Why Has Olive Garden Gone Downhill?

The once-bubbling restaurant is now a cause for concern amongst many people. They keep asking questions like “Why has Olive Garden gone downhill?”. Read through this post to understand why the restaurant has lost its customer power.

Olive Garden is one of the most affordable restaurants in the United States. Known for its $5 meal, the restaurant is not so immune to the economic hit that had befallen many enterprises like we thought it was.

One of the hardest hits for the Italian restaurant was the Covid-19 pandemic which forced them to shut down operations for many months.

According to research, it was reported that Olive Garden’s fiscal second-quarter sales fell 19% from the previous year.

The National Restaurant Association reported that more than 110,000 chains of restaurants in the United States shut down permanently due to the pandemic losing sales worth 240 billion in the year 2020.

As a result of this hit, the restaurant was forced to trim down its menu and started relying on takeout.

Now what we don’t know is if the changes were enough for Olive Garden to bounce back from the hit and return back to normalcy

Is Olive Garden Food Microwaved?

To answer your question, most of the dishes offered by the restaurant are pan-fried, deep-fried, or mostly grilled. Olive Garden only uses microwaves for heating meals like dipping sauce and warming frozen desserts.

You don’t have to worry because the soups are made in-house each day while the pasta is made to order.

While Olive Garden offers very nice Italian dishes keep in mind that the sauces sometimes come in already-packaged frozen bags.

This is one of the downsides of eating at Olive Garden as this practice is not healthy but it is carried out by large chains like Olive Garden to prevent high costs.

What Time is Olive Garden Least Busy?

For a place like Olive Garden, there isn’t a time when people are not trooping in. But of course, like every other restaurant, it has its least bubbling hours.

If you are opportune to visit the restaurant from Monday to Thursday between the hours of 3 pm to 5 pm, well you are in for luck.

During this period the restaurant is not as busy as it usually is for dinnertime, You can place an order of an entree from an already fixed menu, unlimited, salad or soup, and of course the famous breadsticks for just $8.99 for each person.

Please note that the exact price may vary according to your location. To put it simply, you get to save almost $30 just by reaching there early and visiting on a weekday.

For Sundays, the best time to visit Olive Garden is by going before 11:30 am and after 2:30 pm to avoid long queues. 

The restaurant definitely deserves a 5-star rating because of its delicious food and very friendly service, but as a restaurant where the crowd is always super heavy.

The best time to thoroughly enjoy your meals is to be there during an off-peak time of the day.