How Much Cheese Are Olive Garden Employees Actually Allowed To Give You?

The delight that accompanies a meal at Olive Garden, with good friends or dear family, is unmatched. It might not be considered traditional Italian food, but that's not what you go for; you go to have Olive Garden. A typical experience ought to include a fun beverage (try a secret menu Italian soda if you don't drink alcohol), neverending breadsticks, and a plate of pasta so huge you know you'll be having leftovers for lunch tomorrow. With every entree — and soup and salad, for that matter — comes the uniquely Olive Garden addition of tableside Romano cheese, grated for you by your server. You're instructed to say "stop" or "when." But what if you never do? Just how much cheese are Olive Garden employees permitted to give you? In the immortal words of Cady Heron: The limit does not exist.

It's true; you don't ever have to say "stop" when it comes to the cheese grater, and it does appear that servers are instructed to give customers as much of the airy dairy product as they desire. "I literally have boxes of cheese blocks," one Redditor — presumably an Olive Garden employee — wrote. "I dare you to tell me to keep it coming." They went on to joke (we hope) that they will bury you in cheese if you request it. It really is that serious.

If you love layers of cheese on your Olive Garden entree, you are certainly not alone. Employees of the Garden have reported people letting them grate multiple blocks of cheese before telling them to stop. If that sounds like something you would enjoy, there are some polite ways to go about getting that much Romano without exasperating your server. A brief warning that they are about to be put to work wouldn't go amiss — whether it's a simple "I like a lot of cheese" or, as one Redditor once heard, the command to "make it blizzard."

Next, if you notice your server's energy starting to flag, or they start to look around — if it's busy, they probably have other tables to tend to — you can request that they leave the grater and the cheese with you. They might say no and keep going, but it's also equally likely that they'll appreciate your thoughtfulness in letting them see to their other duties.

Finally, if you're loading up your food with cheese so that you'll still have some when you eat it as leftovers, consider this: You can actually buy Olive Garden's cheese graters to take home with you. We wouldn't doubt that, for a nominal fee (or perhaps even for free), your server would also give you a block of cheese to go with it.