Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Review | Coalition Eats

Today, we are reviewing Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup. “Zuppa Toscana” translates to “Tuscany Soup,” and the dish originates in Tuscany, north-central Italy. Historically, people with limited resources favored Zuppa Toscana, but today a wide variety of diners enjoy it. Zuppa Toscana comes in many variations, and we are not attempting to validate the authenticity of Olive Garden’s version; instead, we will evaluate its overall performance.

Olive Garden is an Italian-themed restaurant founded in 1982 by business partners Blaine Sweatt, Mark Given, Gino DeSantis, and Dave Manuchia as part of General Mills. By 1989, it was up to 145 restaurants. In 1994, General Mills spun off its restaurants into a standalone company called Darden Restaurants. Olive Garden eventually became the world’s largest Italian-themed restaurant chain. It boasts 900+ locations.

The Construction

Although you can place orders with “special instructions,” I believe no customization options are available for the Zuppa Toscana soup. Olive Garden lists Zuppa Toscana as gluten-free.

• Cream Broth (Default)
• Spicy Italian Sausage (Default)
• Kale (Default)
• Sliced Potatoes (Default)
• Romano Cheese (Optional Pack)
• Length: n/a
• Weight: 14 ounces (including plastic bowl)
• Location: Monroe, North Carolina (2 Visits)
• Price: $8.99

Additionally, Romano cheese is offered separately, either served in the restaurant or provided in a packet for take-out. For this assessment, we mixed one packet of the Romano cheese into the soup before serving.

Appearance (*)

The Zuppa Toscana Soup looked appealing, but it didn’t quite match the photo featured on the website. The most noticeable difference was the broth—mine was much lighter in color than what was shown online. While lighting may have played a role, the soup was also thinner in texture than I expected from the website photo. However, the ingredients appeared relatively close to what was advertised.

(*) This is not factored into our overall assessment rating but is included for reference.

The Experience

For the Zuppa Toscana, I used a scoring algorithm slightly modified from the other soups. As usual, I kept the broth as a 4-point component, and intangibles are always 2 points. I didn’t break out the ingredients because there wasn’t a dominant ingredient in the broth. Therefore, I put the kale, sausage, and potato under the 4-point contents category.

• Stock (Broth): 4 points
• Contents: 4 points
• Intangibles: 2 points

Stock/Broth

The Zuppa Toscana has a cream-based broth. Olive Garden hasn’t said much about what goes into this broth, but it definitely has a garlic component and, to a lesser extent, some mild spice. This is not a thick, cream-based broth like a chowder. It is much thinner. The cream foundation is balanced with a savory chicken flavor and just enough spice to satisfy me. If the color is off from the staged picture, so be it. Overall, I really liked this broth.

Score: 3.0 points out of 4.0 points

Contents

We will break down the main ingredients of the Zuppa Toscana one by one:

• Spicy Italian Sausage: To me, this wasn’t a spicy sausage, more of a mild, seasoned sausage. I also prefer my sausage a little more seared before it goes in the soup. The sausage is crumbled into the soup.

• Kale: Kale is bitter, and in this case it adds a vegetal bitterness to the soup.
• Sliced Potatoes: They were soft, but not mushy. The skin was left on them. Normally I don’t like skin on a baked potato because it is too dry, but in the soup, it works fine. It’s a mild, starchy potato with a slight sweetness, but it absorbs flavors from the broth and, to a lesser extent, the sausage and kale, giving it a little more body.

• Romano Cheese: This adds more nuttiness and saltiness. As mentioned, I mixed in one packet.

Score: 2.25 out of 4.0 points

Intangibles

As always, I look to see if the overall experience exceeds the sum of the parts. In the case of the Zuppa Toscana, the answer is a yes. I wouldn’t call this a huge yes, but it was elevated. The broth definitely has the most impact on the other flavors. The broth’s savoriness, the bitterness of the kale, the slight spice of the sausage, and the mild sweetness of the potato all play very nicely together. Adding the cheese gives the soup a slight boost of nuttiness and saltiness.

I found the proportions to be quite balanced. The broth-to-other-ingredients ratio was just right, and the non-broth amounts were well considered—not too many beans, not too much beef, etc. While the soup bowl felt a bit small, I understand this dish is meant more as a side than a main course at Olive Garden. I also appreciated that the soup wasn’t messy.

Score: 1.25 out of 2.00 points

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Overall, the Zuppa Toscana was enjoyable. It was definitely a change-of-pace soup. One thing that worked well was that the cream-based broth was on the thinner side. It let the savory flavors shine and created a really good experience. I’ve said it before; I don’t understand why the internet beats up on the Olive Garden. I’ve had positive experiences, and this soup was one of them. The only negative here is that I felt $8.99 for the 14-ounce soup (including the bowl) was a little expensive. Remember, you can get this as an unlimited option for $13.99 when dining in-person. In the end, I would come back to the Zuppa Toscana.

For some reason, the internet has taken to beating up on the Olive Garden. I think some critics have never even been there. This soup offering delivers a positive experience. While I don’t think the broth alone would cut it, the added ingredients are quite good. At $8.99 for less than 14 ounces (remember, the bowl was weighed as well), it seemed a little high for the portion. Still, as autumn comes, soup season begins, and this is a nice soup offering.

Summary

Score: 6.75  (out of 10 points)
Value: Slightly Above Average