Olive Garden Employees Don't Want You To Know This Wait-Time Rule, And For Good Reason

Any diehard Olive Garden fan knows the scene well: You pull open that heavy glass door during peak dinner hours on a Friday night to find a waiting area crammed full of people. You (gently) fight through the crowd to reach the host's stand, and take a deep breath before asking how long the wait time will be for a table for two (or, heaven help you, for four!). Luckily, hungry patrons confined to the tummy-rumbling purgatory of the waiting area can be comforted by one insider rule: The wait times are usually exaggerated.

This peek behind the curtain comes from Tasting Table's own Carmen Varner, a former hostess and server at Olive Garden with insider knowledge of the restaurant's behind-the-scenes action. In her roundup of 10 things Olive Garden employees know that diners don't, she detailed witnessing this practice firsthand. At Olive Garden, it's customary for the host to give patrons a longer wait time than the POS system actually projects. This provides the restaurant with some wiggle room if it happens to drag on longer than anticipated.

For instance, if the table you want is projected to be available in 15 minutes, your hostess might tell you it's a 25-minute wait. That way, if you're expecting to wait 25 minutes and get seated in 15, your experiential satisfaction has already increased. Or, if something unexpected pops up (and, as anyone who has ever worked in the service industry will attest to, it often does) and your table takes the full 25 minutes to prepare, no harm no foul.

To proactively avoid the crowds, the best time of day to eat at Olive Garden is right around opening, which typically falls around 11 a.m. The proverbial early bird gets the Tour of Italy, as it were. Crowds tend to stay manageable through 3 p.m. Obviously, at premium dinnertime hours, restaurant traffic can be no joke. According to purported Olive Garden employees on Reddit, on especially busy days, the line can last for two hours or more. On an average day, however, foodies can take some comfort in knowing that whatever projected wait time the host told them includes a built-in buffer.

From the endless grated cheese at Olive Garden (which isn't parmesan, FYI) to the replenishing fount of steaming breadsticks, there are plenty of signature customs that fans look forward to on their next visit. A long stint in the waiting area might not be one of them. But cushioning that anticipated duration with a forgiving buffer helps both the patrons and the staff have a psychologically easier time, especially when it's busy. 

Plus, at Olive Garden, a little patience can be well worth the wait, particularly if you start your meal with a spiked strawberry lemonade cocktail and the toasted ravioli appetizer, our all-time favorites here at Tasting Table.