A woman took to TikTok to talk about a haul of food she got from Olive Garden for under $80—but commenters are arguing that it may not be the flex that the creator thinks it is.
The video comes from creator Sarah Stusek (@sarahshooots), and it has garnered more than a million views as of Thursday morning.
In the clip, she details what she got from a recent Olive Garden order, inspiring a debate as to whether or not she got the deal she seems to be hinting at getting.
Stusek showcases a number of items one by one, and narrates as she goes, noting that she got all the items for $80, though the on-screen caption notes $72.50 is actually more accurate. “A huge salad—I didn’t not expect it to be this big,” she describes. “A whole bottle of salad dressing. A tub of butter. A tub of croutons.”
The TikToker goes on to detail bigger ticket items like a pasta dish, a whole gallon of soup, and the breadsticks the chain restaurant is known for.
@sarahshooots ♬ original sound – sarah stusek
There’s also a follow-up video that just highlights the unwieldy gallon of soup—which she admits partially spilled when she was picking it up due to the bucket bowing. This clip has gathered more than 2.4 million views, going up an hour after the first one to answer someone who wanted empirical proof of the giant soup container.
Commenters went to the original video to declare that it didn’t seem to be the bargain the creator made it out to be.
“I use to work at Olive Garden and this is $30 MAX!” one commenter exclaimed. “Are you pranking us???”
Another assessed, “So you bought a $50 salad.” In response, the creator pointed out that the sizable salad was $22.99.
Not everyone expressed cynicism about the pricing or the haul, though. One commenter, getting in on the soup video, marveled, “You can buy a GALLON of soup from Olive Garden?!”
“$27, baby,” Stusek enthused.
Someone was alarmed by the plastic tub and the creator’s comment that it was “so hot, the tub [was] melting.”
“It’s kind of scary,” that commenter opined. “If it’s melting, you could ingest microplastics.”
“But that’s the best part,” another person cracked.
A third, perhaps not reading sarcasm into that answer, queried, “How tf in any world is that the best part?”
Others contested the creator’s assertions that the $27 soup was less than she could have made doing it at home with store-bought ingredients, or that it was, in the creator’s words, “fresh as hell.”
“Fresh as hell is not how I would describe Olive Garden,” one commenter asserted. “Maybe frozen as hell then thawed to your liking.”
Stusek pushed back, “They make the soup fresh every morning and I was the first one in the door, babe.”
She also repelled initial reactions to her video arguing that she didn’t get a particularly good deal. Stusek said that wasn’t the intention of her video.
“Yeah, no, that wasn’t a deal,” one commenter assessed.
The creator responded, “Did someone say it was?”
The commenter responded with confusion, thinking that was the whole point of what seemed a flex. Another person sided with the commenter, noting, “She definitely insinuated it with her excitement for only paying $80. You weren’t wrong.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Olive Garden via email.
Update, Friday, April 7, 8:25 a.m. CT: Stusek, responding to the Daily Dot’s email inquiry, said she created the video from her Alexandria, Va. home to highlight the amount of money she spent on Olive Garden and to show what can be done. As she remarked, “I don’t recall saying it was a deal the title of the video … I was just showing everything I got. In the very first video, I said, ‘I just spent $70 on Olive Garden catering” as if I knew it was a ridiculous amount to spend. I would absolutely do it again. It was delicious and if your allergies are flaring up from the cherry blossoms and you don’t feel like slaving over a hot stove all day, it is definitely a great option! It’s a lot of food and we aren’t even halfway through it.”
