Last week I took my daughter and her friend shopping in the city, and of course they would choose Olive Garden for lunch -lol.
Can you eat Low Carb at Olive Garden? Of course! You can eat Low Carb practically anywhere. I think I proved that already at Macaroni Grill. 😉
I wasn’t worried.
Fortunately these days you can Google the nutrition facts for practically any restaurant – and I often do this on the go from my mobile phone.
Or if I know in advance where I’m going to be eating out, I’ll look it up at home beforehand and make my meal choices before I even get there. And you can always request a nutrition facts sheet. Most restaurants have them on hand these days to cater to low carb and gluten free customers.
Low Carb Olive Garden Menu
Olive Garden has a very nice menu with low carb and gluten free options, which you can see to the right.
Not all of these entrees or options are on the public menu, so you’ll definitely want to request a copy from your server.
Not only does it give you additional items to choose from, it also gives you a breakdown of the nutrition facts – making it easy to calculate the net carbs.
They have a Fresh Spinach Salad (3 net carbs) and Oven Roasted Asparagus (1 net carb) for example, that are not on the main menu.
You can also request no croutons, or croutons on the side, for the Garden Fresh Salad they serve at the table. Without croutons a serving is 8 net carbs (mainly, I assume, from the big fresh tomatoes).
Other Low Carb Olive Garden options:
- Herb Grilled Salmon w/Broccoli (1 net carb)
- Mixed Grill Steak & Chicken Skewers w/Grilled Vegetables (20 net carbs)
- Steak Toscano w/Grilled Vegetables (32 net carbs)
All three of those meals are gluten free as well.
Since alfredo sauce is very low carb, you can order something like Chicken Alfredo over broccoli (or asparagus) instead of pasta as well. This is what I do at Macaroni Grill – order any of their main Alfredo pasta dishes, but over grilled vegetables instead of the pasta. Easy! 😀
I decided to have the Mixed Grill, which was absolutely delicious! It was a HUGE plate of food by the way, so I ate about half of it for lunch and took the rest home to finish for dinner. Here’s a photo of my plate:
I just ate at Olive Garden recently and I had the exact same thing. Oh man that was great food. I usually do not like OG, but the fresh vegetables and grilled flavor was great.
An excellent idea to check the nutritional listings as I usually am just guessing and you never know what “extras” might be in the recipe.
I look forward to more restaurant reviews and tips like the alfredo sauce idea.
Tom
That’s one of my favorites because Alfredo Sauce is so rich and yummy AND low carb. π I’m finding more and more that it pays to ask if they have special menus or nutrition facts on hand. You’d be surprised how many of them have dishes available that are not on the main menus!
And of course they’re usually more than willing to “create a plate” by special request. π
Before I realized I was allergic to gluten Olive Garden was one of my favorite places to go for dinner. I saw that they had a few gluten free items, I’d really like to try the salmon dish but I haven’t been brave enough to go yet. I never thought to ask a restaurant to replace pasta with veggies on a menu item, that’s a great idea.
It tastes delicious too! I love Alfredo over my broccoli. If I’m worried that I might veer off my menu, I order it to go. Take out is just as good, and sometimes safer (lol)…
I had the Herb crusted Salmon tonight, and it was fantastic! Juicy and flavorful! And the broccoli was really…. Tender, without being soggy!
The Seafood Brodetto is wonderful as well….29 net grams though….I wonder if that’s with the bread.
It looks like they’ve taken it off the menu, so I’m not sure what all was included…
Lynn,
I like your blog! I think you need a better camera. It would make the food look yummier. I’ve been looking at the Panasonic GH2 and a 50mm 1.8 lens. You might get a deal on ebay, I sometimes see those items there. Meanwhile, I am still pretty happy with my Panasonic DMC-FX37 which you can still get on amazon. But you deserve a great camera and this one shoots great HD video too!
-Chris (on Pinterest as Christina Clauson)
Thanks Christina! I’ve since gotten a better camera – and learned some tricks for taking photos in low light situations (ie most restaurants). That can be challenging, as most are quite dark. π I got a camera specifically for low light photos, but it still requires a little finesse lol. Appreciate the input!
I always stay away from their house salad – even without croutons. Their salad dressing is loaded with sugar. π
Hi Stephanie,
According to their menu the house salad is only 4 net carbs without the croutons: media.olivegarden.com/en_us/pdf/olive_garden_nutrition.pdf. It’s an italian dressing.
You’ll see on their menu too that they cater to low carb and gluten free customers, which is very nice. Their Herb Grilled Salmon or Baked Tilapia w/Shrimp are both great low carb options that look delicious, and they’re served with a broccoli side.
Actually the OG house salad dressing is very low carb. Like 1-2 carbs per serving according to My Fitness Pal and the nutrition info on the back of the bottle.
Heads up! They no longer carry the mixed grill skewers! And the manager had no idea what a carbohydrate was. Hoping the salmon turns out well! Poor server, we are her first customers.
Oh no, Mary! haha – Ask for the gluten free menu. π They know how to find that one, and it has some great low carb options on it!
Just came to my Olive Garden and came across your post when googling low carb. They didn’t have a menu or a nutrition guide for me to view.. Definitely bummed π
Ask for the Gluten Free menu- they always have those on hand. This will give you low carb options.
Thank you for this! We are going to OG today for lunch and I was wondering what I could eat. Such great ideas here. Thank you!!
Hi Anita π What did you end up having??
Hi Terry, I am in a LCHF group on Facebook and there they say that the Alfredo sauce at OG has flour in it to thicken it. What are your thought ‘s on that? (I’m bummed to think that could be the travesty case lol) I would imagine that the cream and cheese would make it thick. I’m planning an OG date with my daughter next week. I know I can ask the server, however, i just wanted to ask you your thoughts on it. Have you researched it? Thanks so much,
Blessings!
Hi Tammi,
Alfredo sauce is usually just butter, heavy cream & parmesan (with pepper etc). I can’t find any information to verify that claim you heard, but you can ask them here: http://www.olivegarden.com/contact-us
Because your server probably won’t know. π
Alfredo sauce usually uses flour to thicken it. When I searched for the OG recipe it came up with flour in it. Not sure if that was a current recipe or not, but most white sauces are started with butter and flour.
not real alfredo….. if you use real cream with butter and parmesan it will thicken. Has to be heavy cream no half and half.
Usually a white sauce recipe calls for all purpose flour.. So I think they would add that as well. Have never tried asking them to make without it.. Will try to do that next time I visit..
The original Olive Garden Alfredo sauce recipe (which they had listed in their recipes section) uses tempered eggs to thicken it. I have made the recipe several times and there was no flour in it that I recall.
Heading there today and just bummed that the mixed grill skewers is gone. What do we choose now???
I haven’t looked at their menu lately, but ask for the low carb menu – they have a separate menu for low carb & gluten free options, and they always have great foods on that one! π
What did you end up eating??
Their alfredo sauce is not gluten-free.
They have a separate gluten free menu at Olive Garden and nothing with Alfredo sauce is listed on that menu that I can see.
This is my favorite low carb AND gluten free meal on the GF menu: https://www.olivegarden.com/menu/herb-grilled-salmon/prod80592 π
So if I get Chicken Alfredo is that ok?
Hi Ke’asha,
Here is their current nutrition guide:
https://media.olivegarden.com/en_us/pdf/olive_garden_nutrition.pdf
They have their sauces listed separately, and based on that list I would choose the Parmesan Pesto Sauce (which is only 5 total carbs, and 3 net carbs). They list the Asiago Garlic Alfredo Sauce as 14 carbs (total and net).
Thanks for this info Lynn. I’m headed to the OG in Branson, MO tonight. I’ve been eating a ketogenic based diet for three weeks now and enjoying some success. I look forward to finding out how accommodating this location will be.
Hi Frankin π
Ask for a gluten free / low carb menu. I’m not sure if they still have one, or if all locations have one, but they used to have one – you just have to request it. I have had great grilled salmon & veggies there!
You can also look up the menu and nutrition facts online before you go, and choose what to order before you get there. I find that helps a lot. Enjoy π
I chose the Chicken Margarita with Parmesan Crusted Zucchini. It only has six net carbs. It was delicious and very filling. https://m.olivegarden.com/menu/chicken-margherita/prod3320030
Awesome, way to go! So glad you enjoyed a good meal there with no trouble. π *cheers*
I wish they didn’t have High Frutose Corn syrup in their signature Italian Dressing!!! Very disapointing!!!
Our OG in Norfolk VA could not make an Alfredo Sauce w/o flour. So either an unskilled chef OR unwilling to deviate from established recipe. Ordered herb salmon which was tasty.
Olive garden uses frozen packages of sauce and frozen entres that’s why they couldn’t deviate from the recipe…
I am meeting with friends at OG today and I loved all ya alls ideas. The mixed thing sounds delightful! As well as the salmon! I’ll let ya’all know how it went.
Enjoy, Chants! I look forward to hearing how your low carb Olive Garden meal turns out. π I haven’t been in awhile myself, so I really need to go check out the new menu options. *cheers*