Olive Garden’s creative new spaghetti pies and breadstick sandwiches explain a great deal as to why Darden’s Olive Garden chain has been on the comeback trail. In short, they both speak to a brand – which is Darden’s largest at over 840 locations — that is being more innovative and offering more value just a few years removed from an ugly battle with an activist investor that led to the removal of the entire board. TheStreet sampled the company’s latest creations at an Olive Garden location in the heart of New York City, Times Square. The spaghetti pies comes in two variations, one with red sauce and meatballs and the other with creamy Alfredo sauce topped with grilled chicken. The pies are made of spaghetti as the name suggests, and held together with cheese and cream. Olive Garden used its pot pie crust to give the entire dish its structure. TheStreet found each dish to be hearty, easily shareable among groups and worth the price of about $12.99. Is it Italian food pulled straight from a grandmother’s house in Italy? Not exactly. But, Olive Garden delivered with the pies, and one could easily notice the improved ingredient quality and food presentation relative to when the chain was struggling several years ago. If anything, Olive Garden needs to work a bit on the grilled chicken and meatballs that accompany the respective pies – each lacked a fresh authentic taste. Meanwhile, Olive Garden has extended its popular breadstick sandwich platform that successfully debuted last year by introducing spicy chicken and eggplant parmigiana variants this year. We were unimpressed with the spicy chicken sandwich, which looked and tasted similar to a buffalo chicken sandwich and left us wondering why this was on the more focused Olive Garden menu. The eggplant parmigiana was pretty solid. Both were on the greasy side, however, likely reflecting the butter being used on the breadsticks. For $9.99 though, which included some surprisingly killer garlic French fries, again worth the money. Olive Garden’s focus on innovation and affordability has led consumers to return to the brand in a big way. The chain has cooked up six straight quarters of same-store sales growth, no small achievement in the sluggish casual dining sector. Same-store sales for Olive Garden rose 6.8% in the most recent quarter, the fast growth among Darden’s portfolio of brands that also include Capital Grille and Longhorn Steakhouse. The comeback of Olive Garden over the past year and a half has helped fuel Darden’s stock. Shares of the restaurant operator have gained about 35% during the last two years, outperforming the S&P 500’s 9% gain. TheStreet’s Brian Sozzi reports from New York.
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