An Olive Garden server in Oregon has shared a TikTok video online arguing that the chain’s unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks deal is unfair to the people who work the tables. The deal has reportedly been one of the restaurant’s well-known offers for years.
In her video, which has gathered over 471,200 views, creator Madeline (@madelinefarted) performed a skit imagining how Olive Garden’s CEO might have come up with the unlimited soup deal. In the skit, she suggested the company showed little concern for servers who have to keep refilling bowls.
The main issue, according to Madeline, is that servers still have to run back and forth for refills during busy shifts, even though the final bill may not be large enough to bring in a good tip. In the skit, while pretending to be the CEO, Madeline said, “What’s a way that we could really f- over our servers and waste their time?” She then suggested a price point, saying, “We could make our bottomless soup and salad twelve dollars and fifty cents.”
Madeline’s claims, wage rules, and reactions from other servers
She went on to describe how the low bill could affect a server’s tip during a busy period. “The servers are gonna run around the restaurant like crazy,” she said, before adding, “Dinner rush and only make, if they tip 20%, a two-dollar and five-cent tip?” She then voiced the corporate side of the conversation, saying, “Yeah, no, that sounds honestly great. Yeah, I think that’s good.”
Madeline also brought up another offer she appeared to view as unfair to servers. “Not only that, but we’re also gonna advertise that we have free water and a free slice of lemon,” she said, adding, “And that no ice is an option.” She finished that part of the skit by saying, “Free, bottomless, refillable water. That sounds perfect.” Frustrations like these have led some workers to share how an Olive Garden server handles rude guests online.
In the United States, tipping is apparently a major part of how servers earn a living wage. Under federal law, employers can pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 an hour, as long as tips bring them up to the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Oregon, where Madeline appears to work, follows different rules. According to the Department of Labor, the state does not allow employers to count tips as part of a worker’s minimum wage, which means tipped workers in Oregon must be paid the full state minimum wage before tips. Depending on the area, that minimum is reportedly at least $14.05 an hour and can reach $16.30 in the Portland metro area.
Even with those stronger rules, tips apparently still matter for Oregon servers. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, a single adult with no children in Oregon would need to make about $26.46 an hour to meet basic needs. Because of that gap, many servers in the state reportedly still rely on tips to make the job worth it.
Madeline is apparently not the only Olive Garden server to complain online about the chain’s endless deals. On Reddit, one server wrote that endless soup, salad, and pasta bowl customers can take up a lot of time without bringing in much money, saying, “Yall endless soup and salad and pasta bowl people waste all our time for barely any money.”
Another person who said they worked at Olive Garden complained that some customers order the cheapest unlimited option, ask for repeated refills, stay at the table for a long time, and still leave a small tip. That server seemed especially frustrated by customers who order water with extra lemon, multiple soups, salad, and breadsticks, then tip only a few dollars after a long meal.
Tipping has been a sore spot at Olive Garden before, like when a server denied a customer calamari. A third worker on Reddit, who worked at Olive Garden, described the endless refills as one of the hardest parts of the job, especially while still learning the restaurant’s flow. “The endless refills takes up more than half of my time and has me running around for sometimes little to no tips,” they wrote.
In the comments section, viewers shared a range of reactions to the video. “I always feel bad getting the soup and salad but I always make sure to tip extra since it’s so cheap and they have to work a lot harder,” one user wrote.
Another commenter said, “This is why I make a point to over tip when I go to Olive Garden for soup and salad. I used to work there I get it.” Not everyone agreed with Madeline, however, as one viewer wrote, “Servers should maybe look into sales roles if they are that greedy about getting paid based off the bill amount… logically it makes zero sense.”
Published: Jun 18, 2026 03:26 pm