Get Excited, Olive Garden Is Bringing Back Its Never Ending Pasta Bowl (2024)
A few weeks ago, a local news broadcast from the mid-1980s went viral on Instagram, as hundreds of thousands of people double-tapped that video of an Olive Garden’s grand opening in Minnesota. “You can get those breadsticks and a salad complimentary with an entree,” one of the anchors marveled. “All you can eat, which is really nice.”
The two broadcasters truly couldn’t believe what they were seeing, adding “you can get more and more and more” salad and breadsticks, turning a $4.25 spaghetti and meatball meal into a full-on Italian feast. Over 30 years later, Olive Garden can still serve that kind of energy –at least once a year when it announces the dates for its Never Ending Pasta Bowl.
The carb kings at Olive Garden have just revealed that Never Ending Pasta Bowl is making its triumphant return this fall, from Monday, September 25 through Sunday, November 19. The big change this year is that members of the Olive Garden eClub can enjoy an extra week of this limited-time offer; anyone who signs up for the eClub before Saturday, September 16, can start enjoying their own Never Ending orders on Monday, September 18.
The Never Ending Pasta Bowl will start at the same price point that it had last year. Each unlimited pasta combo will cost $13.99 and includes as much pasta as you can eat, along with soup or salad and those iconic Olive Garden breadsticks. For an additional $4.99, diners can add one of three Never Ending toppings: meatballs, Italian sausage, or a crispy chicken fritta.
This year’s Never Ending pasta lineup includes the choice of angel hair, fettuccine, rigatoni, or spaghetti, and each bowl can be topped with either Alfredo sauce, a made-from-scratch Creamy Mushroom sauce, Five Cheese Marinara, Traditional Marinara, or a Traditional Meat sauce.
“At a time when guests are getting less from other casual dining concepts, Olive Garden is proud to give them more of the abundant, craveable Italian food they love with our fan-favorite Never-Ending Pasta Bowl offer,” Jaime Bunker, the senior vice president of marketing at Olive Garden, said.
“With 80 different possible combinations of sauces, toppings, and pastas to choose from – plus the unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks we offer with every entrée – we’re committed to making sure every guest leaves full and satisfied and, possibly, with a new favorite pasta combination.”
Olive Garden offered its first Never Ending Pasta Bowl promo in 1995, when each bottomless bowl cost $6.95. Either way, we’re not sure those mid-80s Minnesota newscasters could’ve handled that–they’re probably still buzzing from the idea of unlimited breadsticks.
The Never-Ending Pasta Pass® allows a Passholder to enjoy the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl® menu at Olive Garden as many times as they wish in-restaurant for 9 weeks. That's right - unlimited pasta, sauce and toppings, plus all the soup or salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden for 9 weeks!
Though the promotion is a great deal if you're dining in with a big appetite, the unlimited aspect unfortunately doesn't extend to any take-home portions. If your server is feeling generous, they will let you box up your leftovers if you have an unfinished plate, or you could wind up with some extra breadsticks.
Like many casual-dining chains, Olive Garden doesn't offer many promotional discounts these days, with one notable exception: its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl.
Fried mozzarella cheese, served with marinara sauce. Never Ending Dipping Sauces for Breadsticks (V) Homemade marinara, alfredo or five cheese marinara. *CONTAIN (OR MAY CONTAIN) RAW OR UNDERCOOKED INGREDIENTS.
Olive Garden does have a policy on breadsticks. Typically, a server is supposed to bring one stick per person plus one extra for the first basket. After that, the rule of thumb is one breadstick per person.
How much does the Olive Garden Never-Ending Pasta Bowl cost? Servings from the unlimited pasta combos menu start at $13.99. For an additional $4.99, you can add meatballs, Italian sausage or crispy chicken fritta.
By the next day, some of the natural starches in the food will have transformed into healthier versions, called resistant starches, which have been linked to a range of health benefits including lower blood sugar, better gut health and a reduced risk of certain types of cancer.
If boiled rice or pasta are left out at 12-14o C for a long time (more than 4-6 hours), it can become extremely dangerous to eat. At this temperature the spore producing bacteria can form heat resistant toxins.
After pasta noodles have finished cooking, Italian cooks do not throw out all the water. They keep a small amount to use when making the sauce for the dish. The leftover water contains starch from the pasta.
This is, at least, what the Galateo, our big book of good manners, says. Let us take, for instance, the habit of using a spoon to roll your spaghetti into, a habit that, in fact, used to be quite common in certain parts of Italy, especially in the South, so much so it was considered even a sign of elegance.
Our soup and sauce masters create dishes by hand and from scratch, every day. With fresh, whole ingredients like kale, peppers and squash. Because they know cooking that way – the Italian way- everything tastes better. to everything they make.
One of the things that makes it so great is its use of heavy cream. While this might seem like a standard inclusion in an Alfredo sauce for most Americans, it actually makes this dish distinctly different from its Italian counterpart.
In the past, each dipping sauce order was $3.99 for one 4-ounce portion. Now, for the same price, guests get unlimited refills (and can mix and match the sauces with each refill).
Instead of being contoured like deep mixing bowls, pasta bowls are low and wide, making it easier to get to your pasta regardless of its shape. Most pasta bowls are made of china, ceramic, tempered glass, or melamine.
The pasta at Olive Garden isn't frozen or microwaved, but it is prepared in advance of service. In a Quora thread, one server explained the process: "The pasta is precooked in the morning and given an ice bath while it's still al dente.
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