Olive Garden is a chain restaurant that specializes in Italian-inspired dishes. They serve endless breadsticks and a lot of starchy pasta dishes that aren’t keto-friendly.
Eating keto at Olive Garden isn’t so hard, you can keep it low-carb here by opting for a slice of meat (or fish) and vegetable dish with a tomato or cheese sauce. Enjoy a side salad instead of pasta or breadsticks as your side dish.
Here are the lowest carb dishes you can order at Olive Garden in order from the lowest carb to highest, according to the nutrition information.
Grilled Chicken and Steamed Broccoli
A side of grilled chicken breast contains 150 calories, 5 grams of fat, <1 gram of carbs, <1 gram of fiber, and 27 grams of protein.
Order this with a side of steamed broccoli, which contains 35 calories, 0 grams of fat, 7 grams of carbs (3 grams net carbs), 4 grams of fiber, and 4 grams of protein.
If you order these together, you’ll have a meal with around 3 or 4 grams of net carbs. You can even ask for two sides of chicken to bump up the calories.
How to order: ask for a side of grilled chicken (or steak) and a side of steamed broccoli.
Herb Grilled Salmon
This dish features a grilled salmon fillet topped with garlic herb butter. It’s served with a side of parmesan garlic broccoli. In fact, this dish is very popular and you can order at any Italian restaurants.
It contains 460 calories, 29 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbs (4 grams of net carbs), 5 grams of fiber, and 45 grams of protein.
How to order: To be true to the low carb diet, ask for the herb grilled salmon fillet.
House Salad Without Croutons
Olive Garden doesn’t offer salad entrees like some restaurants do. However, you can get creative and create your own.
Order a house salad without croutons. This will contain 110 calories, 8 grams of fat, 7 grams of carbs (5 grams net carbs), 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.
From here, you can order a side of the meat of your choice, such as grilled chicken or steak. Opt for a low-carb dressing, such as ranch, Caesar, or olive oil and vinegar.
How to order: ask for a house salad without croutons with a side order of grilled meat. Ask for ranch, Caesar dressing, or oil and vinegar as your dressing instead of Italian.
Salmon Piccata
This dish comes with grilled salmon topped with lemon garlic butter sauce, capers, and sun-dried tomatoes with a side of parmesan-crusted zucchini.
The lunch portion contains 360 calories, 21 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbs (9 grams net carbs), 2 grams of fiber, and 32 grams of protein.
The dinner size contains 510 calories, 26 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbs (9 grams net carbs), 3 grams of fiber, and 59 grams of protein.
How to order: ask for a lunch or dinner size of the salmon piccata.
Grilled Chicken Margherita
The grilled chicken margherita comes with two grilled chicken breasts topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil pesto, and a lemon garlic sauce. It’s served with parmesan-crusted zucchini.
A lunch size portion contains 380 calories, 23 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbs (8 grams net carbs), 2 grams of fiber, and 35 grams of protein.
The dinner portion contains 550 calories, 29 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbs (8 grams net carbs), 4 grams of fiber, and 63 grams of protein.
How to order: ask for a lunch or dinner size chicken margarita. Sub out the parmesan-crusted zucchini for steamed broccoli to save carbs.
Zoodles with Alfredo Sauce
So few restaurants offer options to eat keto so easily! A plain order of zoodles contains 40 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 7 grams of carbs (5 grams net carbs), 2 grams of fiber, and 3 grams of protein.
A side order of alfredo sauce contains 440 calories, 43 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbs, and 8 grams of protein.
If you order the two together, you’d get a dish with 480 calories and 10 grams of net carbs.
How to order: ask for plain zoodles with a side of alfredo sauce.
Zuppa Toscana
Most of the soups at Olive Garden contains pasta. The Zuppa Toscana soup does not.
It contains spicy Italian sausage, kale, and russet potatoes in a cream-based broth.
One bowl contains 220 calories, 15 grams of fat, 15 grams of carbs (13 grams net carbs), 2 grams of fiber, and 7 grams of protein.
How to order: ask for a bowl of Zuppa Toscana soup. Hold any breadsticks or crackers that come with the soup. Order a side of their famous house salad to make the ultimate keto friendly meal.
Tuscan Sirloin
The Tuscan sirloin from the gluten-sensitive menu comes with a 6 ounces sirloin steak topped with herb garlic butter, steamed broccoli, and mashed potatoes.
It contains 420 calories, 16 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbs (19 grams net carbs), 7 grams of fiber, and 46 grams of protein.
You can reduce the carbs by asking for no potatoes and double broccoli.
How to order: ask for the 6-ounce Tuscan sirloin with no potatoes and double broccoli.
Zoodles Primavera with Grilled Chicken
You can enjoy almost any traditional pasta dish at Olive Garden as long as you order it with zoodles (zucchini noodles).
The Zoodles Primavera with Grilled Chicken comes with zucchini noodles, a basil cream sauce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and grilled chicken.
It contains 720 calories, 54 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbs (21 grams of net carbs), 6 grams of fiber, and 37 grams of protein.
How to order: you can reduce the carbs in this dish by holding the sauce. Or you could even ask for a plain order of zoodles with grilled chicken and no sauce (except for olive oil) or added vegetables.
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Olive Garden serves spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer with flatbread crisps. It contains 1,100 calories and 70 grams of carbs (62 grams net carbs).
However, you can order the spinach artichoke dip without the bread and use it as a topping for a side of grilled meat. It would taste great with grilled chicken or steak.
How to order: ask for a spinach artichoke dip appetizer minus the breadsticks. Then ask for a side of grilled chicken or steak.
Conclusion
It’s hard to find a dish at Olive Garden that does not contain pasta or bread. We recommend sticking with grilled meat or fish and a side salad or steamed broccoli to keep it low-carb.
Olive Garden has a grilled salmon dish that contains 4 grams of net carbs. You can also order pasta with zucchini noodles instead of traditional noodles.
Avoid starchy sides, such as endless breadsticks and pasta. Stick with water, coffee, or unsweetened tea instead of soda or alcohol.
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*Photo by jetcityimage2 – depositphotos
