Olive Garden says it’s testing smaller portions with lower prices

Olive Garden has begun experimenting with a “lighter portion” section of its menu, the restaurant’s parent chain announced in an earnings call Thursday.

The new menu section offers reduced portions on seven of Olive Garden’s existing entrees at a reduced price in an attempt to drive sales growth, Darden Restaurants’ CEO and president Rick Cardenas said on the call.

While the Italian casual dining chain is offering reduced amounts on some of its entrees, the full-size portions are unaffected.

The smaller portions also still come with Olive Garden’s hallmark unlimited breadsticks and unlimited soup or salad.

Currently, 40% of Olive Garden locations across the country have been testing the reduced portion offerings at dinner servings and all day on weekends. During the call, Cardenas did not express an intention to expand the experiment to more locations.

Cardenas told investors that the new initiative still offers “abundant portion sizes” but also adds “price breadth to the menu so consumers can choose.”

He said the move is part an effort to emphasize long-term growth.

“One of the ways we’re doing this at Olive Garden is by strengthening affordability on the menu to give guests more variety at approachable price points.”

Cardenas said that the restaurant locations offering reduced-size portions reported affordability scores rose by 15% and customers had high satisfaction with portion size.

The same restaurant sales at those locations increased by nearly 6% and traffic increased by nearly 3%, according to Cardenas.

Olive Garden currently has more than 900 restaurants and more than 99,000 employees, according to its website.