Olive Garden’s parent company’s incoming CEO says the Never Ending Pasta Bowl had a ‘negative impact’ and the chain might not bring it back

• The incoming CEO of Olive Garden’s parent company said Never Ending Pasta Bowl may not return.
• The promotion let customers order unlimited combinations of pasta and sauce for a set price.
• The deal gets customers through the door, but profit margins are low.

Olive Garden’s parent company Darden just announced Q2 earnings for 2022, and the results are good for the chain, but not so promising for Never Ending Pasta Bowl fans. 

“We don’t know if or when we’ll bring it back,” newly announced incoming CEO Ricardo Cardenas said.

Sales were up over pre-COVID-19 levels at all of Darden’s brands, which also includes Longhorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille. At Olive Garden, sales were up 5.2% over the same period in 2019, and 29% over 2020. Cardenas pointed out that current sales are beating the last time Olive Garden had its never-ending pasta bowl promotion.

Olive Garden brings back the promotion periodically, where for a set price customers can get unlimited servings of pasta, along with breadsticks and salad. Toppings like shrimp or meatballs cost extra. In 2019, the last time the chain held the promotion, the bowl cost $10.99.

Olive Garden also sells thousands of Never Ending Pasta Passes for $100 in a separate promotion, and cardholders can access the promotion as many times as they want during the multi-week period for no additional charge. 

Cardenas said he didn’t want to talk about the impact of the Never Ending Pasta while taking questions from analysts, but he acknowledged that “we know it was a negative impact.” The pasta promotion was good at bringing customers into the restaurant, but less so at creating big checks and profitable margins for Olive Garden. 

When sales are low, the chain has historically relied on the Never Ending Pasta deal to keep things going. In 2019, Olive Garden brought back the promotion as sales were dipping, and ended up with a relatively small 1.5% increase in sales. 

Now, Olive Garden has decided to “reduce dependency” on deals like Never Ending Pasta, Cardenas said, because it doesn’t need them to attract customers. Part of this is thanks to a strong to-go business that grew directly as a result of the pandemic. Darden didn’t break out individual restaurant digital orders, but they make up 11% of total sales.

While the future of Never Ending Pasta remains up in the air, Olive Garden has “never-ending abundance every day with our never-ending first course,” Cardenas said on the call. Entrees come with unlimited breadsticks, and the option to order unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks is still on menus.

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