Eating out · American-Italian casual dining
Low FODMAP at Olive Garden
Olive Garden's kitchen is built around garlic- and onion-based sauces (marinara, alfredo, scampi, meat sauce) plus wheat pasta and bread, so almost every default dish stacks multiple triggers at once. The workable strategy is a plain grilled protein with vegetables or a stripped-down salad, ordered with sauces, seasoning blends, and dressings held or moved to the side.
✅ Safest picks
Grilled chicken (from any grilled entree), plain
A plain grilled chicken breast without added marinade or finishing sauce is essentially just protein and oil.
💬 Order it: Ask for the chicken grilled dry, with no seasoning blend, garlic butter finish, or sauce; request any sauce fully on the side or omitted.
Herb-Grilled Salmon (lighter fare menu)
Base preparation is herbs, olive oil, and lemon rather than a garlic-cream sauce, but kitchens often brush a garlic butter finish onto grilled fish by default.
💬 Order it: Confirm there's no garlic butter finish; ask for herbs and lemon only, with any butter/oil sauce served on the side.
Garden side salad, modified
Lettuce, tomato, olives, and pepperoncini are fine on their own; the problem is the garlic croutons, red onion, and creamy Italian dressing that come standard.
💬 Order it: Ask to hold the croutons (wheat), red onion, and Italian dressing (contains garlic); request olive oil and red wine vinegar on the side instead.
Steamed broccoli, plain
Broccoli itself is a low-trigger vegetable in typical restaurant portions; the risk is entirely the garlic butter sauce it's normally served in.
💬 Order it: Ask for it steamed with no butter or garlic sauce added.
Grilled shrimp, dry (no scampi sauce)
Shrimp on its own is a safe protein; Olive Garden's default shrimp preparations (scampi) are built on a garlic-onion-wine butter sauce.
💬 Order it: Specify shrimp grilled or sauteed dry, with the scampi butter sauce left off or served fully on the side.
⚠️ Skip these
Unlimited breadsticks
Wheat dough brushed with a garlic-butter topping combines two fructan sources in an all-you-can-eat format that's easy to overdo.
Good to know
- •Garlic and onion are the default flavor base for nearly every sauce on the menu (marinara, alfredo, scampi, meat sauce) — always ask if a dish can be made without them or request sauce on the side.
- •Skip the unlimited breadsticks and garlic breadsticks entirely; the wheat-plus-garlic-butter combination is one of the highest-trigger items in the building.
- •The house salad and its dressing both default to garlic and red onion — order dressing on the side and specifically ask for no croutons and no onion.
- •Ask for any grilled protein 'dry' or without a pre-applied seasoning blend, since kitchens often finish grilled items with a garlic butter brush after cooking.
- •Cream-based soups and sauces (Alfredo, Zuppa Toscana, Chicken Gnocchi Soup) stack dairy on top of garlic and onion — treat these as occasional indulgences rather than safe defaults.
At a different restaurant? Photograph any menu and get every dish ranked in seconds.
Scan a menu — freeMenus and recipes change; scores reflect typical preparations and published FODMAP research. Informational only — not medical advice. Always confirm ingredients with restaurant staff.