Olive Garden is bringing back its infinite pasta glitch

Olive Garden may need to adopt a belt-loosening policy thanks to the return of its extremely beloved Never-Ending Pasta Pass, a subscription plan that grants a limited number of patrons 13 weeks of unlimited pasta for $100.

The return of the Pasta Pass represents the latest in a trend that Olive Garden helped create of restaurant chains trying to win repeat business via limited-time subscription programs. These programs can drive both customer loyalty and headlines (like ours). Taco Bell, Applebee’s, and Subway also have popular ones. And Olive Garden is looking for a boost after its same-store sales growth disappointed in Q4.

If you’re the proud owner of an “I ♥️carbs” t-shirt…you can take advantage of a deal that also includes infinite soup, salad, and breadsticks (but not wine) by going to the Pasta Pass website on Thursday at 2pm ET to get one of the 10,000 available passes. The $100 pass (plus tax) is good for 13 weeks starting Aug. 24, and you only need to order four plates of Chicken Alfredo before breaking even.

But be warned: The company claims Olive Garden sold out of 24,000 passes in “milliseconds” the last time it ran the promotion in 2019.—DL