Olive Garden
#177440 - 05/08/05 11:48 AM
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Laurel M
Reged: 04/18/05
Posts: 17
Loc: Texas
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My husband and I will be traveling down south (which is the Alaskan term for anywhere in the lower 48) in June, and our favorite restaurant is the Olive Garden, which of course we don't have here. I'm wondering if anybody has any menu suggestions that I could try? I love their fettuccini alfredo, but of course the last time I had that was a couple years ago, pre-IBS. Maybe I'll just have to stick with bread sticks and salad! LOL
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I don't know for sure, as Olive Garden does not post ingredients.
But, sadly, breadsticks often are not safe. 
They do have the "create your own pasta" thing, I believe, so you could have any pasta shape and marinara. (Alfredo has dairy, obviously.) Or, I think they mark there low fat menu items with some sort of a branch/ leaf-like symbol, so you could check those for triggers (avoid cheese/ dairy, eggs, etc). But, to Olive Garden (and the FDA!) low fat means less than 30% of calories from fat, which may still be way to high for most of us.
As another note, they do have Gluten Free foods, so they may be quite helpful if you ask specific questions.
Call 1-800-331-2729 to ask, and they are generally quite helpful. You have to decide whether you want to say you have "food allergies" or not. It's not true, but it is so easy to understand, that sometimes I use it. On the other hand, some restaurants fear law suits so much that they woudl rather tell you no to eat there, if they are not sure, even if there are suitable options, because they would be afriad of a lawsuit if they gave incorrect information. I guess you just have to hedge your bets for that one...
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~~~Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.~~~
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Thanks for the info. I know this is not the "safest" restaurant to choose, but like I said, we both love it, and want to celebrate our one-year anniversary by having dinner there. I do like tomato-based sauces too (I'm a huge pasta fan, which is good since it's a safe food for us IBS-sufferers!) , so I'm sure I'll be able to find something...I'll have to remember to ask if the pasta is made from wheat flour or whole-wheat flour. About the breadsticks...is that because they're not just plain breadsticks but come to the table already loaded down with butter or oil? Maybe I can ask them to just bring me plain breadsticks. I'll call that number you gave and see what they say.
On another note, is there an easier way to find replies to posted questions? I've just been doing a search for the item I was asking about and seeing if there were any replies since my posting. That may be a silly question, but not very familiar with message boards, so I gotta ask!
Thanks!
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Re: Olive Garden
#177462 - 05/08/05 02:16 PM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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You can check this post where I talk about my communications with Olive Garden. According to their email to me, their pasta does not contain eggs or whole wheat. If you can look at their menu beforehand and decide what you want, you might be able to convince them to let you know what's in it. Good luck and enjoy your anniversary!
A couple of thoughts for finding responses to questions you've posted:
When you're through composing there's a checkbox above the "Continue" button labeled "Add this thread to my favorites". Click that on. Then you can always go to "My Home" and check your list of favorites to find your post again. Supposedly if there's anything new added to that post you'll see the "New" box pop up, but that doesn't always work the way I expect so just eyeball the date and time - it shows when the last post was.
You can also click on your name when you see if on the main board or attached to an existing posting and you'll go to your profile as everyone else on the Board sees it. At the bottom of the screen, click on "Show All User's Posts" and you'll see everything you posted.
You may already know this one, but I thought it was brilliant, so here's a hint on making searching friendlier. Read this post and Linz' response to it.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Hi!
I just had dinner at The Olive Garden (in Edmonton) a week ago and they were great! I asked for plain bread sticks and for my salad to be brought at the end of the meal and they were happy to oblige. I ordered my favourite entree ... capellini pomodoro and after all of that food (OK I took half of my pasta home) I was just fine. Just FYI. 
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I have eaten at O.G. many times (pressure from non-IBS colleagues) and I've gotten extreme D - EVERY SINGLE TIME. I try to order what I think will be safe, trying something new each time, but no deal. Thankfully, I quit going there about 5 years ago.
No wonder the doctors have such a hard time with our disease. We're all such polar opposites!
sperry_twiggins
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About 2 months ago I went to Olive Garden, also my favorite next to Red Lobster! Anyway, I got a pasta dish with shrimp, garlic, tomatoes and oil. The garic and tomatoes were big enough to pick out if you can't tolerate and I'm sure if you ask they can reduce the oil as well. it was VERY good and I had no problems, even had salad with it.
Good Luck!
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