This Olive Garden Menu From The '90s Is A Total Nostalgia Bomb
The passage of time has changed many of our favorite chain restaurants, and Olive Garden is no exception. In 2025, Texas Roadhouse toppled Olive Garden as America's top casual restaurant by sales, ending a seven-year reign. Has the U.S. fallen out of love with scrumptious Italian fare? Probably not, given that the O.G. is steadily holding the number two spot. But, looking back at the restaurant's past, we were struck by a few key points. Of Olive Garden's many secrets, it may not want you to realize that, over the years, it has shed some menu items that are sorely missed today. We still mourn the discontinued breadstick sandwich that disappeared in the late 2010s, but we're thinking quite a bit further back.
On Reddit, a post in the Olive Garden forum featured one of the restaurant's menus from the 1990s. It's undated, but the prices alone lead us to believe that the document is Old with a capital "O." At the time, wine was selling for under $3 a glass, and the Tour of Italy entrée, which combined fettuccine Alfredo, lasagna, and chicken Parmesan, carried a shockingly small $10.95 price tag. As of this writing, the same Tour of Italy will set you back a cool $22.99 at a local Olive Garden restaurant.
Beyond mourning for pre-Y2K pricing, we couldn't help but be struck by some of the other menu offerings. Veal Piccatta, Chicken Florentine, Crab Alfredo, and Grilled Swordfish are all premium items that have no analogue on modern menus. We also miss Italian classics like zabaglione and cannoli on the dessert list and children's lasagna for those kiddos who eschew chicken fingers or plainer pasta.
How has Olive Garden changed since the 1990s?
There is some evidence aside from the unearthed menu that Olive Garden used to be a more upscale dining experience in the latter part of the 20th century. Besides the fact that meals with crab and swordfish are innately higher-end than dinners offered today, we also have old-school T.V. ads, preserved for posterity on YouTube, that feature waiters in bowties and pressed uniforms and present a gracious atmosphere and focus on hospitality. Note that, back in May 1990, the restaurant was still officially titled "The" Olive Garden!
Over on TikTok, the anchors on a local news piece from 1988 seem captivated by elements of the Olive Garden experience that feel mundane today, like unlimited salad and breadsticks and the huge capacity of the restaurant. It could simply be the case that the public hadn't yet taken Olive Garden for granted in the late '80s and early '90s, but the vibe was clear: back then, Olive Garden was a "nicer" place to eat, not the casual chain experience that we associate with it today.
As of the 2020s, Olive Garden has streamlined its menu somewhat, with a heavier focus on pasta variations. There's the odd entrée that stars a protein, like chicken Marsala or herb-grilled salmon, but you can rely on a predictable stable of classics, like Alfredos, Parmigianas, and spins on pasta (ziti, ravioli, spaghetti) with red sauce of some sort. We still tear up some Olive Garden, but we can't help a wistful sigh for bygone meals.