Why Olive Garden Servers Won't Leave The Cheese Grater At Your Table (Asking Nicely Won't Help)

Here are some things that are possible at an Olive Garden restaurant: You will get one round of breadsticks (plus a refill per guest) from the staggering number it keeps on hand; you can also order soup that Olive Garden makes fresh in-house. What you will not have a chance to do at Olive Garden is handle the rotary cheese grater that waitstaff brings to your table to cheese-ify your entree (or smother your food, by traditional Italian restaurant standards, at least).

This may seem like common sense to you, or it may smack of a missed opportunity. But there's a good reason why you can't commandeer the cheese grater at Olive Garden, even if you ask nicely. On the r/olivegarden thread, Redditors — some claiming to be current and past Olive Garden employees — offered several reasons why a cheese grater shouldn't end up in customers' hands. The first is also the most obvious: It's unsanitary and most likely a health code and company policy violation. As one individual put it, "I don't know where their hands have been, and if they're going to touch the cheese block, etc." Say no more. 

The other pressing reason is that the graters appear to be in short supply at many locations. "We barely had enough of them for the servers to use so it would be impossible if all 50 tables had their own cheese grater considering we had maybe 8 to share between 12 servers," noted another Redditor. Those commenting on the Reddit page added that another reason they don't let customers take control of them is the potential for theft. "Leaving the graters at a table is just [a] guarantee that people will steal them," wrote one straight shooter.

Though many of the respondents on the r/olivegarden Reddit thread were opposed to allowing customers to grate their own cheese, the policy also doesn't appear to be gospel. One freely admitted to giving folks a free spin with the cheese grater even though they know they're not supposed to, saying, "If they even jokingly mention it I ask if they know how to use it, show them, they love it — especially if they have kiddos" (via Reddit). An Instagram user even posted an enthusiastic video about how her server at the Merritt Island, Florida, Olive Garden location graciously let her take the wheel of the cheese grater.

There is, of course, one very easy solution to the cheese grater conundrum. You can buy an Olive Garden cheese grater directly from the company for $19.99 and grate cheese to your heart's content. It even comes with a cube of romano cheese. However, it remains unclear as to whether you can bring your cheese grater to an Olive Garden restaurant. Maybe erring on the side of caution is the best policy here.