16 Chain Restaurants That Offer Free Appetizers

When you want to feel like you're getting more for your money, it's always a good idea to choose a restaurant that offers free appetizers. After all, if you fill up on appetizers, you sure to have leftovers to take home for another meal. Not every chain restaurant has free offerings, preferring to charge for all appetizers. But there are still several places where you can go and find free apps, including chips and salsa, soup, or biscuits (among others).

Now, while most of the restaurants on this list offer free appetizers to everyone — and some are even unlimited — several establishments have very specific rules regarding how to get the free app. You'll need to become a rewards member with the restaurant in certain instances, while some places may require you to have visited previously within a certain time window, so be sure to read the fine print beforehand. Regardless, if you're looking for a list of places that offer freebies before your entree, we've got you covered. Here are 16 chain restaurants that offer free appetizers to consider visiting.

While you don't normally think of biscuits when you think of seafood, you do when you go to Red Lobster. Red Lobster would barely be Red Lobster without its famed Cheddar Bay biscuits. Even with the best of intentions, it's challenging to eat just one of these fluffy, garlicky, cheesy biscuits. Luckily, since these are a near-perfect appetizer while waiting for a meal, you're not limited to just one (or even two) if you're eating inside one of its locations.

In fact, the Cheddar Bay biscuits are unlimited if you dine in at Red Lobster, and they'll keep coming to your table as long as you ask for more. This doesn't apply to takeout orders, though, so if you're ordering online, you're limited to two free biscuits per entree. If you want more with your takeout meal, or simply want to take some home with you beyond what you enjoyed while dining, you can order extras in packs of six and 12 (costing less than a dollar each as of June 2025).

Another seafood restaurant where you can expect free bread is Bonefish Grill. But instead of biscuits, Bonefish offers complimentary bread. Basically, if you order a meal, you can expect free flour-dusted artisan bread on your table.

Since Bonefish Grill is a seafood restaurant, you may be surprised that the bread that comes to your table looks like something you'd get at an Italian restaurant. The large, shareable square piece of white bread is scored diagonally — so you don't need a knife to cut it at the table — and comes with olive oil infused with herbs and garlic, as well.

The bread and olive oil at Bonefish Grill are good enough that some people go there solely to order the bread and oil to take home with them. One person on social media even said she's ordered several pieces of bread by itself for about a dollar each (if you're inclined to want more than the free option).

Moe's Southwest Grill has been making burritos since 2000, and there are several things that you can always count on when you go there. There's the friendly "Welcome to Moe's!" greeting you'll get from employees, the ability to watch your meal made right in front of your eyes, and the fact that you'll get free chips and salsa with your order.

While lots of mom-and-pop Mexican-style restaurants offer free chips and salsa, not every large chain restaurant does. However, you can rest assured knowing you'll walk away with free chips and salsa with the purchase of any entree when you go to Moe's. Even if you order catering from the Mexican chain, it'll come with free chips and salsa, though only the red kind of salsa is free (and you'll have to pay extra if you want queso, as well).

Chili's is another Southwestern-style restaurant where you can get free chips and salsa ... but there's a catch to getting it. At first glance, it certainly looks like you can get free chips and salsa (or your choice of non-alcoholic beverage) every time you visit Chili's if you're a rewards member. However, in the fine print, the website stipulates that you have to spend at least $5 on other menu items to receive those rewards, which makes sense. Otherwise, customers would likely come in for their free chips and salsa, then leave.

Furthermore, several customers have complained on social media that the free chips offer isn't always valid. For instance, some have found the free appetizer is only available for 60 days at a time before it disappears. In fact, the promotion seems to respawn every time you visit a Chili's, then disappear within 60 days if you don't use it — meaning the program seems to reward loyal customers rather than occasional ones.

Some frequent visitors have also found that they couldn't get the chips and salsa if they'd already used another promotion within 60 days. With that in mind, be sure to ask about free chips and salsa if you're a rewards member if you plan to order it (and are hoping not to get charged).

TGI Friday's is another chain restaurant where the chips and salsa is only available to rewards members. Still, as far as we can tell, there's no restriction on getting free chips and salsa from there as long as you're a rewards member, so don't forget to order it every time. 

Additionally, there's a way to get a discounted — and, at times, free — appetizer from TGI Friday's. Since its appetizers look awfully tempting, you can trade your chips and salsa in for $3 off a different appetizer of your choosing. Plus, if you order enough at TGI Friday's, you can get an actual free appetizer by accumulating points through the rewards program via purchases. As long as you visit at least once a year, the points won't expire, though it's important to note that you don't get points if you order through a third-party delivery service.

No matter what you're ordering at California Pizza Kitchen, you can enjoy complimentary bread while you wait. With California Pizza Kitchen baking up hand-crafted wood-fired pizzas, the ovens also lend themselves to making fresh loaves of sourdough bread. Consequently, the chain's bread is a special treat to enjoy before your meal is ready.

Granted, there are other appetizers on the menu, but none of those are free like the bread is. More than that, there appears to be no limit to the amount of fresh warm bread you can ask for while you're at CPK. You can even buy a whole loaf to take home if you'd like. Of course, when you get this free appetizer at the restaurant, it comes with a bowl filled with olive oil and aromatic Italian herbs for dipping. Customers have guessed that the ingredients in the olive oil are something like dried onions, garlic, and peppers, along with herbs like basil and rosemary, though these are unverified.

Other than being famous for its food, O'Charley's is famous for its yeast bread rolls, which it advertises as being so soft that you can't even slice them. No matter what Southern comfort food items you order from O'Charley's, it comes with a basket of free rolls. These veer toward the sweeter side and come with extremely airy whipped butter.

Now, most servers at O'Charley's will bring a basket of rolls that contains one roll per person to start (though once upon a time, they'd also bring out one bonus roll). While some people are shy to ask for more, servers have revealed on social media they'll bring you more if you ask; it's just not an automatic refill, so you'll need to request more bread in your basket. There is a limit, though: If you ask for four or more baskets, you should probably expect your server to start charging you for rolls.

One of the pleasures of eating at Longhorn Steakhouse is enjoying the complimentary bread that comes with your meal. So if your server doesn't bring you some of its signature artisan bread as a free appetizer, be sure to ask for it.

The bread that most people think of when it comes to Longhorn Steakhouse is the rustic artisan bread. The crusty loaf is slightly sweet, features seeds and oats, and comes to your table warm and soft with whipped butter. According to a former Longhorn employee, you can also ask for cinnamon sugar butter, which is made from the ingredients used to flavor sweet potatoes. Several seasonal and regional offerings also include a brown and slightly sweet honey wheat bread. And while a few dishes come with buttery garlic toast, you won't see that coming to the table for everyone in a free bread basket.

Besides free bread, there's a way to get a free appetizer one time from the chain by joining its email club. Then the next time you visit the restaurant, you'll receive a free appetizer when you purchase a dinner-sized entree. It does have to be an adult-sized entree to qualify, though, so keep that in mind.

While you won't get any free cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory unless it's your birthday (and you're a rewards member), you will get free bread at your table every time you visit. The bread at the Cheesecake Factory is brown and comes topped with oats, and you can get salted butter to spread on your bread if you'd like, too.

By several accounts, the bread is unlimited; some customers have even reported on social media that they've received an entire two-foot baguette to take home for free. On the other hand, we've also seen tales of people who say their location limited the free bread to two per order, especially for delivery, so we can't guarantee the portion size.

Either way, the restaurant seems eager to hook customers with those free tastes, hoping they'll get hooked and buy whole baguette loaves from the restaurant. The restaurant sells the same style of bread as pre-packaged buns, dinner rolls, mini baguettes, and sliced sandwich loaves, as well, and you can even pick some up at a grocery store near you.

When it comes to free appetizers at restaurants, Olive Garden tends to be at the top of most lists. Not only do you get free garlic and butter breadsticks, but can also get a free soup or salad. The great thing is that no matter what entree you choose — from the cheapest to the most expensive — you'll still get free breadsticks, along with your choice of soup or salad. You can ask for more as often as you want, too, as these complimentary items are considered "never-ending."

Quite frankly, when we think of Olive Garden, we're mainly nostalgic for the freebies. The breadsticks are warm and toasty, with garlicky butter and parmesan. And when we ranked the free bread selection at 15 chain restaurants, Olive Garden's bread came out on top. The salad is fresh, as well, coming with lettuce, tomato, red onions, banana peppers, crunchy croutons, and lip-smackingly good Italian dressing. If you choose soup instead of salad, you have your choice of chicken and gnocchi, pasta e fagioli, or minestrone soups, along with our personal favorite: zuppa Toscana.

Another chain that offers a free appetizer to tide you over while you wait for your meal is Carrabba's Italian Grill. In fact, its delightful bread sets the standard when we anticipate getting bread from an Italian spot. It's also the first place we ever experienced getting herb-infused olive oil with free table bread, which some on social media say is not a common practice in Italy itself.

The bread at Carrabba's is like what you'd expect from homemade bread, with a nice crusty outer layer and a soft white inner layer. When the server brings it out, they also bring a dish with a small pile of dried herbs and garlic, before covering the herbs with olive oil. There's also something tangy in the mix, and some copycat recipes include adding a small amount of lemon juice for a little kick. The longer it sits, the more the oil gets infused with the flavors of the spices.

While most people may think about purchasing a Bloomin' Onion as an Outback Steakhouse appetizer, you also get a complimentary bread appetizer when you eat there. But you don't just get bread when you're dining in, as it comes free with to-go and delivery orders, as well.

Outback offers free honey wheat bread that comes with butter. Some people on social media have reported being able to get a whole loaf of the bread for free, while others have said they were able to buy several loaves of the chain's bread for just $5.

Something else that's worth mentioning is the hack to turn your free bread into raspberry bread. If raspberry cheesecake is on the menu, you can ask for some of the raspberry melba sauce that comes on the cheesecake. Then, swirl it in with your butter or just top your bread with the sauce. Granted, there's a chance you'd have to pay for the raspberry sauce, but it's worth an ask at least.

Besides having great burgers and delightful Cajun-style fries, one of the things we most look forward to when going to Five Guys is getting free roasted peanuts as an appetizer. You can't miss them when you walk in the door, either, so don't be shy about grabbing some now that you know they're free.

The peanuts served at Five Guys sit out in the open in a box (near all those stacks of potatoes), waiting for you to enjoy. You just use the scoop to load up the provided cardboard containers with peanuts, and enjoy. We also like to get an extra container to use for discarded shells.

Interestingly enough, the chain has continued to offer peanuts in an age where so many people have peanut allergies. This is the first sign that Five Guys isn't a nut allergy-friendly restaurant. The other sign comes on the menu that alerts customers that the company uses peanut oil to fry its delicious fries.

Once upon a time, the Logan's Roadhouse experience involved getting free peanuts as appetizers, then throwing the shells on the floor to trample underfoot. Unfortunately, those days are gone, and you should instead expect rolls as a free appetizer from this chain.

At Logan's Roadhouse, your server is responsible for baking the rolls for you, which they bring to you while you wait for your meal. The rolls come with a side of butter, as well, but they're already super buttery on their own. And while you won't find peanuts on the floor at any Logan's locations in the 2020s (given the number of people with peanut allergies), you may still be able to ask for some to take home with you. On that note, if your server is able to procure some free peanuts from the back for you, they'll be in a sealed bag.

Texas Roadhouse isn't known solely for its free rolls, but the cinnamon butter that comes with it, as well. Even if you go there for a steak, you may end up remembering the rolls — with their delicious, whipped, honey cinnamon butter – more than anything. The rolls at Texas Roadhouse are so popular, in fact, that kitchen employees put a new batch in the oven every five minutes.

Now, all meals come with some of the restaurant's famous rolls. But if you're doing a to-go order and want to have plenty on hand, you can also order rolls in packs of six or 12 for less than $0.50 per roll (as of June 2025). Furthermore, while it's rare that a free appetizer is so popular that it has its own merch, that's the case for the chain's delightful rolls and honey cinnamon butter. For example, you can get a heated bread basket that triples as a candle warmer, a coffee mug warmer, or a wax melter. The chain also sells honey cinnamon butter wax melts for the heated bread basket.

Finally, we have On the Border, which offers free tortilla chips and salsa. Now, like many Mexican-style restaurants, it's easy to fill up on the chips and salsa before you ever get your order. That's certainly true of this free appetizer, which is an endless one when dining in — meaning the refills won't stop coming unless you tell your server you've had enough.

We find On the Border's chips to be delightfully crisp, and the salsa is yummy, too. Then again, we've also discovered you have to be a cumin lover to truly appreciate it, as cumin is one of the dominant flavors you'll experience in the salsa. Still, there's no denying the chain's free chips and salsa are beloved, which is why it also sells them both in major grocery stores.

Now, if you're ordering online, it's possible to order chips and salsa from On the Border a la carte if you want more than the normal amount that comes in the to-go order. The rewards program also offers a free guacamole appetizer. However, you only get the free guacamole appetizer once (as a reward for signing up).