Olive Garden fans will be happy to see this favorite offer return.
Olive Garden is making a comeback to pre-pandemic times and the restaurant’s customers can benefit from some big changes.
The Orlando, Fla.,-based Italian casual dining chain, which opened in 1982, made a name for itself as an affordable restaurant choice that offered unlimited servings of soft breadsticks, salads and pasta.
Like many restaurant chains across the country, the covid pandemic set Olive Garden back a great deal as it needed to cut back in many key areas to make it through the pandemic.
Olive Garden Making a Menu Comeback
Olive Garden like many other restaurants faced numerous challenges to survival during 2020-2021. A lot of restaurants had to completely shut down for long periods of time, while certain chains such as HomeTown Buffet closed down and never reopened.
Because of the risks of covid exposure, many restaurants that remained open needed to switch to carry out service or outdoor dining during the pandemic in order to keep their doors open. Staffs also needed to be reduced during the pandemic as restaurants reduced or eliminated table service.
Darden Restaurants’ DRI Olive Garden used this opportunity of having reduced staff and customers to do some work on the restaurant chain. Some things that Olive Garden did to help weather the storm was to streamline its menu, which meant pulling the plug on a lot of menu items that were time intensive or not very profitable.
Before the pandemic, Olive Garden had a lot more competition as some restaurants did not survive the pandemic. Businesses that had the best capacity to survive had a team focused on sustainability and it didn’t hurt that the chain had access to more capital than that of competitors.
The restaurant chain is in a strong position now to meet its customers’ needs as it works toward getting back to pre-pandemic operations.
Before the pandemic hit, Olive Garden, which has roughly 900 restaurants around the world, offered the popular Never-Ending Pasta Bowl on its menu. But the company removed it from the menu during the pandemic in 2020. CEO Rick Cardenas stated in December 2021 that the plan had been to lessen the dependency on the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, while focusing on affordable Italian food every day.
Diners Will Welcome This Menu Change
Olive Garden customers will be excited to see that, in addition to never-ending soup, salad and breadsticks that have been a long-standing tradition at the restaurant, the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl is making a return. After a two-year hiatus, the fan favorite is set to make a comeback on Oct. 3, as this promotion comeback also celebrates the quarter-century anniversary of the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl.
This menu item provides hungry customers a choice between a noodle type consisting of fettuccini, spaghetti, rigatoni and angel hair and a choice of sauce, such as creamy mushroom, marinara, five-cheese marinara, meat sauce and alfredo. For an additional charge customers can add meatballs, Italian sausage, or chicken fritta.
All good things must come to an end, however, as the never-ending past bowl will make its exit on Nov. 20 just in time for Thanksgiving.
