The TikTok Olive Garden Hack That Honestly Might Not Be Worth It
If you often crave Italian food, you may enjoy Olive Garden. The restaurant chain sells its meals in-house and to-go but will also sell its sauce à la carte. And one TikTok user posted a video showing how she meal plans using the restaurant's sauce.
The user said she'd seen others using the same method, but this was the first time she'd tried it herself. In the video, she explains that she purchased two large sides of alfredo sauce from the restaurant. The order comes with two bags of breadsticks on the side and costs roughly $14. She says that purchasing the ingredients to make homemade alfredo sauce costs her a little more, at around $17. She did note that she still purchased pasta and chicken from the grocery store to prep separately before combining each with the sauce.
Despite the TikTok user's enthusiasm for the idea, plenty of commenters disagreed, saying the meal wasn't worth what she paid. The hack may save you a trip to the grocery store and some time spent in the kitchen, but the tradeoff is spending more money on the premade sauce. It may be helpful for ultra-busy weeknights, but it won't save you any money in the long run. So if you're looking to save a few dollars, it's likely worth the extra effort to make your own alfredo sauce (or just buy a jar from the grocery store).
Some didn't like the price or the taste
One thing mentioned in the video was that the TikToker prefers something other than jarred alfredo sauce. Instead, when she isn't ordering from Olive Garden, she makes her own, which costs money due to the ingredients needed and time spent cooking. Some commenters, however, suggested she seek out less expensive ingredients. The original poster even admitted in a comment that she tends to prefer more costly products when making her own, which could be part of the reason for her $17 price.
@booyahkenz Olive Garden Hack save your time & money work smarter not harder 🤤 I keep seeing this all over my FYP but I've been doing this for months now bc @gab_112314 told me about it. #Fyp #OliveGarden #Alfredo #AlfredoSauce #Chicken #Pasta #Hack #SaveYourMoney #LazyHack #TiredMoms #MomsOfTikTok #Easy #Cheap #Yummy #Breadsticks #ChickenAlfredo #GetCrackin
The TikTok user's hack also appears to be a location-specific order. On the Olive Garden website, a pint of alfredo sauce costs $9.99, rather than the smaller side containers shown in the video. Additionally, breadsticks don't come with the sauce. The dozen Olive Garden breadsticks shown in the video would cost $6.79 — around $16.78 total with the pint of sauce, which is close to the user's estimated cost for the homemade version.
Others commented that the chain restaurant's sauce was "bland" or "too oily" (perhaps thanks to the extra butter used in the sauce). Plenty of commenters recommended she make some homemade alfredo sauce for a more flavorful experience. They suggested she find a copycat recipe for Olive Garden's sauce if she liked it. (Others suggested recipes they claimed tasted much better than the restaurant chain's version.)
You may not even be saving any money
Fortunately, homemade alfredo is a reasonably easy sauce to make, even for those inexperienced in the kitchen. There are only a few ingredients required to make it. Most basic alfredo recipes start with melting a stick of butter in a saucepan on the stove. Then, add a cup of heavy cream and mix it.
Once your melted butter and heavy cream have been combined and warmed up, add in your seasonings. Salt and pepper to taste are the standard, but you can also upgrade the sauce with some garlic, thyme, oregano, or truffles. Then, pour in two cups of grated parmesan cheese.
Stir the cheese into the sauce until it melts into the heavy cream and butter mixture. Then, the sauce is ready to serve with your pasta. (If it's still too thick for your liking, reserving some pasta water is a great way to thin it out without removing any of its flavors.