Pasta Pass Goals

Below are some thing I hope to accomplish with the Pasta Pass

• Get at least three bowls of pasta
• Go twice in one day
• Go before work and leave with dinner for at work
• Go before work and after work (I guess that's twice in one day, too)
• Bring someone who does not know how Olive Garden (or most regular things) works 
• Break even ($100)
• Make money on the deal ($101+)
• Go three times in one week (Mon-Sun will count as the week since it went active on a Monday)

So far my running tab, not including tip (I don't have to pay tax since I paid tax on the pass) is $14.78

Feel free to suggest more goals

Edited to add: my sister thinks I should go in with a bag full of tupperware and fill up containers and then claim to have eaten several bowls of pasta. Might have to save that for the last day of eligibility.

Hayward's finest ristorante

My apologies in advance for the lack of food pictures, we were having too much of a good time!

Anyhoo, I feel like I've let everyone down by not camping out at Olive Garden every day. I did the math, though (roughly), and I don't need to go that many times to come out ahead. First of all, they charge more money for the basic never-ending pasta bowl in these parts - $10.99 to start. Then if you want toppings, you're anywhere from $3.79 a topping (meatballs), to $5.99 (shrimp).

Today I met with Jessie, her baby Eli, and Ryan for a leisurely lunch. I didn't eat before, so I was able to maximize my value.

Since we're classy, we each ordered different wine samples. Ryan got something red, I got something pink, and Jessie got something sparkly.

We then moved on to the appetizer course, and devoured an entire plate of lasagna fritta (fried lasagna sitting on Alfredo sauce and topped with marinara). As I always say, "when you're here, you're pigs!" So we ate it all before we could even get a picture.

We got two giant bowls of salad, one with onions and one without.

Jessie had an all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and breadsticks, while Ryan and I went with the never-ending pasta bowls. Ryan had ziti and meat sauce, while I started with angel hair, marinara sauce, and meatballs. It was delicious.

For round two, Ryan was boring and got the same thing and I got corkscrew (I forgot the fancy Italian name) and five cheese marinara. Since I didn't eat breakfast in preparation for the feast, I was somehow able to finish the second bowl (I also limited myself to one breadstick). I asked the waitress if I could get a bowl to go, and she said no, "but I can bring you another bowl and a to-go box." Perfect! More corkscrew and five cheese marinara, please!!!

Anyhoo, now that I know what I can get away with, look out, Olive Garden! I now feel a bit more confident moving forward with my plan to head over before work to have a bowl of pasta and grabbing a to-go box for dinner later.

Next time I'll get more food pictures.

Running total: $10.99 + $3.79 =  $14.78

Welp...

Yeah, I didn't really think I was going to be able to actually buy one of these things, since they sell out in seconds. I ended up being one of the 22,000 carb-lovers who helped it sell out in less than one second. I really didn't think this through.

It actually ended up being kind of a hassle - first, I couldn't believe I got a pass, then Olive Garden sent an email saying my card had been declined. I was instructed to follow a link to re-enter my payment information, but it kept telling me to "correct the fields highlighted in red," even though there were no fields highlighted in red. I tried on a couple of different browsers without any luck, and Olive Garden's web team, I imagine, was busy keeping the site from blowing  up, so no one responded to my many emails. Then I got a text alert from my bank that the payment had gone through, followed by an email from Olive Garden saying my order had been confirmed. That email was then followed by another email apologizing for the confusion caused by being told my card had been declined. It was definitely a form letter, so it must have happened to a lot of other people, too. How they haven't figured out how to handle payments for these passes after five years is beyond me.

I haven't set up any rules or anything for this, I just know I'm gonna eat a lot of pasta, and on days when I can't choke down any pasta, I'll load up on salad and breadsticks. I'm open to suggestions, which have so far included "blog about it" and "try all of the different combinations, even if they're gross." I've obviously agreed to the first suggestion. I don't know about the gross combinations.

Anyhoo, see you in 10 days when the deal goes live. Wish me luck.