Olive Garden’s all-you-can-eat pasta and breadsticks menu failed to retain customers this summer as sales at the Italian restaurant chain plummeted. The company now plans to reintroduce some of the dishes it dropped during the pandemic to entice customers back.
The chain is bringing back its Gorgonzola Steak Alfredo and Marsala Stuffed Chicken, two dishes it stopped serving during the pandemic, according to Ricardo Cardenas, CEO of Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden’s parent company. It’s also expanding its Never Ending Pasta Bowl offering by adding a new sauce — garlic and herb — as an option.
Cardenas, speaking on a Sept. 19 earnings call, said the return of the dishes would give “guests another reason to come in the second half of this fiscal year.”
Olive Garden blamed the sales decline on “the sales weakness that impacted the industry in July,” Darden CFO Raj Vennam said on the call. Several restaurant chains have said they’re struggling to attract inflation-weary customers this year, especially as restaurant prices have increased 28% since January 2020, before the pandemic, prompting some to launch discount promotions, like McDonald’s Meal valued at $5.
“We always want to offer our guests more of what they love when they come to Olive Garden, which is why we will be bringing back our Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo and Stuffed Chicken Marsala later in our fiscal year,” Olive Garden spokeswoman Brittany Baron said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch.
The company also saw a rebound in the first three weeks of September, she added.
Olive Garden’s restaurant sales fell 2.9% in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Aug. 25. Darden CFO Vennam noted that the company was “surprised by the significant decline in traffic beginning July 4,” but also added that sales picked up in August.
New Additions to the Olive Garden Menu
The Italian chain added the herb and garlic sauce starting Sept. 23, Baron said. She added that the $13.99 price of the Never Ending Pasta Bowl hasn’t changed since 2022.
The company had discontinued steak gorgonzola alfredo and chicken marsala stuffed dishes during the pandemic as it “streamlined our menus to help simplify operations and ensure the highest level of execution for our customers,” she added.
Darden CEO Cardenas said the return of the two dishes will help the restaurant add more protein-based entrees.
“Both properties have been revamped with higher quality ingredients and easier execution for their food service teams,” Cardenas said on the conference call. “This announcement was warmly applauded by their general managers at their general manager conference in August.”
Last week, Darden also announced that Olive Garden is partnering with Uber to offer a third-party delivery service for the first time. Individual orders will be picked up and delivered by Uber Direct, a premium delivery service. Olive Garden will not be listed on the broader Uber Eats platform.
If the initial pilot is successful, the delivery option will be expanded nationwide by May 2025, Darden said at the time.
