We Tried Olive Garden's New Chocolate Lasagna And It's 8 Layers Of Heaven
At Olive Garden, there are so many lunch and dinner options to choose from its ever-evolving menu that it's almost impossible to even think about having dessert. If one somehow gets there, Olive Garden has got you covered, in the form of doughnuts, cheesecakes, tiramisu, and other yummy treats. Before the year comes to a close, the chain is offering up a new and permanent sweet option to its menu — Chocolate Lasagna.
No, the Chocolate Lasagna is not a sweetened classic lasagna made with noodles and tomato sauce, but one with layers built from chocolate on top of chocolate. If this sounds a bit familiar, in 2018, Olive Garden dropped a Chocolate Brownie Lasagna, consisting of fudgy brownie pieces and vanilla cream, alternating in eight layers of temptation.
So, is this new Chocolate Lasagna the perfect way to kick off a new year, or will it be a resolution to avoid in 2024 and beyond? I headed to my neighborhood Olive Garden (in Times Square) to pick up a square slice and find out. Here are the results of that chew and review.
What does Olive Garden's Chocolate Lasagna taste like?
The Chocolate Lasagna is a 2.5-inch tiered square with various shades of brown. Whether it once existed as a part of a larger cake or is simply made as an individual piece will remain a mystery to me. What is not a mystery is how chocolatey it is. All you see when looking at it is chocolate in many forms and textures. And just for the record, this lasagna is not served warm but at room temperature.
Before eating the Chocolate Lasagna as a whole, I decided to tackle the eight layers one by one. Starting at the top, a shiny and smooth mousse frosting invites eaters to this dessert party. The second, fourth, and sixth layers are the treat's brightest shade of brown, with a rich milk chocolate taste. The third, fifth, and eighth layers are a standard dark, spongy chocolate cake. The real X factor in the Chocolate Lasagna is in layer seven, with a wafer that tastes like ground Kit Kat.
While it's hard to fork a piece of the Chocolate Lasagna that includes all eight layers at once, if you can collect them together, your mouth will truly be rewarded for the effort. The top mousse layer acts as a glue that keeps the other layers intact on the fork. Biting into it, the multifaceted dimensions of chocolate come out in full force, with the crunchy seventh layer giving your taste buds a huge high five. Amore!
What is Olive Garden's Chocolate Lasagna made of?
The Chocolate Lasagna is built from layers of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and crushed wafers, topped off with a rich chocolate sauce. If you decide to enjoy this dessert at the restaurant, your server can also give it a garnish, grating white chocolate on top of the lasagna with a green version of Olive Garden's usual cheese graters. Diners should be aware that the Chocolate Lasagna does contain a few allergens, dairy, egg, wheat, gluten, and soy, so those with sensitivities to these ingredients may want to give this menu item a miss.
A single piece of Chocolate Lasagna nets 980 calories (with 520 calories from fat), 58 grams of total fat (with 27 grams of saturated fat), 140 milligrams of cholesterol, 630 milligrams of sodium, 116 grams of total carbohydrates (with 6 grams of dietary fiber, and 86 grams of sugar), and 13 grams of protein.
How to order Olive Garden's Chocolate Lasagna and how much it costs
The Chocolate Lasagna is a brand new dessert item, available now at locations of Olive Garden all across the U.S., and it's a permanent addition to the menu. The base price of the Chocolate Lasagna is $9.29 but varies per location, so you may pay a little more depending on where you live. At the Times Square restaurant in New York, my Chocolate Lasagna cost $12.29.
The Chocolate Lasagna can be found on the Olive Garden menu together with the other desserts. It can be ordered while dining in at a table, or even in advance for pick-up using the Olive Garden app or through its website. A maximum amount of 100 pieces is allowed for the latter option. While Olive Garden does offer catering services, as of this writing, the Chocolate Lasagna is not currently on the catering menu.
The final verdict
When Olive Garden released the Chocolate Brownie Lasagna in 2018, it was an inspired dessert that was totally on-brand. What it wasn't was a lasagna. It was essentially a layer cake with an Italian name. The same is true with this second coming, the Chocolate Lasagna. But let's not get hung up on the word "lasagna" here. It's just a way to draw attention to this dessert, and that's perfectly fine, as the Chocolate Lasagna is certainly worthy of extra recognition.
What I recognized in this dessert is that it's a chocolate lover's dream, and one that was certainly missing from Olive Garden's dessert menu. Sure, the Black Tie Mousse has certainly been a solid option, but its creamy custard counterbalances the rich chocolate by design. The 2½-inch frame of the Chocolate Lasagna doesn't look all that big on the surface. However, once one starts taking on its eight layers of chocolate, it feels like quite a tall task, and a delicious one at that. Hooray for Olive Garden's new chocolate cake! Oops, I mean lasagna!