If you haven’t taken advantage of Olive Garden’s $10.99 never-ending soup, salad, and breadsticks yet, you are missing out. I wish it wouldn’t have taken me until junior year to claim this meal as my weekend staple. I have never left my Olive Garden dinner unsatisfied. The salad and breadsticks are so good that I only ever make it to two soups, so the writing of this article required multiple visits to try all four soups. My friends and I were going to Olive Garden so much that my other friend who has me on Find My Friends genuinely asked me if I started working there.
I know there are much better soups in the world than these. In fact, soup has become one of my favorite types of food this winter and I couldn’t stop trying new recipes over winter break. However, there is something so comforting about sitting in a simulated Italian villa with your best friends and knowing exactly what you are going to order EVERY single time.
The never-ending soup, salad, and breadsticks deal has four types of soups you can choose from: chicken gnocchi, pasta e fa*gioli, minestrone, and zuppa toscana. Here is what soup (at least for your first bowl of the night) you should order based on your favorite season.
Winter: Chicken Gnocchi
This is the only thick, creamy soup and definitely the most filling of the four. It is full of chicken, soft gnocchi, and spinach. In my opinion, this is the best broth to dip your breadsticks in. This is also the soup that makes me want to tell the waiter to never stop grating the parmesan on top.
While definitely the least healthy with the least amount of vegetables, this is all of my friends’ go-to Olive Garden staple. Its cozy, heavy warmth makes it the perfect soup for the winter. If winter is your favorite season and you want your bowl of soup to feel like a comforting blanket in a snowstorm, order the chicken gnocchi.
Spring: Pasta e fa*gioli
This soup has beans, ground beef, and tubetti pasta in a tomatoey broth. It feels like chili mac but lighter. The tomato broths lends itself more to warmer weather than the creamy broths. This soup has the most pasta out of the four. I think of spring as the most cheery season. If spring is your favorite season, give yourself the joy of a bowl of pasta e fa*gioli, because what could be better than pasta?
Summer: Minestrone
Minestrone and Pasta e fa*gioli are the two most similar soups. Both have tomatoey broths with small pasta and beans. This was the soup I was expecting to like the least, but I was pleasantly surprised, mostly because of the zucchini and tomatoes. It is very light and fresh and the only vegetarian option out of the four. This is the only one that going forward I will not be adding the iconic grated parmesan on top of. Its brightness and vibrant colors make it the perfect soup for the summer. Summer is a time for adventure and trying new things. If summer is your favorite season, be adventurous and try this uncommonly ordered soup.
Fall: Zuppa Toscana
While this soup also has a creamy broth, it is much thinner than the chicken gnocchi. It is full of Italian sausage, kale, and sliced russet potatoes that soak up all of the salty goodness of the broth. I prefer the Italian sausage in this soup to the ground beef in the pasta e fa*gioli. To me, kale is a heartier vegetable that pairs perfectly with squash and pumpkin so it automatically makes me think of fall.
The cream, green, and brown neutral colors of this soup also perfectly fit the fall aesthetic. I recommend adding red pepper flakes to give this dish a little bit of spice. If fall is your favorite season and you want to warm up for the colder months ahead while getting some delicious vegetables from the summer, order the zuppa toscana.
If soup is not your thing, there are so many other items on the menu to try. The best part is that no matter what you order, you will leave with a handful of Andes mints for dessert.
