For those who enjoy Olive Garden, the fall of 2024 is looking to be a somewhat interesting time. Olive Garden says it plans to revive two highly famous dishes from retirement. This news comes one month following the highly well-known Never-Ending Pasta Bowl offer comeback by an Italian dining business.
Rick Cardenas, the Chief Executive Officer of Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden’s parent company, revealed the exciting news during an earnings call on September 19 to go over the most recent quarterly figures. He said throughout the course of this year that Olive Garden will once more have the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo and Stuffed Chicken Marsala accessible; he did not reveal the exact date of their arrival.
Customers who are interested in the rerelease will thus have to be alert for any information on the future schedules of the rerelease.
Discontinuated soon after its launch, the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo was a meal of fettuccine alfredo topped with grilled steak, gorgonzola cheese, and a drizzle of tart balsamic sauce. Conversely, the filled Chicken Marsala was a meal made with cheese and sundried tomatoes stuffed chicken breasts followed by mashed potatoes and a Marsala wine sauce.
The COVID-19 outbreak caused both of these options to be pulled, hence customers have never completely healed from the loss they went through.
Olive Garden is no more a feasible choice for me because the Stuffed Chicken Marsala is not on the menu. “That is all,” a Reddit user said expressing dissatisfaction earlier this year.
“It was by far the best dish they had,” said another patron in a recent Reddit Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo sauce comment.
“To give their guests another reason to visit in the back half of this fiscal year,” Cardenas said Olive Garden’s crew has been working on adding other dishes, including the Stuffed Chicken Marsala and Steak Gorgonzala Alfredo. Said on the earnings call was this:
” Both have been recast employing easier processes for their respective restaurant teams and better grade materials. And both of these dishes satisfy a need on Olive Garden’s menu for dishes concentrated on the plate with an eye toward protein.
Olive Garden made some fascinating announcements this week, among which the return of two dishes that had been discontinued was not the only one. Cardenas also revealed on the investor call that Olive Garden would shortly be adding a new garlic herb sauce option to its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl offering.
Customers who elect to buy the all-you-can-eat package at Olive Garden now have options including the Creamy Mushroom (860 calories), Traditional Marinara (150 calories), Five Cheese Marinara (400 calories), Traditional Meat (300 calories), and Alfredo (870 calories) sauces.
Olive Garden also wants more guests, hence it is working on a new on-demand delivery partnership with Uber Eats. This follows three straight quarters of same-store revenue declines for the firm as well as a year-over-year decline in client visits. By the end of 2024, the chain intends to run a test of the program in a few chosen locations; should the test be successful, it is expected to be applied all throughout the nation by May 2025.