Utah-based TikToker @plainoldericka set out to work through what plays like Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, narrating every course of her undoing in a deadpan AI voiceover.
The rookie error, by her own account, came early and cheap: She ate only the famous garlicky breadsticks.
“Watch me be a stupid idiot at Olive Garden,” the voiceover begins, before cataloging the damage in order.
What does she order at Olive Garden?
First, the Zuppa Toscana, which is a thick Tuscan soup that usually has cannellini beans, potatoes, and kale. Then the breadstick—“breadstick because I’m an idiot.” That is the rookie mistake. A cocktail follows, “because again, I’m very dumb.”
The pasta comes in waves. Angel hair with mushroom and Italian sausage, with what she calls the “sausage hike.” Then rigatoni with spicy Alfredo and crispy shrimp. The shrimp she endorses without hesitation — “shrimp was delish.”
The sauce she does not. The “spicy Alfredo was giving me acid reflux,” she says, “so I stood it upright.” The garlic from the breadstick probably activated the reflux.
By the next refill, her resistance is spent. The “waitress mind controlled me into getting rigatoni with 5 cheese marinara,” she claims—a bowl she orders only to lose to. “Accepted defeat.”
Her sign-off doubles as a vow. “Olive Garden, I love you, but I will never fall for your pasta propaganda ever again.”
People shared tips for Never-Ending Bowl
“If you have heartburn, you gotta stick to the creamy sauces,” said one person. “I got the 5 cheese marinara for the 2nd bowl, and it was bad.”
One commenter came up with a very sound game plan to conquer the pasta quest. “Don’t add the protein and if you do chicken only and one the first one ask if you can box half so you can try other combinations,” they wrote. “If your server is nice they will say okay. And have none of the sides haha take your soup home too.”
The best advice in the comments section: “Maybe invest in purse Tums.”
Save Room
The mistake she showed first is the one the pros flag too. In a rundown of errors to avoid at the chain, Tasting Table’s Samantha Maxwell says to “take it easy on the salad and breadsticks”—the free courses land before the entrée and leave no room for it.
Her second problem has a clinical explanation. Dr. Michael Schopis, a board-certified gastroenterologist at Manhattan Gastroenterology, told Healthline that restaurants “often use more fat, spices, and acid to improve the taste than you would when cooking at home.” A bowl of spicy Alfredo is all three at once. Eat it fourth, after soup, bread, and a cocktail, and the reflux writes itself.
Subplot reached out @plainoldericka via TikTok message and comment, and to Olive Garden via email.
