For a limited time each year, the Italian-American restaurant chain, Olive Garden, reintroduces their Never-Ending Pasta Bowls– a specialty in which a choice of pasta, soup or salad, and breadsticks are infinite for the low price of $13.99.

So, the FM Wire staff has presented themselves with a challenge: take advantage of this promotion and eat as many bowls of Never-Ending Pasta as possible. What does the winner receive? Bragging rights and a full stomach. 

Chichi’s Experience:

To say I was utterly revolted would be an understatement–and a downplayed one as well. Although I am accustomed to mending my tastes to center around American or European dishes, if I had the choice, I would respectively entail any other cuisine. 

The start of the meal? Abysmal. The ending? Even worse. There are no words in which I can utilize that will personify the rendered disgust I hold for pasta, especially that of Olive Garden’s notable fettuccine alfredo. I often contemplate what my experience would have been like if I had ordered the dish with a side of chicken, or if the girls and I began with a light salad instead of the watered down, milk-like chicken and gnocchi soup. And although such excuses plague my notions (and my still upset stomach), I can only come to one conclusion: It was simply a bad-quality, lackluster meal. 

In fact, I highly doubt that I will be returning to Olive Garden for any future endeavors. With the overcooked pasta, gritty alfredo sauce, watery soup, and over-salted breadsticks, the Never-Ending Pasta was not worth it to say the least. 

My name is Chenyi Wu, and I finished one bowl of Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta. 

Nina’s Experience:

As a previously avid Olive Garden enjoyer, I believed it was my time to shine when we decided to try out the returning Never-Ending Pasta. Italian cuisine, specifically pasta, had always been a constant staple of my favorite foods to obsessively eat, whatever the shape or sauce. The ambience of the restaurant was decent enough, with an unusually large amount of birthday chants being sung around us.

Making sure to work up an appetite all day for the at least three bowls of pasta I would obviously obliterate, I was ready. 

What I didn’t account for was the soup portion and how ravenous I really was. I followed along with the others, ordering a chicken gnocchi soup. Despite resolving to only have a few slurps of it, I was hit with a pang of nostalgia and downed almost half of it. The creamy flavor was one I hadn’t tasted in over a decade, taking me back to my carefree preschool years. It’s hard to say whether or not the soup truly affected my performance, because the end result was subpar at best. 

Fettuccine Alfredo is a classic that I knew I had to order. At first, I ate bite after bite, empowered by an empty, naive confidence. Slowing down, the bites became shorter. Time passed, and the pasta became colder, sauce becoming revoltingly chunky. I was almost done, but the pasta sickened me in a way it never has. Foolishly trying to attempt the inevitable, I sluggishly took smaller and smaller bites. Was the dish always this big? I was the last to tap out, but I had only finished one bowl. My Never-Ending Pasta dreams had been crushed by my mortal stomach.

My name is Nina Aitha, and I finished exactly one bowl of Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta.

Ellen’s Experience: 

With the intent of slamming down at least three bowls of pasta, I prepared myself for the looming feast hours beforehand. Warranting some disapproval from my parents, I withheld from eating throughout the day, aside from a few snacks here and there, to be at my peak hunger by dinner time. Sure enough, by 6:30 I was unbearably hungry, my stomach grumbling as I left my house to pick up my fellow staff. 

The Olive Garden was packed, to my surprise. After being seated, I debated between a soup or salad and pored over the endless pasta options. When the waitress took our orders, I opted for fettuccine alfredo, chicken gnocchi soup, and of course, the classic Olive Garden breadsticks. At first, I had no intention of eating the soups or the breadsticks, as they were just more obstacles that could interfere with the challenge and fill me up too quickly. 

But when the waitress served us our soups, I caved. I hadn’t eaten a real meal all day, and it was like the plumes of steam coming from the bowl were putting me in a trance. Dramatic, I know. Despite my friends’ protests, I ate spoonful after spoonful, almost finishing the entire bowl of chicken gnocchi soup before my pasta had even arrived.

I see now that choosing the fettuccine alfredo was a mistake. I’ll give myself some credit; I was smart enough to decline adding protein to not fill up too quickly, but it turns out the pasta was hearty and filling enough on its own. At just three bites in, I was stuffed. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I tried to persevere, but there is truly no worse feeling than eating when you’re no longer hungry. 

My name is Ellen Hirst, and I ate half a bowl of Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta. 

Emma’s Experience:

For me, drowning in the delectable three-cheese marinara angel hair pasta was a dream come true. This competition would be my first Olive Garden experience, as I never got the chance to dine there as a kid. At the exodus of the meal, we were met with bowls of lumpy, chunky chicken gnocchi soup. It was quite possibly the most unappetizing food I had ever seen in my life. As I dragged my spoon through the pig slop, queasiness overcame me, and I prayed for my pasta to come out soon. I let my friends indulge in the appetizer while I kept my eyes set on the true prize.

As soon as the steaming bowl of angel hair was set in front of me, I got to work. I ate my first bowl swiftly, making sure to not indulge in breadsticks or fizzy soda in order to avoid a full stomach. By the time I was scraping the bottom of my first pasta bowl, my classmates were already slowing down, but I was just getting started.

Out of fear of getting full, I left the table to walk a quick three laps around the Olive Garden, hoping to burn off some extra calories. As I walked around the building, I pondered my winning strategy: a thinner noodle choice, no breadsticks, and no protein. I hoped by dismissing any of those variables that I could further indulge in more pasta. By the time I got back to my table, my second Never-Ending bowl was already waiting for me. 

As I began my second pasta conquest, my fellow staff members couldn’t keep up, for their fettuccine alfredo was far too hearty. Finally, I finished my second bowl of angel hair and triumphed over my staff. 

My name is Emma Santos, I ate two bowls of Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta, and I am the winner of the Never-Ending Pasta challenge.