When it comes to affordable and hearty Italian-American food, Olive Garden is one of the best restaurants.
With endless soup, salads, and breadsticks, who wouldn’t want to eat at Olive Garden? Better yet–who doesn’t want to save more money on their delicious Olive Garden meals?
If you’re looking for a few hacks to save the most money possible when you dine at Olive Garden, you’ve come to the right place.
1. Join Olive Garden’s eClub
If you want to receive emails directly from Olive Garden with news on specials, coupons, and deals, you should subscribe to their newsletter–also known as the eClub.
Being a part of the Olive Garden eClub means you’ll receive exclusive emails with event information, specials, limited-time offers, coupons, contests, and more! Sign up for Olive Garden news and rewards here.
2. Follow Olive Garden on Facebook
There are plenty of places to stay up to date on all that goes on at Olive Garden from the ease of your phone or desktop. Learn about limited-time Olive Garden specials and coupons on social media through Olive Garden’s Facebook page.
Plus, you can communicate directly with restaurant representatives via comments on their posts or through personal messages. If you had a bad experience, a thoughtful, understanding, and polite message could potentially result in a coupon, gift card, or refund.
3. Opt-In to Olive Garden Texts
In addition to keeping up with Olive Garden via email and social media, you also receive texts with coupons and news. To register for the restaurant’s text alerts, text OGNEWS to 29002.
4. Use Coupons from Koopy.com
You don’t need to get all your coupons from Olive Garden directly. Koopy.com is one of the best places to secure quality coupons and deals for your favorite restaurants–including ones in the Darden family, like Olive Garden.
Before you decide to eat out (or order in), check online for coupons on Koopy.com. You can redeem coupons like $2 off lunch or 50% off your entire meal when you spend $30 or more. Other deals include delivery credits via Postmates, free appetizers, and free desserts.
Visit this premier couponing site to maximize your savings at Olive Garden.
5. Purchase Discount Gift Cards Online
Although you can purchase Olive Garden gift cards at full price, why would you when you can get a better value?
With discount gift card sites like GiftCardGranny, CardBear, and Raise, you could save between 4% and 14% every time you eat at Olive Garden. The premise is simple. You pay for the gift cards for a fraction of the price, and then you redeem them for their full value.
If there aren’t any available now, be sure to check back often. Inventory on these gift card sites fluctuates, so if you see something you want, snag it while it’s still available.
6. Buy Bulk Gift Cards from Darden
If you’re a devoted Olive Garden fan or have a large catering event coming up (or when the discount gift card retailers are out of stock), you can redeem discounted gift cards from Olive Garden when you purchase over $500 or more in gift cards.
To purchase the cards, you’ll need to call 800-248-4935 (in the US) or 888-888-3341 (in Canada). The lines are open between 9 am and 8 pm EST.
You can get 5% off $500 to $999 and 10% off orders over $1000.
7. Use Darden Gift Cards
Maybe you’ve got some gift cards lying around, or you’ve found a great deal on gift cards at a nearby restaurant. Either way, knowing the Darden family can pay off.
You can use most gift cards across the Darden family of restaurants. That includes Seasons 52, Capital Grille, Longhorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Eddie V’s, Yard House, and Cheddar’s.
You could purchase discount gift cards from any of these restaurants to use at Olive Garden, or you could cash in on gift card discounts when select restaurants offer them.
For example, some Seasons 52 locations offer 10% off gift cards around the holidays–and you might be able to find better deals on discount gift card sites with Darden’s sister restaurants. You can buy these cheaper cards and use them at Olive Garden.
Also, you can usually purchase 10% off gift cards from Olive Garden when you buy over $50 worth during the holidays.
8. Redeem a Free Dessert
When you join Olive Garden’s eClub, you’ll receive a free birthday treat to celebrate. Nothing says “happy birthday” better than a complimentary dessert, and Olive Garden knows that.
Whether you prefer their tiramisu, warm Italian doughnuts, or chocolate brownie lasagna, you can indulge in your favorite sweet off of the Olive Garden dessert menu.
9. Download the Olive Garden App
If you love to order Olive Garden and you haven’t downloaded the app yet, you’re missing out on tons of free perks. Although you won’t find any coupons on the Olive Garden app, you can utilize this tool to save time and money.
The app allows you to:
- find directions to the closest Olive Garden near you
- view the menu, as well as specials and deals
- place and save to-go orders
- put yourself on a seating wait-list
- save and redeem gift cards
Download the Olive Garden app at the App Store or on Google Play.
10. Check the Specials Before You Order
Being prepared is one of the best ways to save money, and if you want to get the most out of your next meal at Olive Garden, be sure to check out their specials online before you order.
Some deals include $7.99 meals for lunch on weekdays before 3 pm and $5 take-home entrees when you eat in.
11. Use the Employee Discount
When you work at Olive Garden, you can redeem one of the highest employee discounts known to man. Before or after your shift, you could get a 50% off a meal. If you love Olive Garden, working in the kitchen might be worth all the pasta and breadsticks you can eat.
When you’re a member of the Darden family, you can also cash in on 20% off at any Darden restaurant. In case you forgot, that means you can also get a discount at:
- Seasons 52
- The Capital Grille
- Longhorn Steakhouse
- Bahama Breeze
- Eddie V’s
- Yard House
- Cheddar’s
It goes the other way around, too. If you become an employee at any of these restaurants–whether you’re serving, cooking, managing, or washing dishes–you can get at least 20% off your entire meal when you eat at Olive Garden.
Click here to see what positions are available and apply to join the Olive Garden team.
12. Stack Coupons Through a Loophole
At Olive Garden, you can only use one coupon per purchase–if you pay all on one bill. To get around this policy, you can split your check and apply a coupon to each order.
Before you pay, tell your server that you’d like to split the check. Pay for one order with your card, and the other with your date’s (whether that’s your friend or your significant other).
Save the most money when you pair this strategy with coupons from Koopy.com and Olive Garden’s already cheap deals like unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks or $5 take-home entrees.
13. Bring the Kids
For this next tip, you’ll need to be strategic and keep an eye out for the specials. Every two or three months, Olive Garden runs a week-long promotion where kids can eat for almost free. Kids under the age of 12 can get a $1 kid’s meal, but this deal doesn’t last forever.
Watch out for your eClub emails to know when the next $1 kids meal promotion begins, and view your kids’ options on Olive Garden’s kid’s menu before you go.
BYOB (and Do Your Research)
Although Olive Garden curates an exceptional wine list for a family-friendly restaurant, the prices for the wine are not as great. Well, you can still follow Olive Garden’s advice and recommendations when it comes to drinking and pairing great wines without paying the price by buying the bottle they offer before dining and bringing them in.
Olive Garden will charge a $6.99 corkage fee, so this BYOB hack will save you more if you’re interested in drinking the pricer wines on the menu. For example, a bottle of Dreaming Tree Cabernet can cost you $33.50 if you buy it at Olive Garden. At your local liquor or grocery store, it could be as little as $13. Plus the $6.99 corkage fee, you’re saving about $13–enough to have another bottle at home.
15. Sit Down and Eat (and Don’t Order Take-Out)
The best thing about Olive Garden is the bottomless soup, salad, and breadsticks. If this isn’t your favorite part, you may need to reevaluate your priorities.
With that said, you can only redeem this great deal if you sit down and eat. Although ordering take-out will save you some time (and money, too, if you account for tipping your server), you’ll miss out on the bottomless opportunities.
Maximize Your Savings with These 15 Olive Garden Hacks
Now that you know all the secrets behind saving the most money at Olive Garden, you can eat to your heart’s content without breaking the bank.
Indulge in pasta, bread, soups, salads, and more without feeling an ounce of guilt when you utilize these savings tips at Olive Garden.
