6 Popular Olive Garden Entrees Ranked Worst To Best

In a restaurant landscape where once-popular brands have started to flounder, Olive Garden is thriving as one of the most beloved restaurants in the country. In a study by YouGov, Olive Garden is the first choice for a casual dinner out among diners surveyed across most major demographics.

With an impressive pedigree like that, it's time for a bit of fettuccine fisticuffs to see which Olive Garden entree is number one. I spent some time looking into the restaurant's most popular items and narrowed the list down to six pasta dishes that tend to get the most love from Olive Garden patrons.

After eating my way through these six entrees (I brought some friends along), I've managed to rank each item from least to greatest. As most of the entrees were pretty close in quality, it was a difficult ranking to complete. But after much deliberation — and a very full stomach — here are my final choices.

Chicken parmigiana isn't actually an Italian dish; it's an Italian-American reinterpretation of eggplant parmigiana that has become a menu fixture in restaurants of all kinds. Traditionally, chicken parmigiana is a butterflied chicken breast that's breaded, deep-fried, and smothered in melted cheese and marinara sauce. Combining fried chicken with what amounts to pizza toppings is always a crowd pleaser, so why does Olive Garden's interpretation rank last on the list? The short answer: the restaurant's version doesn't offer quite enough to justify ordering it on its own.

Don't get me wrong; Olive Garden's Chicken Parmigiana is a decent entree. I've often found that the fried exterior arrives with a few burnt edges, but it's honestly hard to balk at a plate of two fried chicken breasts and a scoop of spaghetti marinara. My biggest gripe is that another menu item, the Tour of Italy, makes the Chicken Parmigiana feel like a supporting act. For just a couple bucks more, you get a trio featuring Chicken Parmigiana, Lasagna, and Fettuccine Alfredo all on the same plate, making the standalone entree a harder sell. Granted, the Tour of Italy comes with just one piece of chicken parmigiana rather than the two in the standalone entree, but the added variety makes it feel like the better value.

Olive Garden's Chicken Alfredo shares some of the same drawbacks as its Chicken Parmigiana, but it has enough going for it to keep it out of last place. For one thing, while Fettuccine Alfredo is also part of the Tour of Italy, that version doesn't come with chicken. Adding a serving of lean protein works especially well with the wide fettuccine noodles and rich Alfredo sauce. You can order the dish with either fried or grilled chicken, but I've always thought grilled chicken complements the pasta better, so that's what I went with.

Unlike other restaurant chains, Olive Garden makes its Alfredo sauce on-site. It's got a wonderfully creamy base with plenty of salty Parmesan flavor — I always get extra to go with my breadsticks. Occasionally, I've ordered the Chicken Alfredo and found it didn't have enough sauce, but this time, the proportions were just right.

Olive Garden's Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara does a nice job of putting a spin on one of Italy's most classic sauces, combining sautéed shrimp, chicken, and red peppers with spaghetti. Many of Olive Garden's best dishes rely on cream-based sauces, but this carbonara stands out by adding a little more nuance to the familiar formula.

One thing I like about carbonara is the smokiness from the pancetta — it's a magical flavor transformation that makes the whole dish taste like crispy pork. Olive Garden's version pulls that off nicely, giving the pasta a savory depth that keeps it from feeling like just another rich cream sauce. If it were a few bucks cheaper, I'd rank it higher on the list. The current price is fair, but other items on the menu offer better value.

Although it introduced a new lighter portions menu in 2026, Olive Garden isn't exactly known for its low-calorie options. While I generally lean toward heartier, creamy pastas, the Shrimp Scampi is a welcome — and surprising — change of pace on my new list of favorites. Its bright flavors, lighter ingredients, and satisfying portion earn it the bronze medal on this list. At just under 500 calories, it's surprisingly light without sacrificing flavor. Shrimp, asparagus, and tomatoes are tossed with angel hair pasta and a garlicky sauce for a fresh, savory, easy-to-enjoy meal.

The shrimp brings a meaty bite of protein, while the asparagus and tomatoes add contrasting textures and freshness. Get a little of everything on your fork, twirl it with the delicate angel hair pasta, and let the buttery garlic sauce tie it all together. Olive Garden's Shrimp Scampi is the kind of dish that feels considerably more indulgent than its calorie count suggests.

On the opposite end of the calorie spectrum is the Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo. At just under 2,000 calories, this dish is a decadent combination of savory chicken, creamy Alfredo sauce, and cheese-filled tortelloni. Baking it lets the Italian cheese blend melt into the sauce, giving the dish the appeal of Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine, but the pasta swap takes it to a new level of richness.

Each tortelloni shell has an extra hit of gooey cheese tucked inside, adding to the dish's hearty, comforting quality and making it wonderfully indulgent. Some of the restaurant's most popular dishes are carefully balanced and nuanced; others work because they give diners an unabashed dose of the flavors they crave. The Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo belongs firmly in the latter category, and it's an Olive Garden dish I'd order again and again.

It's rare for a restaurant to create a menu item that so perfectly encapsulates its brand, but that's exactly what the Tour of Italy does. For the price of one entree, diners get a sampler of three Olive Garden staples: Chicken Parmigiana, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Lasagna. The individual Chicken Parmigiana and Fettuccine Alfredo may rank near the bottom of this list, but pairing them with a slice of Olive Garden's Lasagna creates a combination that's much more compelling than any one component on its own.

I also like the contrast between the creamy Alfredo and the marinara-forward flavors of the Lasagna and Chicken Parmigiana. The Alfredo's richness plays particularly well with the tomato sauce's acidity, creating a dish that's both indulgent and balanced. Just be careful: this combination of pasta flavors can lead you down a pretty intense rabbit hole of potential Olive Garden pasta swaps. Although portions vary slightly when you order each entree separately, the Tour of Italy is still a hearty meal that can stretch into leftovers the next day, especially when you factor in Olive Garden's unlimited breadsticks plus soup or salad.

Before I ranked anything, I thought long and hard about the standards I would hold each entree to because there was no bad choice amongst the options. I decided that the most important consideration was each dish's overall balance of flavors. These entrees are popular because they taste good, but I looked for combinations that brought complementary flavors together successfully.

I also ranked each dish on execution, judging how its preparation not only brought out the flavors and textures but also what made them stand out. I supplemented this factor with interpretation: each of Olive Garden's entrees is based on a traditional Italian dish, and I wanted to see how successfully the chain put its own spin on those classic recipes.

Finally, I considered prices. A good casual restaurant needs to balance quality and value, so I wanted to make sure the price point of each entree matched what was on the plate. Of my four evaluation components, I weighted overall flavor and execution a bit higher than interpretation and price. On to the ranking!