Olive Garden Vs Carrabba's: Which Chain Restaurant Has The Best Family Meal Deals?
What could be better than a delicious Italian feast that feeds the entire family that you don't have to labor for hours in the kitchen to prepare? Both Olive Garden and Carrabba's make this possible with the family-style meals on each restaurant's menu. But which popular Italian chain is actually offering its customers the best deal?
With just a quick scan of both menus, it's clear that Carrabba's is the better deal for those looking for the most affordable family-sized meal to take home. The lowest-priced option is the spaghetti family meal, which is priced at $50.99 and feeds four people. It comes with a large shareable portion of spaghetti and red sauce, a side salad, and bread. You can choose to add meatballs for $12 or meat sauce for an additional $8, but either addition still keeps your total below the price of a family meal at Olive Garden. In fact, Olive Garden only offers one family bundle at the moment, which is the Family-Style Lasagna bundle and features a pan of lasagna, a house salad, and the beloved breadsticks for $66.99. This meal is designed to feed between four and six people. When pricing per person, the spaghetti meal from Carrabba's comes to between $12.75 and $15.75 depending on the meat add-on options, and the Olive Garden family meal breaks down to between $11.17 and $16.75 per diner, depending on if you're feeding four or six people. It should be noted that all prices for both restaurants are from locations in the Chicagoland area and could vary by region.
More to consider when comparing family meals from Carrabba's and Olive Garden
Beyond just pricing, Carrabba's also provides a lot more options for the family meal compared to Olive Garden. It offers dishes like chicken marsala, chicken parmesan, salmon capperi, and plenty more. And it certainly doesn't help its case that the only entrée choice is the worst Olive Garden pasta on the menu. If you're an Olive Garden loyalist, then there are some ways to make a family-sized meal that still saves money and is more satisfying than the lasagna. The tray of spaghetti with marinara or meat sauce costs $48.99, for example, and you can add on a jumbo salad and twelve breadsticks for an additional $25.79. This brings your grand total to $74.78. But, of course, this still puts Olive Garden above Carrabba's on the price point.
When it comes to ranking Italian chain restaurants in general, Tasting Table placed Carrabba's just a hair above Olive Garden at seventh and ninth place, respectively. It was tough to pick a winner in a true head-to-head Olive Garden versus Carrabba's comparison, but we found that Carrabba's still edged out Olive Garden despite a hard fight put up by the latter's famously delicious breadsticks. And, in the battle of affordable family meals, it seems Carrabba's once again takes the cake.