Olive Garden Calories: Official Numbers for Pasta, Soup, and Breadsticks

Fettuccine Alfredo at Olive Garden is 1,220 calories as a dinner portion and 920 at lunch. A breadstick with garlic topping is 140, a serving of salad with dressing is 150, and a bowl of Zuppa Toscana is 220. The range across the menu is enormous: Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo is 1,980 calories, while Shrimp Scampi is 490, and both are a plate of pasta. What makes Olive Garden genuinely different from a fast food chain is not the entree, though, it is the unlimited refills. Soup, salad, and breadsticks have no published total, because there is no fixed serving. The number is whatever you take, and knowing the per-unit figures is the only way to keep track.

A note on the source

All numbers below come from Olive Garden's own nutrition PDF, revision US_072026, the document linked from olivegarden.com/nutrition. Olive Garden's live site blocked our automated requests, so the file was retrieved from an archived capture of Olive Garden's own URL; the PDF's internal metadata confirms it is Olive Garden's file, created July 2, 2026, with the US_072026 revision code printed on all 36 pages. No third-party nutrition database was used. A newer revision may exist that we could not see, so treat these as the July 2026 figures.

Olive Garden publishes protein for every item, which many chains do not, and its landing page carries no numbers at all: the PDF is the only place its data lives.

The unlimited problem: soup, salad, and breadsticks

Per unit, as published:

Item	Serving basis	Calories	Protein
Breadstick with garlic topping	1 breadstick	140	4g
Breadstick, plain	1 breadstick	130	4g
Salad with Signature Italian Dressing	1 serving, about 5 oz	150	3g
Salad without dressing	1 serving	70	2g
Italian Dressing	1 fl oz	80	0g
Low-Fat Italian Dressing	1 fl oz	30	0g
Minestrone Soup	8 fl oz	110	5g
Pasta Fagioli Soup	8 fl oz	150	8g
Stellini Soup, regional	8 fl oz	200	9g
Zuppa Toscana Soup	8 fl oz	220	7g
Chicken & Gnocchi Soup	8 fl oz	230	11g

Olive Garden defines a soup serving as 8 fluid ounces and a salad serving as about 5 ounces, and it states that for a party of one or two, about 10 ounces of salad gets served, meaning half the bowl is one serving. It publishes no separate "bowl" versus "cup" figure; the words do not appear in its guide.

Now the arithmetic that actually matters. Three breadsticks and two servings of salad with dressing, which is a very ordinary amount of table food before an entree, is 420 + 300 = 720 calories before the pasta arrives. A soup, salad, and breadsticks meal with two bowls of Zuppa Toscana, two salads, and three breadsticks is 440 + 300 + 420 = 1,160 calories, which is more than most of the entrees on the menu. Unlimited is not a discount.

The cheapest swap on the whole menu lives in this table: salad without dressing is 70 against 150 with it, and low-fat dressing is 30 per ounce against 80. Dressing, not lettuce, is the salad.

Official numbers: the classic pastas, dinner portions

Dinner entree	Calories	Protein	Sodium
Spaghetti with Marinara	490	15g	1,290mg
Shrimp Scampi	490	29g	1,120mg
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce	640	26g	1,050mg
Grilled Chicken Margherita	650	65g	2,120mg
Herb-Grilled Salmon	610	45g	1,360mg
Cheese Ravioli with Marinara	750	41g	2,370mg
Cheese Ravioli with Meat Sauce	860	50g	2,190mg
Lasagna Classico	940	54g	2,260mg
Creamy Mushroom Ravioli	980	24g	1,260mg
Chicken Parmigiana	1,020	64g	3,300mg
Chicken Scampi	1,050	49g	2,470mg
Eggplant Parmigiana	1,070	35g	2,440mg
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce & Sausage	1,110	52g	2,190mg
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce & Meatballs	1,120	49g	2,110mg
Five Cheese Ziti al Forno	1,170	46g	2,440mg
Stuffed Chicken Marsala	1,170	70g	3,020mg
Fettuccine Alfredo	1,220	27g	1,210mg
Shrimp Alfredo	1,390	60g	1,620mg
Chicken & Shrimp Carbonara	1,370	64g	2,050mg
Chicken Alfredo, grilled chicken	1,480	79g	2,290mg
Tour of Italy	1,550	72g	3,220mg
Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo	1,580	74g	2,750mg
Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo	1,980	112g	3,720mg

Two things jump out. Alfredo is the expensive decision, not the pasta: Fettuccine Alfredo is 1,220 against 490 for the same noodles with marinara, a 730-calorie gap for a sauce swap. And Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo at 1,980 calories is the heaviest single dish Olive Garden publishes, carrying 112 grams of protein and 3,720mg of sodium with it.

Lunch portions are a genuine discount

Olive Garden publishes a separate lunch section, and the savings are large:

Dish	Lunch	Dinner	Saved
Fettuccine Alfredo	920	1,220	300
Lasagna Classico	500	940	440
Five Cheese Ziti al Forno	630	1,170	540
Chicken Parmigiana	630	1,020	390
Cheese Ravioli with Marinara	440	750	310
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce	480	640	160
Eggplant Parmigiana	660	1,070	410
Spaghetti with Marinara	370	490	120

Ordering the lunch portion is the single most effective thing you can do at Olive Garden, worth 120 to 540 calories on the same dish. Olive Garden also publishes a Lighter Portions section whose figures are numerically identical to the lunch figures for every overlapping item, so the two are the same portions under different headings.

Lunch figures are not published for the dinner-only dishes, which include Tour of Italy, Chicken Alfredo, Shrimp Alfredo, Herb-Grilled Salmon, Stuffed Chicken Marsala, Chicken Scampi, and Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo.

Create Your Own Pasta, component by component

This is the most useful part of Olive Garden's guide, because it lets you build a number rather than accept one.

Pasta	Calories		Sauce	Calories		Topping	Calories	Protein
Spaghetti	340		Marinara	150		Grilled Chicken	130	26g
Angel Hair	350		Meat Sauce	300		Sauteed Shrimp	170	33g
Gluten-Free Rotini	380		Five Cheese Marinara	400		Crispy Chicken Fritta	240	20g
Bucatini	410		Creamy Mushroom	860		Meatballs (3)	480	23g
Rigatoni	440					Italian Sausage (2)	470	27g
						Broccoli	150	4g

The sauce is the decision. Marinara at 150 against Creamy Mushroom at 860 is a 710-calorie swing on an otherwise identical plate. Spaghetti with marinara and grilled chicken is 340 + 150 + 130 = 620 calories with 42g of protein, which is a genuinely good restaurant meal. The same pasta with creamy mushroom sauce and sausage is 340 + 860 + 470 = 1,670.

Two gaps to note: Olive Garden's website names olive oil and Parmesan butter as Create Your Own sauce options, but its nutrition PDF does not publish values for them, or for Alfredo as a Create Your Own component.

Chicken, seafood, and desserts

Item	Portion	Calories	Protein
Herb-Grilled Salmon	Dinner	610	45g
Herb-Grilled Salmon Coho, regional	Dinner	510	50g
Grilled Chicken Margherita	Dinner	650	65g
Shrimp Scampi	Dinner	490	29g
Shrimp Scampi	Lunch	460	20g
6 oz. Tuscan Sirloin	Gluten sensitive menu	480	46g
Tiramisu	1 dessert	470	6g
Strawberry Cream Cake	1 dessert	540	9g
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake	1 dessert	620	8g
Black Tie Mousse Cake	1 dessert	750	9g
Sicilian Cheesecake with Strawberry Topping	1 dessert	730	12g
Warm Italian Doughnuts	1 dessert	810	20g
Chocolate Lasagna	1 dessert	980	13g
Mint candy	1 each	25	0g

Tiramisu is the lightest of the real desserts at 470, and Chocolate Lasagna is the heaviest at 980. The doughnuts are 810 before sauce, and the sauces are published separately: chocolate adds 220 and raspberry 210.

Olive Garden does not publish anything called Zeppoli or Dolcini, and there is no Chicken Piccata in its guide. The only fried-dough dessert listed is Warm Italian Doughnuts.

How to build a lighter Olive Garden order

Ranked by calories saved:

1. Order the lunch portion, worth 120 to 540 calories on the identical dish. The largest saving is Five Cheese Ziti al Forno at 540.
2. Choose marinara over a cream sauce. On Create Your Own that is 150 against 860, a saving of 710. On the fixed menu, spaghetti marinara against Fettuccine Alfredo is 490 against 1,220.
3. Count the breadsticks. Each is 140, so the difference between one and four is 420 calories nobody logs.
4. Take the salad without dressing, or ask for low-fat: 70 against 150, or 30 per ounce against 80.
5. Pick minestrone over Zuppa Toscana or Chicken & Gnocchi: 110 against 220 or 230, saving up to 120 per bowl.
6. Choose grilled chicken or shrimp over fritta or sausage as your topping: 130 or 170 against 240 or 470.

Five orders under 700 calories

1. Spaghetti with marinara, lunch portion, plus one breadstick: 370 + 140 = 510 calories, 15g protein
2. Create Your Own: spaghetti, marinara, grilled chicken: 340 + 150 + 130 = 620 calories, 42g protein
3. Shrimp Scampi dinner plus a salad without dressing: 490 + 70 = 560 calories, 31g protein
4. Minestrone, salad without dressing, and two breadsticks: 110 + 70 + 280 = 460 calories, 15g protein
5. Herb-Grilled Salmon Coho plus a salad without dressing: 510 + 70 = 580 calories, 52g protein

Five highest-protein orders

1. Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo: 1,980 calories, 112g protein
2. Chicken Alfredo with grilled chicken: 1,480 calories, 79g protein
3. Stuffed Chicken Marsala: 1,170 calories, 70g protein
4. Grilled Chicken Margherita plus a salad without dressing: 650 + 70 = 720 calories, 67g protein
5. Create Your Own: bucatini, marinara, sauteed shrimp, plus a side of broccoli: 410 + 150 + 170 + 150 = 880 calories, 56g protein

Number four is the standout: 67 grams of protein for 720 calories is the best protein-per-calorie order on the menu, and it is on the regular dinner list.

Real-world meals, broken down

The lean meal

Component	Calories
Salad without dressing	70
1 breadstick	140
Create Your Own: spaghetti, marinara, grilled chicken	620
Total	830

The standard meal

Component	Calories
2 servings salad with dressing	300
3 breadsticks	420
Lasagna Classico, dinner	940
Total	1,660

This is the meal most people actually eat, and the table food is 720 of it, 43 percent of the total.

The indulgent meal

Component	Calories
2 bowls Zuppa Toscana	440
2 servings salad with dressing	300
4 breadsticks	560
Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo	1,980
Tiramisu	470
Total	3,750

How to log Olive Garden in Nouri

Olive Garden is the hardest restaurant to log in a traditional tracker, and the reason is the unlimited refills. There is no menu item called "however many breadsticks I ate." Database logging forces you to find an entry, pick a quantity, then do the same for the salad, then again for the soup, and the honest version of that is four or five separate lookups for food that arrived before you ordered. In practice nobody does it, so the table food vanishes from the log entirely, and that is 720 calories missing from a typical meal.

What works is describing the whole evening in one line: "Olive Garden, three breadsticks, two salads with dressing, and lasagna." Nouri returns it itemized, breadsticks separate from salad separate from entree, so I can see the 420 that came from bread before deciding anything. The correction I make most often is the count, because I usually underestimate the breadsticks, and fixing one number in a breakdown is a tap. This is the same principle as How to Log Restaurant Meals: the goal is not precision, it is not losing 700 calories because the food was free. Nouri is iPhone (iOS only), and you can try it free.

FAQ

How many calories in Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo?

1,220 calories for the dinner portion and 920 for the lunch portion, with 27g of protein. Swapping to marinara on the same noodles takes it to 490.

How many calories in an Olive Garden breadstick?

140 with the garlic topping and 130 plain. The topping is made from margarine, and Olive Garden does not publish a figure for the topping on its own.

How many calories in Olive Garden salad?

150 per serving with Signature Italian Dressing and 70 without. A serving is about 5 ounces; for a party of one or two, roughly half the bowl is one serving.

How many calories in Olive Garden soup?

Per 8-ounce serving: Minestrone 110, Pasta Fagioli 150, Stellini 200, Zuppa Toscana 220, Chicken & Gnocchi 230. Olive Garden publishes no separate bowl and cup figures.

How many calories in unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks?

There is no published total, because there is no fixed serving. Two bowls of Zuppa Toscana, two dressed salads, and three breadsticks is 1,160 calories by Olive Garden's own per-unit numbers.

What is the healthiest thing at Olive Garden?

For protein per calorie, Grilled Chicken Margherita at 650 calories with 65g of protein. For the lowest calories, a lunch spaghetti with marinara at 370, or Shrimp Scampi at 490 for a dinner portion.

How many calories in Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo?

1,480 with grilled chicken and 1,710 with crispy chicken fritta, both dinner portions. The grilled version carries 79g of protein.

Are Olive Garden lunch portions smaller?

Yes, substantially, and they are published separately: 120 to 540 fewer calories than the dinner portion of the same dish. Olive Garden's Lighter Portions section lists the same figures as its lunch section.

How many calories in Olive Garden Lasagna Classico?

940 for the dinner portion and 500 for the lunch portion, with 54g of protein at dinner.

How many calories in Olive Garden Tiramisu?

470 calories, which makes it the lightest of the cakes and cheesecakes. Chocolate Lasagna is the heaviest dessert at 980.

Does Olive Garden publish protein information?

Yes, protein is published for every item in its nutrition PDF, alongside calories, fat, sodium, carbs, fiber, and sugars. Its nutrition web page carries no numbers and only links to the PDF.

How do I count calories on a shared Olive Garden meal?

Count units rather than dishes: breadsticks at 140 each, salad servings at 150 or 70, soup at its per-8-ounce figure, then add your entree. Describing it afterwards, as in Common Food Logging Mistakes, beats skipping the table food.

Order the lunch portion, count the breadsticks, and put the whole evening into Nouri as one sentence so the free food shows up in your log too. For the sauce decision that drives everything here, our pasta and rice numbers give the underlying staples, and Calorie Counting 101 covers the target.

Sources

• Olive Garden Nutrition Information, U.S. restaurants, revision US_072026, Olive Garden's own PDF at media.olivegarden.com/en_us/pdf/olive_garden_nutrition.pdf, linked from olivegarden.com/nutrition (checked September 27, 2026)
• Olive Garden's live site blocked automated requests at the time of writing, so the PDF was retrieved from an archived capture of Olive Garden's own URL. The file's internal metadata confirms Olive Garden authorship, creation date July 2, 2026, and the US_072026 revision code printed on every page. No third-party nutrition database was used
• Serving-size definitions for soup (8 fl oz) and salad (about 5 oz) are Olive Garden's own, from its nutrition page FAQ
• Per Olive Garden's disclaimer: "variations between the nutrition info reported here and what is actually served may occur due to the handcrafted nature of our menu items, substitutions, natural variability that occurs within ingredients, region of the country and season of the year"
• Not published by Olive Garden and therefore absent here: Chicken Piccata, Zeppoli, Dolcini, standalone breadstick topping, separate bowl and cup soup figures, Create Your Own values for Alfredo, olive oil, or Parmesan butter, and lunch portions for the dinner-only entrees
• All multi-item totals are sums of Olive Garden's own published figures, verified arithmetically before publishing