The Popular Casual Dining Chain That Will Finally Deliver Straight To Your Door

If you love ordering its soup by the half-gallon to feed a crowd at work or have a hankering for its iconic breadsticks at home but no car, you're going to be very excited that the casual dining chain Olive Garden has rolled out delivery through its own website nationwide — a few months earlier than was predicted in late 2024. While the chain has offered its pick-up services since it launched online ordering in 2014, and restaurants would deliver orders made through its catering channel, this is the first time Olive Garden has made the jump into individual order delivery.

Olive Garden will not be training and sending forth its own fleet of branded delivery people. Rather, its parent company, Darden Restaurants, struck a deal with Uber Direct to handle the home deliveries. However, the restaurants will not appear on Uber Eats, the more widely available food delivery app. This allows customers to place their orders directly on the Olive Garden website or app, rather than going through a third party. We're guessing you will still only be able to buy its infamous cheese graters in-restaurant, though.

If you want Olive Garden food delivered right to your home or office, you can just visit OliveGarden.com or pull up the app, as you would for a pick-up order; you'll enter the address to which you want the food delivered, which must be within eight miles of the restaurant. Make your selections and note that, unlike most other major food delivery services, there is no price markup on the individual items — though you will have to pay a flat delivery fee of $4.99 and a service fee, as well as a tip for your driver.

Olive Garden has thought long and hard about how to offer delivery service without unsettling the eat-in experience for its diners — namely, it didn't want patrons seeing the delivery people go in and out of the restaurant constantly, the way DoorDash, GrubHub, and even UberEats delivery drivers do. So the chain will instead have employees walk the food out to the drivers, who will be waiting in special parking spaces. Thus, the relaxed atmosphere of dining in will be preserved, while hungry customers waiting at home will also be appeased with quick service and fresh food — a win-win for Olive Garden patrons all around.