Will Olive Garden’s $100 Pasta Pass Beat Inflation Fatigue?
Olive Garden said Monday it is bringing back a fan-favorite deal that will let 10,000 customers eat unlimited pasta for $100 13-week pass, part of a broader push by chain restaurants to win over customers seeking to avoid inflation by offering value deals.
Olive Garden’s “Never-Ending Pasta Pass” will go on sale Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT, the Italian restaurant chain said Monday, which will cost $100 and offer pass holders 13 weeks of unlimited pasta.
Olive Garden hasn’t sold pasta passes since 2019, but the price hasn’t gone up despite inflation—in 2019, the restaurant chain sold 24,000 pasta passes for $100 each.
The pasta passes typically sell out within minutes, Olive Garden said, calling the sale one of the chain’s “most anticipated moments.”
Jaime Bunker, Olive Garden's senior vice president of marketing, said the chain brought back the deal to “recognize the loyalty of so many guests who have kept it top of mind all these years,” saying it highlights the brand’s “abundance and incredible value.”
Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden, reported in June sales at the restaurant chain grew 2.4% in its fiscal fourth quarter, missing expectations of 3.2% growth.
Passes will go on sale Thursday at PastaPass.com, and it’s first-come, first-serve—Olive Garden recommends customers refresh the page until a “Buy Now” button appears, which they should click as quickly as possible.
Like Olive Garden, chain restaurants are increasingly offering value meals or promotions like the pasta pass, offering deals for a flat fee. In 2024, McDonald’s rolled out a $5 value meal, and last year, brought back “Extra Value Meals,” a deal it had not offered since before the Covid-19 pandemic. The $5 meal includes a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink, while the Extra Value Meals save customers 15% on combo meals. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told CNBC last year the deals are a bid to win over lower-income consumers, saying they are “under a lot of pressure right now” in what he called a “two-tiered economy.” In 2023, Subway brought back its Footlong Pass, a monthly subscription service that offers consumers 50% off sandwiches for a flat fee of $15, and in 2022, Taco Bell unveiled a monthly Taco Lover’s Pass that offers fans 30 free tacos over 30 days. Earlier this year, Applebee’s brought back its “All You Can Eat” deal, offering customers unlimited fries with their choice of boneless wings, riblets or shrimp.
As customers have felt the pressures of inflation, traffic at restaurants has declined. In December, CNBC reported restaurant traffic was down year-over-year for every month of 2025, except for July, when traffic increased by just 0.1%, citing data from Black Box Intelligence. Restaurants faced increased pressure earlier this year as the war in Iran caused gas prices to spike. Chains including Domino’s and Applebee’s reported declining traffic in March and April, and Black Box data showed restaurant traffic dipped 2.3% in March from one year prior.