Darden - Olive Garden

@jp43209 wrote:

@jpgilham wrote:

I wish I knew who did these!
It's the MSC that "I shop for". But it's the first time I recall seeing them on there, and I've been shopping for them for around 1.5-2 years now. Hopefully there will be more! If you were asking about Texas Roadhouse as well, that is normally through another MSC. For that one, think of a "notorious" former Supreme Court justice.

I'm still working on "I shop for" but "notorious" former Supreme Court Justice was well played!

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Just wanted to add that it is impossible for 2 diners to order entrees and stay under the $50. I even tried ordering the soup,salad, breadsticks and no drink for one person., with the other ordering the lowest priced entree.

@ShopperGirly

how much did you go over? I'll be taking wifey and kid. We will order 2 entrees. If we can all eat and spend less than $10 out of pocket, i'm cool with that. I don't like OG. They do though.

Daddy:

The first visit we went over $32 (2 entrees, calamari, 2 soft drinks, 20% tip). We did better the 2nd visit only $10 over (Lasagna entree, Calamari, one soft drink, one water, 2nd person had AYCE soup, salad,breadsticks for 11.99). Most of the entrees average around $20, although there are spaghetti meals for 12.99. The lasagna portion my spouse received was huge and could have been shared. I ate most of the calamari and 2 bowls of the Fagioli soup. Very difficult to even come close on this one.

I wonder if they aren't in my area. I check the board daily and haven't seen that one. I also didn't see the new round of Outbacks someone mentioned on here either.

I have not seen Outback and Olive Garden

@ShopperGirly wrote:

Daddy:

ROFLMAO
That is funny and creepy at the same time.

@ShopperGirly wrote:

Just wanted to add that it is impossible for 2 diners to order entrees and stay under the $50. I even tried ordering the soup,salad, breadsticks and no drink for one person., with the other ordering the lowest priced entree.

FYI the shop allowed for solo dining, but then again, who goes to Olive Garden alone?

@BayShopper22 wrote:

@ShopperGirly wrote:

Daddy:

ROFLMAO
That is funny and creepy at the same time.

I am a lazy typist.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2025 08:23PM by ShopperGirly.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

@ShopperGirly

how much did you go over? I'll be taking wifey and kid. We will order 2 entrees. If we can all eat and spend less than $10 out of pocket, i'm cool with that. I don't like OG. They do though.

We're a family of 3. With the lemoncello, waters for all, and the required meal plus one adult and kids meal our total including the req 20 percent tip was $72.

@jp43209 wrote:

@ShopperGirly wrote:

Just wanted to add that it is impossible for 2 diners to order entrees and stay under the $50. I even tried ordering the soup,salad, breadsticks and no drink for one person., with the other ordering the lowest priced entree.
FYI the shop allowed for solo dining, but then again, who goes to Olive Garden alone?

\

What's the difference in going to the TRX alone?

@Momtreal wrote:

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

@ShopperGirly

how much did you go over? I'll be taking wifey and kid. We will order 2 entrees. If we can all eat and spend less than $10 out of pocket, i'm cool with that. I don't like OG. They do though.

We're a family of 3. With the lemoncello, waters for all, and the required meal plus one adult and kids meal our total including the req 20 percent tip was $72.

You did good. For what it's worth, I like to order water with lemon and add a little sweetener. I usually carry Stevia packets in my purse as most restaurants don't have it. In any case, this is not a free meal if there is more than one diner. But with the cost of dining out today, it's not bad for 2 or 3 especially if you like the breadsticks and salad for fillers.

Fed 3 of us for $63 ($18 over reimburse with $5 pay, so net $13 over). It was fine. The margarita was very good.
Wifey and kid were happy. It's okay, but i prefer the TXRH shop reports. Easier to do. Not as many timing questions. Also rather lame for 250 max characters on comments. Are they really desperate for space. I could understand 500 max, but 250 is not very many sentences.

@ShopperGirly wrote:

I usually carry Stevia packets in my purse as most restaurants don't have it.

On a flip note, I'll take extra Stevia packets from places that do have it!

I did hte shop alone yeserday and it was $32 with the tip. . I ordered the drink and the lasagna and the salad and breadsticks came with the meal. I actually ate a lot of the salad and took most if the lasagna home for another meal.

I did appreciate that the tip suggestion percentages were PRE-TAX at OG. Not the scandalous suggestions of % using post-tax amounts. I will never tip on tax unless I am forced to for a shop.

hasn't happened yet, but I'm waiting for an editor to give me grief about the %. I've never read a guideline that specified to tip on sub-total (pre-tax) or total. They just say to tip XX%.

So daddy,

What are your feelings on places that add 3% to use your credit card? I believe there's a bunch shops out there checking on it now.

I saw OG suddenly show up with a one day window to perform it and gone within an hour. I couldn't do that day anyway and I hesitate trying them again.

I haven't been since they served me raw chicken and thought offering free dessert ought to cover it. I'm like. Nooo... how about a phone number to call if I get sick with food poisoning? And I don't pay for this inedible meal. Free dessert is for there's a hair in my soup, not my dinner might be a biohazard.

@wrosie

I have not seen a big chain charging the CC fee...yet If you know of one, let me know.

I have seen "mom and pop" shops charging these fees. For the most part, I'm always paying with CC unless I am doing a shop that is CASH ONLY.

Isn't the Costco Credit Card 3% cash back on restaurants? So instead of making that 3%, i'm break even now. Also there are times during the year where Discover or Chase Freedom have restaurants as a 5% category. I'm sure there are some other cards out there with benefits too. I'm just speaking about the ones I have/use.

but you might be talking about taxing on top of the CC fee in addition? Yeah, I only tip on the "service" expense. That is the cost of the food. I'm not tipping on taxes or extra CC fee charges. The server didn't do anything for those things.

The Indian casino is now adding the 3%. As if they aren't making enough money on your casino losses.

The OG shop does not pay enough for two people with the required appetizer, entree, and never-ending soup/salad/bread. They should've mentioned the character limit before I went and wrote two paragraphs!

Not my circus - Not my monkeys @(*.*)@

~Polish Proverb~

We were about $20 over for two people, drinking water

We bought one meal and split it. Lasagna and soup and bread sticks. And we had leftover lasagna to bring home.

Looked at the OG menu to see if the reimbursement makes sense. Jesus Christ, they're charging how much for reheated Sysco these days?

while it would be nice to have 2 entrees fully covered with the appetizer or alcohol, this is more a shop for those that value the $45 credit towards the bill.

i didn't mind coming out of pocket less than $20 to make wifey and kid happy. I won't ever go to OG on my own dime, so the fact that 3 of us could eat and I had a great margarita, I'm okay with the small amount out of pocket.

if this was a shop offered by a narrative-intense MSC, then i would not bother with doing it. It was very similar to a TXRH shop where you can get real close to break even on the reimbursement.

Granted, it would be nice to have full menu options, but I was happy I did it. I am not saying I would do this monthly like I do some others.

@zezima1 wrote:

Looked at the OG menu to see if the reimbursement makes sense. Jesus Christ, they're charging how much for reheated Sysco these days?

I was $2 out of pocket after tip and had plenty of leftovers to take home. I went alone. I'd gladly do it again.

I think I've got the "I shop for" but is it their Sassie or Shopmetrics branch?

@MSMaven wrote:

I think I've got the "I shop for" but is it their Sassie or Shopmetrics branch?

Sassie. I don't think I've ever seen a restaurant shop on the Shopmetrics site before.

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Darden - Olive Garden

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