Look, I know Olive Garden isn’t fancy, or healthy, or whatever, but dang it all, it’s yummy, filling pasta, and I don’t need a lot more than that to make me happy.

So I was very interested to get a peek behind the curtain – and also delighted that it resulted in not giving me any reasons to never go back.

Here it is via TikTok user @peterpetrella:

“I worked at Olive Garden for three months and these are not so secret secrets that they just don’t tell you.”

“First and foremost, and the thing that I think always blows people’s mind is for the tour of Italy you can like, mix and match. So for example, if I want like ravioli instead of the like, spaghetti, I can do that, I can substitute those things. iN some cases it might be an upcharge, but it’ll only be like a dollar-ish.”

“Second, as far as, uh, the viral ‘you can buy a cheese grater,’ yes you can buy a cheese grater. I have sold the cheese grater from Olive Garden. But don’t go out buying Parmesan cheese because they grate blocks of Romano cheese.”

“And third in the thing that I found the most useful in my life, is the base that they use for their Alfredo is the Rana brand Alfredo. You can get this at any grocery store in the, like, the refrigerator pasta section. It’s delicious. I usually take that, I get like, a five cheese blend like, Italian blend, I put a little olive oil, a little garlic, a little Italian seasoning, and then boom, you have Olive Garden Alfredo.”

“Oh, and I almost forgot, when the servers get your salad, they actually hand toss everything. So if there’s anything you don’t want in the salad, they just don’t have to add it. You tell them right there, and they can put the individual ingredients in your salad, because that’s what they’re doing anyways, so it saves them time and it saves you the heartache.”

@peterpetrella

Olive Garden fans rise up #olivegarden #og #lifehacks #restauranthacks #olive #darden #trending #fyp #foryou #foryoupage

♬ original sound – Peter Petrella

Of course, prices and participation may vary.

Some in the comments had further tips.

And some just…can’t do it at all.

But for many, this was a salad revolution.

Did you also know that when you’re there, you’re family?

Which is probably why you leave so uncomfortable.

If you liked that story, check out this one about a 72-year-old woman was told by her life insurance company that her policy was worthless because she’d paid for 40 years. 🙁