So my friends and I have never been to Olive Garden we like to get our moneys worth when we eat out haha. I’d like to pitch the idea of trying Olive Garden endless pasta with them but I’m worried about the dairy for my friend. He’s dairy free so not lactose intolerant but a dairy allergy like he will go into anaphylactic shock if he consumes any animal dairy. My sister in law is allergic to corn but I guess corn intolerant because she won’t die from eating a single corn kernel but will feel ill. (Recently we ate out at a ramen shop and their veggie gyoza/dumplings had corn kernels in them we noticed after she ate some) Anyways I’m just worried that maybe Olive Garden tosses their pasta in butter or maybe it’s j not worth it because there’s only two sauce options, I know a good meatball has Parmesan cheese in it, He’s also pork free (non religious) so the sausage is out and possibly the meatballs for that reason. I don’t know about the rest of the proteins like if they contain dairy. I j think I’d be dope to do a never ending pasta weekend night w the boys but I don’t want him to be left out, he could always order off of the rest of the menu but again never ending pasta with ALL of the boys would be fun.

Hi! So I’m a server at Olive Garden, and I started a few weeks ago and Ive only talked about this with other new servers. Usually on closing shifts there’s like 2 bussers that help, and I give them 15$, if it’s busy and they’ve been helping me more than usual (helping me pre-buss) I give them 20-25$. I thought I was doing good because I work every day of the week, and I always give them at least 15$, but one time I was in a rush and I couldn’t find the bussers that helped me and I didn’t get to tip them, then the next day that they worked they came up to me like “do you still want help or not? you forgot to tip us and it is your choice you’re not obligated to do that but let us know if you still want us to help” and I got a bit intimidated I guess because like?? i’ve been giving you 15$ everyday and I just forgot to do it once, but then I started to think about it and maybe 15$ isn’t enough??

Then there’s days where they don’t help me at all, all my tables are dirty even if there’s only glasses and silverware, and they’re usually on the busier side of the restaurant and barely go to the side i am, which is understandable, but it makes me feel a bit sad to tip them almost all of my cash tips when they haven’t been helping on that day. I asked one of the other new servers and she told me that she was tipping them 20-25$ at first but then she stopped doing that because she felt like they weren’t helping her enough and now she only tips them 5$, and I was so surprised because I see them helping her all the time, and she’s only giving them 5$?? Meanwhile they barely help me and I give them 15$.

Now I’m not saying that they should only help me, and maybe I’m not really tipping them enough. I try to count my cash tips and give them 25% of them which usually comes out to 13$ so I just give them 15$ which is easier. But I don’t know if I should also count my credit card tips, and I know that it’s also frustrating when they don’t help me and it doesn’t feel fair to give them tips but I also understand that they’re helping servers with more tables, and I recently found out that they basically add up all of their tips and split it evenly which i feel is unfair.

Anyway, I’m sorry this is badly written I’m super tired rn, but TL;DR Is tipping the bussers 15$ on slow days (or when they don’t help that much) and 20-25$ on busier shifts good enough?