As one of America's biggest Italian restaurant chains, Olive Garden is often a family favorite! But, many of their meals are very high in calories. This doesn't mean you have to avoid Olive Garden altogether, but if you're trying to be more calorie-conscious, you may want to be more mindful of what you're ordering and how often you eat it.
It should also be mentioned that aside from the high calories in the delicious entrees you'll most likely consume at Olive Garden, you should also be mindful of how many of their delicious breadsticks you consume. As most know, these are addicting, and they will add a ton of calories to your meal before you even eat your entree. So, to help make healthier decisions, here are ten high-calorie meals to avoid at Olive Garden.
Chicken Alfredo
The Chicken Alfredo meal has a whopping 1,570 calories. It comes with fettuccine noodles, creamy alfredo sauce, and sliced grilled chicken. Their cream alfredo sauce is made with cream, parmesan cheese, butter, and garlic. Anything made with cream and butter is going to have a lot of fat. This translates to calories, so you need to be careful if you're looking to eat healthy.
©morgan23/ via Getty Images
Sausage Stuffed Giant Rigatoni
The sausage-stuffed giant rigatoni meal has 1,020 calories. Just like stuffed pasta or shells at other restaurants, this meal is usually high in calories due to the cream and cheese used to fill the pasta.
Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara
The chicken and shrimp carbonara is another meal known for having a lot of calories. It has spaghetti noodles, shrimp, and sauteed chicken cooked in a creamy sauce with roasted red peppers and bacon. This dish is very high in fat from the cream, cheese, and bacon and has around 1,370 calories.
Tour of Italy
The tour of Italy is one of the highest-calorie meals on the Olive Garden menu. It has three of their high-calorie meals in one: lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo. All of these are either made with cream sauce or filled/topped with a lot of cheese, which has a lot of fat. This meal has 1,550 calories.
Chicken Scampi
The chicken scampi is another high-calorie meal to be aware of, with 1,050 calories. It is made with angel hair pasta, sauteed chicken, red and green bell peppers, red onions, and a creamy scampi sauce. A lot of the calories in this dish come from the creamy scampi sauce.
Chicken Tortellini Alfredo
The chicken tortelloni alfredo dish has the highest amount of calories on this list. With tortellini full of cheese and grilled chicken tossed in cream sauce, this meal has everything you need to add up the calories to 1,980 quickly.
Lasagna Fritta
The lasagna fritta is 1,130 calories. This meal is a fried lasagna. It has a parmesan-breaded crust that is topped with meat sauce, creamy alfredo sauce, and topped with cheese. Although it's not a lot of food, the breading, as well as being deep-fried, is what makes this meal have a higher amount of calories, as well as the cream sauce.
©Ezume Images/Shutterstock.com
Chicken Parmigiana
The chicken parmigiana is also on the list of high-calorie meals. It has two fried chicken breasts with a parmesan-breaded crust and is topped with marinara sauce and cheese. The chicken is served with a side of spaghetti. This meal comes in at 1,020.
Shrimp Alfredo
Similar to the chicken alfredo, this dish is very high in calories from the creamy alfredo sauce. Made with cream, parmesan, butter, and garlic, this cream sauce is tossed in with fettuccine pasta and sauteed shrimp. The shrimp alfredo has 1,470 calories.
Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo
The steak gorgonzola alfredo has 1,380 calries. Because it's an alfredo made with Olive Gardens creamy alfredo sauce, this dish is high in calories. It is made with steak medallions, fettucini noodles, gorgonzola cheese, and spinach.
Ravioli Carbonara
Similar to the chicken tortellini alfredo, the ravioli carbonara is high in calories because it is filled with cheese and covered in cream sauce. These ravioli are also topped with bacon, which adds more fat and calories to the meal, as well as sprinkling it with a blend of cheeses. It has 1,390 calories.
Five Cheese Ziti al Forno
This five-cheese ziti al forno is high in calories because of its cheese content. It has 1,170 calories. Not only is it covered in cheese and then baked so the cheese is melted, but it's also made with a five-cheese marinara. At 1,170 calories, this dish does not even have protein yet. You do have the option to add any protein like meatballs, Italian sausage, grilled chicken, or sauteed shrimp, which will only add more calories.
Eggplant Parmigiana
Just like the chicken parmigiana, the eggplant parmigiana is also high in calories. This is essentially the same meal as the chicken parmigiana. It's just substituted with eggplant instead of chicken. The eggplant gets breaded in the same breading and topped with cheese, which makes it 1,070 calories.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Fanfo/Shutterstock.com.