Twelve people can eat Olive Garden’s Lasagna Classico for $59.99, or about $5 a head, on the catering menu one Sioux Falls, South Dakota, restaurant lists on ezCater this November. Feed the same twelve from Shrimp Alfredo pans and the food alone costs $203.37, closer to $17 each. Most catering orders land between those poles: roughly $9 to $22 per person before delivery and tax, and Olive Garden’s own catering page advertises business catering “starting at $12 per person.”
That spread is the useful part. Olive Garden sells catering in four distinct formats, and each rung up the ladder buys something different: more choice, a dessert, less work. Below we climb it one rung at a time for 2027 planning, using that single restaurant’s live menu so the numbers can be compared fairly, and we show the point where spending more stops feeding anyone better.
The ladder at a glance, priced from one restaurant’s menu
Every price here comes from the Sioux Falls location’s ezCater listing in November 2026. Your restaurant will differ by a few dollars (more on that below), but the gaps between rungs hold up across the menus we checked.
| Rung | What you order | Menu price | Food cost per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Big-batch pan | Lasagna Classico for 12 | $59.99 | About $5.00 |
| 2. Single pans | One pasta pan (serves 5) plus a share of Jumbo House Salad with breadsticks | $44.99 to $69.99 per pan; salad $23.99 (serves 6) | About $13 to $18 |
| 3. Pasta station | Create-Your-Own Pasta Station: 2 pastas, 3 sauces, 3 toppings, salad, breadsticks | $140 per 10 guests | $14.00 |
| 4. Meal combination | Chicken Parmigiana or Lasagna Combination for 10 | $206.50 | About $20.65 |
| Extras | Desserts, gallon drinks, appetizers | $4.99 to $37.99 each | Adds $3 to $8 |
Rung one: the $60 lasagna that feeds a dozen
The cheapest serious way to feed a group from Olive Garden is the large Lasagna Classico pan, listed at $59.99 for 12 in Sioux Falls. Third-party price checks from ZeroCater and ezCater’s own catering blog put the same pan at $61.99 to $62.99 elsewhere, still near $5 a serving. A smaller version for six runs about $50, which makes the big pan twice the food for $10 more.
Pair it with Jumbo House Salad, which comes with a dozen breadsticks for $23.99 and serves six, and a 20-person lunch costs under $200 in food. The trade-offs are plain. Everyone eats the same thing, vegetarians need their own pan, and the lasagna needs about four hours of notice, according to the listing. For a team lunch or a youth sports banquet, nobody will mind.
Rung two: single pans, where the entrée name drives the price
Olive Garden’s individual catering pans are sized for four to six people, by the company’s own description; the ezCater listing rounds that to five. That is where the ladder gets steep, because the price of a pan tracks the protein, not the quantity.
- Meatless basics, $44.99 to $48.49: Spaghetti with marinara or meat sauce, Eggplant Parmigiana, Fettuccine Alfredo, Five-Cheese Ziti al Forno and cheese ravioli. About $9 to $9.70 a serving.
- Chicken, $57.99 to $62.99: Chicken Parmigiana, Chicken Scampi and Chicken Alfredo. About $11.60 to $12.60 a serving.
- Seafood and stuffed pasta, $61.79 to $69.99: Shrimp Scampi, Shrimp Alfredo, Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo and Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara. Up to about $14 a serving.
Add roughly $4 a person for salad and breadsticks and a pan-by-pan order with chicken or shrimp lands at $16 to $18 a head, more than the pasta station on the next rung. Mixing pans makes sense when guests want specific dishes or you are feeding fewer than ten. Above that, you are mostly paying for menu names.
Portion sizes are the other judgment call. People who have ordered report both outcomes: a WeddingWire commenter whose office catered for 50 said food ran out with only 25 to 30 people eating, while Olive Garden fans on Reddit say a four-to-six pan comfortably feeds six. Our rule: count five adults per pan when pasta is the whole meal, six when there is salad, soup or an appetizer alongside.
Rung three: the pasta station, the best-value rung for most groups
Olive Garden says the Create-Your-Own Pasta Station serves multiples of 10 and starts at $13.50 per person. On the Sioux Falls menu it is $140 for 10; ZeroCater and ezCater’s blog report $145. For that, guests choose from two pastas, three sauces and three toppings, with house salad and breadsticks included, so the side dishes you were buying separately on rung two are already in the price.
The format solves the problem that makes single pans expensive. A sample build from ezCater’s guide pairs spaghetti and fettuccine with Alfredo, meat sauce and marinara, then grilled chicken, meatballs and Italian sausage on the side. Vegetarians, meat eaters and picky kids all eat from the same $14 setup. ZeroCater’s guide notes a gluten-sensitive pasta among the choices, too. The catch is scale: it comes only in blocks of 10, so a group of 13 pays for 20 or tops up with a single pan.
Rung four: meal combinations, and where more money stops buying more
Meal Combinations are Olive Garden’s packaged dinners. The official page says each serves 8 to 14 people and starts at $13.75 per person; the Sioux Falls listing prices the Chicken Parmigiana and Lasagna versions at $206.50 for 10, and ezCater’s blog cites $224. CaterCow and ZeroCater describe each as one entrée with house salad, breadsticks and a dessert. Check your restaurant’s listing for the exact contents, since the official page does not itemize them.
So is the jump from $14 to about $21 a head worth it? Only if you would have bought dessert anyway. This hypothetical 20-person order, priced from the same Sioux Falls menu with the standard 10% delivery fee, shows why:
| 20-person order (example) | Food | With 10% delivery fee | Per person | Dessert? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 large lasagnas, 3 jumbo salads, extra breadsticks | $196.44 | $216.08 | $10.80 | No |
| Pasta station for 20 | $280.00 | $308.00 | $15.40 | No |
| Four mixed chicken and shrimp pans, 3 jumbo salads, extra breadsticks | $329.22 | $362.14 | $18.11 | No |
| Two Chicken Parmigiana Combinations | $413.00 | $454.30 | $22.72 | Yes |
| Pasta station for 20 plus four $37.99 desserts | $431.96 | $475.16 | $23.76 | Yes |
Read the bottom rows together. Once dessert is on the list, the combinations come out slightly cheaper than building the same meal yourself. Without dessert, the pasta station feeds the room for about $7 less per person. And the mixed-pan order in the middle is the weakest value on the board: more money than the pasta station, less choice per guest, no dessert.
Pickup or delivery: the gap between menu price and final bill
Olive Garden’s catering page spells out the delivery terms: a $100 minimum before tax and a fee of 10% on the first $500, then 5% on every dollar after that. A $1,000 order pays $75 in delivery, not $100. Here is how the two options compare.
Carside pickup
- No delivery fee and, per CaterCow and ZeroCater, no order minimum
- You haul the pans and set up the table yourself
- Best for orders under about $150 and home parties
Delivery
- 10% fee up to $500, then 5%; $100 minimum
- Setup included for business deliveries; homes usually get a drop-off, CaterCow reports
- A complimentary chafing kit is available on request, Olive Garden says
Two costs catch people off guard. Sales tax applies to the whole order. And the delivery fee is not presented as a tip on Olive Garden’s page; CaterCow budgets an extra 10% for the driver in its own estimates and lands at about $17 to $18 a person for a typical order once everything is in. Delivery also usually covers only about 10 miles from the restaurant, both third-party guides say, so check the address before you build a cart.
Feeding 60 at a graduation party or backyard wedding
At party scale the math still favors the pasta station. Six stations for 60 guests come to $840 on the Sioux Falls menu, and $924 with the delivery fee. That price is why casual couples keep asking about Olive Garden on wedding forums.
What the price does not include matters more at 60 than at 20. Olive Garden catering is drop-off food: CaterCow notes there are no servers, so someone has to refill pans, keep Sterno lit and clear plates. In a 2022 WeddingWire thread about feeding 65, a commenter estimated delivery fees and tips would add $300 to $400 to an $800 food order, and several warned to over-order. For anything past 100 guests, ZeroCater advises calling the restaurant rather than ordering online, and we would add a request for the manager to confirm pan counts in writing.
Why your local menu will not match ours, and what 2027 may bring
Olive Garden does not publish one national catering price list. Its catering page footnotes that “prices vary in certain locations,” and the gaps are real: Chicken Alfredo is $62.99 a pan in Sioux Falls and $66.99 in the menu ezCater’s blog quoted; desserts run $37.99 there against $40.49 in that listing. Some restaurants set a $75 delivery minimum instead of $100, ZeroCater and CaterCow found, and CaterCow saw a New York location charging a 15% fee on orders under $500. In the menus we compared, the same item rarely differed by more than about 7%, but always price the cart at your own restaurant before promising a budget.
On 2027, nothing specific to catering has been announced. Darden, Olive Garden’s parent, told investors this fall that menu pricing across its restaurants was running about 3.7% above a year earlier and should ease to the low-to-mid 2% range by the spring quarter, according to an earnings summary from Quartr. If that holds, a $140 pasta station would drift toward roughly $143 to $145 over the next year, which is noise next to the choice of rung.
Catering questions the order form does not answer
Where can I see the Olive Garden catering menu with prices and pictures?
Pick your restaurant on Olive Garden’s catering site or its ezCater store page. Both show photos and that location’s current prices; the official site’s general pages show only starting prices, because each restaurant sets its own.
Can I order Olive Garden catering for the same day?
Not online. Olive Garden asks for catering delivery orders by 5 p.m. the day before. For a small same-day need, calling the restaurant for a carside pickup order may work, though some pans such as lasagna need about four hours of notice.
What comes with a catering delivery?
Third-party guides list plates, napkins, serving and eating utensils, table covers and grated cheese, and Olive Garden offers a complimentary chafing kit on request with delivery. Confirm with your restaurant when you order.
Can I cancel or change a catering order?
On the ezCater listing we reviewed, changes are due 24 business hours before the event and cancellations within two hours of the event time are charged in full. Policies can differ by location and ordering channel.
Does Olive Garden offer boxed lunches for catering?
Not as a standard catering item. CaterCow reports Olive Garden does not offer individually boxed meals, and none of the menus we checked listed them, so plan on shared pans and a buffet line.
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- Wedding venue prices compared by cost per guest
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Ordering for a Friday lunch: the countdown
- Monday: Get a firm headcount and pick your rung. Under 10 people, single pans; 10 or more with no dessert, the pasta station; dessert wanted, a meal combination.
- Tuesday: Price the cart at your own restaurant, including the delivery fee and tax, and confirm the address is inside its delivery area.
- Wednesday: Add one pan or salad beyond your count if the group skews hungry, and request the chafing kit if you want the food kept hot.
- Thursday by 5 p.m.: Place the order; that is Olive Garden’s cutoff for next-day delivery. Changes after Thursday may not be possible.
- Friday: Have someone meet the driver, check the order against the receipt and keep cash or a card handy for the tip.
Pricing method: prices were researched in November 2026 for 2027 planning and may change. Item prices come from one Olive Garden restaurant’s ezCater catering listing (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), with comparisons from Olive Garden’s catering page and catering guides published by ezCater, ZeroCater and CaterCow in 2026. Prices and policies vary by location. This site is not affiliated with Olive Garden or Darden Restaurants. See our disclaimer.
