Olive Garden defends unlimited breadsticks policy as ‘Italian generosity’

Olive Garden thinks you can never have enough warm breadsticks. The restaurant chain’s parent company, Darden Restaurants, prepared a presentation in which it defends its unlimited breadsticks policy and other practices criticized in a report by investment firm Starboard Value last week.

In its nearly 300-page report, Starboard Value claims Olive Garden’s endless salad and breadsticks contribute to food waste. The report states that servers violate Olive Garden’s official policy to bring out one breadstick per customer at a time, along with an extra for the table.

But Olive Garden says the unlimited breadsticks are a key part of the restaurant’s brand, and they’re not budging.

“Olive Garden’s salad and breadsticks have been an icon of brand equity since 1982,” reads the Olive Garden report. “It conveys Italian generosity and our salads have the highest loyalty rating of any menu item based on the menu satisfaction surveys we conduct.”

Starboard also highlighted Olive Garden’s failure to salt its pasta water.

“If you were to Google ‘how to cook pasta,’ the first step of Pasta 101 is to salt the water,” reads the report.

The Darden report also addresses Starboard’s criticisms about Olive Garden’s carry-out packaging and food quality and its accusations that the menu is not authentically Italian and that managers create false wait times for diners.

Darden also outlined a plan to target millennials with new unspecified menu items at Olive Garden, as well as online ordering and tablet technology testing for table orders.

The report comes just days after Olive Garden launched its $100 pasta pass, which allows holders to eat unlimited pasta, salad, breadsticks and drink Coca-Cola-brand products in a seven-week span. The 1,000 available passes sold out in a matter of hours online.

Would someone please pass the breadsticks? Follow me on Twitter @Jenn_Harris_