The Hidden Catch Behind Olive Garden's 'Unlimited' Breadsticks

You may be familiar with most restaurants giving you a complimentary basket of bread before your meal comes. While this is standard practice at most sit-down restaurants across the country, perhaps no other restaurant is as bold about it as Italian-American giant Olive Garden. After all, what other restaurant so proudly claims that it can serve you "unlimited" breadsticks to go alongside your lasagna or spaghetti? 

Of course, no one is exactly complaining that Olive Garden is giving out unlimited baskets of its famous breadsticks, make no mistake. You could very easily expect to polish off one or two baskets of those things in one visit alone. Olive Garden does its best to make you feel welcome with some free salad and breadsticks — you get hungry and decide to order some food, and you leave the restaurant feeling satisfied while Olive Garden makes a profit. It's a win-win situation all around.

Just because these breadsticks are "unlimited," however, doesn't mean that there aren't certain rules that should be followed regarding just how much you get. In fact, the size of your party is what determines how many breadsticks you get. For example, if there are four people in your party, your server is typically expected to follow a general rule of thumb and give each person at the table one breadstick — ergo, your party will get a basket of four breadsticks, one per person. The only exception to this rule is when you first sit down and get your first complimentary breadstick basket.

Let's say that you and three friends go to Olive Garden. You sit down, order your food, and a few minutes later, your complimentary salad and breadsticks come out. If you take your time instead of digging right into those warm, buttery sticks of bread, you may notice that there are actually five breadsticks in the basket rather than the expected four. If your party is only allowed one breadstick per person, why the extra breadstick? Is it some kind of mistake, or maybe your server just happens to really like you?

That extra breadstick in your first basket isn't a mistake or a display of favoritism — it's actually a complimentary procedure to make you feel more welcome. Since it's your first basket, Olive Garden would no doubt want you to enjoy yourself and have an extra breadstick, helping you to get more comfortable and, more importantly, more willing to spend a little more money. After your first basket, the rule of one person per breadstick then becomes the norm. It's a nice gesture meant to welcome you into the restaurant, while the following baskets are more of a professional courtesy.

From a business standpoint, this makes sense. After all, Olive Garden can't exactly be giving out overflowing baskets full of breadsticks away for free. One has to keep in mind that, for as delicious as its breadsticks are, Olive Garden still has to put money into making each one.

Wouldn't it be great if you were allowed to go into any Olive Garden and get as many breadsticks as you want? It wouldn't even matter if it was just you sitting there — they'd give you as many breadsticks as you could possibly stomach. While this may be great for you or me, it seems it wouldn't be too good for some of Olive Garden's shareholders, considering how many unlimited baskets of breadsticks Olive Garden serves up each day.

In 2014, Olive Garden shareholder Starboard Value released a 300-page treatise regarding problems in Olive Garden's management and current day-to-day operations. Among the many faults and nitpicks the document noted, one of the most astounding concerns Starboard Value had was that Olive Garden was being "reckless" involving the number of breadsticks it was giving out. Although Starboard Value didn't go so far as to suggest stopping the unlimited breadstick deal, it did suggest that Olive Garden limit the number of breadsticks it was serving. There should be a stricter focus on the "one breadstick per customer" rule, Starboard Value suggested, which would lead to less waste overall.

Although it seems Olive Garden has indeed limited the amount of breadsticks a party can get at a time, it's good to remember that the alternative could have been much more severe. Could you imagine eating at Olive Garden without unlimited breadsticks? Truly a chilling thought.