"Olive Garden may not offer the fanciest Italian cuisine money can buy, but its affordability is what so many customers love about it. When you look at the decent menu prices, specials like the Never Ending Pasta Bowl, and those famous unlimited breadsticks, it's easy to see why the chain has a reputation for frugal eats. However, if you want even more bang for your buck, there's an Italian spot that's far cheaper: Fazoli's, a quick-service chain with around 200 locations in the country."
"To find out which of America's major Italian-inspired chains are the most affordable, we looked at menu prices and calculated the mean or average cost of six categories: Appetizers, entrées, side dishes, desserts, drinks, and kids meals. We found that Fazoli's average prices not only beat Olive Garden's in every category, but were also lower than prices at Bertucci's, Maggiano's, the Old Spaghetti Factory, and more."
"Like Olive Garden, Fazoli's is a chain restaurant with a free bread selection, offering unlimited breadsticks with the purchase of a main meal. From there, the two chains deviate. Olive Garden's cheapest entrée, counting pasta, meat, and seafood dishes, is the Spaghetti with Marinara at $12.99. Out of Fazoli's main dishes - counting its "Fan Favorites" entrees, "Signature Bakes," and all pastas - its cheapest item is also Spaghetti with Marinara, but it costs just $8.49."
Menu prices were averaged across six categories: appetizers, entrées, side dishes, desserts, drinks, and kids meals. Fazoli's average prices beat Olive Garden's in every category and were lower than Bertucci's, Maggiano's, the Old Spaghetti Factory, and others. Both Fazoli's and Olive Garden offer unlimited breadsticks with a main meal. Olive Garden's cheapest entrée, Spaghetti with Marinara, costs $12.99 while Fazoli's version costs $8.49. The average entrée price at Olive Garden is $19.09 compared with $10.91 at Fazoli's, an $8.18 difference per plate. Additional category-level differences favor Fazoli's, including desserts.
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