Steel Your Stomachs: Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Pass Is Back

Call their salad overdressed and their pasta bland all you want. If there’s one thing Olive Garden could never be accused of, it’s being stingy with their food. From salad to soda, with breadsticks in between, the pseudo-Italian restaurant chain loves nothing more than to modify a menu item with the word “unlimited.” And for $100 (plus tax), 23,000 lucky carb-lovers can spend eight weeks stuffing their faces with as much pasta as their stomachs can handle. That’s right, people: The Never Ending Pasta Pass is back!

On Thursday, August 23, at 2 p.m. ET precisely, the chain will offer 23,000 of its luckiest customers the opportunity to spend the bulk of the fall season gorging themselves on chicken alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, and whatever other al dente dishes strike their fancy. (You pick the pasta, sauce, and toppings.)

As far as the rules go, there aren’t many: Passholders can use their golden ticket to dine in gratis between September 24 and November 18, 2018, and must show an ID as the passes are non-transferable and no sharing is allowed. You will, of course, get the requisite unlimited soda and breadsticks; and you might want to wear your stretchiest pants. Passes will go on sale at PastaPass.com for one hour only (or until they're all gobbled up).

Before you dismiss it as a quick publicity gimmick, consider this: For the past several years, the passes have sold out in one second—yes, one second. The good news this year is that they’ve upped the ante from 22,000 passes to 23,000. They've also added a second option for OG lovers who are willing to shell out three times as much: For $300, 1000 people can purchase an annual Never Ending Pasta Pass, which will get them all of the aforementioned goodies—for an entire year! Again, there are only 1000 of these available, so you'd better start exercising your fingers and carbo-loading now.