$9.95 Never Ending Pasta Bowl & $14.99 Endless Shrimp

It’s that time of year again –Never Ending Pasta Bowl season at Olive Garden! Sure, pasta is easy to make at home but Olive Garden has the best Alfredo sauce, ever. I wouldn’t miss a chance to eat a plate {or two} of my favorite pasta dish, with no effort on my part!

Now in it’s 17th year, the Never Ending Pasta Bowl is a seasonal favorite that allows you to create your own pastas dish, then have unlimited bowls along with unlimited soup or unlimited salad and breadsticks. At just $9.95 per person, the promotion is a  pretty good deal, if you ask me.

We visited Olive Garden this past Saturday, after a night out at the movies with the family. Going to Olive Garden for the seasonal special makes sense when you have 5 hungry people! I’m not so sure eating a ton of pasta at 9:30 in the evening was the BEST idea, but it sure was delicious, plus we missed the usual pasta-lovin’ crowd! Everyone was able to pick their favorite combination and every combo was delicious!

(August 13 – October 7) $9.95 Never Ending Pasta Bowl Options – over 30 combinations!

 

To start, choose a pasta from six classic shapes:

• Spaghetti • Fettucini • Whole Wheat Linguini • Penne • Linguinni  • Angel Hair •

 

Then, pick one of the five sauces:

• New Chianti Three Meat • Classic Alfredo • Marinara • Meat Sauce • Five Cheese Marinara •

 

Finally, add an optional choice of an unlimited extra for $2.95:

• Meatballs • Sausage • Roasted Chicken •

While we waited for our pasta to arrive, we enjoyed the large bowl of tossed salad, it was served family style with Italian dressing and freshly grated Parmesan. We all love the warm bread sticks, they are so good! We had to be careful not to fill up on them before the pasta arrived! My favorite is the Penne pasta with Classic Alfredo sauce, topped with roasted chicken and freshly grated Parmesan cheese — oh was it ever good!

My daughter gets the same dish but with Fettucini noodles, which is also Olive Garden’s most popular combination. The meatballs that my son and hubby ordered on their spaghetti and marinara were HUGE! T’s girlfriend had  a big plate of Angel hair with Alfredo, she said it was delicious. All of the kids gave a big thumbs up to the Wild Berry Smoothies they ordered.

A word of warning — the Never Ending Pasta Bowl special is popular, very popular! Be prepared to wait a few minutes before being seated. We had only a 10 minute wait at our last visit, which was fine. When we tried to go over Labor Day Weekend, the wait was 45 minutes! I’m sure this had to do with it being a holiday weekend as well, just something to be aware of! There were people lined up outside, inside and sitting in cars! It’s that good! 

If you’re not a huge pasta fan, how about some shrimp? Or, more importantly — Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster! The Endless Shrimp promotion is now in it’s 13th year! Last year alone, there were 373 million individual shrimp served to the 6.6 million guests who visited a Red Lobster for the Endless Shrimp. That is a LOT of shrimp! My son and I could do some damage to a few plates of shrimp!

Along with the endless plates of shrimp, the meal also comes with a choice of salad and unlimited Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Oh, those biscuits! I love them!

(August 13 – November 4) $14.99 Endless Shrimp options include:

 • Teriyaki • Parmesan Crusted • Garlic Shrimp Scampi • Shrimp Linguini Alfredo • Hand-Breaded Shrimp • 

Where to buy and how to stay in touch!

Use the Olive Garden locator or the Red Lobster locator to find a participating restaurant near you. To keep up to date with promotions like this one, check out the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant Facebook page and the Red Lobster Facebook page. You can also find @olivegarden and @redlobster on Twitter.

Coupon Alert!

Now through September 16th at Olive Garden, purchase an adult entrée and you’ll receive a kid’s meal for FREE. Print the free kid’s meal coupon and go celebrate not having to cook, WooHoo! Limit of two kid’s meals from the kid’s menu per 2 adult entrees each visit. Valid in U.S. and Canada for kids ages 12 and under.

Win a $30 Red Lobster Gift Card!

I’ve got the perfect date night for you right here! One lucky reader is going to win a $30 Red Lobster card! Use it to sample the Endless Shrimp, or any other favorite dish. Take someone special with you and enjoy!

Entry is super easy using the Rafflecopter form below. Just complete the first mandatory entry to open up a bunch of optional extra entries! Giveaway is open to U.S. ages 18+ only and will end on September 28th 2012 at 12:01am est. Please read the official rules at the bottom of the Rafflecopter form.

a Rafflecopter giveaway