Garden via email for further comment.
