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By Suzanne Blake
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Olive Garden announced the launch of its Calabrian Steak and Shrimp Bucatini that hit restaurants this week.
The new entrée combines grilled sirloin tips, shrimp and bucatini pasta tossed in a Calabrian spicy cream sauce and is available at Olive Garden locations across the United States as of Monday.
This move aligns with Olive Garden's strategy of introducing innovative menu items while maintaining its roster of Italian-American classics. The new dish features chilis sourced from Calabria, Italy, and is expected to remain on menus until August 25.
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Why It Matters
Olive Garden's latest menu addition comes following a period when many restaurants competed for diners amid rising food prices and shifting consumer preferences.
Bucatini, a thick pasta with a distinctive hollow center, enables the kitchen to deliver richer, sauce-heavy dishes and potentially attract regular guests seeking variety.
With American consumers facing inflation at restaurants, new offerings such as the Calabrian Steak and Shrimp Bucatini and Olive Garden's new spicy Three-Meat Sauce reflect broader industry trends of emphasizing value and excitement to retain customer loyalty.
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What To Know
Olive Garden has been on an innovation kick, offering several new additions to its menu:
- Calabrian Steak and Shrimp Bucatini: This entrée mixes grilled sirloin and shrimp with Olive Garden's new bucatini. The dish is finished with a decadent, spicy cream sauce formulated with Calabrian chilis, garlic, butter, white wine, cream and marinara. Meanwhile, spinach and tomatoes add texture and flavor balance.
- Bucatini Pasta: The chain's addition of bucatini offers a new noodle texture, with its hollow center providing a different eating experience. It will be available through August 25.
- Spicy Three-Meat Sauce: Diners can also opt for a new sauce made with cherry and red bell peppers, pepperoni, red wine, garlic, chili flakes and Olive Garden's classic meat sauce. It can be ordered on the Create Your Own Pasta menu section.
Currently, the Calabrian Steak and Shrimp Bucatini is priced at roughly $24.
Nutritionally, the pasta dish packs 1,220 calories per entree, with 65 grams of fat, 360 milligrams of cholesterol, 2,960 milligrams of sodium, 82 grams of carbohydrates and 78 grams of protein
Newsweek reached out to Olive Garden for comment via email.
Earlier this year, Olive Garden brought back Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo and Stuffed Chicken Marsala.
Olive Garden, which opened in 1982 and is headquartered in Orlando, operates roughly 900 restaurants nationwide. By 2014, Olive Garden was dealing with a drop in profits and made significant changes to its menu, added online and to go ordering and remodeled its restaurants in order to remain attractive to customers.
In 2023, Olive Garden brought in $5 billion in yearly sales for the first time. And in June of this year, same-store sales were up 6.9 percent.
What People Are Saying
One Olive Garden employee, @savvy_up, on Instagram: "Bucatini w spicy 3 meat sauce! Very delicious! I highly recommend it! We got to sample it when it first before we released it to the public."
Customer @yelettaw, on Instagram: "This is the BEST DISH!! I want it to stay forever🔥🔥❤️❤️."
What Happens Next
The new menu items will be available until August 25. The success of the Calabrian Steak and Shrimp Bucatini, along with the new spicy sauce, will likely inform future menu decisions as the chain continues adapting to guest preferences and industry trends.
Correction 7/11/25, 12:47 p.m. ET: The story was corrected to reflect that Calabrian Steak and Shrimp Bucatini was not Olive Garden's first new pasta dish in several years.
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