16 Facts About Olive Garden

Olive Garden is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine.

Olive Garden restaurants were uniformly popular, and the chain's per-store sales soon matched former sister company Red Lobster.

Olive Garden eventually became the largest chain of Italian-themed full-service restaurants in the United States.

In 2009, Olive Garden was Darden's most inexpensive restaurant chain with an average check per person of $15.

Olive Garden announced it would begin licensing franchising partnerships, a new direction for the chain and its parent which had traditionally relied on expansion via company-owned locations exclusively.

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In 2011, Olive Garden implemented a mandatory tip-out program which allowed them to cut more of their employees' hourly wages to $2.

In October 2012, Olive Garden became one of the first national restaurant chains to test converting most of its staff to part-time, aiming to limit the cost of paying for health care benefits for full-time employees.

In 2019, Olive Garden added the "Lifetime Pasta Pass" offered to first fifty diners to sign up for the never ending one.

In May 2018, Olive Garden opened two new restaurants in Gran Plaza, Guadalajara, Mexico and Cancun, Mexico.

In 2014, Olive Garden opened in Lima, Peru under the name Olive Italian Restaurant but with the same menu of the original name restaurants, and it is located in a main avenue.

In 2014, Olive Garden opened its first restaurant in Brazil, located in terminal 3 of the Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo.

In 2020, Olive Garden opened its first restaurant in the Philippines at Ayala Malls Manila Bay.

In June 21st, 2022, Olive Garden opened its first restaurant in Aruba inside the Gloria – Movies, Dining, Entertainment and Play complex.

Olive Garden serves several types of Italian-American cuisine including pasta dishes, steaks, and salads.

In June 2010, Olive Garden began to import parts of menu formats from its sibling chain, Seasons 52; it began selling smaller dessert portions which it called "dolcini".

Olive Garden does send a number of managers, trainers, and cooks to Tuscany each year, but they stay in a rented hotel and spend only a few hours at a local restaurant in its off-season.