Traveling to Olive Garden in the near future and wondering what gluten-free options might be able to you? According to Olive Garden’s website, they strive to make everyone feel at home and serve a full menu of genuine Italian favorites. Now, even those with gluten intolerance can feel a part of the experience!
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Apparently, Olive Garden has prepared a number of its specialty dishes without gluten and posted a gluten-free menu on its website. Unfortunately, at this time, they do not offer any of their pasta dishes with a gluten-free option, but hopefully, in the future, they will offer this (or buy some Tinkyada to serve?). Here is what is gluten-free on their current menu:
Olive Garden Gluten-Free Menu
Salads
- The garden fresh salad and caesar salad can be prepared without croutons, or with croutons on the side.
Entrees (All served with vegetables on the side)
- Steak Toscano. Simply cooked with herbs and extra-virgin olive oil. I have had this and it was delicious.
- Pork Filettino. Marinated in olive oil and rosemary. This is a very pleasant meal and quite filling.
- Herb-Grilled Salmon. Grilled with olive oil and herbs, my standby selection.
- Mixed Grill. Steak and chicken skewers brushed with herbs and olive oil. All chicken is an option.
Children’s Menu
- There is a grilled chicken plate offered with smaller portions if your child is gluten intolerant.
As always, when dining out gluten-free, do your due diligence and make sure the staff understands your needs. There are very few restaurants that are 100% gluten-free, so cross-contamination is always a risk. If you don’t feel comfortable with what you are hearing from the staff, perhaps it is best to dine elsewhere.
For information about other gluten-free restaurants menus, check out our gluten-free restaurants page.
Have you tried the gluten-free menu at Olive Garden? Please take a moment to share your experience in the comments!
The gluten free steak was awful. The broccoli was “Steamed” by dipping it in boiling pasta water. I will NEVER eat at an Olive Garden again. I make better food that’s safe at home.
I’ve eaten the gluten free Steak Toscano very recently at my local Bartlett, Tennessee Olive Garden and it was really Delicious! Also ate tons of their garden salad and the side vegetables. A very enjoyable experience! . I’m going back for same today.
I ate at an Olive Garden in Virginia, and since this article was posted they have added a pasta dish (Pennine Rigate with Marinara) which was very good, except that the edges didn’t have any sauce on it. However I do plan to go there again sometime regardless. For eating out gluten free is was very good.
This will definately be a dish I will try next time. I saw it on the menu, but I tried the Mixed Grill instead. Thank you.
Some locations are better than others in terms of gluten-free knowledge and I would not eat at the locations in my area for anything, but I’m glad others have had nice meals there. I think all locations are supposed to have gluten-free pasta – but not every store seems to.
I enjoyed the Mixed Grill. I thought it was very tastefull. The steak was well done and the chicken was awesome. I had the steamed brocolli and a side salad. I had a great experience at Olive Garden.The Manager and Service were very understanding and made sure my food was handled very carefully. I would difinately recommend Olive Garden to Gluten-free people, especially in Visalia California. Definately a great experience.
I eat the gluten free pasta dish at olive garden regularly and very much enjoy it. I even have them throw a gluten free chicken breast on top if I really hungry.
How can we be listed at Gluten Free Restuarants? We are celiac and have just brought this concept to the public outside of Boston, MA in Everett.
Thanks,
Anthony Radzikowski, Co-owner
we serve gluten free pizza and wings, even GF Beer!
Nanas Gluten Free Pizza Cafe
Main Street, Everett, MA
glutenfreecafe.webs.com
Gia – We added Nana’s to our Mass. restaurant listing, To see it, go to our HOME page (link on top left of this page) and then go to the Mass. link.
I found out yesterday about Olive Garden having a Gluten-Free Pasta Dish, so I happily went there today to try it out. All I can say is that it is awful!!! It seemed like Dry Penne with a couple tablespoons of old tomato paste. I ended up exchanging it for the grilled chicken, which was wonderful but there’s nothing special about grilled meat and veggies to someone with Celiac.
Tinkyada with a jar of GF Pasta Sauce that you can make at home is easy and a much tastier option. For an extra special treat I sometimes make breadsticks. I use Bob’s Red Mill Wonderful GF Bread Mix and put the dough in a ziplock style bag and cut off a corner (about an inch) so that I can squeeze it out onto a pan (with parchment paper and pre-greased), next put it in a cold oven, then preheat to 425, the breadsticks rise while the oven is heating, once the bread has a crust I place foil over it to keep it from over browning while the inside finishes baking. Then I put some minced garlic and oregano in some Extra Virgin Olive Oil to dip the bread in. Yum!
Don’t think Olive Garden Grilled Chicken is gluten free – there is a coating on it – better double check.
How long do the breadsticks baking take in total?
Thank you
I’ve had the Mixed Grill many times & have never been disappointed. It’s always wonderful.
I will be trying the Olive Garden for the first time since I was diagnosed with Celiac. I have read the comments good and bad so I will decide for myself.
I am a 10 on a scale of 0 to 10, have eaten the steak and chicken mixed grill many times and suffered no ill effects. Ihope to see additional gluten free offerings.
Offering salads and a couple of dishes like chicken and steak doesn’t qualify as a GF menu. Get with the program. There are good GF pastas available and a couple of GF substitutions allow a lot of flexibility. Thicken with cornstarch or arrowroot. Learn something.
I just received a $50.00 gift card for my birthday from a dear friend. I always loved coming to your restaurant before I was diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity. I’m requesting that you seriously consider having gluten free pasta. I love pasta and so many others are gluten free like myself. The gluten free options you offer are so very limited. I would be ecstatic to come back to the Olive Garden if you had pasta for me. I’m disappointed that the gift card was for your restaurant since you don’t have gluten free pasta and will have to give my birthday present to someone else. Thank you for considering my request. Pamela Cohen
I used to love going for lunch for soup and salad with my hubby. So if I go now I can have salad and no soup or bread sticks, however have to pay the same. Would you consider making a soup gluten free. I loved the pasta one but would be willing to have it with no pasta. I am sure you don’t have the pasta sitting in the soup for hours , so might that be an option. Some could be kept separate so as not to cross contaminate it . Its hard trying to be happy when others have so many options and you watch them eat. Sometime you want something warm to eat and soup does that for me. I see you have a chicken that is gluten free so I could order that next time to put on my salad, Sorry but it is frustrating to go out to eat.