To put it lightly, I had a giant obsession with Olive Garden’s Big Italian Classics Giant Meatball with 4-Cheese Manicotti. Olive Garden ran a special promotion lasting until May 27, 2018, and I waited until the very last minute to finally take the plunge and order it. I had trouble deciding because it would weigh both on my healthy eating conscious and my budget.

My pictures do not do this giant meatball with giant 4-cheese manicotti justice. We ordered Olive Garden To-Go, and they had to put this behemoth of a meatball in a separate container because it would not fit in the normal entrée container. This meal includes a 12-ounce giant meatball with two giant 4-cheese manicotti, your choice of salad or soup, and two bread sticks for $18.

While not disappointing in size, this meatball did disappoint in texture and flavor, being so incredibly dense yet lacking any real Italian meatball flavor. On the other hand, we devoured the giant manicotti almost instantly, with the pasta sheets perfectly rolled up with creamy and flavorful ricotta cheese.

While you cannot order at Olive Garden anymore, I enjoyed Olive Garden’s creativity in developing new dishes and trying to reinvent American-Italian food in innovative ways, even if mildly ridiculous.

Olive Garden
2641 N Maize Rd, Wichita, KS 67205
316-722-0991
Monday-Thursday, Sunday 11:00AM-10:00PM
Friday-Saturday 11:00AM-11:00PM