How Buy One Take One Works
During the promotion you order one entrée from the Buy One Take One list and eat it in the restaurant with the unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks. A second entrée from the same list is prepared cold, boxed and handed over when you leave. The two entrées can be different dishes, and the take home portion is a full dinner size, not a lunch portion.
Which Entrées Qualify
Olive Garden sets the list each time, and it usually centers on the tomato and cheese classics: five cheese ziti al forno ($17.99 on the regular menu), fettuccine alfredo ($16.99), spaghetti with meat sauce ($13.99), chicken alfredo and lasagna classico ($18.49) in past years. Steak and seafood dishes are excluded.
The Everyday $6 Take Home Entrée
Outside the promotion, Olive Garden offers a scaled down version every day: add a take home entrée for six dollars at checkout with any lunch or dinner entrée. The current list in the online ordering system includes five cheese ziti, fettuccine alfredo and spaghetti with meat sauce. Six dollars for a dish that costs $17.99 on the menu makes it the biggest standing discount Olive Garden runs.
When Buy One Take One Runs
The promotion appears for a few weeks at a time, often in winter and spring, and is announced on olivegarden.com and in the app. We update this page and the specials page when it is live.
How to Reheat the Take Home Entrée
The boxed entrée is packed cold. Baked dishes such as five cheese ziti reheat covered at 350°F for 15 minutes; alfredo reheats on the stove over low heat with a splash of milk; spaghetti with meat sauce works in the microwave for two to three minutes with the lid loosened.
Is It Worth It?
Two dinner entrées for the price of one is the best headline deal Olive Garden runs, and the take home dish reheats well because the qualifying list is built from baked and tomato sauce pastas. The catch is the list: if you want steak gorgonzola or shrimp scampi, order those separately and add the $6 take home entrée instead.