11 Sides That Outshine The Main Courses At Olive Garden

Some of Olive Garden's non-entrees are scene-stealers, and deserve every bit of the headlining that's hogged by the main courses. This will come as no surprise to those who have expressed their undying love of Olive Garden's complementary cuisine on social media, blogs, and in the parking lot after leaving the restaurant — aka pre-internet food commentary.

We may not have stalked Olive Garden parking lots to research this article (optics wouldn't be great there), but we did peruse the information superhighway and the wealth of OG opinions it has on offer, combining this with personal, firsthand experience at the quasi-Italian chain. We also took into consideration what you get with these dishes for the (generally modest) price, in terms of quality and quantity — and how you can even hack one or two to increase the bang-to-buck ratio.

We present to you 11 supporting offerings on Olive Garden's menu that deserve center stage. They range from soups to salads to fried little yummy pick-ems to items that are technically freebies (you know which ones we're talking about). And don't worry, we're also giving you permission to order off the kids' menu. Who knows, we might even convert a few loyalists to Olive Garden from rival Carrabba's while we're at it.

Like everything about Olive Garden, the Zuppa Toscana isn't anywhere near an actual authentic Italian thing. It translates to "Tuscan soup," which regardless of one's proficiency in the Italian language, could translate on their own without help. Although for this popular offering, you have to give Olive Garden some kudos. It is at least loosely based on some idea of the typical rustic soups from that central Italian region. Independent of its lack of cultural verity, however, Zuppa Toscana is a pretty good rib-sticking dish.

It doesn't need much to go with it either, to be a completely satisfying standalone meal. The alpha soup is truly a first-choice Olive Garden menu item. As one Redditor put it, "Olive Garden is where I learned to love Zuppa Toscana." In all fairness, chances are Olive Garden would be the place for that, since it literally invented it. Zuppa Toscana is such a fan favorite that there is an entire catalog of copycat recipes on the internet — and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The Breadsticks are so synonymous with Olive Garden that it's fair to question which came first, the breadstick or the restaurant. Perhaps they planted a single breadstick in the soil, watered it, and out grew the first-ever Olive Garden. While this theory gets researched, let's wax poetic about the unlimited, tubular carb that people the world over are hooked on — both shamelessly and shamefully.

Nothing to be shamed about here, however. And not only should shame not be involved, sauce on the side absolutely should. Pair these breadsticks with a proper dipper – say, marinara sauce, meat sauce, or five-cheese marinara sauce — and you've got yourself something that could at least pass for a cheap, satisfying lunch (if you don't want to pay for an actual menu item to get the unlimited breadsticks, that is).

And the breadsticks truly satisfy the masses. It's estimated Olive Garden serves out more than half a billion breadsticks each year. Staggering, especially when you consider Olive Garden originally came up with the all-you-can-eat breadstick gimmick because its chefs couldn't cook dishes fast enough for the customer volume. It's hard to imagine they're even a loss leader because they're so cheap to make. All hail the breadstick.

You have to almost applaud the mad science of Olive Garden. Somebody in the corporate kitchen, a culinary brainstormer unhampered by self-consciousness, self-reflection, or even good taste, went ahead and basically said, "What if mozzarella sticks were a pasta?" And you know what? They pulled it off. Because not only was a menu item concocted, but an enduring fan favorite.

The stuffed Ziti Fritta is a welcome monstrosity that stretches the very idea of what one should consider a mere appetizer. And it's great that they didn't even decide to use the Italian word for stuffed. "Ziti fritta ripieno" would sound dangerously close to something that's really from the peninsula.

What you can have, though, is a menu item that only costs about $11 and has at least one Redditor in raptures: "It was the best thing on the menu. I still think about it." Wow, was this an appetizer, or a summer fling? Another Redditor on the same laudatory chain was no less awed: "It was incredible and the best dish I ever ordered from there." 'Nuff said.

Olive Garden wasn't satisfied with simply giving us another tired dose of mozzarella sticks. Nah-ah. It went all out and decided to rectangulate the suckers. Yes, this may be just another stateside bastardization of authentic mozzarella en carrozza, but this is far from the forgettable fried cheese tubes you'd get at a bowling alley or school cafeteria. This is straight-up scrumptious.

One of the only complaints you hear about the OG fried mozzy appetizer is that a serving comes in an odd number of seven –- making a clean split impossible without breaking one of them asunder. Another way to look at that, however, is that it's all the more reason to simply order it for one. Then you're only splitting it with yourself. Result!

They're so good they've caused some wishful thinking on the part of at least one Redditor: "They should make it unlimited like the breadsticks." Investors behind the chain would probably never allow that to happen, but the sentiment is a testament to how delicious the app is. Listen, it may never sell Olive Garden-hating Stanley Tucci on the joint, but 99% of us are not Stanley Tucci, so there.

An app that puts the "ooey" in ooey-gooey (both of them), the Spinach Artichoke Dip is one of those starters that people settle on when they can't decide which starter to get. The good news is that even a mediocre take on it can be pretty satisfying, and certainly filling (which has undoubtedly rendered many a follow-up main course as redundant). Olive Garden's version doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but it is solid.

The real stars of the offering are the toasted flatbreads that come with it. After all, what's a Spinach Artichoke Dip without an edible vehicle to pick it up? Something that's closer to conceptual art than food. Regardless of what's submerged in there, at least one Instagram influencer found the dip to be worth all the hype, calling it "fire" and an "11 out of 10."

One Redditor loved the dip so much they pleaded for the proper OG, OG version of the recipe. They got the help they needed, with one respondent sending a photo of a ragged, physical paper recipe that looked like it had been unearthed from a tomb. It just adds to the dip's mythical aura.

You have two approaches to meatballs at Olive Garden. You can go with the meatball appetizer or you can go with the side of meatballs. The former is a bit more ornamented than the latter, but the latter is super cheap and still hits like an app. In fact, it can absolutely serve as a standalone meal when paired with the right kind of side. (By the way, when a side has a side, does it mean neither are a side? Both? Plato's Symposium probably has the answer.)

The larger appetizer version is the Meatballs Parmigiana. For around $13 you get five huge, breaded meatballs draped in Italian cheeses and marinara sauce ("must try" according to a TikToker). Not only can it be an entree, but it'll probably give you leftovers.

The side dish of meatballs, on the other hand, sees three of the minced orbs, covered in just marinara sauce — but that will only set you back about $5. Obviously, you can still get yourself those same three meatballs as part of the Spaghetti and Meatballs entree, if you absolutely must have your pasta. But here's a tip: just buy the $5 meatballs to go, pick up a box of $2 Barilla spaghetti, and forget about the $20 main course. You're welcome. Er, prego.

This battered shrimp-and-veggies offering has been called elevated, perfectly crispy, and a great combo of texture and flavor — while the cream dipping sauce is, at least according to one reviewer, "fantastic." Shrimp Fritto Misto is also one of the more fun menu items to sing out loud with a flourish of the hand (go ahead, give it a try ... even if you're sitting down at the restaurant).

Who needs to go to Red Lobster for all-you-can-eat shrimp when this Olive Garden app has all the shrimp you need to eat — thanks to the batter, which adds a whole other layer of belly-packing, belt-loosening joy-regret. Are we sure "fritto" isn't actually the Italian word for "I'm so freaking full I need to call an Uber instead of driving home?"

There are reasons this is hands-down a top-five appetizer from Olive Garden. There's the half-pound of shrimp per serving — which could feed a small colony of seals — along with the variety of tongue-feels happening between the veggies, the batter, and the sauce. Who's to say this can't just be the one thing you eat for a meal? Show your face, naysayer!

Another soup. Another score. Except where the Zuppa Toscana is a kind of a superstar, the Chicken and Gnocchi Soup is more of a hardy, workmanlike champion. Good chicken soup on its own is practically medicinal. Then you're throwing in the starchy lovebug that is gnocchi as well? Yeah, you could subsist just on this bad boy, easily (add Breadsticks for dipping and you've got yourself an entree.

"What do people think of the chicken gnocchi soup?" an Olive Garden subreddit asked. The answers came full and fulsome. "I absolutely love it," shouted one Redditor. "It's my favorite soup," declared another. "I've tried to recreate it at home, that's how much I love it." Others on the chain called it amazing, delicious, A+, and other superlatives.

This is where Olive Garden leaves those other, all-too-common, disappointing house salads in the dust. For many eateries, a house salad is a dish more forgotten about than the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar winner. It's often just a rationing of sad, pale lettuce leaves, a flecking of shredded carrots that seem to be there by accident, maybe some cucumbers if the stars are aligned that day, and a couple of tomato slices that have to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The OG take is a complete 180 from that: there's abundance, taste, and vibrancy there.

One Facebook user spoke for many when they declared they were nothing less than "obsessed" with the house salad, pointing out that the "jumbo" description was not an exaggeration — the takeout serving looked about double the size of their head. This reinforces the fact that the salad is not only nutritiously yummy in your tummy, but it's also economical. "You could easily portion it out for a week," claimed one Redditor (although they admitted to eating it all in only three days). This salad elongation tracks for the dish, considering one Jumbo House Salad can serve about six people.

Compared to the rank absurdity of the stuffed Ziti Fritta, the Toasted Ravioli appetizer might as well be a cucumber and cottage cheese finger sandwich. Thankfully for Olive Garden diners, it is far from that. Obviously naked raviolis have enough heft to serve as the one and only dish for a given individual. Add the breading into the mix, and you've got yourself enough sustenance to keep a Napoleonic army on the march.

The same Instagrammer who extolled the virtues of the Spinach Artichoke Dip called the beef-filled Toasted Ravioli, with the marinara dipping sauce, by far her favorite Olive Garden appetizer. "This is it," she plainly stated. Another Redditor also put the Toasted Ravioli forth as their choice (complete with an exclamation point and everything) under the subreddit "What's your favorite OG appetizer?"

We should point out that Toasted Ravioli — surprise, surprise — are not toasted at all; they're deep-fried (no complaints there). Also, the origins of Toasted Ravioli are murky, outside of St. Louis being the recognized hometown. Regardless of the provenance, this one upstages many other items on the Olive Garden menu, entree or not.

Here's where you just throw social decorum out the window and get yourself a darn yummy Macaroni and Cheese. And here's, also, where an Olive Garden waiter can have a lot of fun, forcing a customer to admit out loud that they, a full-grown adult, are ordering off the kids menu. Who cares, especially when the buoyant shells, the mild cheddar, and the generous portioning hit your happy place.

"Underrated" is how the Mac and Cheese has been described in one subreddit headline. The poster followed it up with effusive praise: "Biggest surprise of my life ... that ... was fire. Put a lil cracked pepper on that bad boy and it was absolutely scrumptious. Not enough people are talking about this." We are, right now.

Another Instagrammer completely agreed with the assessment (even being pleasantly surprised by the side of broccoli), calling it "like Annie's but better." High praise indeed. Friendly reminder: the dish costs $8. As long as you can tolerate a sardonic waiter, that is serious returns for the modest investment.

I used the term "sides" in a wider sense here, to mean Olive Garden dishes that were not main courses; since the pool of menu items that were strictly considered sides was way too limited (unless we wanted to somehow work the cheese grater onto this list). 

As far as intelligence-gathering, I not only utilized social media — particularly Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram — to cull opinion and get a sense of which non-entrees people extolled, I also went by my own preferences along with the favorites of Olive Garden fans I knew. The last element was pure math: comparing the prices of the selected apps, sides, and the kids mac and cheese to that of the main courses, revealing quite the bargains when you consider the substantial indulgence return.