Social media users have revealed that customers can purchase half-gallon or gallon-sized buckets of soup from Olive Garden.These gallons of soup are available on the catering menu and feed either six or 12 people at a steep discount per person.Entrées on the catering menu can also offer discounts per serving when compared with the standard Olive Garden menu.
Certain dishes from chain restaurants have become so iconic and loved that they are as recognizable as the restaurants themselves. If you’ve visited McDonald’s, you’ve probably tried its McNuggets, and anyone who’s been to Dairy Queen has experienced a Blizzard. If you grew up visiting an Olive Garden in a sprawling suburban area like I did, I would bet that you’ve tried its soup, salad, and breadsticks.
These three dishes from Olive Garden have gained iconic status, frequently attracting customers to sit at one of its over 900 locations. The restaurant’s four soup varieties — Chicken & Gnocchi, Pasta e Fagioli, Minestrone, and Zuppa Toscana — have remained on the menu for many years, celebrated for their hearty ingredients and consistent flavor.
For anyone else who often craves these comforting dishes, TikTok has shared a new hack that allows you to stock your fridge with Olive Garden soup at a fraction of the cost. As dozens of content creators have pointed out this year, you can buy an entire bucket of soup from Olive Garden.
How to order a gallon of soup from Olive Garden
Clips of Olive Garden take-out orders have been circulating on social media, spotlighting what appears to be an opaque white bucket filled to the brim with Olive Garden soup. This isn’t a hoax, and you can buy a whole bucket of soup from the casual Italian chain.
The key to ordering this giant serving of soup is to click on the restaurant’s catering menu when ordering online. (If you’re placing a to-go order in person or over the phone, you can also ask for the soup from the catering menu.) After selecting “order now” on the Olive Garden website, you’ll be prompted to choose your “order type.” Select the catering option, and you’ll then see a menu with large-format versions of Olive Garden classics.
Because this is an option from the catering menu, you’ll need to take it to go. The catering menu offers two large soup choices: Homemade Soups (Serves 6) and Homemade Soups Large (Serves 12). These are, respectively, half-gallon and gallon-sized options, so you’ll notice many TikTok videos feature users saying they bought a whole gallon of soup from Olive Garden. That’s because they did.
The price per gallon of soup varies slightly depending on the restaurant location. At the Olive Garden in Times Square in New York City, likely the most expensive location of the restaurant, a gallon of soup costs $31.99. In my hometown of Beaumont, Texas, it’s only $27.99, a price that’s more representative of what you’ll find across the country.
Even at the higher $32 price tag, that translates to $2.66 per serving, a staggering discount compared to the $11.99 you’ll pay for a single serving of soup off the standard menu. At less expensive Olive Gardens, a gallon costs $27.99, which breaks down to $2.33 per serving, compared to the $8.49 price for a regular serving of soup.
What else can you buy in bulk off the catering menu?
One important distinction that some TikTok creators overlook is that the gallon of soup doesn’t automatically include breadsticks. However, you can choose to add a bag of 12 breadsticks to your order, which will typically cost around $6–$8 overall, or less than $1 per breadstick. This pricing is the same as on the regular menu, but it still offers a great deal.
You can use the catering menu to score some serious markdowns on entrées as well. At the Times Square Olive Garden, an individual order of Chicken Parmigiana costs $25.99. A catering-sized portion, which serves four to six people, is priced at $62.99. That breaks down to $15.75 per serving if it only feeds four, or just $10.50 per person if it serves six. (You’ll find similar savings at a Texas-based Olive Garden, though the total cost and price per serving are lower.)
Options like these are especially helpful if you’re feeding a family. Instead of paying significantly higher prices for each individual order, you can place one or two large-format orders from the catering menu, feeding each person for a much lower cost, and save leftovers to pack for lunches throughout the week. Even if you’re not feeding a group, grabbing a bucket of soup to enjoy throughout the week (or freezing portions for future meals) is an excellent idea with savings like these.
Dining and Cooking