First Time at Olive Garden, $13.99 Never-Ending Pasta: It’s Worth It

The food options in New York City seem infinite sometimes. You can step outside your front door and stumble across a hidden culinary gem. There are also times when an affordable bowl of pasta from a staple restaurant chain requires a 40-minute train ride and the overwhelming foot traffic of Times Square.

Undeterred, we eventually made it to our destination: The only Olive Garden in Manhattan.

We were seated with the standard menu, which did not mention the never-ending pasta promotion. We asked our waitress when she arrived, and she returned with a slip of paper for each of us that laid out the deal.

One of the tough parts about eating in an area dense with tourists is the high pricing. The never-ending pasta deal usually starts at $13.99 per person, but for this Times Square location, it was $19.99 — plus an extra $5.99 to add unlimited protein.

Both were sizable portions, and we didn’t make much progress on either to save space for the pastas.

The size of our first portion was daunting, but my first bite was delicious and creamy. I immediately knew that the crispy chicken would be my favorite protein. Spoiler alert: I was right.

By the end of my first plate, I knew I was in trouble. Starting with a cream-based Alfredo sauce and breaded chicken was a risk. The heaviness worried me. However, I was determined to keep pushing on to the next dish.

As a spice fiend, the spicy sauce was a no-brainer. I initially wanted to get angel hair for my first round since it seems lighter, and we have to pace ourselves (this is a pasta marathon, not a sprint, after all). In the end, though, I went with the classic spaghetti.

I was indecisive about the meat option, but our waitress mentioned they could serve one meatball and one sausage — decision paralysis solved!

Sarah started with a tomato-based sauce and mostly ate the sauce, avoiding the pasta (strategically, but ironically given the name of the deal) to save room. As Jordan later commented on Sarah’s first round, “There was a lot of pasta left, but I didn’t want to call you out.”

Jordan, having started with a heavier cream-based sauce, was starting to have regrets. When Sarah asked how she was feeling after round one, Jordan said, “Not very optimistic about going past round two.”

When the waitress came by to ask if we were ready for another pasta, we said yes, but there was clear reluctance in our voices. Alas, it was our begrudging gastronomic chore and journalistic duty to carry on.

The cheesy marinara reminded me of vodka sauce, which was a pleasant surprise. I was relieved to see a much smaller portion, which gave me hope that I could finish another bowl.

That feeling didn’t last long. Having barely made a dent in my second round, I started to regret every single bite of my breakfast.

“There’s simply not enough room,” I told Sarah between gulps of water to keep things moving along.

To say I enjoyed the mushroom sauce is a criminal understatement. I felt obligated to get a new pasta and sauce every round to try as much as possible, but I really wanted to get the mushroom sauce again after this round. I ended up eating more of the pasta than I’d strategically allotted for, but the mushroom sauce was worth it.

At one point, I wondered aloud, “Is this what Joey Chestnut feels like, just all the time?”

As she slumped over in her booth after giving up on clearing the bowl in round two, Jordan said, “I gotta be horizontal.”

Sarah reminded her she’d said this the last time, too, when we tried Red Lobster’s new seafood boils.

“This one’s worse, though,” she said.

Unbuttoning the top button on her jeans, Jordan said she should’ve worn pants with a soft waistband instead. Sarah, ever the empath and certainly not one for “I told you so,” simply said, “Rookie mistake.”

When an automated Slack message asked our team’s reporters about their afternoon agenda, Jordan’s response summed it up perfectly: “about to burst at olive garden.”

Wanting something crisp and refreshing after the heavy pastas, Jordan started chewing on a banana pepper from her salad while Sarah ate some tomatoes and a black olive.

Jordan was by now firmly in a food coma.

“We need a yawn counter. I’m on like six,” she said at one point. She pushed through it, though.

“I’m not optimistic, but I at least have some bites left in me,” she said as we prepared for round three.

Sarah, on the other hand, was beginning to feel like the Benjamin Button of Olive Garden. The more creamy mushroom sauce she ate, the more pasta she wanted. As we prepared for our third bowl, she had the zeal of a fresh, empty-stomached customer.

We asked our waitress about the popularity of the never-ending pasta deal, and she said most tables take advantage of the offer when it’s available. The day before our visit, she said she waited on one customer who made it through a whopping 10 bowls. She said, on average, customers make it through around 6 bowls. That…was absolutely astonishing to us.

I don’t usually go for a gluten-free option. However, in the spirit of trying all of the available pasta shapes, I gave it a try. The sauce was lighter than the Alfredo and five-cheese marinara, and it had that juicy tomato flavor I was hoping for. The rotini was quite chewy, though.

I ditched the protein this round in the hopes that it would help me finish more of my bowl. It didn’t help much. I ended up picking at it, eating one noodle at a time, and, eventually, taking breaks from eating altogether.

The chicken in my dishes was salty, but otherwise good. The angel hair felt lighter and easier to eat than my previous pasta choices.

Jordan stopped at round three, while Sarah, for better or worse, attempted a fourth pasta: mushroom sauce with sausage.

During our fourth round, we had some entertainment: The wait staff sang Happy Birthday to one table, and several minutes later, the fire alarm went off. The momentary confusion before anyone knew if it was real or a false alarm felt fitting for the moment.

Let’s just say our first trip to Olive Garden was an adventure.

The never-ending pasta bowl is a great value, even at the Times Square prices. But the financial cost of Olive Garden’s never-ending pasta is easier to stomach than, well, the cost to your stomach. Our grand total, including drinks and the protein add-ons, came to $73.45 before a generous tip for the quick service.

As a bonus, here’s some advice to those who might try this carb-loading challenge themselves:

1. Wear sweatpants.
2. Start with a tomato-based sauce.
3. You may ask yourself if you’re willing to be beaten by the 10-bowl legend of the Times Square Olive Garden. One answer will hurt you a lot less than the other. Know your limits. Don’t be a hero.