Buzz
A symbol of over-the-top American dining, Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Bowl offered pasta enthusiasts an endless supply of their favorite pasta dishes. For just $10.99 per person, patrons could indulge in as much pasta as they desired, though extras like meatballs came at an additional charge.
However, the Never Ending Pasta Bowl didn’t quite deliver on its promises and was discontinued in 2019. So, what went wrong?
During a recent earnings call, Ricardo Cardenas, the future CEO of Olive Garden’s parent company Darden, stated that the Never Ending Pasta Bowl is unlikely to return anytime soon. He mentioned, “As we look ahead, we’re unsure whether or when we’ll bring the Never Ending Pasta Bowl back.”
The endless pasta bowl was designed to boost sales for Olive Garden, but in reality, the chain is already seeing a 5.2% increase in sales from Q2 2019, and a 29% surge compared to the same period in 2020, largely driven by takeout due to the pandemic. This growth actually outpaced the sales generated during the promotion.
Cardenas also mentioned that the Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion may have had an unintended 'negative impact' due to its effect on the restaurant's profitability.
The Never Ending Pasta Bowl first appeared in 1995, priced at $6.95 per person, and was offered periodically over the years. In 2019, Olive Garden introduced a $500 Lifetime Pasta Pass to 50 lucky customers, seemingly unaffected by the chain’s restrictions on portion sizes.
As Cardenas noted, the restaurant still offers a 'never-ending first course,' with unlimited salad, soup, and breadsticks. The latter was once questioned by investors in 2014 over concerns about breadsticks becoming stale too quickly, leading to unnecessary waste. Olive Garden chose to ignore those worries; the breadsticks remain as unlimited as ever.
