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Olive Garden Buy One, Take One menu items

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Olive Garden Buy One, Take One!

Update: As of June 2021 Olive Garden does not currently offer the Buy One Take One option as previously reviewed.  However, they are currently offering a buy one entrée in store, and take one home for $5 (does not include salad or breadsticks).  Still a pretty good deal.  Read on to learn more about previous experiences with Olive Garden’s menu deals. Get out there and support your local restaurants.

Olive Garden Review

I am smitten with Olive Garden (and always have been!). My family and I enjoy eating there often for several reasons. The amazing bread and the endless soup or salad. If you haven’t tried their salad, you just have to. I could pretty much make a meal out of the salad alone! We also love the menu choices, and their frequent specials (I especially love their combination meals, or “trios”). When I heard about the Olive Garden “Buy One, Take One” menu items, I knew this was something I had to take advantage of.  Twist my arm, right?

olive garden,central valley

I took a friend out for dinner, at our local Olive Garden. A little “girl” time over dinner was much needed by both of us. The only hard part was deciding what to order! Naturally we wanted to try meals from the Buy One, Take one menu (shown below).  There are five items to choose from, so we each got something different.

olive garden,specials,menu

I opted for the Mezzaluna Ravioli with Five Cheese Marinara, as I adore just about any kind of ravioli. The portion was a little smaller than with a regular meal, but it was just perfect for me. The ravioli were tasty but the marinara sauce was almost too cheesy. I think with a little less cheese in the sauce, it would be a perfect dish. My friend had a little taste of mine, and she agreed about the cheese.

olive garden,mezzaluna ravioli

My friend decided to get the Smoked Mozzarella Chicken and it was very good! I “had” to sample hers as well (which I thoroughly enjoyed!). The pasta was tender and full of flavor. I have to admit that it could have used more chicken. We were both slightly disappointed that there were only four small pieces. It actually worked out okay though, as we were already getting kind of full from the delicious salad (all you can eat!) and bread that also come with the meals!  You can choose from soup or salad, which I love.

olive garden, smoked mozzarella chicken

With Olive Garden’s Buy One, Take One meal special, we were each able to bring home another meal for our kids! I think this is a FANTASTIC idea and I wish more restaurants would offer this (and I hope that Olive Garden will continue to offer it). It was nice for us to go out to dinner alone, but it was even better to not have to worry about cooking for our kids before or after our own fun night out. The only hard part was deciding what to bring home for them!

I decided to bring the Fettuccine Alfredo home for my daughter. She loves pasta with cream sauce, so this fit the bill perfectly. The waitress told us that we didn’t need to place the “take home” orders until we were done eating ours. We wondered how long it would take, but we didn’t need to worry. Olive Garden “take home” meals are packaged and refrigerated for freshness, and ready to reheat when they are ready to be eaten at home.

olive garden,fettuccine alfredo

The reheating instructions were really easy to follow. If you don’t have kids at home, these would be great to reheat and eat for lunch the following day. Heck, you could even take it to work, and be the envy of everyone in the office! Since they are refrigerated, you don’t have to wait for them to cool down before putting them in the refrigerator (another plus!).

olive garden, take out menu

My friend brought the Spaghetti with Four Cheese Meat Sauce home to her teenage son. He was quite happy, and even happier he didn’t have to go out to dinner with the “old ladies”. It was a win-win for all of us!

olive garden spaghetti

Thanks for stopping by.  Check out some of our other great reviews and content.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. I love Fettuccine Alfredo. I have never gone to The Olive Garden. Everything looks so Good!

  14. I’m most excited about the Spagetti with four cheese meat sauce.
    Thanks so much.

  22. This is a no brainer for me- the Mezzaluna Ravioli.
    gosh I LOVE olive garden. Okay okay I admit I wish they had different bread.. but.. hey…

  34. I would choose the Mezzaluna Ravioli as my buy one and the Spaghetti with the four cheese meat sauce as my take home.

  58. Either the smoked mozarella chicken or the spaghetti with four cheese are more my taste

  75. I would sit down to eat the Mezzaluna Ravioli with Five Cheese Marinara and grab the Spaghetti with four Cheese Meat sauce to take home.

  149. Ravioli & smoked chicken mozzarella. Yum!! What a great promotion! I just wish we didn’t have to drive an hour to find an Olive Garden!

  170. I want to try the Spaghetti with Four Cheese Meat Sauce the most.
    jtmagmom73(at)gmail(dot)com

  184. The Smoked Mozzerella Chicken!! Saw the commercial and now I’m craving it bad!!!

  190. 5 cheese ziti al forno. This is actually what I always USED to get, years ago, then it disappeared off the menu. So glad to see it’s in the choices!

  205. I’d go with the Five Cheese Ziti at the restaurant, and the Fettuccine Alfredo to enjoy later!

  207. I want to try the Five cheese ziti al Forno and then the spaghetti with 4 cheese meat sauce – but they all look sssssooooo good!

  281. Fettuccine Alfredo, it looks really good. I’m just now learning to like the white sauces.

  284. Fettuccini alfredo w/chicken is one of my favorites.

    I do find it funny that it’s refrigerated for freshness. I have heard that in chains they microwave many of their dishes. I suppose Olive Garden is right up there.

  321. After reading about your meal I really, really want to go to the Olive Garden.
    I want the Ravioli too! But I’m having trouble deciding what I would take home, I’d take the Smoked Mozzarella Chicken if it doesn’t have too smokey of a flavor. Oh boy do I want to win this. 😉

  343. Fettuccine Alfredo!
    Thank you for hosting this giveaway

    Louis
    pumuckler {at} gmail {dot} com

  350. I’m excited about this, because I can make a meal on the salads alone. I would like to try the mezzaluna at the restaurant, and take home the spaghetti with meat sauce. I love the OG!

  361. ooops. i could not find your rss button and then i accidentally clicked ‘enter’ on the entry form. sorry.