Low Carb Olive Garden Guide for Keto Dieters

Learn how to order low carb Olive Garden like an expert.

See real-life photos of my low carb Olive Garden orders.

Re-create low carb versions of your favorite Olive Garden entrees. This is the perfect resource if you’re planning a keto Olive Garden order as well.

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Olive Garden Keto Menu

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What To Order

I’ve organized these recommendations in order of my favorites.  I placed these orders via their call-in takeout service. Make sure to ask for no chocolate mints and no breadsticks so you don’t have to face those temptations when you get home.

1. Create Your Own Pasta – Meatball & Half Serving of Creamy Pesto (Sub Garden Veggies for Noodles)

This is an advanced order that might get eye rolls and weird pauses from your waiter (like the ones I got when calling this order in), but if you’re a confident and experienced low carb orderer, then give it a shot.

Comes with three meatballs, Olive Garden’s garden veggies, and their creamy pesto sauce. You have to do some special requests to lower the carbs, but it’s worth it.

Low Carb Olive Garden Meatballs and Veggies
Low Carb Olive Garden Meatballs and Veggies
  • Order it low carb: “I’ve got a unique request, can I do a Create Your Own Pasta, but sub the noodles out for your garden veggie? Then for the sauce, can I get the creamy pesto sauce but can I also request half as much sauce as y’all usually put on the pasta? Then top it with 3 meatballs.”
  • Macros: 920 calories, 81g fat, 18g carbs, 13g net carbs, 5g fiber, 4g sugar, 32g protein

This meat ball dish was an indulgent and delicious entree that gives you that “Olive Garden” experience that I assumed I’d be deprived of. On to the next…

2. Chicken Margherita

This one comes low carb as is. Way to go Olive Garden :). Comes with grilled chicken breast topped with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil pesto and a lemon garlic sauce. Includes a side of parmesan-crusted zucchini which are also pretty low carb.

Low Carb Olive Garden Chicken Margherita
Low Carb Olive Garden Chicken Margherita
  • Order it low carb: “Chicken Margherita please.”
  • Macros (Lunch Portion Shown): 370 calories, 22g fat, 8g carbs, 6g net carbs, 2g fiber, 3g sugar, 37g protein.
  • Macros (Dinner Portion): 590 calories, 32g, 9g carbs, 6g net carbs, 3g fiber, 4g sugar, 69g protein

The Chicken Margherita won my award for the entree I was least excited to order, but was most pleasantly surprised by.

3. Stuffed Chicken Marsala

By requesting they sub mashed potatoes for a side of broccoli, you can make the Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Marsala into a keto friendly entree. Comes with grilled chicken breasts in a creamy marsala wine sauce (I assume this is where most of the carbs are) with mushrooms, then lightly stuffed with Italian cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes.

I would have enjoyed this dish even more if it had been more decadently stuffed with cheese like the pictures online.

This entree is a little high on the protein ratio, so you may want to get a side of butter to add to it.

Here’s what I got.

Low Carb Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Marsala
Low Carb Olive Garden Stuffed Chicken Marsala
  • Order it low carb: “Stuffed Chicken Marsala please. Can I sub broccoli for the mashed potatoes?”
  • Estimated Macros (If You Eat The Broccoli): 835 calories, 50g fat, 23g carbs, 17g net carbs, 6g fiber, 8g sugar, 75g protein.
  • Estimated Macros (If You Don’t Eat The Broccoli): 800 calories, 50g fats, 16g carbs, 14g net carbs, 2g fiber, 5g sugar, 71 protein.

I must say…I was impressed by how tender the chicken was in this dish. Definitely exceeded my expectations. And I’m allergic to mushrooms so I couldn’t eat one of the featured parts of the dish. You might like it even more than I did.

4. Fettuccine Alfredo (Garden Veggies Subbed for Noodles) + 3 Italian Sausages.

This order was a little tricky. Which is part of the reason I ranked it fairly low because it’s not a super easy order to make for beginners.

I started off my order like this:

Me: “Ok, this is a little unique, but I’d like to do a ‘Create My Own Pasta‘ and I want to sub in your garden veggies for the noodles as the base in the dish.”

Olive Garden: “Ok, certainly, we can do that!”

Me: “Great, Ok, I want to top it with Italian Sausage.”

Olive Garden: “Ok, sounds good sir, what kind of sauce would you like with it”

Me: “Alfredo sauce please”

Olive Garden: “Sorry sir you can’t use Alfredo Sauce in a create your own pasta dish”

Me thinking to myself: “Why the heck not? That’s dumb.” But before I can complain…

Olive Garden chimes back in: “What I can do is charge you for the Fettucine Alfredo which has Alfredo sauce, then you can sub in your garden veggies for the noodles, and add the Italian sausage for an extra charge.” (so basically we can charge you $5 more for the exact same thing!)

Me: “Ok”

So that’s the roundabout way I got here…

Low Carb Olive Garden Italian Sausage
Low Carb Olive Garden Italian Sausage “Pasta Bowl”
  • Order it low carb: “I’ve got a unique request, can I get a Fettuccine Alfredo, but sub the noodles out for your garden veggies as the base? Then can I add 3 Italian sausages?”
  • Estimated Macros (As Shown): 1180 calories, 102g fat, 14g carbs 12g net carbs, 3g fiber, 7g sugar, 51g protein

This dish tastes pretty good, but their Italian sausage is somewhat dry which is another reason why I didn’t rank it higher.

If you’re not partial to Alfredo sauce, which honestly tastes kinda similar to their Creamy Pesto Sauce to me, then you could order this as a Create Your Own Pasta like this: “I’ve got a unique request, can I get a Create Your Own Pasta, but sub the noodles out for your garden veggies as the base? Then can I add 3 Italian sausages? Then add half a serving of your Creamy Pesto Sauce on top.”

5. Chicken Piccata

Here’s another entree that’s fairly low carb as is. This is perfect if you don’t want to wrangle with the waiter over special requests.

Comes with grilled chicken topped with a lemon garlic butter sauce, sun-dried tomatoes and capers. Served with parmesan-crusted zucchini.

It’s a little light on fat, so you may want to ask for a side of butter to increase calories and fat.

Low Carb Olive Garden Chicken Piccata
Low Carb Olive Garden Chicken Piccata
  • Order it low carb: “Chicken Piccata please”
  • Macros (Lunch Portion): 350 calories, 21g fat, 11g carbs, 9g net carbs, 2g fiber, 3g sugar, 33g protein.
  • Macros (Dinner Portion Shown) 500 calories, 24g fat, 11g carbs, 8g net carbs, 3g fiber, 4g sugar, 61g protein.

While this is rated 5th on my list, it’s still pretty tasty as Olive Garden does a surprisingly good job with all their chicken entrees.

6. Salmon Piccata

Because fish always has to come last on my list unless it’s fried. This wasn’t that bad honestly. I just can’t get that excited about salmon, especially since it’s no longer a celebrated health food for me as a keto eater. It’s just another food with not quite enough fat in it.

But, this dish is fine for what it is and it’s low carb as is, which is nice.

Low Carb Olive Garden Salmon Piccata
Low Carb Olive Garden Salmon Piccata
  • Order it low carb: “Salmon Piccata please.”
  • Macros: 590 calories, 40g fat, 12g carbs, 10g net carbs, 2g fiber, 3g sugar, 45g protein
  1.  

What To Avoid

Here’s a few things to avoid at Olive Garden. They seem like they might be low carb, but aren’t.

Appetizers to avoid:

  • Calamari  – 34g carbs
  • Five Italian Cheese Fonduta (comes w bread) – 41g carbs
  • Fried Mozzarella – 20g carbs
  • Shrimp Scampi Fritta –  36g carbs
  • Spinach Artichoke Dip – 50g carbs

Sure, you can probably nibble on the above if it’s brought out for the table, but don’t try to turn one of those appetizers into a meal or you’ll exceed your carb limit for the day.

Create Your Own Pasta ingredients to avoid 

  • Five Cheese Marinara Sauce – 22g carbs
  • Traditional Marinara – 22g carbs
  • Traditional Meat Sauce – 19g carbs
  • Crispy Chicken Fritta – 14g carbs

What Else To Order

There’s a few more low carb things you can get on the menu. I’ve got them captured in the Olive Garden low carb menu I’ve created:

 

  Download My Personal Olive Garden Menu

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Olive Garden Keto Menu

Save hours of research...Download my Menu with Macros Included.

It will help you order low carb everytime you go!
Send me the menu >
Made with ❤️ by Mr Skinny Pants

What’s Next

My next low carb fast food guide should be out soon.

I’m visiting all the top 30 fast food chains and doing reviews of all their low carb options.

Subscribe here to get it for free:

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And you’ll get some simple low carb recipes and other tips from me for all the times you’re not eating in a fast food joint :).

Cheers,
Mr. SkinnyPants

23 thoughts on “Low Carb Olive Garden Guide for Keto Dieters”

  1. Thank you, Ryan, for your continued sharing of the keto journey. I look forward to reading your information, every time I receive your email, more than any other I read, and I must belong to 6 Keto Facebook groups and 10 email lists! I carry your hard copy guide to low carb eating at fast food restaurants in the car with me (although I rarely eat fast food).
    Now if my kids want to go to Olive Garden, I’ll know what to order! Thank you!

    Reply
  2. I have a granddaughter who loves Olive Garden and wants to go eat there, but I wouldn’t take her bc I’m on this low carb diet and cannot have pasta! After seeing what to order, I will take her to eat there. Thank you

    Reply
  3. Thanks Ryan, you’re awesome! I went to OG and the best I could do was, “May I have the following sides? shrimp, sausage, broccoli, zucchini and can you top that with your Gorgonzola sauce? What? No Gorgonzola sauce? That was only a promotional item? Hang on, I need to check your website, can you come back to me?

    Reply
  4. Thats,awesome are you sure the meatballs weren’t made with a bread crumb mixture? I’m curious,what they use as a binder.

    Reply
  5. Thanks. …had dinner with the ladies tonight…Chicken Margarita. ..delicious ..salad first. ..hold the Crutons …oil and vinegar on the side…only ate half of the dinner entre…
    Lunch tomorrow for the rest….perfect …

    Reply
  6. I just found your website…. THANK YOU I love all your blog posts! You are awesome! 🙂 So much great information and actually makes me excited to stick with keto.

    Reply
  7. I always order Olive Garden’s Grilled Chicken Alfredo over their broccoli instead of the fettuccine noodles. Yummy!

    Reply
  8. I love Mr Skinny Pants and his menus have helped me a lot!
    But may I make a suggestion?
    It’s time to update some of these. Specifically, Olive Garden, please?
    Grandchild had a birthday earlier this month and I went in knowing what I wanted to order and guess what? NO ZUCCHINI! 🙁
    NO CHICKEN PICATTA! 🙁
    I went back to your website and the date is 2018.
    So yes, please update your low-carb options. 🙂

    Reply

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